What a Night

(This is our friend and his little boy almost two years ago.)

Have you ever had one of those nights where you think, "Can we all just go to bed now and start over again tomorrow?"  It didn't start out that way, but let's just say I'm ready for bed now!  I knew I wanted to tell you about something that happened earlier, but things have just piled on top of it since then.  So, I will do the best I can and start at the beginning.

Kenna has been out of school for six days now.  We believe she started out with the flu and it developed into bronchitis. She has been without fever for two days and has been on meds since Sunday, but her cough has been too bad for her to be able to go to school.  However, she is going tomorrow!  Tonight she met with a group of girls to practice the dance they're doing for the talent show…if she can practice a dance, she can go to school.  However, when she got home, she had one of those coughing spells that caused her to vomit (much to the dismay of our paranoid, germaphobic eldest daughter).

When we took Kenna to the school to practice, we met up with some friends who are in town for the week so the kids could all play together.  While we were there, we got a call asking us to help a national friend whose little boy fell and possibly broke his collar bone.  They needed a ride to the hospital.  So, Kenny took me, Bre and Ethan home and went to pick up our friend.  When he got there, he learned that the dad was not home and it was just the mom (here it is extremely inappropriate for a married man and woman to be together without a spouse). So, Kenny called me and asked me to get ready so he could pick me up on the way to the hospital.  When I went to get in the car, a neighbor had come with them.  I went anyway.  However, we didn't go to a hospital.  The neighbor took us to a friend's house who is a "doctor."  We went in sat in the sitting room and watched this man rub, mash, and pull this little boy's arm and shoulder.  He was either the toughest little boy ever or his arm/shoulder was not broken.  After a few minutes the "doctor" went to the back of the house and the mom went outside. (The highlight for me was that she has two other little boys; a baby and a toddler. So I got to hold the baby while we were in the "doctor's office.") Anyway, in a few minutes the mom came back with a pack of crackers for the kids and a pack of cigarettes.  A minute later the doctor came back in with a piece of paper folded up with medicine inside.  He explained that the medicine needed to be mixed with water and rubbed on the boy's arm and shoulder.  Then the neighbor gave the doctor the pack of cigarettes and we were done!  Yep…we paid the "doctor" with cigarettes!

We took our friends back home and were invited inside for a bit...that is customary here as well.  We chatted for just a minute and then went out to the car to leave only to have the neighbor come over and invite us to his house as well.  We walked over there and sat and had some warm lemonade and crackers and chatted with him and his wife for a bit.  When we started talking about children, his wife informed me that their son and his family lived right next door and asked me to follow her over and meet them.  So, there I was alone in another house now drinking very hot coffee.  After about five minutes of fumbling through conversations, we rejoined the men.  I walked into the room just as Kenny was taking a call from Bre. She was informing us of Kenna's coughing spell that caused her to get sick.  As sorry as we were that Kenna had gotten sick, it gave us a reason to excuse ourselves.

Now, we are on our way by the school to pick up Bre's computer that she forgot in her locker.  When we get there, we get another call.  This time it's from Ethan.  He is very upset because his fish, the one his best friend SeonggWang gave him before he moved back to Korea, died.  (sigh)  Our poor Ethan dealing with yet another loss.  We will take him to get another fish tomorrow, but it won't be the same.

So, what started out as a humorous and slightly ironic story has turned into a little more distressing and draining story.  I am so ready to just go to bed and start over again tomorrow.  At least Kenna will be back in school tomorrow!