It is 2am and I can't sleep. Even though today was a whirl of spur-of-the-moment activity and even though by 3:30pm I was so tired my face hurt.
I think my mistake was taking a headache medicine with both aspirin and caffeine in it. Now both my mind and heart are racing and no matter how many times I try lasso them and end the party, they evade easily and race off again.
The day began with a call from a long-time friend.
"How busy are you today?" she asked.
"Depends on when in the day you mean," I replied.
"Lunchtime. Do you want to do lunch?"
"Sure! Come on down! I have a home visit at 10 and a doctor's appointment for Elli sometime after 2, but lunch works." I was thrilled. It's been a few months since I saw her last.
We all enjoyed a slow, easy breakfast, and my 10am visit was short. I may be participating in a program that matches graduate or post-graduate students in medicine or related fields with families for a year. They get to learn from the families what it's like to live with a child with medical or special needs. The goal is for them to understand better how medical or therapeutic decisions/recommendations play out in every day life, and why sometimes things just aren't feasible. It's a fantastic idea, and I'm excited about possibly being matched with someone this year. We'll find out in September.
The phone rang again. This time it was our realtor. Those people who looked at our house last night? Well, they liked the house. They were going to talk to their lender and were meeting with someone tomorrow and we should hear something then. We have another appointment this evening -- don't forget.
Wow! The first people through might actually make an offer! That means we could make an offer too! If it all goes through, we could be moved Labor Day weekend and before school starts! How are we going to do all this between now and leaving for vacation on Friday afternoon! (Here's where the brain starts galloping off.)
Meanwhile, Anna was having a really rough morning, made worse by Sam playing really rough. Many tears and hugs proved that going out for lunch was a horrible idea. So when my friend arrived, I explained and Anna demonstrated how tired she was. We ate leftovers, she ate an astounding amount, and I laid her down for a nap.
Elli was thrilled to see my friend. She, all by herself, had a conversation! She said, "Hi!", "How are you?" and "I'm going on vacation Saturday with my Gramma and Grampa!" all in the correct order and allowing time in between for my friend to respond. It was AWESOME to watch her communicate independently.
The phone rang again. It was an old friend from college who I've been trying to see for months. "I'm in ____ town right now! My brother is here interviewing for a job and we need to get some lunch, but we'd love to come and see you after!"
I was thrilled, immediately invited them over, and then began the delicate process of explaining to the kids that mommy didn't like "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure" because Scamp is so rebellious and disrespectful to his father so we aren't going to watch it anymore. Eventually diplomacy gave way to authoritative parental decree and the kids were forced to settle for the original.
My friend, her two girls aged 3 and 1, and her brother arrived, my other friend headed home, and we enjoyed a couple hours of visiting and catching up. The kids got along great, and Elli was intrigued by my friend's brother who is also in a wheelchair. He was injured in a sports or 4-wheeler accident (I can't remember the details) several years ago and is paralyzed from mid-chest down. None of the kids were phased by the strangers in wheelchairs, which was really cool. He just got a job offer down here and needs a church, a place to live preferably with a roommate, and a fitness center. Very cool.
When they left, we left too, for Elli's yearly physical for school. The kids were pretty tired and hungry from all the excitement, despite their huge lunches, and I didn't have the foresight to bring snacks. They had to settle for drinks until we got back home. The appointment went well, though we're concerned about Elli's lack of weight gain. I got a referral to urology for help with potty-training and (hopefully) all the forms I need for school this year filled out.
The drive home was tear-filled as everyone began melting down. I knew the remedy though and managed to stay above the fray this time. We all sat down for a graham-cracker-and-peanut-butter snack, which quickly brought everything back into perspective.
I dove into dinner and showing-the-house mode. By this time I was really dragging and counting down the minutes until Scott arrived to help manage the early dinner and departure required by the 6:30 showing. About 5:45 he called to say that he hadn't been able to leave work until that moment. He's trying to get everything buttoned up before vacation and since he works from home every Thursday so I can go to work, he had a lot to do in the office today. I almost cried from dissappointment. But we all managed to get the house picked up, dinner made and packed up, and us loaded into the van with plenty of time to spare. I took a few more things to storage, dropped a few things off at Goodwill, and met Scott at church to eat dinner.
After church, we got the kids to bed and I was finally able to stop, for the first time since breakfast. We watched the second half of "Sleeping with the Enemy" on TV while we made lists of pros and cons for the two houses we've narrowed our search to. This made our decision very clear (the first one we looked at, here in our current school district), which is a tremendous load off my mind. Now we just have to deal with all the loan paperwork whenever we accept an offer on this house.
I have seen offers fall through before, so I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll believe it when I see the signatures on the dotted line. But at the same time, I'm getting a bit excited that all of this might soon be over.
And I'm also getting overwhelmed by the prospect of taking a vacation during a critical time to get paperwork moving, and by the prospect of packing our entire family up in the next month.
And I still need to work on packing lists and actual packing for vacation, in the midst of keeping the house in showable condition.
And the caffeine in my headache medicine is NOT helping. But maybe typing this all out will. Here's hoping.
I'm off to attempt sleep again. Why am I always struck with insomnia on Wednesday nights? Thursdays are always very long busy days, and today will be even longer and busier if we get the welcome news that we have an offer on the house. Not that I'm complaining.
