Sunday

Sunday came the first week and I truly missed going to church as I didn't have any vehicle at all with me, so for awhile, I sat in the room I was staying in, read my bible and prayed. Once it warmed up, the kids were chomping at the bit to go out and play and it was a beautiful day!

They were still building their fort and it was coming together great and what is a fort without a few animals? Here is a deer I took a picture of, I was quite startled when I first ran into her. HAHA!

While the kids were outside playing and my step-dad was shopping, mom and I were just able to sit and visit about everything. I am not sure if she is in denial, but I know it bothers her deeply (as I am sure it would all of us) to be dying and like so many of us, she has so much to do and wants a time frame.

We discussed how Jesus loves us all and how He has a plan for all of us through what mom is going through even if we don't know it yet and I prayed for her. Matter of fact, most nights, I sat up praying and crying over my mom as she slept.

While we were talking, I went out and checked on the kids and even helped them get their fort all decked out and they were just having so much fun. I wish now (hindsight being 20/20) we had decided to move closer to mom, but California isn't where I wanted to be at the time.

All of a sudden, I heard the kids screaming and at first thought they were chasing each other around and playing, but the closer they got to the house, the more obvious it was to me, they were terrified of something. A loose dog? A deer? A squirrel?

Even when they got to the deck, it took a minute or so for me to realize, they had somehow stumbled onto a Yellow Jacket nest and not only ticked them off, but these little boogers went after them and were stinging them. The only one who missed the sting, was baby boy!

These poor babies were in hysterics and once in the house, we discovered the oldest not only had been stung, but yellow jackets were under her skort stinging her. We finally got them out and killed them, but she was in total shock. She kept screaming and alternately stating: 'Relax, calm down, take a deep breath.'

Diva girl was unconsolable, she had been stung 3 times enroute to the house and was literally staring out into space. A neighbor of moms came over and began killing the errant ones and by that evening, we had killed 5 yellow jackets inside the house. Thankfully, neither mom or I were stung as we are both allergic.

I removed 2 stingers from Tomboy, applied a paste of baking soda to all sting sites, gave her childrens Tylenol, applied ice to the stings and a cold rag on her head. I did the same to Diva girl, though she didn't have the stingers inside. Poor little Baby Boy, while no stings, was just as hysterical as the girls. I laid them all down in the room I was staying in and stayed with them until they went to sleep for a bit.

For them, the trip was over and they only wanted 2 things after that:

1- They wanted their Papa

2-They wanted to come home

Sadly, with the exception of a walk to the store with me, they never went outside again. They were terrified the Yellow Jackets were out there and no talking to them convinced them otherwise.