Bumps before the Road

Tuesday
The movers showed up on time and we moved out of our house. Everything we would need to live for the next five weeks packed in our minivan. Burke stayed at the house to oversee the packing and I ran errands then checked in early at the hotel so Biddy could nap. For dinner we had BBQ and then played at Chukee Cheese for while. The girls went to bed great and I was feeling good about everything. Then something happened...reality hit. None of us could sleep. The girls kept hitting each other in their sleep and Biddy did not like being cooped up in her play and pack. My bed was too hard and Burke kept getting bit by something in bed. Our hotel was a little on the old side-or as Burke says the crappy side- and I guess I hadn't realized how spoiled we were with Burke staying in Hiltons and my friend Bonny hooking us up with Comfort Suites. At 3 am Burke and I were comparing bite marks and calling the Courtyard to find out the configuration of their king suite. It was a good thing I had already written down my blessings for the day -reliable fast packers who finished in one day instead of two and made it so we got to sleep in a extra hour in morning because we didn't have to get to the house at 8am.

Wednesday
After our long night we had a rough time getting the girls going in the morning but we managed to drop J..h of at school on time. Burke needed to finish some paperwork on base and since the loading people were not coming until Thursday we planned on heading to his work. Right before we left Burke though it might be a good idea to stop by the house and do something...I don't even remember what it was.... but I know it was inspired. While we were there the moving truck showed up. They were able to come a day early. We would have missed them and might have lost a whole day or at least a couple morning hours. With the moving going well I went back to the hotel and put Biddy down for another nap. She was not feeling well and had a fever that kept spiking. That evening the weather was beautiful and Bethany and her girls came over to swim and say goodbye. We sure do love them and I am going to miss them so much. Before I went to bed I marked all my bites with a pen so I could tell if there were new ones in the morning. Biddy went down much easier and I slept on top of my sleeping bag so I had some more cushioning. I thought we might actually get a decent nights sleep but I forgot about one thing. S..a. She was not adjusting well to our new life. Her behavior has been improving since she turned four but with this change she reverted back to the most horrid and awful behavior you can imagine from a three year old. I can't even begin to describe the terror of waking up to her screaming at 1 am in the morning. "J..h is touching me!!!!" She was screaming and crying so loud that Biddy woke up crying, J..h broke down in sobs and the neighbors started banging on the wall. Burke grabbed her and ran outside and sat her on the curb until she calmed down. She ended up sleeping on the floor in our room.

Thursday
I woke up with more bites. We packed up our stuff in a flurry and Burke talked to the hotel manager. They were very kind about the situation-Bed Bugs are no laughing matter-comped us our nights and we went on our way. When we researched the Courtyard it turned out to be very expensive. However I was able to talk to the manager and he agreed to give us the government rate on their king suite!! So despite the itching and the hassle we actually made money and then saved money per night at the Courtyard (counting blessings). The loading went great but Biddy's fever was not improving. Just to make sure she didn't have an ear infection I stopped in at the pediatrician. She checked out just fine and that was a big relief. The fever was probably her fighting of a virus and Dr. Ostrerov was not worried. Our new hotel was very nice and that was a relief too. That night the Brimhall family came to swim and we said goodbye to them. We learned a few things from our previous nights experiences and put S..a on the floor and J..h on the bed so there was no touching!!!! The girls slept great and my bed was dreamy and soft...if my bites would have stopped itching it would have been a perfect night!

