Weekend Adventure- More than Anticipated

With just a few weekends left before school starts, Phillip and I thought we would take the kids on a little adventure to see my mama, have a BBQ at my cousin Ted’s house (little did Phillip know we had a surprise early 40^th birthday shin-dig ready for him at Ted’s), and hit the Omaha Zoo before going back home.  Sounds like a blast!

However this “MAGICAL” weekend turned into hell in a hand basket rather quickly. This two day quick visit has turned into five days of pure insanity….

Let me rewind to Friday, August 3^rd at 5 pm central time… The Wenndt’s are packed up in the SUV and FINALLY on the road.  We have a 5 hour drive to my mamas.  I survey all around… DVDs? CHECK.  Kids? CHECK. DSi? CHECK. DRINKS? CHECK. BOOKS? CHECK. CELL PHONE CHARGERS? CHECK. COMPUTER? CHECK.  PHILLIP? CHECK.  We are ready to roll.  And as I lean back in my chair, while flipping my sunglasses off my head over my eyes, I am relaxed and ready for this weekend after the busy week I just had.

On the drive, we decided to check into a hotel in Sioux City for Friday and Saturday night… we wanted the kids to have a pool to swim in and a breakfast sounded delightful.  SO, I went to my go-to app for travel--- Priceline.com.  I booked us a room with two queen beds in a non-smoking room at a hotel with a hot breakfast buffet (FREE) and a pool.  I felt a sense of accomplishment as we drove.  The confirmation said, guaranteed late check in, so we decided to swing by my mama’s house before the hotel to say hi and make plans for Saturday.

After checking in with my mama, we went over to the hotel. Phillip runs in and then comes out. He says, THEY HAVE NO ROOMS AVAILABLE.  I was like, what? We have already paid for our rooms, and we were guaranteed a late check in. So, I go into the hotel with Phillip. It is now a few minutes after midnight.  The young man behind the desk told us he couldn’t do anything to help us.  NOTHING. I was like, you have GOTTA be kidding me. He couldn’t get ahold of his boss after several tries, and then he said he would call Priceline but it would take too long. UM, HELLO? We have kids, it is now midnight-thirty and you have no room for us when we were GUARANTEED a room.  So, I called Priceline and sat in the lobby.  At 2:15 am (yes, still in the lobby, still on the phone with Priceline and no hotel room), Phillip and I decided to drive the kids to get a bite to eat. Long story short, we drove the wrong way on an one way –in front of the POPO---- we explained what happened and one of Sioux City’s finest escorted us to the Taco Bell (now, I write this and laugh. Could you imagine being drunk in the Taco Bell drive in when the POPO  showed up? LOL)… Anyway, I am on the phone and Priceline didn’t want to assume responsibility for the mess up and the poor kid behind the desk at the hotel didn’t even know what to do. FINALLY after much pressure from us, we finally got a room at 5 am at the Hilton.  Why couldn’t this rep with Priceline (who said she was empowered and denied me the right to speak with her supervisor, fyi) offer us the hotel in the beginning?  She couldn’t answer me. My guess? The price difference- we will NEVER USE PRICELINE AGAIN.

Don, Ted, Mama, Becky

After 5 hours of sleep we got up and headed out to Ted’s house for a nice BBQ. It was fun, and it felt great to be around family.  We ate, played some volleyball, ate (and thanks to Ted I now know how to make killer guacamole--- maybe that will be my next blog? --- gosh, I am random thought girl). We surprised Phillip with a cake and gifts! We then went back to the hotel and swam then Ted, Don, Phillip and I went out for a drink and saw some friends.  A great night!

Birthday boy! (EARLY)

Sunday my mom, Kennith, Madelynn, and I went to church while Phillip, Serina and Alex slept.  While at church, I was singing (one of my favorites… You are holy, holy, holy…) anyway I was having chest pain AGAIN and having a hard time breathing. So I stopped singing and listened.  And I watched the new born baby right in front of me coo.  (Now this is an evil joke by satin to throw pregnant women and babies at me everywhere, I know--- and I cry a little and then I just look at the baby, how beautiful.) After church we all went to lunch and met up with Phillip and the girls.  After lunch we took the teens shopping for school clothes (let me tell you… the styles these days… again, I digress, maybe another blog sometime? LOL)… While shopping my chest started to pound and I was light headed.  Then we got to my mom’s house and as I was sitting there I thought I was going to pass out.  Phillip took me to the ER on Sunday at 6 pm and today (Tuesday at 11:55 pm central) I am still in the hospital.

It appears that I have irregular angina and for the rest of my life I will have to be on a beta blocker, nitro when needed, and two inhalers (to combat the asthma I will get from the beta blocker), but I will be here. I don’t know to what extent I can exercise… but I will be here. Right now they are not releasing me from the hospital because they cannot reduce the pain with medication, and I cannot take the nitro because my blood pressure is too low to take it. So I sit and wait. I cannot tell you how horrible the pain is when my heart spasms, (the angina) but it hurts so bad and I just want to cry.  This all started happening after the horrible reaction to the medication after my D&C.  I wonder…  Did my angel baby prevent me from having a heart attack early in life? Without the reaction to the medication, I would have never known about this medical issue. Anyway, I won’t know until I meet her in heaven.  It is something to think about considering the events.  

So there it is.  A trip gone awry in the sense that we didn’t go to the zoo.  We are still in Sioux City… and waiting… Playing cards, laughing… hugging each other a bit tighter… waiting to get back to normalcy.  Ah, normal? WHAT IS THAT?? I mean, to get back to us.