Meet Me In St Louie Louie---Meet Me at Urgent Care!

You ever have one of THOSE days?  The one where nothing goes right?

Here was the basic idea of what our schedule looked like for the day:

4:45-6:30ish am--Kendra wakes up and starts getting ready. Mom and Kendra go to breakfast and then walk to Union Station for Kendra's shuttle. Mom walks back.

7:00--James and I wake up and get quickly get ready for breakfast.

7:30-- Eat breakfast

8:00--Start walking down to the 10 mile mark for Kendra

8:35--See Kendra run by if she's running the pace she set her goal at.

9:00-- Back to the hotel and chill

10:00-- Walk 2 miles to the Arch to watch Kendra cross the finish line

11:00-11:15--Watch Kendra cross the finish line at her goal time of a sub 4

12:00-- Back to the hotel

Rest of the day...have lunch and even possibly supper before James and I needed to leave.

Sounds pretty awesome, right?

So, this is how our day really went.

Mom and Kendra got up, ate and got to the shuttle.

Around 6:40 mom comes in my room and wakes me up by saying, "Rachel! Rachel, wake up. I hurt myself. I need you to come in here and help me!"

I hopped up and rushed in to see what happened. As it turns out, she fell in a pothole on Market Street walking back from Union Station. Not only did she slightly twist her ankle, scraped up her knee and rip a hole in her capris, but she also came down on her elbow and cut it open badly. She told me she knew she needed stitches, but she wasn't going until after the race. She had some band aids, and a wrap she got at the front desk and she needed me to help.

To give you a better image. All of this is happening as mom is sitting on the toilet in the tiny bathroom and I am on my knees on the floor still half out of it. My anxiety started to set in as she was panicking about the race. In my mind I'm trying to figure out if I can let her keep bleeding. I need to figure out how to get her to a hospital if she needs it, but also be there to support Kendra.

"You ready to see it?", she asked. No. No, I was not. She had me open the alcohol wipes and each little dab would be followed with a yelp and, "Stop!" I am not kidding you. The woman had a CRATER in her arm. A literal crater. She decided we should go in the room to wrap it...I think. That's where it gets hazy.

I stood up and stopped in the bathroom doorway. My eyes started to cloud over and my ears started ringing. I remember saying, "I feel dizzy" and the next thing I remember was hearing, "Rachel! Rachel Lynn!" and I realize I'm on the floor next to the closet outside the bathroom. I asked what happened, and mom told me I blacked out and fell in slow motion. I hit my head, but thankfully I didn't cut it open too!

Once my ears stopped ringing I was able to drink some water and help mom get her arm wrapped up, all while randomly bursting into laughter because I passed out and I've never done that before.

Thankfully, James slept through all of this in the other room until I went in to get him up.

Breakfast was uneventful...other than mom needing a doctor, but of course putting her kids first.

We left the hotel around 8 and walked to the spot we needed to see Kendra, which was around a 20 minute walk. Jacob called and told me Daniel was throwing up again. Then we waited for Kendra. And waited. Remember she said she'd run by around 8:35? Well...she didn't. We were getting a bit concerned when 15 minutes passed by. Mom told me not to tell Kendra about our morning.

Mom did have fun holding up my sign. It got a lot of laughs and compliments. Pretty proud I came up with it on my own.







Eventually we saw her coming. For once I remembered my camera. As soon as she saw us she started shaking her head. She walks over as I'm happily snapping away and burst into tears. The race wasn't going well for her. Just an off day. Her legs were like lead and she was DONE. She kept going back and forth on quitting. I kept telling her to keep going and that she'd be mad at herself later if she didn't finish. We also made sure to remind her that even if she didn't come close to her time, she could still beat the giraffe. Haha!



Her socks were also bothering her, so mom gave her's up.



Oh, and as she was crying? I was like, "Should we tell her?" So we filled her in on our crap-tastic morning and all laughed and about cried together. (James just ate animal crackers and didn't care. Typical guy.)

She really wanted to punch me.

 

Eventually she decided to continue on and if she needed to quit she would.  We walked back to the hotel and decided since she was behind her race time we'd attempt an urgent care. Called to see if they were busy and then headed to find it. It was right by the lot we always park in for Cardinals games, so we ended up parking there and heading in.

Not busy, but took forever. James was over it.



We finally get into a room at 11. Mom is leaking blood from under the bandages. James is losing his crap because he tried to get into the trash can and we yelled no. I bribed him with fruit snacks to stop crying. He wanted them in his snack cup. I put them in his snack cup. Then they got crumbs from his previous snack stuck on them. He flipped his lid and started melting down. Mom was feeling awful and nauseated. She couldn't handle the crying so we went to the van. She was already upset about how long it was taking, but then upset she was going to miss Kendra finish the race.

Around 11:30, James and I walked from the lot down to the Arch. I figured she'd cross around 12:15 and it was about 11:55. James was content riding, but once we stopped he got MAD. I knew he was tired and thankfully he eventually passed out.

 

I think it was closer to 12:30, but I finally saw her! Emotions hit me because I knew how hard she had worked and how much of a struggle she was having. I waved and cheered like crazy for her!





I was so proud to watch her finish. Did she get her goal? Not even close. In fact, it was her worst race time, but she did it. Who else can say they've ran 26.2 miles 4 times? Not me! This girl is dedicated.



