The Weekend

Had quite the weekend. We drove up to my grandparents' house to help them move down to a duplex that my parents built just up the road from their house. My grandparents and great grandma (grandma's mom who lives with them) are all in failing health, well, my 105 y.o. g-grandma is actually doing pretty well for her age, probably better than grandma at this point. Anyway, digressing... They needed help packing and moving as Grandma had a mini-stroke awhile back and then shortly thereafter, she fell and fractured her hip so was definitely out of commission for packing. G-grandma is blind and frail and wobbly on her feet so about all she does all day is sit in a comfortable chair, sometimes dozing, sometimes listening to TV. Grandpa has been suffering bouts of weakness and had an episode last week where he couldn't get up in the morning. We think it was either a stroke warning or flat out exhaustion since he's been the only one available to do any packing and worrying about the move.

My mom came and picked me and the kids up on Thursday afternoon and DH met us later that evening up at my parents' house. We got up at 5 a.m. Friday morning so we could be on the road by 6 (actually 6:10) for the 5 hour trip to the grands'. We had to go about an hour out of our way once we got there to pick up a rental truck for the move. I guess the rental guy knew G&G and had given them a pretty good deal, (good price, extra days, & extra milage). When we got to the house, it was very overwhelming because there weren't very many boxes to pack in. Mom and I got started in the kitchen and started clearing out the cupboards. We got grandma to let go of several glass bowls & muffin tins and such and were able to toss a couple garbage bags full of old food. Poor Grandma has glaucoma so can't see well when food has bugs in it or if mice have chewed on it. I was glad we didn't have to pack it! At one point, I took G1 to the closest town that would have some rope as DH needed some for stabilizing boxes in the van... I was so tired that I felt like I was drifting off the whole way there (about 20 minutes). I decided that if I felt that way on the way back, that I'd have to find a place to park and rest my eyes for a minute, but luckily I was a little more alert. My dad and DH loaded furniture and whatever boxes we managed to pack into the van till around 5:30 or so. The family that we were staying with brought supper over to the house and we all enjoyed the break. After that, since it was nearing Sabbath, we drove up to our host family's house and got showers and crashed around 9:30 (which is very early for DH and I, but we were plumb worn out!).

Sabbath was a relaxing day, we went to church at my childhood church, the pastor's car broke down on the way so Dad ended up preaching. We drove back for a lovely meal and then my mom, the kids and I walked down to the lake (that G&G's house overlooks) too see if we could coax some fish up to the surface with some bread crumbs. But it was so cold, and the fish must have been hybernating so we started back up. My brother and his wife got there around this time. G2 and I took a nap a little later and then we had supper and chatted till bedtime.

Sunday we got over to the grands' house as soon as we could (around 8:30 or so) and packed and loaded pretty much straight till 1:00 when we stopped for some lunch. Then more packing (luckily someone brought a bunch of boxes which came in very handy) and loading till around 3:30 or 4. My mom drove the kids and I back to "our" house and we quickly showered and I started trying to get some of our things together so we could pack up the van and leave when it came back. G1 & G2 played with some toy cups and plates... till they started squabling. I then figured that G2 was probably tired so made her lie down. She was soon asleep, but she only slept about 30 minutes before she woke up crying a sick cry. She didn't feel too warm, but it had that feel to it. DH agreed so I put some peroxide drops in her ears (2 mins on each side) and hoped that would do the trick. Finally the rest got back and showered and we packed our stuff and drove back to the old homestead to pick up the grandparents and say goodbye to everyone who had come to help (quite a crowd had come from the church which was very nice). We left around 6 p.m. and decided to go home a different route that would be less mountainous, but an hour longer, just thought it would be easier going with the moving truck and big van. We had to stop several times for gas/oil/potty/snack breaks so our 6 hour trip was extended to 7. We rolled in to my parents' house at around 1:00 Monday morning. After getting beds made and "midnight snacks" eaten, we all fell into bed at aroun 2:15. DH, the kids and I slept out on the sunporch which had a bed in it that Dad's mom had been sleeping in (she's moving down to the other half of the duplex), but since she's gone for a week or two visiting my aunt, it was available. It was cold out there, but we turned the heat on and had lots of blankets and actually did just fine.

Of course we woke up at the crack of dawn since we were virtually outside, just glass between us and the great out of doors, so we didn't get much sleep. But neither one of us relished the idea of driving another hour 1/2 to get home. Due to dry eye syndrome, DH stayed in bed as long as he could so his eyes could get as refreshed as possible before driving home. We finally got on the road and the kids promptly conked out in their carseats. G2 didn't have any apparent symptoms of being sick, tho I had felt like I might be catching something on the trip down the night before and had put drops in my ears before going to bed. I was a little snuffly, but felt increasingly more normal as the day wore on. Now (on Wednesday), I don't feel any ill-effects at all. Yay! Peroxide does it again. G1 had a cough when he woke up in the morning, (probably because he only let me put drops in one ear), but his symptoms are also pretty mild considering. We made it as far as a favorite Mexican restaurant by lunch/tummy growling-time so we stopped and had a nice meal. It was about 1 p.m. when we got home and we all crawled into bed and siesta-ed for 2-3 hours. Boy, that felt good!

Talked to Mom today. She said they were granted a temporary certificate of occupancy for G&G&GG's stuff so that they didn't have to unload it to the basement first and then bring everything back upstairs. Some kids from a local church school came and helped them unload the stuff so the furniture and labled boxes at least got to stay upstairs. The rest can come up as needed. Hopefully the grands can move into their duplex later this week or early next week.