Have you ever found yourself going through a rough time, not sure how you were ever going to make it out the other end? You know, one of those times where it seems to just snowball from a little thing into everything going wrong? I just came out of one of those times – and man, I am not sure how we survived it.

Let’s rewind time a few weeks – back to the last week or so of May. Things are going fine, we’re happy, healthy and then BOOM!

* Manda gets a deer tick
* Brie, our almost 13 year old cat, runs away. He has never done this before – he’s exclusively an inside cat. We were devastated and scared. As you may recall, we live in a wooded area and there is a lit of wildlife. (Luckily, Brie eventually came home. We put his litter box outside and on Day 3, he found it).
* Manda searches for Brie and comes face to face with a deer in the woods (less than a foot away) scaring both her and the deer.
* Alex gets sick, has to miss 2 days (and counting) of school.
* Lucas has his last day of pre-school, while Alex is home sick, requiring a babysitter.
* Manda steps on a frog (don’t worry, he hopped away, but I was barefoot – ew!)
* Adam gets called up to play baseball for another team (which is fun, and something we volunteered for but adds to the stress and with a sick kid, mom can’t go watch)

Eventually, the weekend showed up – but things did NOT get better!

*The strainer basket in the kitchen sink leaks water through the floor and into the basement. (damage isn’t too bad -mostly discoloration in the ceiling paint. We used fans and dehumidifiers (those bad boys are expensive!) to dry everything out and got the sink fixed.

*Lucas has an ear infection and ruptured drum, along with a fever. Which is extra sad because him being sick means we can’t do the special fun things we had planned for this little break between his school ending and his brothers’ last day.

*My phone took a hit at baseball and the screen shattered. The phone was in my pocket, but a stray ball hit me and due to the sick kid cuddling me, I couldn’t move!

We get home from baseball Wednesday evening to find my husband sick. Sore throat, pain in his ears, fever – miserable. I send him to bed.

All of this and it’s only Wednesday. Someone save me. Or send wine. Or both…please…..

You think this is rough friends, just wait until you hear what Thursday and Friday have in store…

Thursday morning comes far to early (sick kids don’t sleep through the night, and we’re almost 2 straight weeks into sick kids….so momma is tired). Lucas is awake, I carry him down to the couch and cover him with his blanket – he screams this terrifying, pain filled scream. I look at his mouth, because that’s where he’s pointing, and it’s swollen, huge, and inside is a huge lump that’s kind of blackish in color. Mom begins to panic. Wakes (sick) dad up to deal with the other kids and heads to the ER. It turns out, it’s an Abscess and has to be drained. (I’ll spare you photos….). But, they don’t know what caused it, so they want us to head to the dentist for X-Rays in the morning. Luckily, we’re already on antibiotics for the ruptured ear drum and ear infection diagnosed yesterday.

Friday Morning: we have a 9AM appointment at the dentist, X-Rays are taken and they show 2 abscessed teeth. The only thing to do at this age? Pull them. We’re sent to the oral surgeon. By the time we get there, Lucas’s fever is up to almost 105*, he’s throwing up and starving (but can’t eat, in case he needs surgery). He’s barely alert. It’s the infection. I’m terrified, and just want my baby back. We didn’t wait more than 5 minutes before we were in a room. The surgeon hardly looked at Lucas before determining that we couldn’t wait to get those teeth out. I’m scared, I’m sad – my baby (just turned 4) is going to be missing his front 2 teeth – taken out in an emergency procedure.

The surgery went well, he did great! And let me tell you friends, the minute those teeth were out, that fever started to drop. By the time we left, it was under 100*. There was that much infection, his body was working overtime!

After this excitement, things started to calm down – oh, except for the fact that this momma ended up with Pink Eye on the last day of school! Seriously – because why wouldn’t I get Pink Eye on a day I want pictures with my kids?!? LOL

And Lucas is doing great – just look at that tooth-less smile? It’s heart melting!