there are no words...

We are rounding out quite a week here in the Austerman household! Hopefully this blog post doesn’t come across as whiny, negative or depressing, because even after a week with the flu, sleep deprivation, important events, expensive fixes and so on, I still know how blessed my family is. What is that factoid I always get emailed to me? *If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week. AND If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.* Definitely enough to be thankful for in my life!! However, this week my husband and I often reminded each other that God doesn’t put more on us than we can handle…usually said by the person that DIDN’T wake up at 4AM that morning! :) And besides…I find myself connecting to people best when I learn their struggles. So might as well share mine! No one’s life is perfect all the time! And as another saying goes: *Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle*…so true.

Most of the chaos started last Friday. Poor little Zay got the flu. I shouldn’t have been surprised…I knew about the impending sickness because last Wednesday I was the only person in my department at work. EVERYONE else was home sick. And it seemed like each day a new little kiddo at Zay’s daycare was picking up the flu bug. I guess flu shots and hand sanitizer can only do so much! My active and curious little boy did not move off my lap once on Friday. That was the good news – all the snuggle time a mommy could want! They bad news…puke. Eww! It was our first official bout with our child puking. So much different than spit up – Zay was an impressive “spitter upper” as a baby – but that doesn’t hold a candle to puke. Yuck!

By Friday night I started having symptoms as well. No problem, we’ve dealt with the flu before…except on this particular Friday evening we were supposed to be attending my brother Tyler and his fiancé, Kendra’s rehearsal dinner. Well, Zay and I were out. No good, very bad day…leading into a not so good night…it just wasn’t going to happen. Better to rest up, so we could make the wedding and reception the next day!

To top it off – we were getting our SUV fixed earlier in the week. The all-wheel-drive hadn’t been working…not a cheap fix, but we needed to get it fixed, partly because my brother and soon-to-be sister were getting married OUTSIDE…in a field…among trees…in January….in frigid temps! Yes, they are a little...ok...super crazy, but we still claim them. :) And to get to the ceremony site, we needed to drive our 4-wheel drive vehicle. Problem solved. We got our car back on Thursday…wait…problem NOT solved. The car still wasn’t running correctly. Take car back to repair shop on Friday. Figure out alternative plans to drive to wedding. Only to then find out we CAN get our car back by Saturday! Cancel backup plan!

Saturday morning arrives. Shane picks up car. I get Zay and I ready…neither of us feeling 100%, but I think we can make it. Did I mention, we had all the girls getting ready at our house that morning? Yep. And guests staying with us that evening. Yep. Yep. We head off to the destination wedding site. Ceremony went off without a hitch. Zay and I even got to see them exchange vows, before he got fussy and needed to head back to the car. Their ceremony was very meaningful to them, as well as their guests…and short as you might imagine with it be outside in January!

Everyone disperses from the wedding. We hop in the car and head to the reception site, because we were assigned the task of opening up the lodge, turning on lights, lighting candles, etc. We are just hitting the road and Shane gets a call from his best friend Jeremy…guess what! They are headed to the hospital to have a baby! Yea!! We get a little further down the road…and Zay decides to inform us, that he is not as excited about Jer and Natalie’s new baby, nor is he over his sickness! puke + car = gross mess! I head to the backseat to help the little guy out. At this point we decide there is NO WAY Zay can be at the reception…so Shane drops me off to get the party started and he heads home with our sick little boy!

I get home from the reception later that night. Find my hubby exhausted. I’m exhausted and still not feeling the greatest. We all go to bed for a better day tomorrow.

A better day that started at 4AM! And likewise each and every day since has started at 4AM, thanks to a little boy named I-S-A-I-A-H! Zay has ALWAYS been an early riser (it’s pretty common to be up at 5AM in our house, but when I hear him start fussing and look at my clock and it says 3:55AM...ummm, REALLY?!! I think not! We've been trying to keep him up later at night...doesn't work - the kid is like an alarm clock, right on time! We've tried letting him cry it out, problem is, he is legitimately complaining about something...Dirty diaper? – like clockwork. Hungry? – yes, ma’am. Wouldn’t you be if practically all you ate was fruits and veggies? By the time we address all the necessary issues – my boy is WIDE awake! No convincing him to go back to sleep!

Some days this is ok – because we can count on some extra time in the morning to chop, measure, and weigh Zay’s food for the day…however if I’m in charge, I prefer to do this at night. I’m just not functioning so well that early in the AM. And that’s a task in itself! So much so, that Shane and I have talked about our Mother’s and Father’s Day presents. Guess what we are getting each other – knives! Maybe I shouldn’t advertise that! :) And I was just reminded today that a food processor should be on our “must have” list as well. Duh…why don’t we have one of these yet? We chop and cut A LOT of fruit and veggies – hello…there have been inventions to make this easier! Maybe that will be our Anniversary present. Ha - if a food processor doesn’t say love – I don’t know what does!

And now…what could possibly happen next, you ask? Well, my husband leaves for meetings in Chicago earlier this week. And the real kicker…he arrives home last night and SURPRISE…..he’s caught our flu bug! Went to bed immediately upon arriving home, hasn’t hardly moved since.

Description of how I felt at 4AM this morning...there are no words. :)