Back from Hibernation

Yes, it is me, back from hibernation.  I see it has been quite some time since I last posted, but, same old story - we have been super busy.  And because of all that, I have a lot to write about!  So, this will probably be the first of a couple posts chronicling my recent adventures.  

As you all know, I was able to go to New Hampshire last week for the ladies conference with Elizabeth George.  It was great and so much happened, that I have to split it up.  In this post, I will tell you about the actual trip part, then, in following posts I will talk specifically about the conference and the "spiritual" part! :-)  This first part we will call, "Food Poisoning."

So, we decided that I would leave on Thursday, and Matt would drive me 3 hours to Augusta, Maine, where my sis would meet us and take us the last 3 hours to Andrew's house.  The conference wasn't until Saturday, but I wanted to go early so I could do some shopping.  As I have said before, we really have nothing around us that is good for shopping for clothes, so I had been saving my birthday money to spend in the States.  Also, I wanted to get the kids Easter outfits.  After much contemplating and debating in my mind, I decided to take Liam with me.  I would have taken both kids, except I had no one to watch Leila during the conference.  They did not provide child care at the church.  My brother, Andrew was going to be home, but I didn't want him to have to keep track of not only Eldan, who is almost 3, and Evie, who is 6 months, but also Liam and Leila.  I knew Liam would not be a problem, since he would just play with Eldan all day.  So that is why I left Leila here with Matt.  I knew he is perfectly capable of watching both the kids, but I knew that it would be busy, and he still had to prepare for Sunday and stuff.  Plus, I knew Liam would love to see Eldan, and Eldan had been asking if Liam was coming.

So, we left on Thursday.  It was a fine trip and went quickly.  On Friday, Amanda, Danielle, and I and Eldan, Liam, and Evie had planned to go shopping at the mall.  I had my list of stores I wanted to hit (Children's Place, Bath and Body Works, Target, Old Navy...) so we went to most of those, then I got to eat at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  Oh, I also forgot to tell you that on Thursday, I got to eat Taco Bell!!!!!!!!  Yummy!  It is such a treat for me to eat there now, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Anyways, the kids did pretty well considering we dragged them all around.  But I got a lot of what I wanted, especially the cutest dress for Leila for Easter.  I will take pics when she is all dressed up and post them for you.

So, we had a fun time shopping, which is funny for me since I usually hate to shop for anything.  Then, Friday night, Danielle and I watched "Enchanted" since I always hear her talking about it, but had never seen it.  Then, Saturday was the conference.  When we left the house, Liam was crying pretty hard for me, but Amanda got him calmed down, and I knew he would be okay after a few minutes.  Liam is going through a major "clingy to mommy" phase.  Anyways, they live right across the street from the church, so I knew I could come back in a hurry if need be.  But I didn't have to.  

So, we were at the conference, and it was lunch break, and they had Panera Bread catered in.  We had picked out our meal when we pre-registered, so we went and picked up our meals and were enjoying a nice lunch.  I was able to chat with Deana, Danielle's sister for a bit, which was nice since I had not seen her in a while.  Then, after lunch the final session started.  

It was only like one minute into it when "IT" hit me.  I began to feel very strange, and felt a bit weak, and my stomach started to "rumble."  I felt worse and worse as each minute went by.  I whispered to Danielle that I was feeling horrible, and wasn't sure what to do.  I spent the entire final session (about an hour long) trying to decide what to do.  "Why didn't you just leave?"  you may be asking right now.  Well, Danielle was part of the worship service, so we were sitting up front in the music section.  And there were about 450 women there!  I didn't want to make a scene, and the doors are all the way at the back.  Plus, I almost thought I would pass out if I stood up, and that surely would make a scene!  So I stayed there, unfortunately, not paying any attention to the final lesson (I was trying, though!).  Finally, at the end, when they were praying, Danielle and I sneaked out.  Me, because I was sick, and Danielle, because it was time to feed Evie.

