5 Shirts

We returned the keys to our rental house this morning. Yay! We're really excited to get that behind us, but that little house will forever hold a special place in my heart. We made lots of memories under that roof in the six months we lived there. Christmas, New Year's, Birthdays, Mother's Day, Lost Teeth, Game night, Snow Days and sidewalk chalk were all had at that house. We made the best of the situation and I'm really proud we pushed through and did the special things that we did.

The other day D came home from work. He was standing at the kitchen sink washing his hands and I watched him. He looked different but I couldn't figure out why. Was it a new pair of jeans? A different hat?? "Honey, you look different. I can't figure out what it is.." He wasn't sure. After a minute it occurred to me. His shirt was different!! I hadn't seen that shirt in over seven months. When the tornado hit I packed an overnight bag for the boys and I and D  packed one for himself. I remember thinking (I was clearly in a major state of shock) I better pack two to three shirt for each of us because "we'd probably be out of the house for two to three days" before we could return. The day after the tornado I came to the realization that we'd be out of the house a little bit more than originally planned, so I grabby three or four more outfits. Mom grabbed five pairs of work pants and five work shirts for D. I remember us joking and saying, "We're gonna have to send him back to work at some point." Five shirt would get him through a week of work, right? Well, those five shirts got him through seven months. He wore those five shirts all winter because that's all we had. Why go out and buy more long sleeve shirts when you know you have ten more of them in storage? In the last few days we have unearthed D's summer shirts and some of mine...and we are wearing them. It's so nice to have more than a handful of outfits to wear. Such a luxury. 

We're home, however

We moved back into our home two weeks ago. We are elated to be back! We worked so hard to get to this point. Even if our stuff is still in boxes and isn't quite in it's place it's (mostly) under one roof and back in our home. There's no other feeling of relief quite like it.....However we have a set back going on. We went to a minor league baseball game last weekend with N's boy scout troop. After the game there were fireworks and the scouts and their families got to camp out on the baseball field. It's such a neat thing for the kids to do. Daddy, N and L talked me into camping out with them. The stuff I remember was really fun, but things went south late in the night when I woke up with terrible stomach pain. I woke D up and I told him we needed to go to the ER. We were on our way out of the tent to head that way and I passed out. I stood up to walk and I kept on going and landed flat on my back. I really shook my melon. After extensive testing and a stay at the hospital it was determined that my head is full of nice healthy brains, but I sustained a severe concussion from my fall.

The first few days of being home were really tricky. I couldn't handle any noise, light, temperature or weather change. My appetite was less and I certainly couldn't do any chores or play with the boys. My head and neck were both very tender but I was also nauseous, dizzy, weak, fatigued and slow. Slow to walk,  think,  talk, comprehend. Just plain slow. I still feel slow in conversations, but I'm catching up in all the other areas. I'm getting to the point where I can handle stimulation from about two of my five senses at a time. A friend of mine works with neuro patients and she said it very well when she said to take one sense at a time. I feel like I am getting closer to handling the normal level of noise and commotion at our house but I'm not ready to go out into public and negotiate all that noise, motion, light, driving, etc. In fact, I think I've only left the house five times in the last nine days. I usually leave the house that many times in about two days. Ha!! I'll get there, but I've gotta take it slow. 

Today marks day number nine of life with a concussion and day fifteen of being back in our house. Over all today was both icky and wonderful. I felt pretty bad in the morning but this afternoon and evening were wonderful. It felt like our first true day of true life in our house. D got his tractor out (and got it stuck in the mud), the boys played outside, we opened the kiddie car wash for the season, D and L planted flowers, I got a few boxes unpacked, D made a trip to Menards and we ate a nice dinner. I'm really learning to appreciate the littlest things that I normally take for granted. I now realize how much we do on a daily basis that our bodies can handle without us even thinking about it.

We've made it through this week with a lot of help from family and friends. We really could not have done it without you! Thanks so much!

Be funny with attitude

Last night before we left the "big house" there was one last thing I wanted to do with the boys. I knew the carpet crew was coming the next day to lay down carpet, so I knew we better do it quick. I wanted to write quotes on our bedroom floors to put some good vibes in the house, so that's what we did. We know the quotes will be covered with carpet, but I thought it'd be fun to have messages in our rooms even if we can't see them. We wrote a few quotes from Pinterest in each room, but N came up with one on his own that I thought was really sweet. "Be funny with attitude." And you know what's funny about this picture? No matter what I do I cannot get it to rotate. So you'll just have to be funny with attitude and enjoy it the way it is!

We visited the house today and the carpet in the living room is done. It feels so good that N laid down on the floor and did carpet angels. Ha! (The first time we did carpet angels was in our hotel room in Nashville on spring break this year. That's another story for another time). The rest of the carpet is laid down in the house. The guys will return tomorrow to finish the install. Yay!! Woo-hoo!