After the “deep freeze” in our area, I was determined to put up the fencing while the weather was nice. I had had enough of trying to persuade my hands to function in 20 degree weather. So the week after the bitter cold, I had plans. Big plans, baby! Plans changed. I shouldn’t even have to say that anymore, should I? Make a plan. Change a plan. That’s the rule and not the exception anymore, right? Right. When will I ever learn that…
Well, the plans changed. Jim had to work. That’s a good thing though. Work=income, so that’s always a nice thing to have, obviously. And then it started raining. Well, that’s also a good thing because it brings in more work for Jim. Not for me, necessarily, but good for our bank account. And then the sickness struck. Not fun. Thankfully I was able to get a little work done before that.
I tried to put in the fencing without Jim. I have put up lots of fencing without Jim. We have had high-tensil wire, Electrobraid, electric wire and field fencing. Without a doubt, the hardest fencing for me to do without Jim is the field fencing. Dealing with the heavy roll, keeping it lined up, keeping the kids off of it, tightening it, clipping it, chasing down the kids, repeating it all. It wears me out. Seriously, Jim makes it look so easy! Well, Saint Jim is a hulking 6’3″ and strong as an ox. And I am….well, I am not 6’3″ or strong as an ox…..Yeah, we’ll just leave it at that…..Moving on!
Since Jim was busy working, I was determined to do my part and do as much as I could. Well, then, let me just find my Superwoman cape and let’s get busy!
First, I had to concrete the end posts. No problem. Except the ground was so hard that I nearly cried. Maybe from the “deep freeze” or maybe from the rocks? I don’t know. I do know that it took me almost an hour each to dig the first 2 holes. Not the way I had envisioned my day going! Thankfully, the next few corner posts were down by the creek and the ground was softer. Blissfully softer. Whew! It only took me about 10 minutes to dig those holes. Thank goodness. I was starting to feel more than a little wimpy… I must not have put my Superwoman cape on correctly. Geez.
So, I got about 8 corner and line posts concreted that day.
Digging and concreting 8 posts is not much to brag about, actually. But I was done after that. Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
The kiddos helped some and played some. They all had a blast on this slack line that Aunt Meeps got Maylin for Christmas. What a fun gift! I might have gotten distracted trying it out for myself once or twice…. Ya know, I had to make sure it was safe and all…
They also watched this monsterous crane work on the cell tower.
We had given the workers permission to park there to do their work. Why not? It was free entertainment for the kids. And for me too! We even got an extra bonus when they leveled out a lovely spot to park the cranes. Yep, they did it for free. Thanks guys!
My plan was to go back out in the morning after schoolwork and concrete a few more posts so that Jim and I could get right to work on the fencing on Saturday. Well, wouldn’t you know that it started raining early the next morning? Of course it did.
It was raining cats and dogs Thursday morning, so we decided to take the kiddos to the movies to see Ferdinand. (Great movie by the way. Really funny!) Camden started sniffling just a little on the way there, but I didn’t think much about it. Once we got in the movies, Camden kept coughing. And he sounded like he had his head in a glass. Within a matter of minutes he was so hoarse, I couldn’t believe it. He came and sat in my lap and when he coughed I could feel his little back rattle. I felt horrible bringing him to the movies, but he seemed to be in good spirits. Thankfully, there was only a few people in the theater and they were not close to us at all. I still found myself counting the minutes until the movie was over though. As soon as the movie was over, Jim took Cam home.
I had a few errands to run with the girls and then we headed home as well. I was about 10 minutes from the house when Jim called and said that Camden couldn’t breathe. He had started coughing and couldn’t stop. Then he couldn’t breathe out and started to turn bluish. Jim tried to calm him down and jumped in the truck headed to the ER. He called me and I could hear Camden coughing, wheezing and whimpering in the background. That was terrifying. As parents, Jim and I have dealt with sickness, pneumonia, broken bones, stitches, surgeries, and even tumors. Yet, I have never heard Jim sound scared before. Jim is always the calm one. The rational one. The strong one. I am always the emotional one. Not surprising, huh?
So, when I heard the fear in Jim’s voice telling me to get to the hospital quick, well, I was beside myself to say the least. It was still raining pretty hard, so I couldn’t really speed to get to the ER. But I tried to go as fast as I safely could and I prayed so hard that I didn’t even start crying until we got to the hospital parking lot. As soon as I saw Camden in the waiting room I knew he was okay though and I was able to stop crying.
He was playing quietly with his transformers. His cheeks were bright red, so I knew he had a pretty good fever. I hugged him and I could still hear and feel the wheezing, but he was playing happily so I put on my Mom face and went to get answers. The triage nurse was kind, but said that he likely wouldn’t be seen for another 4-5 hours unless he had another “breathing episode”. 4 to 5 hours!! Nope, not gonna happen. In their defense, they were slammed with sick people. All the seats were full and people were sitting outside on benches waiting to be seen. Obviously, they were super busy but I didn’t want to wait long enough for Cam to have another “breathing episode”. And I didn’t really want all of us sitting in the waiting room picking up everyone else’s germs while we waited for them to see Camden.
So, I called the Urgent Care Clinic and they were able to see him in less than an hour. Off we went, with Maleah in the backseat in case he started having trouble breathing again. Once we got him all checked in at the Urgent Care Clinic, he started acting better and his cheeks lost some of the rosiness. He even sounded a little better, but Jim was adamant that we were not leaving. He wanted Camden checked from head to toe and assurances that he would never have to go through that again. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Jim scared before so whatever he witnessed with Camden must have been pretty horrifying.
The Dr. examined Camden and made some sense of what had happened. Camden had a major ear infection, the Croup, and some serious wheezing going on in his throat and chest. The Dr was pretty sure that Camden had an acute asthma attack, which he said is fairly common in little kids that have that amount of wheezing and congestion. An asthma attack? Well, that’s a new one for us. However, that explained what Jim had witnessed. So, we were given strict instructions for breathing treatments, 2 antibiotics, steroids and cough suppressants. That sounded like fun. Or not.
I will spare you the details of our next few days with Camden on steroids, but Lord help me if that little tiger is put on steroids again. Whew! I couldn’t really complain about his endless energy though, because within 6 hours or so, his wheezing was going away and his cough was manageable. Thank you Lord!
So, needless to say that fencing didn’t happen the next day. By Saturday, Camden still had a little cough and sniffles so I didn’t want him outside in the cold and wind. So fencing didn’t happen that day either. Sunday? Nope. Too cold and windy for Camden. Monday? Nope. Therapy and schoolwork for us and work for Jim. The rest of the week? Well, it’s pretty much the same. Yikes!
We are now in the second week of January and I am getting anxious about getting out there. I honestly have no idea how we are ever going to finish all this fencing!!! Somehow I seem to have lost my Superwoman cape……Oh dear….
