Our Life...: 200 Days of UP

Can you believe it?

This is day 200 of this year!

I have been blogging UP for 200 days!

Awesome!

It's a good thing too, because I still have quite a doozy to tell you from Saturday.

So Saturday Marc went with Drs. H and I went with our 3 kids to my mom's house to visit with my brother, Daniel, who had flown in that morning.

It was great, as it always is. It was so nice to give him a big hug and laugh with him while I was there.

... I think that was the last moment I felt UP for a good portion of that day.

Let me tell you why.

This, in my hand, is the evil tooth. It is the villain or antagonist, if you will, to our story plot.

Somewhere in the middle of the visit Sister started complaining about her loose tooth. This was not a shocker, as she had been complaining of it since it came a little loose 2 days before. We'd heard lots of whining... lots. So when she started up again I tried to calm her through it and move on to other things.

She wasn't moving on.

Her screams and kicks and wailing became so significant that I offered to pull out her barely-even-loose tooth. She gladly opened her mouth to oblige, but I couldn't get it out. It was hardly loose and I was afraid it would hurt her too bad if I did pull it... besides, it was giving me the willies because of the squeakily rasping sound it was making as I tried to loosen it enough to pull... EW!

Well, she did not calm down. She was even more upset that I hadn't pulled it out. The melt down escalated and I really needed to get her out of the house because she was scaring the cousins that were there and putting me on edge.

So I lopped her over my shoulder like a writhing potato sack and took her, against her will, out to the van. Jessie helped me get the other two out to the van and I was off.

I had just wrestled Sister into her back seat and seatbelt all while she was hitting at me. My nerves were about shot. I tried hard to tune out the screaming and yelling as I drove.

It got a little harder to do so when Brother and Baby joined in on the crying because she was now upsetting them.

While I'm trying not to break down and cry I saw that I was coming up on a police car on the right side of the road with its lights flashing.

I immediately thought to move over, but the car to my left was staying close by me and slowing down at the same rate I was. I kept trying to slow down and my neighbor kept slowing with me. By the time I was able to get behind the vehicle I had passed the patrol car without being able to move over a lane. I felt bad and then zoned back out trying to not fall apart from having Sister's meltdown still going full throttle in the back seat. I started droning into what it was going to be like when we got home, how I was going to try to keep her calm and not have a miserable rest of the night when, all of a sudden, I noticed the patrol car behind me with it's lights flashing! I must have gone 5 miles or more with her behind me.

My first thought was, "Of course I would get pulled over! Look at the day I am having, this just makes sense!" Sarcasm. It helps sometimes.

So I pull over and I am now trying extra hard not to cry because I don't want to add to the already melted situation. So I get out my license and registration and put on a brave face.

I roll down my passenger side window and wait for the police officer to come tell me I was speeding or something.

I don't remember if there were any words exchanged kindly in the beginning because I just remember her chewing me out for not moving over for her patrol car that was on the side of the road. I kept trying to tell her that I totally understand and that I feel that is a VERY important law and that I was really trying but couldn't get all the way over so tried to get over as much as possible.

She was NOT happy with me. She interrupted me often saying that I have "no excuse!" "police officers are injured every day because of people not merging over!" "There is no reason you couldn't have moved over!"

By this time Sister is petrified with fear as this lady in uniform is giving her mother a lecture.

I tried not to be "that" person that cries when they get pulled over, but after being sternly lectured without me being able to explain myself, while already on a thin string, I started to cry.

The Officer's demeanor changed and she looked at the 3 kids in the car and saw all of them crying and then looked at me again and asked, "What is going on here?" This time with concern and compassion.

Through my tears I handed her my papers and explained that all 3 of my children have special needs and this is all a bit scary for them and trying to tell her that I was already having a hard time and that that was why I was crying.

Her attitude changed as she heard Brother's sobs getting louder.

She said, "Well, you need a break. Why don't you just sit here and take a breather while I go fill out your warning ma'am. I'm just giving you a warning..."

When she walked away I cried even harder.

It was just... just everything.

When she came back she talked with us a bit trying to explain that police officers are nice and they don't need to be scared. She also went on to tell me that she was a single mom of 6 and has a grandchild with Autism.

Small world.

Everyone has struggles.

I still cried all the way home.

So did the kids.

When we got home I started to get things ready for our friend, Dan, to come for dinner.

I wasn't getting much done because now Sister was freaking out about the cop and was still melting over her tooth driving her crazy. I'm telling you, hyper-arousal is a NIGHTMARE!!!!

When Marc got home her anger increased and she was spewing threats and lining up the insults.

Our friend was running late so I ran to the store to get some tooth-numbing gel.

While at the checkout counter Marc called and told me not to worry about getting the numbing gel because he just pulled out her tooth. I was a bit surprised but in total awe that Marc was able to do that. I was also wondering why, when he called, that there weren't sobs and screams coming from Sister.

When I got home Sister was as happy as you can possibly be.

She was so excited to show me and she was now VERY excited for the Tooth Fairy come! She even wrote a little note to the Tooth Fairy and put it in the box with her little tooth.

Thank goodness she had calmed down and was mostly back to her happy self again because we were now moving on to have a dinner and meeting with our friend, Dan.

I am really, really excited to be a part his company in revamping style and design of his logo and website. His company is called "12 Finger Outdoor Adventure." He is the one who took Marc to Pingora last year and we met him ice climbing at Bridal Veil Falls two winers ago.

I worked on some new logos for "12 Finger" today and I am looking forward to getting a final one done.

On Sunday our family all got together again, had roast and mashed potatoes and celebrated our brother-in-la, Jeremy's, birthday.

I have to say that my UP for that day was when I learned how to play "Long Shot" (a board game) for the first time and won! I mean, I really won! So that was awesome!

...

I'm a bit competitive.

So that was Sunday's UP along with visiting and laughing with family.

Today after Sister and Baby were done with summer school and Marc got home from work we went down to my mom's again to eat dinner with Daniel and his family and spend precious time with them while they're here.

My UP was eating my mom's homemade scones! Mmmm! That was a treat!

It was also fun to watch the kids do fun things: