Day 4: The Day I Almost Panicked

Three of my aunts and uncles and some of my cousins live in Michigan, an hour and a half from where my Grandma lives in Ohio. The plan for today is to have a picnic at my aunt's cabin, visit with the family that is able to join us, and take my Grandma with us. Jeremy will also be flying in and will meet us at the cabin. That's what happened, but not that smoothly!

It was not in the plan for my Mom to wake up with a headache and debilitating nausea. It became apparent that Mom was not going to be able to go to Michigan. (Cue panic) I called my Grandma and told her thinking that she would also decide not to go to Michigan. She said, "Well, I think I should still go." (Cue more panic) My Grandma is 90 years old and in amazing health; however, she is not used to traveling in peace let alone in a car with 4 children!

I got myself and the kids together, we picked up Grandma and we had a smooth trip to Michigan. I had my aunt's address in my iphone maps app which has never let me down. When we were on a main road and it said, "in 500 feet park your car. You will need to walk to your destination." I knew I was in trouble. At that point Grandma was pretty sure I should have just followed her directions. =) I got us to the correct road, but, for the life of me, I could not find my aunt's house. My aunt kept telling me to go to the top of the hill and don't go around the curve. I was just too frazzled. I couldn't figure out where the top of the hill was. lol. I have another aunt who lives on the same road and all of a sudden I saw a her house and recognized it. Thankfully she was still at home. Grandma could use her bathroom and we followed her to the cabin.

My aunt's father (who is not my relation) collected scrap metal and made amazing, whimsical creations. This was was by the door of the cabin. The property of full of large and small, whimsical and life like creations.

 We roasted hot dogs over the fire for lunch. Soon after we ate Jeremy arrived! He flew in to Detroit and met us at the cabin. (He used a different map app and had some trouble too. Apparently this rural area is not well mapped yet!) I was so relieved to have him by my side.
It didn't take my children too long to make friends with my cousin's 3 children. Isaiah and their boy are just 2 months apart.

A working pump made for lots of fun water play.

My aunt gave the children rides on her gator.

I spent most of my time walking around the ponds with Isaiah. There was endless places to explore. I was really grateful that I could see my aunts and a couple uncles and cousins.

Going back to Ohio Jeremy drove the children in the Traverse and I drove with my Grandma in the car Jeremy rented from the airport. The silver lining in the day was that I spent an hour and a half alone with my Grandma. I don't think that has ever happened in my life. I was also thankful to just follow Jeremy and not think about directions--which meant that I followed him off the turnpike an exit before I should have since I was taking Grandma home!

This time, though, I relied on Grandma's directions. We were doing great, and all of a sudden, the road was closed in front of us. Grandma thought it would be out of the way to get back to the original road (20A) so she navigated us to Archbold. At each intersection we would stop, I'd tell her the roads and she'd say, "I think we should keep going straight." We got to her house with no problems. When we got to an intersection close to Archbold that we both recognized she said, "Now that was hard work!" Bless her heart. She had a really big day!

I got back to Jeremy, the kids and Mom at supper time. I checked on Mom and she was just miserable. She hadn't been able to even keep a bite of cracker down and by then it had been 24 hours since she had eaten or drank. She told me to take her to ER after I ate. By this time I was over panicking and tears were just not an option!

We went to the ER in a town called Bryan. This turned out to be the best ER experience I've had. Mom did not wait in the waiting room at all. The admissions lady sent Mom back and I finished the paperwork--even signed consent for her treatment. That was a weird moment for me! The IV was tough to start because Mom was dehydrated, but once the fluids and meds got in her system she started feeling better. Bloodwork and scan results were back in half an hour!!? The ER got busy while we were there and we had to wait a long time to be discharged. We got to the hospital at 7:30 and were back to the house by 11:00 so we were not complaining at all. It was totally worth the time to get Mom feeling better. There was no way I wanted her to miss another day for being sick!

What a huge day! I fell into bed that night. It took me a while to unwind and fall asleep. Not that I had talked to him at all today, but at least I was sleeping beside Jeremy. His brain was as busy at mine looking at and considering car buying options and figuring out how he was going to get his family and mother in law home from Breezewood where we needed to return our rental in a few days.