Thursday, August 21, 2008

Do you hear what I hear?

We all know from the past, that I should not blog in the middle of the night, but it is, what it is.

I am honestly exhausted, but somehow sleep has left me and is refusing to return. I lie here trying to relax and drift back to sleep. My ears are suddenly informers of every little or not so little thing. First there is the 1st One bounding in to my room at 2:00 AM insisting that I need to come and kiss her good night in her bed. (I wasn't here when she went to bed, so she doesn't know that I already have.) I send her back to bed and kiss her good night there. My Son then starts to stir and starts crying. I can hear that he is very congested. He is complaining of being thirsty, so I bring him a sip of water and go back to bed. As I cuddle up to a very warm Rocket Scientist, I am beginning to fall back asleep when the 1st One comes busting in our room again, proclaiming, "I can't sleep with all this noise!" I sit up and try to collect my thoughts. "What noise? Is My Son crying again?" Yep, that's the problem and the Little Jamaican is now awake, too. She thinks she needs a drink of water. OK, everybody who needed a drink now has a drink, My Son has been medicated for what ails him and I'm finally back in bed trying to get comfortable. My mind starts turning, the sweet man that I married begins to snore like a buzz saw and I start to fret.

You see, by nature, I am a worrier. I start to worry that My Son may have not have swallowed all his medicine, making that a choking hazard. Sooooooooooo, I have to get up and check on him. He's fine. Then I start to think about back to school night for the 1st One and the Wild Child we attended tonight. You see, before I went to bed, I looked at the folder they gave us while at the school and noticed that there were some required items I neglected to do. Never mind that I was distracted by whining, hungry children and an intense need to get out of the crowd. Since this is a brand new charter school, that was no easy feat to get into, I am feeling a little like a failure. So, I rationalize to myself that I will complete missing items from my check list of required items tomorrow when I drop off all the requested school supplies and vision form for the Wild Child. Then I start thinking about all the cost that goes along with back to school time. I start praying that we will recover in time for Christmas.

That thought leads me to one of the more stressful parts of my day. I had to make a trip into the Evil Empire tonight to finish shopping for the remainder of the before mentioned school supplies. I finished up about 9:30 PM, loaded everything into the car, got in, and tried to start my mobile hamster cage. That darn mini-van would not turn over to save my life. I debate what to do. The location of the particular Walmart is a bit questionable, so asking someone to give me a jump is a less than attractive idea. I settle on calling the RS to come rescue me on his white steed, errr I mean in his late model Toyota 4 Runner, with four sleeping or at least sleepy kids loaded in their car seats. Some where in our phone conversation about me needing to be rescued, I get slightly smarter for a minute and ask him to call the neighbor with teenage daughters and see if one of them will come hang out at the house so the Sea Monkeys can sleep while he comes to rescue me. He agrees that this a better plan and hooks it up.

The RS shows up and begins the process of jumper cables and what not. He tells me to try and turn the engine over. Nope, nothing. So he tries revving his engine, when I start to see arcing and smelling melted plastic and wires. No, this isn't good. There is now a small fire where the jumper cables are attached to my van. Fortunately, this part turns into a non-incident. Small fire lasted seconds, snuffed out quickly by my fast thinking guy, trying not to burn himself.

We are at the Evil Empire, so we can run in and buy some new, heavier duty, jumper cables and a wire brush to clean off the terminals on the RS's battery inside his white steed. Longer story shorter, it's not the battery. Probably the starter. We gave up around 10:30 - 10:45. Yeah, so now my Mobile Hamster Cage is sitting in the Walmart parking lot in a questionable part of town.

Do you think that has given me some material to think about at 3:53 AM. Oh there is the,"I wonder if I will have any gas in it when I find it tomorrow to have it towed and the how much does it cost to repair a severed gas line?" Then there is all the obvious stuff like, will the tires still be there (they are new) or will someone try to steal it (I could only wish), or how about vandalism. Then I get going onto the cost of towing and to repair the dang thing, not that it's not just a part of life, but remember trying to recover from back to school before Christmas. And yeah, how much money do you sink into a vehicle with 143,000 miles on it?

Then I start thinking about earwigs. I wonder how many of them are still in my home. I noticed when I got tissue to wipe My Sons nose when he was crying that there was one on the bathroom ceiling. One compared to the army we use to have is really not to bad.

Yep, now I'm back to listening to the buzz saw and wondering what the heck is wrong with his foot. We are going on over a month now. I'm not going into all the details on that tonight/this morning, but the dang thing is really starting to worry me. I cannot do all these dishes by myself.

So now that I have been rambling on and on and on and on and on............ The snoring stopped......I just might be ready to sleep. 4:30 to 7:30. That's three hours right?

9 comments:

Danyele Easterhaus said...

i feel for you...and my mind rambles soooo much. i blame it on the lack of sleep and all the kid talk! ha!

Flea said...

Did you get everything out of the van? Is it well insured? I'd be hoping for stealing. But then, insurance doesn't pony up much for a van with 143, does it? Dang. Well I hope it's intact, then.

I used to lay in bed worrying like that, too. Then I was diagnosed with ADD. My time released meds keep me up and focused all day and I sleep at night. It's the weirdest thing ever, but I love it.

Jen said...

Oh I hear you. We are a camp as you know and I am exhausted to say the least but can I sleep? NO! It sucks! Each night I just toss and turn. Tonight I think that I am going to drink baby benadryl in hopes that it will put me to sleep too.

I don't wanna grow up...you can't make me said...

it amazes me that you're not an alcoholic!

Nancy said...

I was so excited to get your comment because even though I know the occasional stranger stops by, never ever will they comment! I felt like the coolest ever to have some unkown "Karen" commenting!

I am trying to figure how you found me. I know Tash (Oysterblogger) who I saw on the side of your blog, or maybe you know my sister Shannon (perla) who has adopted frm Haiti (because, you know, I am sure that all people who adopt people know each other -- hehe) No, but she does have a lot of other adoptive moms on her blog because she actually worked for the agency, so it wouldn't be crazy to think you found me through her. How many little ones do you have? Four?

Anyway, as to your post, I can relate. If I ever get a rare moment to have a nap or something my mind begins thinking and thinking of crazy similar things (yah, like "oh no, my baby is probably choking on her medicine)! Aaarrgghhh. You know all we need is some sleep!!

Stacy said...

Oh Karen, what a night! You had me in stitches with the way you tell your story. I can just imagine RS reading this and thinking, wow and I slept through the whole thing!

Nicole said...

sigh. at my house the worries are different but the feelings are the same. looks like soon i need to be the one calling you to see if you're still sane!

cat said...

I love he way you write and will most certainly visit again. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Krista said...

You had me at earwigs....I lay awake thinking of giant tidal waves. Flea may have something there with the medication! Ha! At least to put your kids to sleep!