Well, we got to her house, and I crashed on the couch.  I had not gotten sick yet, but you all know the horrible feeling you have right before you do.  Poor Liam, was really happy to see me and was cuddling with me on the couch, and did not understand that mommy was sick.   Well, to add to the fun I was having, we had to get ready to leave because we all were moving to Danielle's parents house about 40 mins away to house sit for them.  So, we had to get all our stuff together and leave.  Good thing I had collected most our stuff earlier that morning!  

We were just getting ready to leave, when I had to run for the bathroom and got sick.  Andrew and Danielle offered to stay if I wanted, but I knew we had to go to take care of her parents' dog, so I said I would be okay.  And at the moment, I felt a bit better.  But, I grabbed a plastic sac just in case.  Good thing!  We weren't even 10 minutes out when I got sick again.  Andrew pulled over to a grocery store so we could dispose of the "stuff" and Danielle ran in to get more bags.  So, off we went again.  

Now, there are a couple other things you need to know at this point in my monologue.  First of all, her parents live basically in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire.  And to get there, you have to take all these windy, curving roads.  Next, we had planned on having pizza for supper, so it had been ordered and we picked it up on the way.  The combination of this was a little difficult, and thus I got sick a third time on the way.  Poor Andrew and Danielle felt bad, but were very helpful and understanding.  I was just sorry they had to keep pulling over on account of me!

Anyways, we got to the house where I just went directly to the couch and stayed there until I went to bed at 8 p.m.  Andrew and Danielle were great to help me by taking care of Liam and Liam was great in being good.  So, at 8 p.m. both Liam and I went to bed and I slept all night.  By morning, I was much better.  When it was all said and done, I had gotten sick 8 times! (I know you all were really wanting to know that.)  I really think I had food poisoning from the Panera Bread sandwich I ate.  We did hear of at least one other lady who was sick, too.  I have not felt that bad in a LONG time.  It was terrible!  And now, even the thought of Panera makes me a little sick! :-)

Because of all that, and the fact that I woke up with a headache on Sunday, all of us but Andrew stayed home from church.  But it was nice to just relax and rest and spend time with Danielle.  Amanda came over after church before she had to go to work, so we had fun with her, too.  

Monday morning, Amanda, Danielle, me and the kids got up and went to meet back up with Matt.  I couldn't wait.  I was only able to talk to him for about 10 mins on Saturday, and 15 on Sunday, so I could not wait to see him.  And I missed my little girl so badly!  We met up in Augusta again, and it was so good to get hugged and kissed by my husband, and to squeeze and kiss my baby girl!  I missed them so much!  Matt said I was never allowed to leave him for that long again, he missed me too much.  Oh, and on the back roads out of where her parents live, before we got on the interstate, Liam threw up.  I believe it was due to the driving on curvy roads, Liam being in the back seat, and he and Eldan watching a video.  Poor guy.  He has never done that before.  We pulled over and did a quick clean-up then hit the road again.  He was fine after that.  I turned off the video, Amanda drove a little slower on the turns, and I had Liam look outside to count the trees! ;-)

Once with Matt, we said good by to Danielle, Amanda, Eldan and Evie, and went on our way, stopping in Bangor, Maine for me to spend the rest of my money. :-)  Matt's mom was with us, and she loves to shop, so we had fun.  Matt took me to Chili's for supper, which was so wonderful, then we headed home - in a snow storm!!!  It wasn't too bad, and wasn't sticking too much to the ground, but still, it was big, fluffy snow!  When will spring come?  We got home shortly after 10, exhausted and ready to sleep.  

So, that, in a rather long nutshell, was the actual trip part.  Besides getting sick, I had a great time and really enjoyed being with my bro and sis, and sis-in-law.  Liam and Eldan had fun, with just a few episodes of not sharing and such.  

I guess that is all for now.  Stayed tuned for part number 2, which we will call, "Refocus."