Our Week - The One with Summer, Week 7 (A Sleepover, Vertigo, a Lemonade Stand, and the Start of Jacob’s Birthday Celebrations)

Yikes, what a week, y’all.  It actually started out GREAT, and then it took a quick turn south on Tuesday.  I’m sure a lot of you have been following along on Instagram, but in case you haven’t, here’s the story…

Monday, July 10

Monday morning, I was up at 7:15.  I showered, unloaded the dishwasher, watered the plants, and ate breakfast, and even after all that the kids were still asleep.  I headed to my office to tackle some work for a bit, and they both rolled out of bed just before 9.  They headed downstairs to make their own breakfast and watch cartoons for a bit, and I finally took the time to put my Bible tabs on my new Bible. 

That took about an hour, but it was surprisingly easy since they had come with an installation guide, and I am completely and utterly obsessed with the whole setup now. 

By the time that was done, it was time for lunch, so the three of us ate together.  Afterward, we headed outside for a while.  Jacob and Olivia played basketball and I cleaned out and vacuumed my car.  It was filthy inside because – kids – and it was long overdue. 

After that was done, we took a quick trip to Publix to grab a few things because Olivia had spend-the-night company coming over and Jacob had a friend coming over the next day.  As I was loading the groceries in the back of the car, I realized that I hadn’t vacuumed out the trunk, and that was the absolute main reason I had gotten the vacuum out in the first place as there was still a massive pile of sand back there from our beach trip.  Haha.  Oh well.

When we got home, I got the groceries put away, and then I did some work while the kids played video games.  I also started my Bible Recap on Monday, so I was thrilled about that.

Olivia’s friend, Aubrey, was dropped off at dinnertime, and I heated some frozen pizzas.  After dinner, the girls headed off to play while Brian and Jacob headed outside to kick a ball around, and I headed out for my run.  I got in 2.55 miles and was drenched in sweat by the time I got home because it was so hot.  It felt great to get out, though.  I have a love/hate relationship with those evening runs, but mostly just love.

When I got back, I got the girls set up with popcorn and Frozen 2 in the playroom, and Jacob settled in to watch some TV downstairs.  After that, I showered and got ready for bed, and then I spent some time in my office, doing Day 2 of my Bible Recap.  I’m not doing it in one year… I’m just going to do it as I can, so sometimes that’ll mean doing multiple day’s worth in one day, and some days that’ll mean doing none.

By the time I finished that, it was getting late, so I headed downstairs to give Maui her treat and sit with her and Jacob for a bit, and then Jacob headed to bed and the girls retreated to Olivia’s room so B and I could go to bed.

 

Tuesday, July 11

Tuesday, in the middle of the night, I woke up to go to the bathroom as I always do, and I almost hit the floor because everything was spinning when I stood up.  I didn’t think much of it since I’ve had that happen randomly before, so I got back in the bed and went back to sleep. 

When I got up again at 7:15, the spinning started immediately again, though, and I couldn’t shake it.  It was absolutely awful.  I ended up having to hold the wall as I showered, and it took me forever to get ready because I couldn’t stand up straight. 

Once I was ready, I headed downstairs to attempt to get the dishwasher unloaded and make homemade waffles.  It was a major struggle the entire time, though. 

Jacob and I ate breakfast together since the girls were still sleeping, and then I retreated to my office to try to share Amazon deals since it was the first day of Amazon Prime Day. 

Things did not go well, and I was dizzy and nauseated all morning long.  I finally gave up on getting any work done, and around 10:45 AM, I woke the girls.  I do believe that they would have slept through the entire day if I hadn’t.  Haha.  Olivia said that they’d stayed up until 12:30 AM or something like that so they were exhausted.

I whipped up some more homemade waffles for them after they woke, and then I headed to my bedroom to lay down for a while since I was feeling so terrible.  I headed to my office again to try to work for a bit, and the girls came in to show me Olivia's hairstyle that Aubrey had done for her.

Jacob had a friend coming over at 12:15, and by the time he got there, I was feeling even worse, so I was pretty helpless.  I had to drag myself out of bed and downstairs to make lunch for them, and I ended up keeping it super simple with hot dogs and chips since it was fast and easy.  It was a HUGE struggle just to get it on the table.

