September - month from hell

One thing I didn't mention last month was that Oscar got sick just prior to Labor Day.  He had been feeling poorly for awhile but it wasn't until about two days before we left for our trip to Universal Studios that I truly understood just how bad it was.  So off to the Vet for him.  We affectionately refer to Oscar's alter ego as "White Death."  It is as perfect a description as you can get.  I need to get him on video so you can get a full appreciation.  Our vet probably does not charge enough to deal with him.  I brought him home and attempted to medicate him myself and after two rounds of medicine spilled or lost, I took him back to be boarded for the weekend.  There was just no other option.  When we picked him up, he was really no better and the vet sent him home with even more medicine that I was unable to administer.  His disposition was terrible: growling, biting, drooling, crying and pleading...not pretty.  So back to the Vet we go.  Finally, they decided to give him a shot of a lesser effective medicine but that was fine with me because the other medicine was not going to be taken so this shot was better than nothing.  
 

In the meantime my car decided to overheat on the way home from one of these trips to the Vet.  We live about 4 miles away from the vet and I had to essentially coast home in Neutral.  AWESOME!  This all happened 2 days prior to our Saturday flight to NC for a wedding.  Jim was jumping through all kinds of hoops to get a ride into work on Friday, a tow truck to pick up the car at our house and for the dealership to fix it in time for a SUNDAY afternoon pickup on our way home from the airport.  So we had just dropped quite a bit of $$ on Oscar, on plane tickets home for a wedding where we will spend more time in transit then actually at the wedding events AND now my water pump goes out.  
(Deep breaths, Deep breaths)
 
Ok, we make it to the airport, catch our flight, get to Raleigh, rent the car and drive to Wintson-Salem to attend a Greek wedding for Jim's awesome second cousin Victoria.  The kids have never attended a wedding before and this one proved to be an interesting one.  Jim's cousins are Greek and he loved going to their weddings growing up so he had filled the kids' brains with all kinds of hype.  My only experience with Greek Weddings is the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" so I didn't really know what to expect.  It was INCREDIBLE!!  The ceremony, the dresses, the guests, the food, the church, and of course the family - ALL OF IT!  So much fun.  The kids had a ball with their cousins and it was nice to catch up with Jim's extended family.  
 

Cousins!!

The Lovely Bride!

 
So the wedding was great and after 3 hours of nonstop dancing we got the kids settled back in the hotel at a reasonable hour, and all was well.  That is at least until 4:00am when Jim came into the hotel room I was sharing with the girls and said Ben was really sick and I needed to check on him.  I go across the hall expecting to hear coughing or sneezing but what I see is Ben struggling for air.  I had him stop moving around because at first I thought it was due to coughing, but once he looked at me and I saw that he was GASPING I turned to Jim and said he needs to go to the ER now!  Lucky for us there was one not even a 1/4 of a mile away at Wake Forest.  2 1/2 hours later, Jim and Ben returned just in time for a quick nap and breakfast before we had to retrace our steps back to Florida.  By the time they were seen at the ER, Ben was back to breathing normally and had no symptoms to present to the Doctor.  Of course he didn't.  Doctor thinks it is Croup.  I do not.  We have been battling this since he was a baby but he has had no issues since we left Jamestown.  Needless to say we had a follow up appointment scheduled before we went to bed on Sunday.  

Ok, let's review in just the first SEVEN days of September we had: sick cat, broken car, air travel/wedding, and an ER visit.  I don't know if I can survive the next 23 days of this month.  I need to catch a BREAK!

As if on cue, I go in to pick up my car and the total bill is only $80.00!  WHAT?! The water pump was under warranty!!  Also Oscar was in much better shape after the shot and Ben is doing great!  Things are looking up! 

After a fast start we actually took a couple of "down" weekends. That means that either Jim was out of town or the weather was so bad it just wasn't worth dragging the kids anywhere. 

I was able to get a few administrative things out of the way - Halloween costumes ordered - check! I will let what the kids picked out be a surprise for next month.  One is predictable, one is a revisit and the other, well, it is just downright odd.

New fillable lamps that Mom gave me in July - filled! I used to have a giant fillable lamp for all my shark teeth but it was shattered in one of the moves - luckily I had emptied it before the movers packed it up or all of my shark teeth would be scattered between Yuma and Montgomery. I needed a bigger container for all the wine corks so I decided that this lamp would now be the gauge on when it was time to move. Once it is full - I am out of there, where ever there is. 

 

Jim and I went on a rare "Date night", two actually. What?!? Miami has a thing called "Miami Spice" where certain restaurants have a fixed price menu and highlight their signature items. Jim was all over it. I must say he did a bang up job selecting the places. Delicious!! I am a lucky girl!

One quick jaunt we did was to Jungle Island. It is an exotic animal attraction down in Miami that Lucy went on a field trip for last year and hasn't stopped reminding her siblings of how great it was!! They were offering a kids free admission AND a military discount so basically we HAD to go! It was pretty fun! Lots of really interesting animals and some ok shows. We wouldn't have been happy if we'd paid full price...but it was pretty cool. The kids loved it of course - but they aren't as hard to please.

The last Sunday of the month was the Girl Scouts Bridging Ceremony.  Lilly was bridging up to Juniors!  I can't believe it!  Both girls have really been enjoying their troop friends and activities.  Everyone did a wonderful job and all the girls took it very seriously.  The party afterwards however was nothing but fun fun fun!  Another promotion, another vest to decorate. Momma needs to do a better job of attaching the badges though, those vests look a little bare. Yikes!

 

September ended without any more major disasters - except one. Ben did a faceplant on the steel climbing dome structure and somehow missed knocking out his teeny tiny almost nonexistent teeth. The boy has ground them down to NUBS! I think the bar did loosen them up a bit. Maybe Mother Nature can take over and push them OUT!!