Friday
I didn't have bug bites. A few months ago I got a very bad skin rash. It is strange because it also started with me thinking I had bed bugs. The "bites" then grew into huge, nasty, blistering, cracking, oozing sores the diameter of golf balls on my legs and arms etc. The doctor diagnosed poison ivy. She was wrong because it was happening again. The sore on my neck was starting to grow and blister. I knew something was wrong and I had to get it figured out before we hit the road. I called my Doctor to see if she could get me into a dermatologist. No such luck. She said that my guess was a good as hers so the best thing to do was to go to the ER where they would consult with a dermatologist. One of the soars was on my eye lid so I felt that I needed to find out what was going on so on our way back from Burke's work -still had to drop of his paper work- I went to the ER. We were only there two hours and I got an answer. The doctor is pretty confident that I am have Erythema Multiforme which is caused by the Herpes Simplex virus. That is the same virus that gives you cold soars. In fact the soars that I have are similar in some ways to cold soar they just appear on the skin. They start as a small itchy red bump then grow into a blistering mass. The mass has a target,or ring shaped, appearance. The blisters then crack and ooze. After time the blisters go away leaving flaky red patches of skin behind. It took close to a month for my last outbreak to heal. They are treating me with Aclivar and my sores do not seem to be getting worse so I am glad this mystery is solved. I do wonder however, why I keep having these outbreaks and will probably seek out a good dermatologist when I get settled in TX. After the ER we picked up Laura and Daniel and headed into Boston for a farewell to my favorite city. I love Boston and will miss the energy, architecture, and history. It was fun to get to share our favorite North End pizza, pastries and sights with our friends who were experiencing it for the first time. We got back to the hotel late and S..a 's cough sounded horrible. I called the pediatrician and she told me croup was going around. I sat her in a hot steamy bath hoping that would loosen things up. Biddy was also starting to sound wheezy and her fever spiked again. Both Burke and I were concerned. We laid in bed listening to them cough and wheeze and worried about getting up early the next morning and dragging our kids on a road trip across the country. It had been a really hard, really long week and I was at the end of my rope. If our road trip was going to be anything like this I didn't know if I could do it. We decided that we needed to re-think leaving in the morning. If the girls weren't feeling better they would need to see a doctor. We seriously considered throwing in the towel and flying me and the girls to UT and having Burke drive the van. With heavy hearts we tried to fall asleep. As I listened to the coughing from the other room I prayed for a brighter morning.

Saturday

My Mom put all of our names in the Temple this morning and the girls slept in till 8:30. They woke up cheerful and no one had a fever. We spent the morning watching cartoons in our jammies and Biddy went down for an early nap. Things were much brighter so Burke and I decided to strike out that afternoon. He took the girls to the store for road trip treats and I did some laundry at the hotel. Liddy was still napping when I went down to the lobby to rotate the laundry. I know they say you shouldn't leave your little ones alone in the hotel room for even a few minutes in case there is a fire or something but that never happens right....wrong. The fire alarm went off while I was throwing clothes in the dryer and my baby was all alone in a room on the fifth floor. As everyone was rushing down the stairs I went up. Several hotel workers tried to stop me and I had to admit that my baby was in my room alone napping. When I got to the door it would not open. The embarrassment was gone. Now I was panicking. I ran back to the stairs and started down again. Fortunately I ran into a housekeeper and just the look on my face was enough to tell her something wasn't right. I explained and as we ran back up the stairs I dared to ask "You guys have drills right?" She replied, "Yes but we always know about those ahead of time. Something has gone wrong." Not what I wanted to hear. Miraculously her key worked. I picked up my poor crying girl and we raced down the stairs and out into the parking lot.

As I sat on the curb calming Biddy I wondered what else could possibly happen to our family this week!? Why is this so hard? What am I supposed to learn from all this? I still have not answered these questions yet but I do know that Burke and I are listening to the Spirit. We are doing the right thing by taking this trip with the girls and somehow it is going to all work out. I know we are not alone. Despite all the hardships I can still count blessings at the end of each day. I can still look back and see how the Lord has touched our life.

We drove to Niagara that evening without incident. The girls were great, our lodging was perfect ,and we all slept through the night. Last week I expected things to go this smoothly. I had prepared well and I have very good girls. Why shouldn't it go smooth? Now I realize that when things go right it has nothing to do with me it is all divine intervention!