Life on the farm

We got home before dinner with Kyle on Saturday morning  and we were tired. It was one of those times when you get so tired that it seems like you’re in one of those allergy commercials where they show everything is just as a blur. Things around the house were pretty quiet but I knew that this close to Christmas there should be something that I should be doing. I wanted to keep the tree decorating for the boys, and since I cancelled some of my Christmas candy orders I thought that I could use up some of those groceries. My project for the day? Making more candy. We have some friends that are going through cancer treatments and I know that there isn’t any time for them to making anything to offer if someone stops in, so that was my mission. The house seemed right today. My mom was doing good in the hospital and with the football game on, the boys and Daryl were busy watching that. I had gotten quite a bit done this afternoon but then I had to quit to get ready for a wedding tonight. There was a lot of talk about bad weather, but thank goodness it never really came around our area and the wedding and dance turned out really nice. And once my head hit the pillow for the night? Well I don’t think I even moved the covers.

Kyle’s flight was planned to come in on Friday night late, but we had no idea how late it actually was going to be. Daryl, William, and I headed to the hospital to see Mom on the way to the airport and we knew that we’d have to leave about 8:30 from Rochester to grab something to eat quick and then be at the airport in Minneapolis  at 11:00. But just as we were getting ready to leave, Daryl’s cell phone is ringing and it’s Kyle. Oh no. His flight was delayed 7 hours. Yea, 7 hours.  We’ve been in this situation before, it was a couple of years ago, but we all remember it very well. Kyle was flying from New York to Minneapolis that time also but we  didn’t know what exactly was going on with his flight at that time. All we could see on the boards was that his flight was delayed and nothing else. And there wasn’t anyone around to ask either. We waited so long for his flight that  not only did we see the shops close, but we were there long enough to see all the shops open again. Since that time we really try to be prepared. With only being able to stay in the baggage area in the airport to wait, we usually pack a survival gear. Blankets to sleep on the floor or in the car, food and drinks because it’s very limited after midnight, pillows, and laptops with movies. But this time? We were not prepared at all. The weather in New York was over 50 degrees and in Minneapolis there wasn’t anything going on with the weather. So we left the hospital and then decided to drive until we were about 30 minutes from the airport  and got a hotel room. Once we got to the hotel, we tried to find anyplace that had a cheap swimming suit for William to sit in the hot tub. We found a store that was open, but with a very limited supply of stuff in it, they only had  2x shorts and they just weren’t going to stay on his 27 inch waist. The hot tub was out of the picture for the night and we went looking for someplace to eat. We chose a Mexican restaurant because it had the most cars in front of it, and in we went. We laughed because other than us three, there were two other people eating in there. Even though it wasn’t busy, the food was really pretty good. Then off to the hotel to get a couple hours of sleep. We wanted to call Kyle at 1 am to make sure that he wasn’t sleeping and would miss his flight. We found out later that he met a couple of other people in the airport and they took turns letting each other sleep. Now that’s teamwork! Our next alarm was set for 4:15 am and let me just say it was hard to get going again, but we managed to grab our coats and head to the airport. Once I saw Kyle standing by the baggage claim I knew that all the wait was worth it! I can’t describe the feeling, but it’s like you are holding your breath just waiting and finally you get to breath again when you see your kids. Everything is good in our house today.

When the kids were little, we measured time by how many sleeps you had until something special happened. Well, we pick Kyle up at the airport tomorrow night and William is also coming home for Christmas break tomorrow. YEA!!  So we have one more sleep until the kids are both back home again. We’re trying to get everything organized because William is planning on being home for a couple of weeks and Kyle will be home until February and then he will be going back to South Korea for a year. It seems like such a roller coaster with the boys coming and going – but I’m so glad that we’re able to have them both home with us again this year for Christmas. I know some year that isn’t going to be the case, so I’m sure that they’ll both get smothered for the next month or so while I have them both home with us.

Tonight I’m working on getting Kyle’s room all cleaned up and organized for tomorrow. I’ve got William’s room all ready for him, but Kyle’s room has some of Daryl’s folk’s things yet in it and I just have to get it moved out and his bedding washed. I’m not for sure what the plans are for me tomorrow night with my Mom, so I need to have everything ready. We’re planning on stopping in at the hospital tomorrow afternoon for a couple of hours on the way to pick up Kyle to see her and I’ll probably stay with Mom while Daryl heads north to the airport to get Kyle. Then they’ll stop back at the hospital I’m thinking around 2 am to see if we all will be staying there with her or if only I will be staying the night. Whew! I guess it’s not just your kids create the roller coaster, I think it’s just something called life.

