Yes, Virginia, it really was a Crap-tastic weekend.

Don't get me wrong. The actual Thanksgiving holiday was lovely. A nice, relaxed family day at the Coe residence. Thanks, Sissy and family, as always, for the warm welcome and complete hospitality.

But the days thereafter - not so fun. I'm not blogging about the weekend to gain sympathy or hear myself gripe, but only to have a record of what, in hindsight, was a frustrating series of events encompassing the "anything-that-could-go-wrong-probably-will," rule. I know I'm going to forget some things, but here are the highlights, or should I say - lowlights.

• The crud still has not left our home. This bug is a tenacious bug. All 4 of us, while not exactly sick, just didn't quite feel up to par.
• The bitch is back. Old Crusty, that is. Pardon my language. Not that she ever really went anywhere (her legs are much too short to allow her to go far - sorry, but she's a pain in my arse.) So Pat ran up to Big Steer Meats to grab some lunch on Saturday (they have very tasty sandwiches and soups, for any of you who frequent the East Side.) As he was walking back home, OC attacked. Again with the tree business. She told him that we really need to take that thing down, as it drops stuff on her roof. He told her that fine, if she wants to pay for it, we'll take it down. Aghast, she said that she couldn't afford that. Defiant, he said that neither could we. And walked away. Get a life, you old hag.
• We will never, ever, ever attempt to do a "family" grocery shopping trip again. What a nightmare. We've tried this in the past, and not had good results, so I don't know why we thought we should try it again. We even got one of the "car carts" for Josie to ride in, thinking that would make her happy. Not the case. She's in a phase right now where, basically, she needs to be eating something, at all times, in order to be happy. So to be in a store filled with food that she can't eat is not a good time. For anyone involved.
• The sliding door on the van decided to not work. Again. Perhaps we should have that looked at, you may say. And you may be right. Perhaps we should. Along with the brakes that started to squeak and the strange thunking noise that appeared, as well. Oy.
• After all the talk and hype about hitting the day-after-Thanksgiving sales and getting a camcorder, it didn't happen. Pat didn't feel good Friday morning and it sounds like he would have had to camp out over night to get one anyway. What a pain. And by the time we made it out the stores for anything else we wanted on Friday, those things were sold out, as well. Perhaps they should stock more than 10 items on sale per store. What a scam.
• In addition to the cold/cough that Eve has had, she started to throw up entire feedings on Saturday. It could be an hour or two later, and up it would come. She kept this up on Sunday, and we called the urgent care at the clinic. After a couple hours and not getting a call back, we called again. Oh - we don't have a record of you calling, they say. Oh - you're a bunch of frickin' idiots, I say. Okay - not out loud, but in my head. So they end up telling us that there is nothing they could do for her there, and we'd need to take her to Children's Hospital. Like they couldn't have told us that the FIRST time we called. So I took her to Children's around 5:30 Sunday evening. She checked out fine, they said her lungs sounded okay and were not concerned about her cough, and told me to give her some Pedialyte in small doses every hour or so, and gradually start adding in formula until she was eating fine without throwing up. So I stayed home with her Monday, we had an okay day, by late afternoon she was eating small amounts of formula and not throwing up. And she never seemed sick this whole time. No fever, no crabbiness (other than not getting a full meal when she was hungry and having to wait an hour for more food,) she was having wet diapers and not showing signs of dehydration. Then at 6:00 last night, up came what seemed to be all the liquids she had consumed all day. After a call to Children's, we started the whole Pedialyte process over again. We're at a bit of a loss. I'm suspecting something like GER (gastroesophigal reflux,) but we'll see how she does today at home with Pat and take it from there. Poor little bugger - it's so hard when they can't tell you what's wrong. Anyone know a good baby-whisperer?

Sorry - that got really long. And I'm sure there's more, I just can't think right now. I'd like to say it's a sunnier day, but have you looked outside lately - yuck!!