I'm baaaack! Back in Colorado, and back to the blog! Reagan and I visited family and friends in Indiana for almost 3 weeks and had a nice, exhausting trip. I was pleasantly surprised at how well she did flying, even with delay piled upon delay on our trip back out west. It took almost 14 hours for us to fly from Indiana to Colorado. It takes less than 18 to drive. Ugh.
Anyways, Reagan met dozens of dozens of family members and friends in Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Fort Wayne, and we attended 4 different large scale get-togethers. We were constantly busy and going all over the place meeting up with various people, so it's a nice change of pace being back at home in a calmer environment where I can get her back to her routine.
However it hasn't been easy! ...Or calm! The day after I returned, I came down with a nasty cold. Ugh. Not surprising, since we spent forever in multiple airports, in addition to seeing everyone and their mother when visiting Indiana. I refused to take any cold meds due to the fact I'm hyper-aware of what goes into my body, seeing as though I'm a nursing mama, so when the cold hit, it hit HARD. And bless Reagan's heart, she caught the bug too. If it wasn't bad enough being sick... being sick while caring for a sick baby is just the cherry on top. UGH. After a couple days of putting up with her rattly cough and hacking, I succumbed to my first-time-mom paranoia and called the pediatrician. And I'm glad I did... turns out she has RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and the doctor prescribed an at-home nebulizer treatment. So twice a day for 10-15 minutes I have to hold a mask on my baby girl's face while this loud machine spews out an albuterol mist. =( But it has seemed to help break up the cough thus far (knock on wood) so it's worth it.
On top of dealing with a sickness myself and taking care of a sick little baby, I've had a sick CAR on my hands too! Do I need to say it? --Ugh!!!! After loading up the car seat and getting ready for various errands, I go to turn on the car and.... nothing. Couldn't even get the car to do that pathetic dead battery sputter. It was completely d-e-a-d.
Perfect.
I checked the headlights, dome lights, car doors... and I couldn't find the source for the drained battery. So I had my trusty next-door neighbor come jump-start the car, left it idle in the driveway for a half-hour to charge back up, drove it around the block, and parked it. By this point it was too late to do the errands I had hoped to get accomplished, so I called it a day.
Fast forward to the next day... come back out to the car and it's dead again. And this isn't a hunk of junk hoopty car; it's a one year old Escape. Luckily I had Brandon's truck to drive around as a back-up, however I always feel ridiculous barreling down the road in this gigantic pick-up truck that I have to jump to get into.
I went straight to Wally World to buy a portable battery charger, so I wouldn't have to keep acting like a damsel in distress to my neighbor. I charged the sucker up, and after watching a few YouTube videos on "how to jump-start a car", I had a bloated sense of confidence. ...Until I pop the hood of the car and stand there scratching my head, debating as to where to clamp the darn things. Probably the scariest thing I've ever done. (Yes, I am that lame.) I felt like I was either going to be electrocuted or the battery was going to explode sulfuric acid on my face. Anyways, after only one failed attempt, I must've done something right because the car powered back up. Success!
I took it straight to the Ford dealer, where I came across some of the nicest people in town. After they found out I had a 3 month old baby in the back and a deployed husband, the next thing I knew, a rental car was being brought around for me and I was being handed the keys. Woo! They ran a series of tests and 2 days later I returned the rental and got my 'Scape-y back! Free. of. charge.
Like my best friend, Samantha, said (who is similarly going through her first time deployment right now, too)... when it rains, it POURS!! Of course all this goes down when Brandon is completely out of reach. But I am determined to see the silver lining and realize that it all could've been worse! Maybe if I updated my blog more in the last month, it wouldn't feel like a million things have been falling around me. =)
