The kids were eager for me to start writing about our weekend, but I felt like it wasn’t over and wanted to wait. I was also waiting to find out if Xenia’s eye was going to heal and how that part of the story would end.
Mike told Xenia that he hoped she wouldn’t put Justin in the ER next to finish the circle, since Jonah had knocked the ball in her eye and Justin had stabbed Jonah in the hand. I wondered if Justin’s punishment was going to be all the guilt he carried from both incidents.
It was Tuesday, after Xenia had met with the eye doctor, that the next kid got hur,t and it was indeed Justin. This time all three kids ran in the house after Jonah knocked a ball into Justin’s stomach. Justin lifted his shirt to show a big red welt, but it wasn’t worthy. As they ran back outside, I yelled to them, “Maybe Baseball isn’t such a good idea,” but I don’t think they heard me.
A stomach welt didn’t feel like the third event I was looking for. Had the third incident happened earlier? I thought back to the weekend of Misha’s first birthday. Our whole family went to the aquarium for the morning. It was great fun showing Misha all the fish. He doesn’t get out enough, and he loved the adventure. That afternoon Jonah and Xenia got into a fight, which somehow ended up with Xenia pouring a can of beans on his bed. It was a bit shocking at the time, but looking back, their arguments and the hassle of dealing with each of the kids felt almost mundane. Not the story I was waiting for.
The next potential excitement happened to me the next weekend on my mini family reunion. My sister Kimmy was on her way to a mission trip in Africa, and we made plans to meet up with our sister Ellen and our cousin Ari in Spokane. The plan was for me to fly into Seattle on Friday, spend the night with Ellen, and pick Kimmy up from the airport Saturday morning. Then we would drive over to Spokane, Washington to see Ari’s new house. My flight was later in the day on Friday so I wouldn’t miss work. Then it was delayed both when leaving Albuquerque and when leaving Phoenix. I had a moment of panic when I realized how late I was going to fly in and how many hours past my normal bedtime I would be out driving to Ellen’s place.
By the time I had arrived at Seattle, I had pulled myself together.
I told myself, “I can do hard things.”
There was an accident on the freeway that had me going nowhere for another half an hour. I was so tired after crossing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that I fell asleep at the wheel. The rumble strips on the side of the road woke me up. I turned up the radio but fell asleep again, and again the rumble tracks woke me up. I rolled down the window and slapped my face, which seemed to help, and finally arrived at Ellen’s safe and sound at midnight. I’m glad I didn’t die or end up in the ER and mess up our weekend.
We ended up having the best weekend ever. The view from Ari’s house of the Spokane River is my new happy place. We ate all our meals out in her backyard. I played her harp with my feet hanging over the cliff. We ate good food and helped each other with cleaning up after each meal. We watched chick flicks and took a long walk in woods filled with beautiful yellow flowers. I even talked everyone into attending Sunday morning liturgy with me, even though Eastern Orthodoxy isn’t really their thing. We called our other cousins, and I felt so loved and connected. It was a wonderful few days together.
While I was away, Sophia was visiting her friend who Sophia lived with in Tennessee. Her friend had moved to Colorado. They had fun together until her friend’s grandma passed away, and they had to figure out how to get her friend back. There was an aunt in New Mexico who was also heading that way, but Sophia’s friend ended up flying from Colorado Springs after the accident. It was a chaotic ending made even more crazy when Sophia was stuffing suitcases in her little car’s trunk and rammed her hand into a metal bar. It was Sophia who had to go to the ER for seven stitches.
So there you have our three ER visits in a week story. I’m glad that’s done!
Syra's Scribbles 