UTI, Oktoberfest, & Brunch

All week I'd been achy in my lower back. I chalked it up to growing a person and let it alone. The pain didn't go away and I noticed it felt worse when I was sitting with my back pressed to the back of the chair or when laying down. One afternoon, I went to the bathroom and noticed that not only was it a bit uncomfortable, but I saw blood. Immediately, I broke down crying. I thought I was at the start of another miscarriage. It took everything in me to pick myself up and take myself to a happy place. But then, after further investigation, (this is TMI) I realized that the blood wasn't coming from my womb. I was crying tears of joy for burning urination! What is wrong with me? Anyway, after a short visit with my massage therapist, she commented to me that I needed to make a doctor visit asap because she could feel my kidneys swelling. Off I scurried to the doc where, luckily, there wasn't any blood in my urine, but there were significant levels of leucocytes. By the way, I'm excited about my blood pressure 118 over 60. That's good, right? Anyway, she sent it off to be tested and also ordered a couple of blood tests to be sure we were all good. I'm not afraid of giving blood, but I've never had to give blood for a UTI. I was equipped with a pregnancy-safe antibiotic, where the pill is just as large as my prenatal. I've chugged so much cranberry juice, I don't need to wear lipstick, and my kidneys are no longer cussing me in foreign languages. Best of all, no burning urination and no blood either...AND a very happy Tesla nestled in for the long haul.


That night, we were going to check out the local balloon festival, but because of the rain we experienced, we opted to trek out to Oktoberfest. We don't miss it, so I was really excited that we were going for some sauerkraut!

It was hot and humid and I really wished that I would have worn my rain boots, but 'eh, it was fun! We took the stroller which was a total bust. Mari sat in it for about 15 minutes total. She really enjoyed the bratwurst and sauerkraut with mustard. She tolerated the turkey leg, but had the best time dancing and running in front of the VIP area with a small hill.

I was getting quite a bit light headed being in that tent, that it was time to go out again. I saved up most of my ticket stash for a full box of Helmut's Streudel - apricot, delish! We'd bought Mari an overpriced blinky necklace, but once she saw the rides, her face lit up! We had enough tickets leftover for her to ride 3 rides, but that would me that Don nor I could accompany her (parents had to pay to ride). This was quite a sacrifice to Don too because he gave up his beer tickets so Mari could ride. We were out of cash and the credit card ticket space was on the other side. Instead of buying more, we just made do. Here is the first ride:

It is a snazzy blue glittered motorcycle-4-wheeler that lit up and also made a honking noise when you pressed the button. She was really getting into it. Next up, she wanted to go to this dragon roller coaster, which looked awfully dangerous to me, and fortunately, she wasn't tall enough. That didn't matter, because there was this Nascar racetrack that the cars would race around and on the corners, would whip the passengers over with the force. I was REALLY hesitant for her to go on this ride. I kept hollering, "Hold the handle tight! Don't let go!" in my best mommy voice. I was really nervous!

She sat there in complete excited anticipation and when the ride started, she just stared off in a trance and in the noise of the ride, I could hear her faint voice masked. I couldn't tell if it was a shriek of laughter or terror. But then she came around the corner again and I saw her eyes brightly lit, radiant smile, head cocked back in sheer joy, and she was laughing with glee. She loved it. Stinkin' daredevil! As if I should have had any doubts!


Last up, was the carousel. Now every time Mari has ridden the carousel, she is very eager to ride it, but when it starts, I guess she gets spooked by horses moving around in a circle or something. She is usually very afraid and crawling up Don to escape. Remember, I said we didn't have enough tickets for us to ride. Luckily, the gentleman working the ride let Don go on and hold on to her. It was so nice! The ride started up and not only was she all smiles, but she even let go to happily wave at me from the ride. "hi mommy! Hi Mommy! HI MOMMY!!!"


We told her we were out of tickets and it was time to go home. She was fine with that. The entire way back to the car and in the car, she just kept saying, "I did it! I like the horsies! I like the cars! I go beep-beep-beep-beep! I ride the horse! I ride the car by myself! I did it!" This was definitely a good test for the fair! Definitely going to have to hit up half price ride night! (Sidenote: She's 37" tall, so she'll be able to ride the slide with me!!!)


The next morning, Don was getting up mighty early to get in a workout. I was hoping to sleep in, but once I heard and felt him moving around, my internal clock had me up and sneezing. I figured I could get in a good hour of work before Mari got up. I threw in my first load of laundry when I decided to lay down and put my feet up so I wouldn't wear out too early. After all, this was going to be a day of marathon-cleaning-cranberry-juice-drinking-water-chugging-massive-photo-editing! Oh yeah! No sooner had I propped myself up on pillow, that I had another sneezing fit. From the corner of the room, I heard a tiny voice say, "bless you mommy." "Come on in, sugabean!" She happily and sleepily made her way to the bed and climbed up. We snuggled for a bit when I handed her the iTouch to watch a movie while I prepped another load of laundry. After quite an adventurous hour of waiting for Daddy to get home, I called and he said he was finishing up and just had to stop for a coffee. 30 minutes after that, he still hadn't come home and I was worried. I called twice an no answer. My hyperactive imagination came up with all sorts of scenarios, so to calm them, I called our buddy that he went with and lucky for me, my beloved answered. Of course I barked at him some kind of mean remark, but I was mostly just upset at myself for conjuring up stupidity. (note to self: stop watching so much Fringe in the course of 3 days!) I let him know that Mari and I were going to have a breakfast date and he could join us. I was a hot mess, let me tell you. Sorry, no picture for you to revel but I was knocking on making Ghetto Red Hot's page. Needless to say, my attire was too fitting of a stereotype, especially to the semi-shi-shi brunch location we were headed towards. Frankly, I didn't care. I needed to get my grub on in the worst way and heck, at least my daughter looked great! The food, amazing. The service was spectacular and even when they cleared the table and took my overpriced cranberry juice away when I had to take Mari to the potty, the server gladly filled a to-go glass for me. Hooray! I was sad that Daddy didn't join us, but I was totally grateful that Mari and I had a mommy and me date. I need to appreciate these times, because not much longer will we get to have this completely dedicated time to ourselves so easily. I'm so grateful that she makes that precious time amazing!