Tree's Law

Kind of like Murphy's Law, but in my life!

It never fails - this is the first time Shawn has ventured on an overnight business trip since Violet's birth. The night before he travels to northern Maine, his car is broken into and his GPS stolen (an essential tool for the medical salesman to find those out-of-the-way rural hospitals!). This means an unexpected trip to Best Buy to shell out a couple hundred dollars because Shawn depends on his GPS to do his job. (And me freaking out because there are footsteps in the snow all around our driveway - just the thought of a thief sneaking around our house in the middle of the night now that I am home by myself with the kids. This is why we have a house alarm!)

I actually get my act together and am able to get all four kids fed, dressed, and in the car (it was 11am when we left the house, but I still consider that successful because I did it all by myself). I have packed snacks, drinks, and activities to sustain us through Clare's speech therapy. I herd the four of them inside the building, fighting the driving wind. We wait 15 minutes (which is FOREVER when you're trying to keep little children entertained and not touching everything in sight) before someone finally figures out that Clare's speech therapist took the week off work. Thanks for the phone call!

And then Jamie succumbs to the flu. The actual fever-aches-chills-vomiting flu. On the positive side, he required only 20 minutes of attention before falling asleep in his bed at 5:30pm for the night. It was much harder getting Clare, Simon, and Violet to comply with bedtime, but now they are all asleep by 8pm. (Although I hear little snorts coming from the bouncy seat, so I think my nighttime companion is waking again. Violet missed the memo about being Baby #4. The poor baby is plagued by gas at night, and we are still working on finding out what works best for her. Her worst times are usually 7-9pm and 12-3am. Fun, fun, fun!)

Addendum: As I am now up at 3am with Violet, our house was rocked. There was a loud boom and the entire house literally shook on its foundation. (Thankfully it did not wake up the sleeping children.) Being home alone with four little children, I immediately dialed 911 versus going downstairs to investigate myself. While on the phone with the fire department (trying to figure out if a bulldozer had rammed into our front door), the dispatcher broke into our call stating there were multiple reports of "house rocking" in our neighborhood. Turns out there was an explosion in one of the houses on the street behind us, and the house immediately went up into flames. I can watch from my bedroom window - the sky is white and orange between smoke and flames. I am going to try to go back to sleep, but I will say a prayer for the family who was in that house. I am not sure if anyone could have survived the explosion.