We met up and I filled her in on mom who was still getting stitched up at urgent care. We started our walk back. It felt like to took forever to walk back, but I was amazed at how Kendra just trucked along. We had to take a couple of breaks along the way.



Mom was just getting finished as we got back to the van. I went with her across the street to the pharmacy to get her prescription and around 1 we finally were headed back to the hotel!

Kendra got cleaned up, while we rested a bit and tried to decide where to eat. I was hoping to be on the road by around 4.

We finally decided on TGIFriday's because it would hopefully be easy. HAHA! So, after circling the block we finally got parked in a garage. Went in and saw it was half empty. Yay! But you know how our luck was going. We were told we'd have a 15 minute wait! Apparently during slower times only half the place is open. We had our orders ready when the waitress came for drinks once we had finally been seated. FORTY minutes later our food shows up. James had been crying for nuggets for 20 minutes at that point.

I think we got back to the hotel around 4:45. Went up to get our stuff to load up. Got loaded. Said goodbye and they headed back in. That's when I realize my sunglasses are upstairs still. On the 11th floor. Texted mom and told her. She said Kendra was bringing them back down. 2 minutes later while I m waiting I realize my water is still up there too. Thankfully Kendra had both!

A lot of random crap happened in a 24 hour span, but even through it all we managed to find some humor.

In case you're wondering? We're not doing this again next year. At least no in St. Louis!

St Louis Highs and Lows- Part 1

Well, for whatever reason, this past week has been somewhat of a nightmare!

It all started last Wednesday.

Jacob and my father-in-law have been dying to take Daniel to his first Cardinals game since before he was born. This was finally the year it was going to happen. Tickets were purchased weeks in advance and Daniel had a countdown going to the big game.

Wednesday rolled around and rain was in the forecast. Hopefully nothing but maybe a rain delay. Oh no. Right as the guys got into St. Louis, they called the game and postponed it until Thursday! I felt so bad. They walked to the stadium anyway and when to the gift shop where Pa bought Daniel a bat and ball. Then they went to Steak and Shake before coming home. Unfortunately, neither Kent nor Jacob could go on Thursday which was when the game was rescheduled, so Mommy and Mimi came to the rescue. Neither one of us imagined we'd be taking Daniel to his first game. Both of us felt so bad for Kent and Jacob, but we were also excited and wanted to make the whole day special for Daniel.

We ended up with beautiful weather. A bit cold at times, but mostly it was wonderful. The sun was shining. Mimi bought Daniel some gifts, and we got him a hot dog and popcorn. He did amazingly well. He made it a full 2 hours before you could see he was getting antsy, but he  never complained! Too bad the Cubs beat us though!







The next day Daniel went to preschool, while I was at home madly packing so we could leave by 1:00 to once again go back to St. Louis! This time for Kendra's marathon. We had planned a whole weekend. Daniel was counting down to that as well and was excited about spending 3 nights instead of 2 at the hotel.

I picked him up from school and when we got home he went in and sat on the couch. He said he was hungry so I made lunch, which he hardly touched. He then went right back to the couch and sat there in silence. No TV. I was getting nervous, but he told me he felt fine.

Kendra texted to say they were running late and wouldn't be there until 3, so I decided instead of leaving at 1, we'd leave at 1:30. Only by the grace of God did it happen that way! At 1:25, Daniel bolted off the couch and threw up on the floor while running to the bathroom. He made it to the toilet, but stood...and lets just say there was a very large splash zone. I cannot imagine being 30 minutes down the road and having that happen in the van!

Needless to say, St Louis was out of the question and I spent the rest of the day half being okay and half feeling sorry for myself. As it turned out, Mom and Kendra were losing their minds in traffic half the time anyway!

I wanted to be there so badly to cheer Kendra on, on Sunday. Especially because she wasn't going to run it, but  I convinced her to. Jacob had a music event all day Saturday, but he was kind enough to take over sick kid duty when he got home at 3, which allowed James and I to go to St. Louis for the night.

The trip down went great. We arrived at the hotel and made our way up to our room on the 11th floor. Our favorite place to stay. James was excited about EVERYTHING. I think he was soaking it all in and enjoyed getting everyone to himself. He thought looking out the windows was the best. He especially loved the "AHHH-CH!" (Arch)



We headed out for supper at The Best Steakhouse. It was not at all what I had envisioned. In our minds we were going to a steakhouse. A place where you sit down and order. We walked in to a line out the door. Okay. We can handle this. Then we hear this guy yelling, "NEXT!" "NEXT!" What the? So we figure out that you're supposed to know your order in line and shout it out! Have you ever watched Seinfeld, because I felt like we were about to have a Soup Nazi moment. It was hot. I had no idea what we were doing. Finally we get mom to yell our orders, because we're 5 and can't do such things. Seriously, this was not good for anxiety. My heart was racing. Anyway...after a very long wait we finally had food. Not gonna lie. It was DELISH and totally worth the wait!






By this time it time to head back to the hotel and start getting ready for bed. James had a great time running between our adjoining rooms. We had 2 rooms because mom had reserved 2 for Saturday night so that Kendra could actually get a good night of sleep, Last year James kept waking us all up! We all chatted until around 9 and then James and I went in our room. I let him snuggle in bed with me until he fell asleep and then moved him to his pack n play, in hopes of a peaceful night of sleep before our fun day ahead...





To Be Continued...