27 already!

Oops! 25 & 26 fell by the wayside, and now there are a full three weeks to catch up on.

I tried to make things a little clearer to manage, so feel free to skip around to what seems most interesting or just stick with the bold-faced headings and kid pictures (which are to come):

   I. Weekend in Houston

We drove 3 Fridays ago to spend the weekend together before leaving Paul and Ada with Nana & Pappy for the week! We arrived Friday j u s t in time for their church's Friday Fish Fry, and Saturday was a gorgeous day spent outside, playing with the new toy kitchen (eep!), and boiling crawfish. In no way was I worried about the kids, but of course I'd miss them and hoped they wouldn't get to missing either me or Dylan too much. We had Mass together Sunday morning and then brunch before Dylan drove me out to IAH on his way back to NOLA for the week. Our family was split across 3 states!

   II. Minnesota, Part I: arrival weekend

After hugging and kissing my kids goodbye, riding (a little teary) to the airport with Dylan and saying goodbye to him, too, it was airport time for me. And that part was kind of nice. What do I do? There's free time not to be filled with trains or books (ps - I love trains and books), and I'm by myself. I got into Anna Karenina ... and I read through the first half of it during my week in MN! That's definitely an upside of alone-time, getting to read an actual, fat novel and have it not take 6 months (which the second half may end up taking me). I arrived at MSP at 5-something in the evening, enjoyed the brisk chill, and was so happy to meet Colleen at arrivals. She had Kate, our goddaughter with her, and it was Colleen's - very pregnant - 31st birthday. We chatted all evening, simultaneously making 2 shepherd's pies, and then 2 pregnant ladies had to hit the hay! Monday was to be a full day. After breakfast, Colleen, her 2 girls, and I drove over to Stillwater to visit another friend, Beth, and her 3. I hadn't seen Beth in a good while, and it was so lovely to sit the three of us together, watching kids play, having a good talk. It also felt very strange to be there solo, though I did end up relying on JuneBug a little more to remind myself I'm never actually solo. Anyway, we watched the clock because Heidi was on her way up from southern MN to bring me back with her. She was waiting for us when Colleen, the girls and I got back to their house, and I quickly shifted gears from "St. Paul friends" to an Austin frame of mind. Heidi had managed a sitter for Drew for the few hours it took to drive up, get me, and get back down, and this drive was a real blessing, too, because Heidi and I wouldn't otherwise have a ton of time to catch up; it wasn't exactly a vacation week we'd embarked upon here...

   III. Minnesota, Part II: the week in Austin/Rochester

A Molly-requested dessert

...so let the Swap-a-Wife week at the Beckers begin! We drove straight to Mayo Clinic in Rochester to get Heidi back to Drew, I got to see him and his little bald head and completely smiley face, and then I took Heidi's van for the week for shopping and shuttling Molly, their 4yo. I had Molly's pre-school's pickup time in mind, but only after idling in front of our old house at 705 11th St. I hadn't been back to Austin since we pulled away nearly 2 years ago at dawn, and I was utterly unprepared for how attached to this house I'd feel seeing it again! I had the van in park and just cried for a couple of minutes, missing all of those beautiful moments we shared there - my babies were there! I saw Paul's window where we'd hung up a baby blanket and could picture everything in there exactly as we had it, and I thought about learning the stairs with him, the holidays we celebrated there, and then, of course, having newbie Ada there. So bizarre. The driveway play, the leaf raking, the snow shoveling, all of it! I somehow really loved that house. With the benefit of hindsight, I can now report that I wasn't sad passing the house come the end of the week, though it did take me a good 4-5 drive-bys. I realized that these sentiments were because of our family's memory-making and reminiscences; nothing bad happened to us there, and I still have all of those memories - they just happened to be really nice ones and I was revisiting this chapter sans famille. I also realized that Austin played its part in our lives at that particular time, and it wouldn't be that way again were we to, say, move there now. Dylan's work and our lives have moved on, and we're where we're meant to be. But for the time being, I'm en route to pick up Molly from pre-school, and my eyes are red and splotchy. "Hi Molly - remember me?" Poor thing, hop in, let's get home! Luckily, Josh, Heidi's husband, gets home early-ish, and Molly didn't seem too weirded out by coming with me; she's a champ and can take a change in stride, lemme tell ya! And I set to dinner. Josh and I had to maneuver a schedule that would work for us, and after dinner and dishes, I was "off"; he took care of Molly and did bedtime. That was more Anna time for me, yay! (Seriously, I read from about 7-10 everyday ... that part was a bit like vacation week!