Thankfully, Brian told his boss he needed to help me out at home since I wasn’t feeling well, so he came home mid-afternoon to work and keep an eye on the kids.  I was feeling awwwwful by that time, so I lay in bed for the rest of the afternoon.  The spinning was frequent so the nausea was crazy strong all day, and it was just misery.

I had planned several fun things for the kids that day, and obviously, we couldn’t do a single one, but thankfully, they all still had fun.  It was very chaotic, though, and it was hard for me to rest since the house was full of screaming, running kids.

I had tried to contact my ENT doctor about getting in to see him, but the soonest they could get me in was SIX WEEKS, so that was off the table.  I also called my primary doctor, and she couldn’t even get me in for at least two weeks, so there was really nothing I could do.

Jacob’s friend left at 4, and then Aubrey wasn’t too far behind him, and then I was able to rest a little bit.  I had planned to cook dinner, but that was completely off the table since I could barely stand up, so Brian made turkey and cheese biscuit sliders.

After dinner, he ran to grab some meclizine (motion sickness medicine) for me per my friend’s orders (she’s a nurse), and then he went out to mow the lawn while the kids played and showered.  Meanwhile, I tried a couple of different maneuvers that people had sent to me for vertigo.  Neither of them worked, unfortunately, though, and they actually made me feel much worse since it involves hanging upside down and turning your head a lot.  So I ended up in the bed yet again feeling like death.  Dramatic, I know, but my gosh, until you've been there you just have no idea how horrible it is.

After B finished mowing, we all started watching AGT before getting the kids in the bed a little early.  B and I watched a little bit of The Bachelorette, and then we went to bed a little earlier, too.

 

Wednesday, July 12

Wednesday morning, I woke up feeling yucky again.  Sigh.  I got myself ready slowly yet again, and then I headed downstairs to get breakfast ready for Jacob and myself.  After breakfast, I headed to my office to try to get things done (operative word, *try*) and Jacob watched some TV.  Olivia was exhausted from her lack of sleep since she’d had a sleepover the night before, and I ended up having to wake her at 10:45 AM.  Sheesh.  I’m convinced she would have slept till noon if I hadn’t.

After she had breakfast, we went to check on her sunflowers, and we were excited to see eleven sprouts!!  We had planted 22 seeds, so that was a pretty great turnout!  She got them watered, and then we all went back in the house to hang out.

I managed to reheat some pizza for the kids for lunch, and I had buttered toast and an apple for the second day in a row thanks to my nausea, and then after lunch I tried to get some work done in my office but it didn’t go very well.

Mid-afternoon, I felt awful, so I went and lay down on the couch while the kids played outside, and then I moved to the bed and stayed there until B got home from work.  He came home a little early so he could drive me to acute care.  I wasn’t originally going to go to acute care since several people told me that probably couldn’t do much for me, but I ultimately decided to go because I thought it would be wise to have somebody check my blood pressure and other vitals just to be safe. 

Several people had reached out to me to ask me if I could possibly be dehydrated, so I spent the day chugging water and Gatorade for electrolytes, but neither seemed to help.

At acute care, the PA ran all kinds of tests.  I had to follow his fingers with my eyes in a specific pattern, then I had to stand up with my arms straight out, palms up, and close my eyes, and then I had to do something where I had to stick my tongue out.  Those tests were able to rule out vertigo caused by a brain issue (thank goodness, my gosh, that would have been awful).

Finally, he made me lay down on the bed, and then he took my head in his hands and made me lay down really fast and drop my head off the back of the bed, turn my head to the left at 45 degrees, and open my eyes.  When I did that, he said that my eyes darted back and forth really fast… that’s called nystagmus, and it’s a classic symptom of BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo).  That only happened when he did it on the left side, so I was diagnosed with BPPV of the left ear. 

BPPV is when one of the crystals in your ears gets in the wrong place, and it throws off your balance.  He gave me an exercise to do three times per day every day that should help the crystals reset, and he also gave me a prescription for Clonazepam to help with the symptoms.  Clonazepam is traditionally used to treat anxiety, but he said that it’s very effective at treating BPPV symptoms, too. 

