Our Crazy Crazy Weekend

Want a real and true look into my life? Let me tell you about the highlight of my weekend. I should start off by telling you that every living thing in the house is fine now. It's a long story, but everyone makes it to the end. Okay, so are you ready? Here we go.

After coming home from grocery shopping on Saturday evening, we sent Sam outside with the dog while I put the groceries away. (Jason was keeping the two little guys out of the kitchen while I worked.) I had just finished putting all the cold items away when chaos erupted in the living room. I could hear Jason yelling and Sam crying. This is, of course, added to the already exuberant noise that the two little kids make while playing. There was so much ruckus that I couldn't even figure out what was going on, so I left the kitchen to check things out.

The first thing I noticed was that dog was hurt. She was unable to put any kind of weight on her right front leg; every time she tried to walk her leg crumpled to the floor and she would fall. She was making these really pitiful noises--it just broke your heart. It wasn't yelping, it was like this really horrid whining noise. As soon as she saw me she slunk (?) over to me. I don't really know how to describe how she was moving, but trust me when I say that it was both pitiful and awkward.

Figuring out what happened to her was tricky because Sam does not do well in stressful situations. He simply wasn't able to tell us what had happened so we did not have even the vaguest of ideas what could be wrong. From the way she was "walking" we thought maybe her shoulder was dislocated, but we had no idea how that could have been possible. I'm very gingerly trying to find out where she's hurt and Jason is calling every vet in the phone book, trying to find someone who can see her. And, of course, it's after 6 PM on a Saturday night--do you think we can find a vet? Nope. Along with all this, we're still asking Sam a million questions and still getting no answers. Not a great combination--certainly it isn't helping the stress level in the house.

In the middle of all this, Izzy walks up to me and hands me a toy knight and one of the toy swords. Normally this is a request for me to put the sword into the knight's hand; I probably do that 20 times a day. I took the toys, put them together, and gave them back--and promptly returned my attention back to the dog. And that is the last calm thing I did for the next 15 minutes.

Jason had just dialed another number and it was right then that he threw the phone to the ground. Thinking he was frustrated, I told him to run across to the neighbors' house and ask them if they knew of an emergency vet. He said, "No, Mandi. Izzy just hit his head again." (Have I talked about how Izzy throws tantrums? I don't think I really have. He is a very passionate child and when he gets mad or frustrated or when mom doesn't quite "get" what he wants her to do apparently, he throws himself to the ground. Hard. The bruises this kid has on his head and face--oh, man. It's awful.) So anyway, I look up and Izzy turns around at the same time and his whole face--and I do mean his whole face--is covered in blood. He had hit his forehead on the edge of the fireplace on his way down to the ground.

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of activity. I scooped Izzy up into my arms and rushed him into the kitchen. Paper towels and washcloths and antiseptic spray and more paper towels and tears and still with the yelling from the other room. It was completely nuts. After just a couple minutes the bleeding slowed way down, though. The cut was deep but very clean (turns out that the edge of that fireplace is wicked sharp) and we were able to put some ointment and bandages on it. He didn't even end up needing to go to the doctor; the cut is healing up nicely.

The dog made a huge improvement in the 15 or 20 minutes that we were focused on Izzy. As the dog improved Sam became less stressed and was able to answer our questions. It looks like she was stung by something when she was out in the yard--possibly a bee, but we're thinking scorpion. We saw several before winter started so we know they are out there. By the end of the first hour she was walking just fine. She was very clingy, but fine.

Sunday and Monday were pretty boring around here and I am very happy about that! I could go a long, long time without having to deal with another day like Saturday. How about you? Anything exciting been going on in your neck of the woods lately?

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I present this to you as a sort of glimpse into the life that we lead. It's not always a calm crazy and I want to make sure that I never come off as trying to say that it is. We are normal people living a normal life, just like any other person on the planet. Sometimes it is just plain old crazy around here and calm is nowhere to be found. The house gets messy, the kids need baths, the beds need made, the laundry piles up, people yell and cry and get angry--but mess and crazy is half of what makes up life. It's not always perfect and calm--even if the tagline on my blog seems to imply that it is.