What I Did This Weekend
Saturday, April 25, 2009

Jordan called me a few weeks ago, (well, actually she calls me everyday!) and informed me that she would be all alone with the kids for a few days in April while her hubby, Calvin, was gone with his new job. “Could you get a few days off and come stay with us?” was her plea…well of course I could! I got Brenda, my sub, all lined up and the weather sounded good, so all systems were a go!

On Wednesday afternoon, following my mail route, I took off in my big, noisy, black pickup, loaded down without a single spare inch of room to spare. I had a queen sized box spring, mattress and frame in the back end and a desk, mirror, chair, 2 suitcases and a big laundry basket full of clothes for little Hudson in the cab with me. Of all days, the wind had to be blasting out of the south at least 40 MPH. Dick helped me strap the bed in and away I went.

As soon as I got out on the open road, I began to fear for the mattress. That insane wind was whipping around so badly that I just knew the mattress was going to go flying at any moment. I made it to Willow Lake and stopped in at the Post Office to drop off my things and happened to mention my fears to the postmaster. She had a customer at the time who offered to add 2 more ratchet straps to my load, so I took him up on it and felt much more secure as I headed south, right into that wind. Three hours later, I pulled up to the Krogman home to the cheers of both Emerson and Peyton. Hudson didn’t seem to care that I was there. Calvin was gone, Jordan was at work and Uncle Travis beat it the hell out of there as soon as I drove in, so I took over the reigns.

Jordan had tons of plans for us over the next few days. She was lucky enough to have the next 6 days in a row off from her new job as RN at the Vermillion nursing home! She has been working 12 hour shifts, either from 10AM to 10PM or 6 PM to 6AM, so having so much time at home sounded like heaven to her! She has been working at getting their new house all decorated and things organized since they moved a few months ago. The last time I was there we spent days painting the kids rooms and got quite a lot done, but since then, Jordan hadn’t had much time to spend on finishing up.

Well, our plans were thrown into the crapper right away on Thursday morning when little Hudson came down with a bad virus. He was running a fever so she took him immediately to the dr. who diagnosed ear infection, red throat, and all that goes along with it. He was miserable…he only wanted to sleep, but as soon as he lay down he couldn’t breathe through his nose. It was horrible to listen to him try to suck on his bottle, gasping for breath. By Friday, Jordan had come down with this illness too, and felt like crap.

Saturday morning we made a quick trip to Sioux City which is only 30 miles away. It was raining and cold and after getting 3 kids in and out of car seats, a tantrum in Target by Emerson, Hudson blowing gigantic snot bubbles and the usual begging for new toys, we only made one store plus lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. That poor waiter earned his tip that day as the floor was littered with more food than entered anyone’s mouth, spilled drinks, toys flying, etc…

Back home, we commenced to fixing up Peyton’s “Paris” themed room. She inherited some of our old furniture that actually looks pretty good in her bedroom. Jordan painted an antique wardrobe that belonged to Dick’s grandparents back in the 1930’s. It is now white with zebra striped fabric behind the glass sections and zebra pull knobs which Jordan painted herself. I was in charge of adding the zebra fabric and while Jordan pulled it taut, I did the stapling. We were pretty excited to turn the door over and admire our handiwork, only to realize that we’d neglected to clean the inside of the glass first, so we had to pull the staples out, clean it, and restaple the fabric. Duh…There was also a smaller glass window and we made sure it was clean first, and then stapled the fabric on, only to realize I had the stripes running the wrong direction. Oh well, we left it that way.

She also acquired my old white, French provincial style desk and mirror that was in my bedroom back in the ‘70s. We put new fabric on the chair, painted over the gold edging in black and “voila”!!!! You can check out the finished room at Jordan’s blog (check out the right hand side of Ryan’s website for the link).

Sunday morning found us at the church where the 2 girls went to Sunday school…following a quick lunch courtesy of McDonald’s, I was off in my trusty pickup, back to Carpenter. Alex had asked me to make a stop in Sioux Falls to pick up a wheel he had purchased from someone on Craigslist and I was nearly to the Tea exit, when I noticed smoke billowing out the back end of my pickup! It was starting to slow down too, and seemed to be really loud! Now, I’m no mechanic, but even I know that this is serious…I got off on the shoulder of the interstate and putt putted along until I reached an exit where I stopped and called my husband. He advised me to limp into Sioux Falls, find the wheel and wait for him to come pick me up.

As fortune would have it, the wheel seller turned out to be a very nice young man who talked me into leaving the pickup at the gas station where we met and catching a ride to the mall to kill a few hours while I waited for Dick. It was inconvenient being stranded, but what better place to pass the time! It was nearly 5:00 when we were all ready to head home, the black pickup riding on a trailer, a frazzled Dick rescuing me. Finally, at 8:30 PM I was home once again. Whew! A three hour trip home turned into 9 hours, but all is well that ended well. No trip to visit Jordan would be complete without some excitement. It always takes me a few days to catch up on my sleep and get my normal routine back. I can’t imagine how life will be when all three of my kids have kids and all want me to come “visit” for a few days. I think I’d better start resting up right now!