Because we are the Sullivan's, there just cannot be a road trip without a LOT of crazy things happening. Previous to the move, Bill was working in Wichita Kansas and flew home on April 27th to help drive us out there for the summer. So this is how the story goes:
After 10 days of being a single parent with 2 rowdy boys off track (out of school) and 1 very sick baby girl (fever was 104 and then dropped with antibiotic shots, then started back at 101 degrees and NOT sleeping at night), preparing for our Easter holiday, packing our house up: dividing things that needed to "stay" and things that needed to "go." I was spent--absolutely and completely overcome with stress and exhaustion and it didn't end the way I had hoped. A few days before we were to move I found out we were going to Wichita, Kansas to stay for a month in an extended stay hotel. Oh, joy.
It was important to Bill that we all be IN the airport when he came home. Aiming to please, I dragged 3 tired kids into the airport to wait for his flight that was an hour delayed. Because it was past bedtime, Lucy was very FUSSY. She wanted to walk around the airport all on her own. She gave the "parade wave" to everyone as she passed. And whenever I tried to pick up her, she cried and fussed in my arms. Jack kept complaining that his stomach hurt. He was bent over, clutching his stomach and looked horribly uncomfortable. Max kept begging for the million dollar candy out of the rows of vending machines. I kept saying, "No!" to the point I was tired of hearing myself. The delayed hour felt like an eternity.
After Bill's long awaited arrival and the joys of being together again were over, we get settled into bed. An hour after I fell asleep, Jack came running down the hall into our room to announce he had thrown up. It was a healthy portion of chunky vomit all over the sheets and pillows I had just spent the entire day washing. Poor Jack! In addition, the bathroom that I had scrubbed clean, was infested with vomit germs and the kitchen floor I stayed up late the night before to mop was also dotted with vomit and sticky with the Big Gulp of Sprite that Max accidentally spilled earlier in the day. My To-Do list for leaving the next morning was increasing exponentially.
We stripped the bed, and gathered newly washed blankets for make-shift bedding. It was early in the morning by now and sleep was slow to come as I lay awake reminding myself of all the things that needed to be re-washed and re-cleaned. I was also hoping that Jack's stomach felt better and that he would be OK in the 18-hour car ride we had ahead of us.
Thursday, April 28th, 2011 Day of Departure...maybe
Things to do before we leave: make and clean up breakfast, 6 loads of wash, clean bathrooms, mop kitchen floor, empty fridg and freezer, finish the last minute packing, load the car, run last minute errands, schedule fertilizing company lawns for the rest of the week, etc., etc.
Bill went to the Dr. to pick up a prescription and talked to the nurses about Jack's tummy. They gave him some vomit bags that would be convenient in the car. He filled them before we even got on the road. Poor kid!
Bill went to run a work errand and ran out of gas in the truck. The catch is that it only takes Natural Gas. You cannot just get a gas can and fill it, it HAS to be towed. So he had me pack the 3 kids (sick Jack with vomit bag to boot) and tow his truck to a Natural Gas station--it can't be just any station because it has to have a NG pump and only certain locations have this. Bill tied the metal chain to my car and then to his truck, we started to drive into 4 0'clock traffic when one of the links on the metal chain broke. We were right in the middle of a traffic jam from a car accident on the other side of the road. Now we created a jam on our side of the road--why are we always in such a mess?
While waiting for Bill to figure out a way to fix the chain, it dawned on me that I left a pot of boiling water on the stove. I was boiling eggs for Lucy and forgot! I called my next door neighbor Debbie to go over and shut it off. Fortunately she caught it just in time, but one of the eggs exploded and our house STUNK! We were lucky, it could have started a fire. Thanks for your help Debbie!
We finally got the truck towed and filled, but it put us behind another hour in our travel plans.
We finally just threw (literally) everything in and left just after 5pm. We drove ALL night only stopping for gas. By 8am Friday, April 29th we were in Kansas. We stopped at a diner for breakfast and I could hardly hold my head up. Despite the cokes I drank for the caffeine, I felt like I was fighting a sleeping pill. The toll of the last 2 weeks kicked in high gear and I was flat out EXHAUSTED.
Friday, April 29th, 2011 Wichita, KS
At 10am, we rolled into the extended stay where I could hardly wait to drop onto the bed and fall into a deep, blissful sleep. We walked into a room with 2 guys sleeping on the beds and all of their things strewn about. My excitement waned and I almost started crying. We needed to wait for sheets to be changed, cleaning to be done and the guys to move out before we could unpack our things. No rest for the weary.
Later with blood-shot red eyes and fatigue beyond belief, I took the kids to register at their "new school". I'm not sure the impression the office staff has of me as again, I felt like I was fighting sleep. I managed (with a LOT of crossing out and scribbles) to fill out an endless stack of paperwork. We walked around the school trying to figure out where things were. The boys were very disheartened and little Max said, "I don't want to go to school with all these brown people." He didn't mean it in a prejudiced way, he was just so anxious about the cultural diversity and the poverty of the place. They were also very saddened to learn that they have to wear uniforms.
The rest of Friday is a blur of quick groceries at the local Wal-Mart, cleaning, unpacking and counting the hours until I could finally fall asleep.
Max attends Kindergarten full days and the schedule is similar to that in Utah: 9am-4pm. His teacher is Mrs. Deutsch (pronounced Die-ch). She seems very kind and was delighted to meet Max. She has told us repeatedly what a sweet boy he is. She has been teaching for 26 years.
Max attends Kindergarten full days and the schedule is similar to that in Utah: 9am-4pm. His teacher is Mrs. Deutsch (pronounced Die-ch). She seems very kind and was delighted to meet Max. She has told us repeatedly what a sweet boy he is. She has been teaching for 26 years.
