December 1st, Saturday
We started Garnet's training trip with a trip through North Bay. We figured that since we weren't able to make it up for Christmas this year we could have a mini Christmas with my Grandma and Cousin Bobbi. We arrived around 1 am on Saturday morning and had some fun times with my Grandma. Sunday was the day of travel through the winding Highway 17 up to Ottawa. The weather had been calling for a big dump of snow -- but we had yet to see any. Garnet and I took off - leaving Tim with Bobbi and Rich and their little girl, Dakota.
Arriving in Ottawa around 2 that afternoon, we got Garnet settled into his Hotel room and I was off. Have I told you about our new friend? The GPS unit that I fought Garnet on buying? Have I told you how much I love her? Yes, I call her "HER"......you have to. She becomes a part of your family and you soon realize that you are unable to make a trip to the local grocery store without her sugary voice leading the way. "Turn Left" ....."Arriving at Destination! On Right!"
I have a special bond with her now because, just as I was leaving Ottawa, getting onto the 417, the cell phone rang and distracted me. Unknowingly, I took the East exit instead of the West. I felt the panic mode set in, my hands started to shake and I cursed myself...2 minutes into the trip home and I was already lost! And then I heard her. Sweet, syrupy....calming; "Re-calculating...." She doesn't tell you how stupid you are for making a wrong turn, she doesn't even raise her voice she just simply recalculates and fixes your mistake in seconds. See why I love her so much? She took me off the 417 East and got me turned around in minutes -- and I was on my way again.
The snow started 2 hours into the trip home in these little dust particles of ice. Tiny, pretty, sparkly pieces of winter surrounding me. In minutes, it looked as if someone were throwing snowballs at my windshield at alarming speeds. I felt surrounded as these big, soft, chunks of ice came down heavy and hard.....reducing visibility to none. The highway curved and crawled up these hills of trees and rocks. Soon I couldn't see the edge of the road. There are no snowbanks, hardly any guard rails, just ravines and rockcliffs lining the curvy 2 lane highway. The headlights seemed to jump at me over the hills as both myself and the oncoming traffic inched toward eachother -- hoping that we were on the right side of the road. My white knuckles, aching tense neck and thumping heart in my chest convinced me that I should just pull over. I could not see at all and continuing on would be deadly. I looked in my rear view mirror at the line of headlights following me. I screamed very loudly as if to convince all of them that they were stupid to follow me. "I AM NOT A LEADER!!!" But, I was the leader. And stopping now - where there was no clear shoulder would be even more deadly than continuing. So I lead those followers 30 km's an hour and kept my eyes on the 3 inches in front of the car that I could see. The oncoming traffic and slight glimpses of the yellow line would help reallign me as I would carry the trail of traffic back to the right side of the road. At one point, when the yellow line caught my eye in the front window -- out the passenger side, I cried out a little prayer. My first prayer in a long, long time. I was thankful that Tim wasn't with me. I was thankful that according to Ms. GPS I only had another 20 minutes until I was in familiar territory. And could I please just make it to Mattawa. I knew then, that I was close enough for someone to come rescue me -- and that it was familiar enough stretch of highway to know where I was. And I continued on, somehow making it back to North Bay.
The snow continued that night - hard and heavy. I was supposed to travel back to Sarnia Monday morning when I woke up. We decided against that when I shovelled my cousin's driveway only 2 hours after Rich had done it -- and it didn't even look like it had been touched. I stayed in North Bay one more day and headed back on the Tuesday instead.
December 7, Friday
Tim and I were one week into our 3 weeks without Garnet. The time had flown by, but Tim (of course) was coming down with something. I had to work all weekend and it ripped my heart out to leave him with a babysitter while he wasn't feeling well. The coughing and hacking were horrible and keeping us both up at night -- so at 3am I decided to head out to Shopper's Drug Mart to finally give in and get him some cough medicine. You know, that cough medicine that makes every kid throw up just by the smell? So now we weren't only up with coughing but up all night with barfing too. Good times, good times!!!
