The Return of Reality

My 3 year break from reality, and life as I had grown to know it, has come to a screeching halt. Yes, this is something I wanted, been begging for and have finally been granted! I am not stupid, I knew full well this would be quite an adjustment for the kids and myself. Curt will get back to reality in 5 weeks when we get him back from Manila.

For now, we adjust without him. People warn you about repatriating, that it isn’t as easy as you imagine, that things just aren’t how you remembered them when you lived there before, etc. I would agree…but not because I have had a month to let it sink in, but because we hit the ground sprinting and are just now slowing to an easy pace. We landed in Denver from Manila on Sunday the 9th, greeted by family and friends and a few teary eyes (mine included as I have pictured this moment for 3 yrs). Our house, our wonderful house. It’s our house, where we moved in as newlyweds, where we brought two children home from the hospital to (the 3rd wasn’t born in this country), where we have had about 7 pets over the years and where we have made almost every major decision in our life. The house was just what I was looking for, a home base to lock onto.

At 2am on Monday morning, jet lag had the kids awake and Ellery had a fever. Before we had left Manila, as my last ditch effort of enjoying domestic help, I asked the helpers to pack a lot of the suitcases. I ALWAYS travel with Children’s Tylenol or Motrin for just this reason. Well, after 10 minutes of destroying all 10 pieces of luggage, I can’t find it anywhere. So, left Curt to watch Jones, Ellery (with a fever) and Aleah who is still asleep and I headed out to the store with the proud feeling of living back in the US where there are 24 hour grocery stores. 30 minutes later I am back with meds and all 3 kids are now up and meandering the house with Curt. We kept this up until around 4am and then all headed back to bed. The next 3 days were the same, Jones to the Dr with a sinus infection, a flat tire, Ellery with strep throat, a welcome home surprise party (awesome as it was, it’s too bad we had 2 sick kids:( ), a Gooden family BBQ, all getting ready for the entire reason why we made the move home 4 weeks early…Ryan’s wedding. I was smoking pork shoulder by day and up with sick and jet lagged kids at night. Curt got the morning shift for awhile so I could get some continuous sleep and we were all wiped. I have no idea how we made it through the first 5 days. I think it was shear luck, to be honest. I haven’t been that exhausted since we brought Jones home from the hospital. Not to mention, the wedding hadn’t even happened yet!

Seeing my little sis, my little brothers, my brother-in-law, meeting my new sister-in-law-to-be and gathering the supplies for the weekend took up the next several days. The nights were not only long due to jet lag, but the reunions also called for toasts, so the late nights were later with the sounds of glasses chiming and corks popping as well. Then Saturday came, as well as several people to help prep for the shower, and the fairly large wedding shower my sister and I put on went off without a hitch. I think we did a pretty good job and it was nice to meet Sarah’s family as well. A quick clean up by a handful of people and a costume change and we were ready for the Bachelorette party, also held at our house. I think Sarah was appropriately mortified as Jenni requested. I would have been way more mean, but Jenni was in charge of toning it down. :(

Oh, Sunday morning came and nails needed to be painted and some last minute errands and a bite to eat (my favorite restaurant, no less) and another quick costume change for the rehearsal. Somehow the kids were taken care of by Curt and we were not late once and I don’t think either of us were even yelling at them or each other! We were on a roll!

Monday was filled with hair appts, makeup appts and more costume changes! But the wedding does happen and the anticipation was in the air. Sarah looked amazing and Ryan was appropriately anxious to see her. He looked great in his dress blues, I was in awe seeing him and Matthew in their uniforms. It’s great to be proud of your siblings!

We spent the rest of last week doing all the things we needed to get done before Curt left. So we bought a car and baby-proofed Jones’ room since he has now decided to climb out of his crib. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that he chose to wait until there was carpet under his bed to try this. In Manila we had hard wood floors, but not the kind with a subfloor. I think they were laid straight onto concrete and I always feared the day he tried to climb out while we lived there. The carpet here didn’t keep him from getting scratched up and a bit bruised, but it saved him from major injury. Added to the “to do” list was ordering him his big boy furniture a few months before I planned.

Curt’s plane back to Manila was scheduled to depart at 11a on Saturday, but a quick side trip to Wendy’s the night before kept him off the plane. It seems those chicken nuggets ended up giving him food poisoning. He was in no shape to be traveling for 24 hours. So he changed his flight and he left Sunday morning. It’s been three days of no husband, no yayas (though a scheduled sitter twice a week will be the lifesaver I need - thank you, Tori), no school and we are sort of getting along ok… So far, few commitments have made life easier!

I am eager to purge all this transition stuff onto the blog, so stay tuned if you are interested, if not, ignore it. I write for my benefit, so don’t feel obligated to read.

Oh, but after I wrote this and before I send this out on FB, let me add a few additions. Just when I thought I had this single-parenting thing down, Wednesday I come down with chills, a fever and body aches, along with a sore throat and throbbing head. Ellery is dropped of Thursday morning with a stomach bug and apparently she has been up vomitting all night! To top it off, it looks like Jones' sinus infection is back. To the Dr we go for more drugs...what a horrible last 3 days...absolutely miserable! Got a new car, that's the good news!