Because my head is filled with so.much.snot and aching - and - the last four days 100% kicked my butt, I opted out of pizza or socializing. I am supposedly attempting to "process" and "integrate" the insanity of the last week. I am attempting "quiet" and "solitude".
I am alone on the front porch with the next door neighbor's music blaring, in Kreyol the singer says, "This country is sick, Haiti, what is going on? Haiti, Haiti how do you feel?" - That along with Sarah Mclachlan singing "Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright", on the speaker next to me... It's really quite something. Appropriate incongruity. You should be here to experience it with me.
I got back from a 9 day trip to Texas on Tuesday. I arrived in Haiti with a GoldenDoodle puppy and I am VERY famous with my kids and well loved because of it.
I shared this on Instagram - but the short version if you missed it is this: After Peanut died I was sad and acting like a weirdo and I started begging Troy to get another little dog. (Big dogs are SO SO expensive to feed - even when weird and emotional, I am frugal.) Troy thought I was emotional and dumb (because true) and he said no to another little Chestnut type dog. (Our 6 pound ShihTzu is Chestnut.) Troy said he liked Golden Retrievers or medium dogs. I quickly wrote my friend in Missouri about her GoldenDoodle to ask about the breeder she used and in like six minutes she was informing us that she was going to buy us a GoldenDoodle. She took care of our new puppy for us for two weeks and I flew from Austin to St.Louis and picked up our new dog on the first day I was back in the USA. It was a lot of crazy making and fun. People in airports love Goldendoodles. He was very popular. One lady took a selfie with him.
My trip to TX had been booked months and months ago when Britt told me she would be due to have a baby and ALSO be graduating from UT Southwestern - all at the same time in early December.
Britt and Chris lost that first baby in May. It was rough. Mercifully a lot of grief and pain turned into joy in July when they learned they were pregnant again.
I decided not to cancel my trip because I wanted to see her tummy and I wanted to see her graduate after so SO much hard work. (She is a PA-C now!)
While in TX I managed to get my CPR and NRP stuff updated (required for Midwifery licensing) and it was a trip filled with much joy. The new puppy, the graduation, the time with my family and with Britt's Dad's family was all so wonderful. Troy came to TX for three nights. We got to see Graham and Paige too. It was so beautiful and encouraging and fun.
The dog needed paperwork to be able to fly to Haiti. (Or SO THE PEOPLE SAID.) Britt and I pretended to be totally fluent in French -- and pulled it off -- at the Vet office. We were laughing our buns off at the rules and just decided that we would prefer to claim French fluency over paying someone to translate the dog paperwork. We were given the Vet Office computer and some time and we translated a French document into English like total b.s.ing bosses.
Stupid and totally predictable thing???? No human person ever ever ever ever asked to see any of the paperwork we paid for to "legally" import the dang dog. Not JetBlue - not anyone in Haiti. Flushing money down the toilet is our new hobby.
After we left Texas Britt got in a car accident. That is something my pregnant daughter girls seem to do. It's a thing I guess. Thankfully she and baby boy are okay.
Paige is super duper pregnant. She needs to wait to deliver until December 22 if she wants Michael there and December 27 if she wants me (Tara) there. I have high high high anxiety over the thought of missing this event, but it is pretty likely I will, in fact, miss the event. If it seems appropriate, I will film the nervous break-down when it happens.
I have a billion more things to write that are spinning in my head. It needs to wait until my spaz level calms a bit.
Tomorrow is our Maternity Center Staff Christmas party. It is so so much fun every year and while I tend to be annoyed at the long Christmas parties we have for the ladies in the programs, I truly LOVE the staff Christmas party. More when sanity levels allow.
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| Three nuts and their five humans. |
