72 hours at my house I don't EVER need to repeat.

It all started with Cait and her ear infection. That I thought (see previous post) was bad right? Oh no. It only got worse from there.

Wednesday afternoon, Randy got home from a trip around 3. Renee, Randy's sister called. She immediately asked for Randy (very unusual if not completely unheard of). I watched Randy listen intently and shake his head yes a few times. He seemed to go a little white. He hung up the phone with her and proceeded to tell me that has dad went to the little hospital by his house and was airlifted to St. Louis with chest pains. So without knowing exactly what was going on, Randy repacked, made plans with Renee and headed BACK to the airport. WHAT A GREAT COMPANY HE WORKS FOR. They made sure Renee was on a "must fly" ticket instead of stand-by and they were on the 7:15 flight to St. Louis. By the time they boarded, they had found out he was headed to by-pass surgery. He made it fine through surgery, but through the night he was on a ventilator and some sort of bubble that pumps the blood for him (only technical terms for me). Randy, Renee and Rochelle stayed through the night at the hospital. Needless to say they didn't get too many hours of sleep.

Thursday. They started weening him from the bubble and ventilator early Today. So I get up and get ready this morning. Madison has a dentist appointment and it takes about 45 minutes to get to it, so we had to get moving to get there by 10. I got in the car and headed out. I was talking to my dad to update him on Randy's dad's progress and I got another call. I let him go to answer it and this is how the call and the next couple of minutes went down.

Operator: This is a 911 operator. Katie (more on her story)has ask that we call you and ask you to contact her on her cell phone. Becca has had a medical emergency.

Me: Okay, thank you. (seriously, that is all I had to say? Dumb ass)

Thirty seconds later. (and mind you I am 40+ minutes away from her)It processes fully through my brain. My legs were shaking so badly, I probably shouldn't have been driving and especially not on the windy road I was on. I instinctively thought if she was calling me, John was probably already flying. So I called Randy (poor guy was just bombarded) I rattled off to him he needed to call whomever to get John out of the jet and to the hospital. Then I try Katie again, and just the answering machine. Then, NO FREAKIN' signal. I as general rule know this road doesn't have signal strength, but I wasn't thinking rationally since I was moving away from Katie instead of towards her. Finally after what seemed like FOREVER, I finally got a signal again and got a hold of Katie. They were in the ambulance and headed to the hospital, Becca was alert, so I started breathing again. We proceeded to the dental appointment (which seriously took less than 15 minutes and Madison did great with.) and headed back home. John had called to update me, so I knew things were looking up. We came into the house and the first thing my kids do is yell for Abby (the dog). She tends to sleep on my bed while we are gone. She started down the stairs (they got wiped down with pledge...) and the next thing I hear is her crashing down MANY of the stairs. Abby seems to be okay, I think it scared her as much as it did me. I am just very thankful Madison or Cait weren't waiting there at the bottom. That is usually where they call for her. I thought maybe we should all sit on the couch with our hands in our lap and not move, because the way the days had been going, who knows what else could have happened.

Now, I must say, that although none of this happened directly to me, it was very scary to have so much go wrong to so many people close to me. I can't even start to imagine how Randy (and sisters), Katie and John, and kind of Abby for that matter, felt. Everyone of them handled themselves VERY well and should be very proud of how they reacted under pressure. I am very happy to report that as of right now, EVERYONE of these stories is looking toward a happy ending. (I am sure prayers would still be gladly accepted for anyone who would like to!)

So what am I taking from this.. Things change in an instant. HANG ON DEARLY TO EVERY MINUTE YOU CAN(even the whiny toddler ones ). Be grateful for what you have. Sounds cheesy right? Although I can't seem to live by it always, it is DEFINITELY something to keep reminding myself about.

We are hoping for a very boring day tomorrow!