Wednesday's lunch out

Tuesday and Thursday I brought Molly to pre-school after breakfast (which I, apparently, can't do like her mom ;) though I gave "egg in a hole" a good effort!), and picked her up around 3, leaving the midday chunk of time for me to grocery shop, stock their fridge and freezer with hospital meals and dinners, do laundry, and clean. Yes, I can get lots done without kiddos running around, and I did; but, duh, I missed my little ones. I missed the busy and the noise. As soon as Molly was back home, though, a smidge of that was satisfied again. Plus, 4 year olds are funny.

Wednesday and Friday were going to be visit-Drew-in-the-hospital days, and Wednesday went according to plan. I drove Molly over, we played a little in the hospital play room, then Heidi had the nurses watch Drew for a bit while we went to the mall for shopping and lunch. It was good girl-time. That evening, I managed to make Mass at our old St. Augustine's with the parish priest we loved so - plus, they had their Lenten soup supper, and I got to catch up with a couple of other friends and their families ... everyone asked how weird it was to be alone!

Friday's "First Playground of the Season!"

Friday, however, did not go as planned. The next round of chemo was supposed to start the previous night, but they found a crack in Drew's central line; so they had to schedule him for surgery to replace that line but not before having an actual IV put in his hand for all of the other things he getting (nutrition and meds). More tubes to hang from his pole, but he and Heidi are pros by now! That being said, and since the surgery kept getting pushed back, Heidi thought it would be better for Molly and me to stay put a little longer. She and Josh would be switching Drew-duty for the weekend anyway, so Molly and I ended up just driving over shortly before Josh arrived; then we took Heidi back with us after wheeling Drew down for surgery. That night, Heidi treated Molly (and me!) to dinner out, and after Molly was in bed, Heidi and I stayed up way. too. late. talking about their situation and all of its implications.

I'll take a minute to say here that the Beckers are really doing an amazing job managing this curve ball. Yes, Drew is very sick, but they have a treatment plan; and it's all Heidi can do to just chin-up and stick to the plan - because what's the other option? give up? She is a talker (to say it lightly), and some of the faithful and spiritual things she said to me were really almost dumbfounding. Like actually putting into practice all of the things Christians learn about how to handle life's suffering. She even admits to hearing herself "rattle on" but that it's not just her but the Spirit talking through her, using her to show God's glory in this.

And then on to Saturday - Heidi's one day at home a week. She and Molly enjoyed each other lots, and I finished up my things before we all hopped in the van to drive me back to St. Paul for my flight the next day. 

What a blessing of a week!

Mostly how I spent my time...

   IV. Minnesota, Part III: departing weekend

And what a weird couple of days! Within 24 hrs, I went from Austin with Heidi & Molly to Pete & Denise's in St. Paul, then from their home to Mike & Colleen's to meet their new human, George Patrick, who wasn't there last week, and then onto home to my own family. What a rush. I even got to throw in a brief party at the local brewery in St. Paul for Pete's MS bike ride fundraiser and Mass with some of Colleen's side of the family. When I count, that's 5 different contexts of people from midday Saturday to midday Sunday. I was so happy to be able to touch base with everyone - and also, quite frankly, exhausted. It was so good getting to see my family again! I was waiting outside by the time Dylan drove up with the kids on their way straight from Houston, and apparently Paul had just woken up from a nap because he just gave me his shy sideways-glance with his tongue in his cheek; Ada beamed, reached out, and whispered, "Mama". Then we got home to see all of the new and wonderful and helpful things Papa had gotten up to while we were gone! He built a bottom bunk onto Paul's loft bed for Ada, managed 2 IKEA trips on his to-ings and fro-ings to Houston, and had managed lots of organizing; what a champ! Plus laundry and cleaning and all the maintenance stuff; yes! It's good to be together again.

Reading a story all together in Ada's new lower-bunk

   V. Kids' week with Nana & Pappy

Is it necessary at all to say that Paul and Adeline had a great time in Houston with Nana & Pappy? I'll just say that, no, they did not miss us at all, they did not mind seeing little video snippets of Dylan or me saying g'night to them, and they had a ball - even with terrible weather forecast! Nana ain't no fool - rain? Pshh, enter Chick-fil-a! I hear they spent 3-something hours at Chick-fil-a playing, eating, playing again, and then having ice cream. This is the stuff grandmothers are made for! Besides the rainy-day indoor play, they enjoyed lots of outside and driveway play, scooters going down ramps (!!), the new toy kitchen, watching TV (what a treat!), favorite foods, and, of course, the Houston Rodeo! On the Rodeo day alone, I received 21 photos via text. I'll spare you here, though I don't know why, and just include the cream of the crop. I think they want to live there instead of with us now. Sigh.

