A Whole Lotta...

On October 20th Gavin turned one. At the time we didn't really have the funding for a birthday party for him. I was bummed not to have a party with all the family but life was and is a mess.

Gavin now has 6 teeth! My mom used to joke that we were going to have to get baby dentures for him. He finally started getting teeth just after she passed. He is also pulling himself up and trying to stand on his own. He is will walk along the furniture or if someone holds his hands.

My dad came up the day before Gavin's birthday. He brought a birthday cake as well!

We let Gavin have some cake but he wasn't overly impressed. He did like the ice cream though!

The week of Gavin's birthday was a crazy one. Mark got a job with a trucking company in Grand Rapids which is two hours from here. We did not want him to go back out on the road but after applying for an endless amount of jobs here and not even getting an interview he finally took the trucking job.

We had to take him to Grand Rapids the Sunday before Gavin's birthday. I was not happy for a lot of reasons but especially because he would be missing Gavin's first birthday. We went to Mark's parents' house when we got down there. His mom made lasagna for dinner. My kids had fun playing with Mark's sister, Beth's kids. At dinner time Henry came downstairs saying he had a headache. I felt his head and he was burning up! We took his temp and it was 102!!! Thankfully Beth had children's tylenol so Henry got a dose of it. He took a nap in grandma and grandpa's room. Of course, I was worried about driving home two hours with Henry being ill. I'd rather have had mark with me so one of us could concentrate on Hen.

I ended up staying longer in Grand Rapids than planned. When we left it was getting dark and Henry's temp was only down to 101. We made it home without a problem and Henry ended up taking most of the week off from school with a fever that would come and go.

For me it was very difficult to get used to Mark being gone and my mom not being here. Several times on the drive home I tried to call her. It was like getting slapped in the face each time. Monday and Tuesday were hard. I cried a lot. I miss my mom, dammit!

Irene goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thankfully, a knitting/MOPS friend has a daughter in Irene's class. She volunteered to take Irene to school and bring her home. That made the morning a little less of a crazy time. Tuesday afternoon Mark called me. The new company made him do a physical/drug test. Mark just got a two year DOT health card in July but this company wanted him to go through the health screening all over again. Of course, there was sugar in his urine. Now, Mark's dad has diabetes. We have known that there was a good chance that Mark could develop it as well. Well, it seems he may have. The doctor that had to sign off on the physical card would only give Mark a three month card. Unfortunately, this was not good enough for the company. They wanted him to go home and get it taken care of and then they would hire him. So Wednesday morning Mark's mom drove him home. He and my dad actually arrived at the same time.

While Mark's mom was here (and my dad) we went to my mom's house. My dad had a lot of stories to tell about a lot of things there. I enjoyed the stories. He asked to have some things that had special memories. We packed up a couple of boxes for him. Mark's mom took some things as well. We also found a grocery bag full of pictures that came from my dad's grandma's house. He went through them with me and I loved learning all about that side of my family. We always called my grandma Boo-Boo and my dad called his grandma (Boo-Boo's mother) Boosha. I never knew it but both his grandmas (my great-grandmas) were named Mary and my grandpa worked on the big freighters before getting married.

Anyway, Mark called the doctor assigned to him from the insurance company. They were able to get him in within two days. He needed some kind of blood sugar test. Of course, Wednesday we got a series of high winds and storms. The power to the doctor's office was cut off. They rescheduled his appointment but now it is in two weeks. He needs to have this test done and get his blood sugar levels under control before he can go back to work. So right now we are waiting...waiting...waiting. Mark's eyesight has completely changed as well. He used to have 20/20 vision but he has been complaining about not being able to read the computer screen or books. This could very well be a symptom of diabetes. We went to Traverse City on the Friday before Halloween. They have a Lenscrafters up there. The eye doctor thinks that once Mark has his blood sugar under control that his eye sight may come back part way or even all the way. Right now he has glasses and I think he looks really good in them. Of course, glasses were not an expense we could really afford but he desperately needed them. Since we were already in Traverse City we decided to get a hotel room. Most of the places up there had really good winter rates. We stayed at the Grand Beach Resort on the East Bay. I wanted to stay at this place for a weekend during the summer but the rates were way too high for us to afford.
We got a family suite which consisted of a little sitting room and a bedroom with two king-sized beds. Of course, we went swimming!

The hotel is located on the east bay. Beautiful in the winter but stunning in the summer!For lunch we ate at a little Greek restaurant called Opa! We loved it! We tried the hummus sampler and the gyro. The kids colored and had a hot dog. We enjoyed the place so much that we went back for dinner. At dinner we had the Greek kisses and the chicken phyllo. I also had the Greek coffee. Thoroughly enjoyed our meals there.

Mark's new glasses! And yes, they were ready in about an hour ;-) He looks good!

Well, I think I have gone on long enough. There is still so much more to tell but I'll save it for another day.

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