Sump Pumps, Cha Cha Hats, Funerals, & Sawyer in a Grotto

Well let’s just say I am waiting for March to turn around.  We were supposed to leave last Thursday around noon for Connecticut for all of A.J.’s grandma’s funeral services last weekend.  Thursday morning, I smelled a burning smell in the basement and our sump pump was making a strange loud noise and was running constantly.  Thankfully a plumber was able to come out pretty quickly.  And thankfully I had time to color my hair before he arrived.  Yes, I know with all the packing I should have been doing at that moment, there I was coloring my hair and for a funeral no less.  My roots really needed it!  Plumber showed up a short time later and turns out that something or rather “several things” were stuck under the float mechanism causing the sump pump not to register correctly and shut off so it was running continuously.  Grateful to find out that what was supposed to be a five hundred dollar replacement turned out to be a much smaller fee for some simple fixes.  A.J. got home in decent time which means only a couple hours later than he had planned.  Now just waiting for the mother-in-law so we could head out and honestly I was still packing at this point.  A.J. was feeling a bit tense about the weekend and wanting to beat D.C. rush hour and get on the road and was a bit aggravated because he had supposedly told his mom to come to our house at noon so she could help wrangle kids while I finished packing.  Her arrival around 3 and her disclosure that she had been at the salon getting her face waxed didn’t help his mood.  Oh well.  So finally around 3:30 we were off.  But it was not to last.  Either due to the curving back roads we were taking to get to the Beltway from our house or due to a stomach bug, Josie puked all over the back seat and partially over my mother-in-law’s lap.  Twenty minutes into our trip and back home we went.  Ironically I had been texting my sister a couple minutes before Josie got sick that our trip was a bit tense already and that Josie was saying her stomach hurt and all I needed was for her to barf all over the back seat.  A true case of be careful what you wish for.

Fast forward through going back home, cleaning up the stinky Gray Goose’s seats and floor, running some laundry and eating a quick subway dinner.  FYI pillow pets can go in the washing machine- just not the dryer.  We waited out traffic and started out again around 7PM and got into the hotel in Connecticut around 2:30A.M.  Kids were hyper and bouncing around til 4:30A.M. 

Friday we had the viewing which was family only at first.  I am a firm believer in being up front and honest with kids when someone has died.  They usually handle death much better than adults expect.  Overall the kids did just fine.  We went up by the open casket and said some prayers.  Sawyer just kept saying “Grandma sleeping!”.  Jimmy set up his army men and kept occupied with that.  Sawyer was doing sprints across the room into the hall which would have been okay if there hadn’t been another viewing at the same time next to us.  So off to the mall I went with the four kids.  It really wasn’t so bad because at this point I had fairly low expectations of taking them by myself to a mall that we didn’t know.  We must have spent about a half hour in the gift shop area of Rain Forest Café which my kids had never been to before and were therefore quite fascinated with the whole thing.  Of course everyone had to pick out a toy, but they were much deserved by this point.  As a joke I grabbed something called a cha cha hat for A.J. which is basically an inflatable frog head that fits around your head like a hat.  We needed something to lighten the mood and this was perfect.  We drove through a McDonald’s on the way back to the hotel to get the kids some dinner.  Crossing the parking lot to get back into the hotel, I was rushing the kids along and of course Josie wipes out and skinned her knee since she was wearing a dress and tights which didn’t provide enough padding to prevent this.  Manage to keep her fairly calm getting back up to our room where we set up a little picnic for the kids and sent A.J. pictures of ourselves in the cha cha hat to his cell phone.  The rest of the night was fairly uneventful.

Saturday morning up bright and early to get ready for the funeral and eat breakfast down in the hotel before we left.  Josie had about a half hour meltdown that she was not going to wear tights and she could not walk at the funeral due to her knee injury.  Along came the tears and blotchy red face and all I am thinking is she needs to get it together because she is supposed to be taking the gifts up at the funeral mass with A.J. It is really a blur, but somehow we got her into the tights and calmed down.  Now add the pouring rain to the fun of our day.  Guess we should be thankful it wasn’t ice and snow.  The beginning of any funeral mass for those who aren’t familiar is the procession down the aisle of the church.  The pallbearers help wheel the casket which is covered with a drape followed by the immediate family of the deceased.  So picture this motley crew following behind Grandma’s casket: Josie holding A.J.’s aunt’s hand, A.J. carrying Sawyer and holding Jimmy’s hand.  Jimmy was also holding my mother-in-law’s hand.  Then I was in the very back holding Bart in his infant seat with the diaper bag draped over my other arm.  Bart was tucked snuggly under several toys and a burp cloth.  I could not have felt more awkward.  Then we get seated smack in the front row which is the usual for the family, but my children rarely even sit inside our church for masses, the cry room or the back lobby are our hot spots.  Jimmy and Sawyer are immediately drawn to the kneelers as well as the narrow table that is right in front of our pew leaning against it.  At one point Sawyer starts to climb and is halfway lying on this table.  I peel him back and decide to get the iPods out in hopes they will keep my wild boys quiet.  This trick worked well for a brief time until Sawyer saw A.J. go up to the lectern to give the eulogy.  He was yelling “Daddy!” and trying to run up to join A.J.  And of course this meant I took Sawyer to the back of the church for the eulogy.  Turns out Josie and A.J. did not have to take the gifts up before Communion as they were already up at the alter so our morning’s tights and walking debacle were all for naught.  After the funeral mass and the graveside service and burial, we went out to eat at a restaurant in the same town as the cemetery.  I wound up sitting by A.J.’s aunt who downed 3 Cosmos to my one.  Pretty sad being drunk under the table by an 87 year old! But I can say it was one of the best Cosmos I have ever had. 

On Sunday, before we were making our way back home, we had to stop at A.J.’s aunt’s house.  Before that we were trying to make it to mass closer to her house.  Well in our typical fashion, we took forever checking out of the hotel and getting the car packed.  We made it to mass with 15 minutes left.  I think God knows we were doing our best at this point.  Now this church is a beautiful old Italian Catholic church in Waterbury- Our Lady of Lourdes.  We have been there a couple times before and it has a replica of the grotto at Lourdes where Mary appeared.  This replica is built under the main alter of the church with stairs running down to it and a statue of Mary and a sort of prayer wishing well in front of Mary.  Every time we have gone to this church we go down to see the grotto after mass.  So we kept with our routine and headed down to the grotto.  There are ropes cordoning off the area where the statue of Mary and the replica of Lourdes was.  We give each of the kids change to throw into the fountain and I am busy digging in my wallet to get some for Jimmy when A.J. yelled: “Jesus Christ!  Get him!” and I look and sure enough there is Sawyer on the other side of the ropes dancing around the grotto dangerously close to the fountain.  I fumble to make my way behind the ropes and grab him as he is running away from me, taunting me with his impish grin and giggles.  The group of people at the top of the stairs by the grotto(which included three priests) all tried their best to ignore this spectacle and A.J.’s most unfortunate church outburst.  Amazingly no lightning bolts came down and struck Sawyer so clearly God has a great sense of humor too. 

Now we are back and this stomach bug has made its way through most of the house.  Ready for March to slow down to a lamb's lull and get back on track.