   VI. DST week & catching up

Gosh, you'd think after a week apart, we'd love spending time together, but most of the Monday was filled with bad listening and fussing. Ada walked so. slow. back from the playground, and I think we were all just desperately in need of naps. Daylight Savings Time can turn a house with young children on its head! Something I never even cared about or noticed pre-kids. Tuesday was a bit better, though still in need of sleep. We had to say goodbye to our beloved Regional Library story time reader, Mrs. Ashley! She'd accepted a new position at a different library and was very sad to have to say goodbye to her kiddos, too. There was a bit of a party after story time, and I doubt the replacement can come close to matching her. Then, later in the evening after Daily Mass, a lady reached to Paul and Ada and handed over 2 books each! You never know who's watching, huh... So we introduced ourselves, and now we have a new church-lady friend. Wednesday marked the last day of our living in our house alone - we accepted a tenant for the other half starting St. Patrick's Day; enter: cleaning ladies. They arrived at 8am, started on the empty side, Dylan had arranged for them to add our side, too, "since they're here", and, ohmygoodness, they were here until 2pm. 2pm! When we got home from our morning Costco run + playground trip around 12:30, we were kicked out of our side, had to eat roasted chicken off the carcass on the clean, bare floor next door, and even laid down blankets for nap time. That was weird. But I tried to take it in stride, remembering how miserably I'd failed that "spontaneity test" a while back with the being locked out... everyone ate, everyone napped; no harm done.

   VII. Med School Match Day weekend

After Dylan's academic "thing" at Tulane ;)

Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon - St. Paddy's Day - when Mom and Dad arrived in time to see the kids wake from naps! We had poboys in lovely spring weather plus some green shamrock cookies (Shout-out to Heidi for her killer recipe!), and then Dylan and I headed off to the LPO's performance of Copland's Appalachian Spring ... the kids would've loved it; Ada can sing that piece from beginning to end (almost...)! We finished off the evening with dessert at Domenico's - oooOOOOooOooo - before "rushing" back; very kidding. There's something really wonderful about leaving the kids in their own beds with grandparents. 

So, the next morning was MATCH DAY! (And also, we found out later, Shalome's baby girl's birthday!! She had a healthy baby girl at home, just like her firstborn son, Ahlwan, and the kids are excited about a new little cousin.) Match Day is the day where medical students (ahem, my brother, Peter) receive an envelope with the location of their residency, hoping to have "matched" into one of their preference locations. Unfortunately, the entire morning was rainy. No, rainy implies a bit grey with drizzle; it was pretty well wet. That didn't stop the crawfish boil and party, though, to celebrate Pete's getting matched to Charleston, SC! It's a great program, it's a new adventure of a location - apparently beautiful, though none of us has ever been, save Peter for interviews - and we're all happy for him; we're also sad to see him go a bit further away, Paul and Ada especially because the sun rises and sets on Uncle Pete. That night, the celebrating continued at a small restaurant with a party of 21! Yowza. We're quite a few, just us, then add Serena's family, Pete's best friend, Mike, and his family plus a couple of friends. It was a good day.

Saturday started well with the same group from dinner meeting for beignets in City Park, and then our group went to St. Joseph's in Gretna, the Shrine to St. Joseph, to view the altar, as it was his feast day. Two pretty good saints' days within two days of each other - lots of partying in Lent ;). Sadly, due to weather, our beloved Movies on the Point had to be postponed, and then Sunday morning saw us all off to an early Palm Sunday Mass before Mom and Dad hit the road back to Houston. That's when Dylan and I hit the ground running getting our house back in order! Since we'd taken in Gammaw and PawPaw's furniture, it has been a bit cramped and cluttered, so things are back to normal now, back to just "cozy", which I think we'd all agree is better than cluttered.

   VIII. Last week of Lent

I started the week with a terrible dream about Ada, and so neither kid could do wrong by me all of Monday. We had a lovely day with the Little School Group, playing outside, cooking, and even getting to see Papa home early! Tuesday was back to "normal", had a few spats, had some fun, and then we found BEES! We were about to put the children to bed when we remembered that the yard toys needed tidying, so we all went outside to find a swarm of bees under the kids' trampoline! The entirety of Wednesday morning was spent about the bees. We had a first round of bee-capturing in a box, followed by a second round using a vacuum. Then we had a late lunch, naps, and the straggler bees seemed to have dwindled away. We learned a lot about bees in those 20 or so hours and kind of want our own honeybees now. Wait, did we just miss our chance at free bees?!

Ada buzzing ... with a lisp

 And now to pack for Houston for the Triduum, which begins with Holy Thursday, and EASTER!