It’s funny. We all know just exactly when Christmas is and what we need to do to get ready for it, so why is there so many commercials and advertisements in the newspaper for those ‘Last Minute Gifts’? Well, I guess it’s for people like me! I thought I had a pretty good handle on everything this year, but I had to laugh tonight when I was outside. And guess what I was doing outside? I was hanging Christmas lights. Yup, one week before Christmas and I’m still putting up Christmas lights. But to my defense, the lights that I was putting up were only in one spot and that was THE special tree. The reason that it’s called a special tree is because when you’re kids are little they get to go on a field trip to the tree nursery and come home with a tree. Well, that’s all good until one of two things happen. The first one is the most likely cause. That’s when it just plain dies. You try to water it to save it and well, it is destined to die. The second reason is because it’s so little that you mow it off with the riding lawn mower. Now you try to tell yourself that it was an accident, but go back to the first reason and the watering part. Now if I remember right, we did try to save both boys trees and something happened to both of them and we replaced them with bigger trees that would more than likely live. And guess what? They both did. So each Christmas we would take turns putting lights on first Kyle’s tree and the next year it would be William’s. But in the past couple of years Kyle’s tree had gotten way too tall and so I decided it was a great tradition to start sharing the special tree between the boys but only using Williams smaller tree. But this year I had the lights all bought, but it came down to the wire to get them on. Tonight was prefect weather for that! I grabbed a sweatshirt, some gloves, a step ladder and the lights. I was ready. The moon was full on Tuesday night, but it was still so bright tonight that even though I was in our back yard, I still didn’t need a flashlight. And honestly, it was also so warm out that I didn’t need gloves either. Score! But I did need a step ladder. The ground was a little uneven so I was a nervous about tipping it. (done that before) I also had trouble getting the lights up high enough. So after thinking awhile what to use, I went to the house and grabbed the broom. Up until now I had Little Kitty also on the step ladder with me and the dog was laying right beside it. But all of a sudden the dog went running to the barn and I thought how weird is that? But then I forgot that our dogs hate brooms. 🙂 And with using the ladder and hooking the lights on the broom, it really worked out well. Now I’m sure that the boys probably wouldn’t even care if this tree had lights on it or not. But I had it stuck in my head that it just really needed to get done, and I was glad that I did. I took a picture of the tree, but you can’t tell how tall it is or how nice it looks. It’s kind of funny because the yard looks so dark when I look at this picture.

Our outside Christmas tree

I also took a picture of how really bright the yard was with the moon tonight.

It was a very bright moon tonight on our farm

There are times when you just can’t believe what time it is because it seems like it’s just flying by. But then there are times when you feel like you’re in some type of an alien time warp and you can almost hear and feel the clock ticking on the wall.

Well, these past few days I think time almost stood still.

What happened was that on Monday our Mom wasn’t feeling well and my brother went to town to take her to the hospital to get checked out. While they were there, we all waited to hear just what was going on. And with 6 kids in our family, patience just might not be the top of our personality trait. So finally the word came through that she was going to get transferred to a different hospital and we would figure out a plan once she got moved. Again, there was nothing to do but wait. Finally she was transferred and the plan was for my one brother and I to go to the hospital that she was headed for. It’s not a bad drive, but still it takes an hour and a half drive to get there and we arrived just about the same time that the ambulance got there. After a couple of quick tests, we knew that we all were going to be spending the night. We laughed because we were supposed to report back to everyone what was going on, but in the Emergency Room our phones didn’t work so we couldn’t get incoming or send anything out either. Once we walked out of that area to get Mom to a new room, our phones just kept buzzing and ringing with all the missed calls and voice messages from everyone looking for updates. I’m pretty much thinking we were being talked about almost as much as Mom was. Once Mom was settled in her room, my brother and I stayed the night in the family lounge not too far from her room. We knew that the hospital was going to keep an eye out for her, but you know how family is – we thought we’d also help them.  And even though we all were so tired, it just seemed like no one could get any sleep. My brother and I eventually got a couple of hours of sleep, but Mom didn’t get any that night. More tests and blood work the next morning and the rest of the gang got there before noon. By late in the afternoon they ruled out a couple of things and we’re still waiting to hear what they suggest for the next step. But by the time we left yesterday she was feeling much better and I think finding out that there wasn’t any damage to her heart or other areas makes not only Ma feel a little better, but also us kids. She is so worried that now she can’t have Christmas when she planned it, but you can have Christmas I think anytime that you want to have it. We’re just glad that even though it was an unplanned trip and stay in the hospital, we sure are glad that we got the best experts to help her feel better.

I started once again working on my ‘secret project’ and I think I’m kind of lost. I knew what I wanted before I started and now… well, I’m not sure. I’m sure I’m trying to put too much thought into it, so I think I’m going to regroup, think about it a little bit, then possibly come to the conclusion that it just might not be ready at Christmas. But who knows? It is the season of miracles right? So I might be able to pull it off yet. But since I am kind of lost, I decided to check up on everyone on Facebook instead. Or you could call it stalling. 🙂

After work tonight I needed to do an errand and stopped in my Mom’s. She has a couple of Christmas trees up and we ended up in her basement to check out her latest one. I almost died when I saw just some of her presents all wrapped and ready to go for next Sunday sitting on the table. She’s having Christmas on Sunday this year and hopefully most of everyone can make it.

Just some of Ma’s gifts she has ready for Christmas

And tonight? Well it’s supposed to be really cold. When I drove home from Ma’s this is what the air temperature was outside. And it was still dropping!

brrrrr

We are now in the two week Christmas zone and it’s time to get serious about Christmas gifts. It’s officially two weeks until Christmas Eve and I think I’m OK. I’ve got most of the gifts figured out, but still have a couple to buy. I’ve resorted to ordering quite a bit on line this year which is kind of weird for me. Normally I don’t do that as much, but now that it’s the two week window thing going on  – well anythings game. I’m hoping to finish up shopping this weekend and then plan on spending some time with the boys before Christmas for an afternoon in town to get a few clothes that they will need. But for now? I better make sure that I have what I need to have and then a plan on what else I need to get. OK, this two weeks until Christmas Eve is starting to make me nervous.