Valentine’s Day

I know this is really late getting posted but hopefully the pictures will be worth the wait. Things got really stressful for us just before Valentine’s Day. I’ve mentioned some of what has been going on in our lives briefly in previous posts. But to recap, we were supposed to be in San Diego at my friend Suzanna’s wedding for Valentine’s Day. I bought the darn cutest dress and was so excited to go! I’ve only seen a few pictures from her wedding so far and it looked amazing. We are sad we missed it but are happy with the decisions we made as parents.

We were originally going to leave for San Diego on Thursday evening. Well Wednesday Eric was sick and Jarem was acting a little off. I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Sudha for Jarem just to be sure that we were safe to travel with him. Well when we got to the doctor, we were shocked to hear Jarem had two ear infections. We immediately knew we wouldn’t be able to fly or drive with Jarem under such conditions.

Plan #2 was for me to still go out to Cali for the day and attend the wedding by myself. Well Thursday Jarem had another doctor’s appointment in the evening to get an antibiotic shot to help fight the ear infections. After his shot, Eric and I were playing with him at the doctor’s office trying to cheer Jarem up. Well while jumping around and being a silly mommy, I hurt my back. We drove home and stopped at Blockbuster in Queen Creek to rent a movie for the evening since we had Friday off work still. Well when I got out of the car, my back had completely stiffened on the drive from Chandler and I could barely move without it hurting. We walked around a little to try and stretch it out but had no luck.

We got home and I was lying on the heating pad, watching a movie with Eric when I got a text message. It was from Joanna stating that the paramedics were at her house and her dad wasn’t okay. I called her immediately in a panic. We spoke briefly while she tried to figure out what was going on. It was all happening so fast that we didn’t really have any information at the point. The hardest part about all of this for me is that had plan #1 worked, we would have been there with Joanna because we were going to stay at her house for the weekend.

Well, as I’ve blogged about before, it was a very late and extremely difficult evening. Joe passed away just before midnight and I was at a loss. I felt horrible for not being there with Joanna, I felt horrible for the Usher girls and their devastating loss, and I felt sad for the loss of such a great man in our lives. Being on the phone with Joanna was so hard because I didn’t know what to say and all I wanted to do was be with her and hug her. The distance was killing me and Eric was my strength in helping try to keep it together and be strong for Joanna.

Joanna drove to AZ from CA thru the night with her cousin and spent the next week here with us. Friday morning Jarem had an appointment with his first Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor. The practice is Maricopa Ear, Nose, Throat and I STRONLY recommend no one go there. We had multiple bad experiences with them and when I called to let Dr. Bartell know why we were leaving and what had happened for us to come to that decision, he brushed me off and didn’t listen to any of my feedback. Again, DO NOT GO THERE! The office staff is rude and scheduling is a nightmare.

We spent the rest of Friday with Joanna’s family at her house in Chandler. I cannot say enough how strong and amazing those Usher ladies are. They were women with a purpose and were grieving while getting things done. They have so many friends and family members that love them. The house was kind of a whirlwind with so many people around but I think it was good to have so much support.

Saturday was Valentine’s Day. No wedding. No trip to California. Eric was still brutally sick. Jarem was sick. And I had thrown my back out and couldn’t even get off the floor it was so bad. My amazing hubby took care of Jarem even though he felt like crap, too. It was so horrible not being able to move or even pick up Jarem. We lay around the house all day and watched quite a few chick flicks. Thanks babe for being such a trooper!! That evening my mom came over and Eric made us a gourmet dinner. We had steak, potatoes, rice and steamed veggies. YUMMY!! We also watched another chick flick, Sleepless in Seattle. Eric had never seen in though. Can you believe that?!? Mr. Washington had never seen that movie. Well all in all, it was quite a different Valentine’s Day from what we had planned but we took care of our family and were where we needed to be most, with Joanna.

Here are a couple of pictures of what Jarem was supposed to wear to the wedding on Valentine’s Day. We took these the day after we bought the outfit. So handsome!!! Maybe it will still fit him in August for Kacia and Chris’s wedding in Washington.