After my visit, Brian and the kids came to pick me up (I can’t drive right now, obviously) and then we headed to CVS to drop off my prescription.  Unfortunately, they couldn’t fill it, so we headed to a different CVS, and they turned us away, too.  Sigh.  We ended up going back to the first one and telling them just to do it when they could, and by that time it was after 6 PM, so we swung by Chick-Fil-A to pick up food on the way home.

After dinner, B finished mowing, I tried to read some of my Bible (and couldn’t get through it), and the kids played.  The rest of the evening was spent watching the rest of AGT, and then B and I watched the season one finale of Platonic.

 

Thursday, July 13

Thursday morning, I woke up feeling even worse than the previous day (probably because I had not taken any meds), and I struggled my way through showering and getting ready.  I was so desperate for relief that I took a Clonazepam that I had in my medicine cabinet that had been prescribed three years prior for my anxiety.  I had never taken one (I’ve always been too scared to take benzo drugs since they can be addictive and have scary side effects), but my doc wanted me to have them on hand in case I started having panic attacks again.

They had just expired in March, but my friend who’s a nurse assured me that they were okay to take, so I decided to go for it since my new prescription still wasn’t ready.

About an hour went by, and I felt no different, but then about an hour after taking it, I felt an overwhelming urge to sleep.  Like, I thought I was going to fall asleep sitting up.  I knew I didn’t want to nap at 10 in the morning, so I called my mom and chatted with her for 30 minutes, and by the time I got off the phone, I felt much more awake, and way less groggy.  The medicine did help with the dizziness and nausea, so that was great, too.  I still felt out of balance and dizzy all day, but the extreme spinning stopped, and so did the nausea.

We went and checked Olivia’s sunflowers Thursday morning to find that there were 14, and she was just so excited!  We’re looking forward to watching them grow!

Late in the morning, I was having major guilt about the fact that I can’t drive, nor can I even walk to get the kids to the playground, so I rounded up the kids to make some rice crispy treats.  I figured those were easy enough and something that they could do mostly on their own, and they did! 

After that, we all had lunch, and then B got home from work.  He had to come home early to join a meeting and then get Jacob to piano lessons since I could drive.

After lunch, the kids went to play video games, and I felt good enough to knock out a good two hours of blog work, and then at 3, Brian and Jacob left for piano lessons.  This was the first time I wasn’t able to go, and I hated missing it. 

When they got home, B had some work to finish up, and then we made breakfast for dinner – eggs, grits, bacon, sausage, toast.  After dinner, Olivia fancied up her rice crispy treat with some cool whip and crushed candy canes... I guess I'm not the only one who's dreaming about fall and Christmas already.  ;o)

After dinner, the kids got showered and I did some more Bible journaling.  Then, we all sat down together to watch an episode of Weird But True.

After the kids went to bed, B and I finished The Bachelorette from the week.  Also, I spent a lot of time laying down last week.  Every time somebody would text me to ask me how I feel I would snap a selfie because I was pretty much always laying down.  Haha.

Friday, July 14

Friday morning, I woke up with vertigo yet again.  I had an appointment with my therapist at 10:15, and I obviously couldn’t drive, so thankfully, my Momma was able to pick me up and get me there. 

When we got back home, my friend, Jeannine, and her boys, had just arrived, and they were getting the sweetest lemonade stand set up in our front yard.  Her husband had made the kids the absolute cutest little stand, and Jeannine had decorated it with signs and balloons.  They’d even brought along water balloons for the kids to use to make extra money. 

They charged $0.75 per cup of lemonade, and they offered a discount to anyone who would let the kids throw water balloons at them.  They also charged extra for anyone to be able to throw water balloons at them.  How stinking cute is that?!  Jeannine has always been my most creative friend.  She always has the best ideas!

Once the stand was all set up, I took a picture and posted it on my personal Facebook page as well as our neighborhood Facebook page to try to drum up some business, and it worked!  We ended up only having a handful of customers, but each one was SO generous, and they donated way more than just the $0.75. 

