Hell Week & My Family Arrive!

Well thank God that week's over with.

After a bad weekend with Jack's HSP we ended up back at Children's Hospital on Monday due to the constant pain in his legs and stomach and then he started vomiting and I saw some blood in it. After a particularly frightening time where they found protein in his urine things settled down and we were discharged on Wednesday. I'm not going to lie and say I was a brave parent during all this because I was, in fact, a complete basket-case.

Then my dad & step-mum Sheila arrived last night from England. I am happy & excited they are here and can't wait to show them a wonderful time but I really could have done with just a few days to finish the bathroom, clean my pigsty, pet-hair infested excuse for a house and get the chewing gum out of my clothes dryer before they got here. They don't care of course and will happily muck in with whatever we've got going on.

Jack is racing about now with all the gusto and energy that only a 4-year old can have. You would swear that he couldn't possibly have been ill and that I must be exaggerating his condition. Only the fact that he's still on high-dose steroids reminds me of how bad things were and how grateful I am that he got better and can walk. He started back at pre-school this morning and his teachers made such a fuss and gave him such big hugs that I got a little blurry-eyed and made a quick exit before I completely shamed him by blubbering in front of his friends. Both he and Danny are loving having grandparents in the house to play with and follow about.

So now I've got to panic-plan the next 3 weeks and try to come up with things to keep the family occupied and happy. I told them about the Circleville Pumpkin Festival already and might have over-done the excitement level a touch. I mean really, they didn't traverse the Atlantic Ocean to go and look at large Cucurbitas and explain, "Oooo that's a big un!"

No, I shall have to think bigger than that and try to come up with some Americana. A drive through the fall colours of the Appalachian Mountains maybe? Or a trip to Chicago to see the site of the Valentines Day massacre? In Ohio I thought we could see the Memphis Belle this time and maybe a trip to Annie Oakley's grave site. And the football game. Oh yes. Tomorrow we go to the Buckeye game and I will teach them all that is wonderful about my beloved Buckeyes.