Well, here I am, home for just over a week and finally feel rested enough to blog. I was away from home on a travel assignment for three whole months. It was the longest I had been away from Eric and Rowan.
Part of what kept me away from home was that my dad had to have surgery and I wanted to be there for him and my mom. His surgery was planned for the 12th of September. So I was able to work my schedule around and get a flight to Houston two days before his surgery. While we were in the doctor’s office getting information about his surgery and what to expect, the doctor casually mentioned that the surgery was probably going to be postponed while Hurricane Ike barreled into Galveston and Houston. WHAT!! Yep, that’s what happened. We evacuated Houston with everyone else and drove four hours back to Longview. So we weathered Ike in Longview. There was a lot of wind and not much rain. No damage to Mom & Dad’s house, but my aunt and uncle’s house had a tree down and electrical wires pulled. No one was injured in any way. Thank goodness. I played nurse to everyone scraped or scratched in the cleanup. I stayed for a week. Then Mom & Dad drove me to Dallas to fly back to work.
Dad’s surgery was rescheduled for September 19th. The hospital called them on Thursday to let them know. Wonderful, huh? I was working and of course wasn’t able to be there. I kept in touch by phone and called the nurse at 3 am when I was working. I’m sure she loved that. Ha ha. Dad did great and is now back to normal. Mom kept a journal on
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/richardconnolly if anyone didn’t get all the news. I don’t think she put in the best news of all about the final diagnosis. The tumor was cancer, but classified as 1A. That is the earliest you can catch a cancer and with this type, he only needs surgery (which he’s had) and follow ups for 2 years. Dad is very lucky. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers for him.
So I spent the rest of my assignment working a lot to fill my time. I worked my last night shift on November 14th. I figured I would sleep all day, wake up, pack the car and start driving home. I had a 16 to 17 hour drive ahead of me. Sounds simple, right? Not so.
I had forgotten to get the oil changed before work, so I went on the morning of the 15th to get it changed. An hour at most then off to bed, right? Ha! When I went to start the car after they finished, the engine wouldn’t turn over. They checked and said the battery was dead. GREAT! I went to the Sears right around the corner. They were able to check everything and agreed that the battery was dead, but nothing else was wrong. So they put in a new battery. This whole process took nearly 2 hours. By now it is almost 1 pm. I haven’t slept yet and I’ve been up about 27 hours. I get back in the car and realize the lighter plug is not working. It’s not charging my phone. I took it back to Sears. They said the lighter filament is burned out. I went to Autozone. They had them, but not for Kia’s. It’s a dealer only item. Fine. I went to the dealership. Parts and service is not open on the weekend. By now, I’m very tired, frustrated and angry. I was in tears by the time I got back to my room. Eric assured me that I would not need the phone to drive home and encouraged me to get some sleep soon! I finally went to sleep about 2:30 pm. I slept for 8 full hours and felt better.
I ate a little dinner and packed the car. I then left town about 12:30 am. I drove all night (easy since my body was still on a night shift schedule) and continued driving through the day. I managed to drive all the way home in just one straight trip! It was so good to get home and see Eric and Rowan.
I was able to wake Rowan up from his nap. He was pretty happy to see me J He read me books and showed me all of his toys. He told Eric at least a dozen times “I play with Mommy”. He’s been great since I’ve been home. One of the cute things he did was when I coughed, he said “Mommy Ok?” I guess that’s what we say when he coughs. Haha!
I guess the only other news I have is that I finally pinned down my next job. It’s in Tucson, AZ. I will be there from Dec 15 to March 15. Let me know if anyone wants anything from Arizona. At least I’ll be there in the winter! I don’t think I would take a job there in the summer. Yuck! Anyway, wish me luck!
I’ll try to keep up blogging a little better.
Sorry no pictures yet, but soon!
I have oriented to this new hospital and start working on my own tomorrow. Since Eric, Rowan and I have already celebrated our christmas, and I'm alone here, I volunteered to work Xmas eve and Christmas so that someone else could spend time with their family.