Our first customer drove up and told the kids that she didn’t want any lemonade, but that she wanted to donate $10 to them.  Seriously, how sweet is that?!  Since she had donated the $10, we told her that she could throw some water balloons at the kids, and at first, she was like, “Noooo, I don’t need to do that.” But then we convinced her to.  Haha.  After she decided to do it, she pointed at Jacob and said, “I’m an Alabama fan, so I want you in that Georgia shirt!”  Hahahaha.  She was such a trip and so much fun!  She ended up throwing several at the kids and they thought it was the most fun thing.

We ended up staying out there for a few hours, and my parents stopped by, too.  At one point, the kids brought over a book for me to read to them, and the book had the funniest, grossest twist at the end, so we were all laughing so hard.  Jeannine snapped pictures of us when we were reading it, and I just love them so much. 

It was such a fun day, and it was just what I needed to lift my spirits after being cooped up and dealing with this nasty vertigo all week.  I’m so grateful to have a bestie who worked so hard to put all of that together so our kiddos could have some fun when I was literally able to do nothing.

We all headed inside mid-afternoon and the kids played inside for a bit, and then they left around 4. 

Our kiddos relaxed with some video games after that, and then at 5, we headed to Longhorn to eat with my father-in-law and the rest of the family for Jacob’s birthday, Brian’s sister’s birthday, and our niece’s birthday.  We decided to knock out all three this weekend while his sister and her kiddos were in town.

Thankfully, with the medication they’d put me on, I was at least able to sit through dinner and then sit at my FIL’s house afterward for cake and presents.  I still wasn’t feeling great, and I definitely couldn’t drive, but it was an improvement compared to Tuesday and Wednesday.

By the time we got home Friday evening, it was time for the kids to get into bed, and then B and I watched the last episode of Trying and then we started The Last Thing He Told Me.  I just finished the book a couple of months ago, so I was excited to watch.

 

Saturday, July 15

Saturday morning, I woke up with vertigo yet again – sigh – but I powered through and made homemade waffles, did some laundry, and got some stuff done in my office anyway.  At that point, I was sick of not being able to work out, so I pulled my stair stepper right next to Brian’s tall dresser, and I was able to do a mild workout while holding on to the dresser.  It actually felt really great after days of inactivity, and it boosted my spirits a bit, too.  That medicine definitely helped with the spinning and nausea, so I was grateful to feel some sense of normalcy.

I took it easy the rest of the day, and then Saturday evening, we went to church and dinner with my extended family.  I did okay out and about since I had the meds in my system, but I did have to hold B’s hand everywhere we walked so I didn’t fall over.  When I walk, it feels like I’m on a boat, and I just randomly lose my footing frequently.

After dinner, we stopped by DQ for a treat for B and the kids, and then once the kids were in the bed, B and I watched some more of The Last Thing He Told Me.

 

Sunday, July 16

Sunday morning, I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I watched my Sunday sermon, and then I got in another stair stepper workout.  I felt slightly better Sunday morning, and I didn’t even have to hold on to the dresser for my workout, too!  Progress!  After that, I did some stretching, and then I got showered and ready for the day.

We had more birthday celebrations on Sunday for Jacob, my sister-in-law, and my niece.  My MIL and step-FIL made a big lunch and we did cake and presents for all of them.  Check out that massive cookie cake that they picked up.  WOW!  Haha.

After lunch, we spent a few minutes in the garden and my MIL let the kids pick some corn.  Olivia also found a little froggy friend as you can see in the picture below.  She sure does love all creatures. 

 

Our time outside was brief because it was BRUTAL Sunday, and the heat was messing with my vertigo even more.  This vertigo has just been a beast, y’all.

After we were done at their house, we had to run a couple of errands since I couldn’t do it during the week because – no driving.  We dropped a couple of library books off that had gone overdue during the crazy week, and then we headed to pick up a Target order that I’d placed the day prior.  Thank goodness for drive-up pickup!

Once that was done, we headed home for about an hour to get some things done, and then we ended the evening at my parents’ house.  My Momma had made a new TikTok recipe that was delicious, and it was a nice evening and time well spent with loved ones. 

Even though I felt pretty yucky all weekend, it was nice to be able to get out of the house and see everyone.  It was a nice distraction, and I’m grateful that the medication they gave me allowed me to do that. 

Happy Wednesday, y’all!