December 11, Tuesday
A week and a half in and I was really missing my other half. You don't really see or appreciate how much they do until they are gone -- and you've got to do it all yourself!! I had 1 day off so far - and that was my first day back from North Bay. So now, I was going on a solid 6 days of work and was heading into the dentist. I have been suffering since Thanksgiving. No lies or exaggerations whatsoever. This appointment was originally a scheduled filling -- and I had been having severe tooth aches and jaw pain for weeks now. I figured he would just fill my sore tooth and be done with it.
"This is a perfect tooth - there is nothing wrong with it." He was looking at me like I had 3 heads.
"But it hurts!" My lame excuse made him look at me even more pitiably. He made me bite down on his little plastic stick and looked completely stumped when I cried out in pain.
Finally, his conclusion was that my wisdom tooth on the other side was now infected and my procrastinating to come in had caused the infection to spread to the sinuses. The sinus cavity is touching the roots of the teeth and causing root pain in my upper teeth. To sum it up; Frickin OUCH!!!!
He put me on antibiotics and made a special "I will stay late for you" appointment on Monday to have the Wisdom tooth removed. I was taking 2 extra strength Tylenol every 3 1/2 hours and they weren't even touching the pain.
December 16, Sunday (day before surgery)
Dental receptionist calls me from home to inform me that the dentist was calling a snowday tomorrow. I would have to continue suffering until they could fit me in again. Fun.
I went out and shovelled the driveway 4 times. Cursing Garnet and his @#%#@# training. Cursing the Dentist and his @#%@#$ snow day.
Tim and I had fun playing in the snow though -- so it wasn't all bad!!
December 15,17 & 18, Saturday, Monday & Tuesday
We enjoyed Garnet's work Kids Skating Party -- it's great to feel the support of his co-workers and offers to help if I needed anything. Gene even offered to come and inspect all my lightbulbs to see if any of them need changing ;) - Mike forgot it was Christmas and was trick or treating all around the ice....
and I think Santa may have had a few 'pops' before handing the presents out....but it was a fun time!
and I think Santa may have had a few 'pops' before handing the presents out....but it was a fun time!
I took my handsome little sweetheart out for a date to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Cutest, funniest kids movie in a long time!! Then we enjoyed his Christmas play; this is how he dressed up for it!!
December 20, Thursday
It was already the day to go and get Garnet in Ottawa. The time had really flown by. I had 3 days off total and felt rottenly ill and in pain for all 3 weeks. I was so thankful that we had done all of our Christmas prep and shopping before he left!!
I worked until 1:30 that day, picked up Tim from school and we were off. So, if you do the math -- leaving Sarnia at 2 meant arriving in Toronto around 5. Yes, I am STUPID! It took us 2 hours to get from Milton to Ajax. It should have taken about 40 minutes. A little voice from the back seat in the middle of stop and go traffic (meaning; no where to stop!) "I think I am going to be sick..." Luckily, the car sickness passed with no barfies. But the trip in it's entirety took 9 hours instead of 7. Thank god for the portable DVD player, great weather and a great kid like Tim!!! He was amazing!!! Even the dog was heavenly for the whole trip!! This is how we amused ourselves the next day at the hotel while waiting for Garnet to be done his last day (we're not allowed to jump on beds at home.....but it's so much fun at hotels!!)
It was great to see Garnet again. Man, I really missed him. I am very thankful to have a great husband who is in tune with our lives and a huge help around the house and in parenting.
And it was really, really nice to let him drive the 800 km's back home......bringing our grand total to over 4000 km's traveled in those 3 weeks!! We are already due for the oil change that wasn't supposed to be due until February!!
Christmas pictures and updates are coming. We stayed home for Christmas this year (can't understand why?!?!) stayed in our pj's all day, had a Christmas nap together and didn't go anywhere. It was PERFECT!!!
xoJ
1 comment:
Sounds like it was quite a month. Glad to hear it ended alright. :)
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