Busy Barfy Dizzy Day Accompanied by Beautiful Music

It turned out to be quite a day around here. My plans included nothing more than a library trip with Chloe and an evening piano recital for Alyssa, but I ended up spending most of the day at the hospital with this guy.

No, that is not Ben Stiller in Dodgeball, but don't feel bad. I made the same mistake. It is just Seth, as the Village People. And really, when you wear that mustache and those glasses to work, you are basically asking your coworkers to frame a picture of you as not one, but ALL of the Village People.

But back to the point, because although the Village People pic is funny, it is not what landed us in the hospital. That started at 6:00 this morning. I heard Seth get out of bed, followed by a loud thud. I jumped up to find him lying on the floor shaking. I asked if he was okay and he said "Julie, I don't know what's the matter", with some degree of panic in his voice. I thought of 911, but remembered that men are not as good at being sick as women, so I decided to ask a few questions first. He told me that everything was spinning and that he couldn't stand. Then the dizziness made him nauseous so he crawled to the bathroom and you can imagine the rest. When he was still sprawled on the bathroom floor, sweating and unable to move after a couple hours, I called his mom. That is always our first move since she is a nurse and can usually tell me what requires a doctor visit and what will be a waste of a co-pay. She said that it was probably an inner ear infection or vertigo since the dizzy came before the nausea and that he could just ride it out, but suggested that I him in to get some medicine.

For a couple hours he tried to get up long enough to get dressed, but it wasn't going to happen. I finally put his shoes on him while he still rested on the bathroom floor, and he managed to drag himself to the car with a bowl so that we could get to the doctor. Three hours later we were still there. They wanted to rule out a head injury, because last week Seth took a nasty fall head first into the concrete half wall around the roller skating rink. The nurse could still feel the bump and his scalp was still discolored so they sent him over for a cat scan, only that meant that we had to first have him admitted to the hospital. By this point I realized there was no way I was going to get home before the bus, so I got a hold of Jen and asked her to please go pick up my kids and take them to her house until we were done. She asked why I hadn't brought Chloe over before I went to the hospital. Good question...poor Chloe had a nice long day of walking the halls, and eating from the vending machine. I always hate to ask favors though and I never imagined we'd be there so long.

With the older two taken care of, we could relax and get Seth all fixed up. His scan came back fine, and they made him stay long enough to get a shot in the butt and keep down some water and then sent us off with a couple prescriptions. By process of elimination, they are guessing it an inner ear issue. It's funny, because I generally think everyone is dying every time they stub their toe, but today I felt calm. We prayed on the bathroom floor this morning and I felt like everything was okay. Life is so much easier when I am calm. I pray about everything, but sometimes I forgot to listen and to trust after I say Amen, and go into panic mode anyway. The usual panicky Julie is never any fun. Maybe I need to pray harder and listen more, more often. I know that prayer doesn't always magically make the outcome what we want it to be, but it could certainly always help me be more calm.

Anyhow, once I finally got Seth home, I went to get the kids. I could hardly drag them away from the Hawley's house. Jen got an ipad for Christmas and Alex was drooling over that, while Alyssa was fawning over the poor cat. I have to say that the ipad is cool. I wanted to take it home and look at it for awhile too.

Once I dragged the kids away, we hit Walgreens so that we could drug up daddy, came home for dinner and got ready for Alyssa's piano recital. I had her run through her song a couple times and she couldn't get her fingers to work. She knows that song in her sleep by now, but she was tripping all over herself. She was nervous!

At the last minute Seth decided he couldn't miss her first recital, so he dragged himself along for the ride. He looked dreadful, but it did give him the opportunity to ask some friends for a blessing while we were there.

Alyssa was first up. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but I think the idea of getting it over with appealed to her, because she was all smiles as she took her seat. She had a couple little bobbles in her second song, and I was so worried that she would stop, or cry, or want to quit piano, but she kept going and after hearing the more advanced students play, she is more excited than ever to stay in piano. She is already wondering what song she will get for the next recital. I am so proud of her, not just for what she has learned, but for stepping outside of what is comfortable to her.

When we left, Seth and I both came to the conclusion that we need a piano. The keyboard is great, but it plays the same no matter how hard or soft you push the keys. Alyssa sounded so soft on the piano, and her practicing would be more effective on the real deal. Someday...

And so now this post has grown very lengthy, mostly because I am STILL waiting for the video of Alyssa playing to upload. Is it going to work? I hope...

Let's look at some photos while we wait.

Alyssa with Baxter, her teacher.

Alyssa and Annie. They started piano together in June, and they have a lot of fun talking about what they are learning, and teaching each other their songs.

In fact, after the show they both jumped up to the piano together and played their two different songs simultaneously. I love that they are still embracing their new talent.

After posting those pictures, Alyssa came down to inform me that she threw up in her bed. I now have her bedding in the wash, and her resting in my bed with Seth, until I can drag some new sheets out for her bed. I started this post late Friday night and now it is 1:10 Saturday morning and the video is still uploading...

2:30 AM now...Alyssa is still throwing up. I just drugged Seth up for the next 8 hours, and the sheets are already done washing, but it still says uploading video. I can't seem to upload anything over 30 seconds long lately, and I hate to do this, but I think Iam going to call it quits and go watch over my sickies. You probably wouldn't have clicked play anyway, right?