The End

If I had been alone in the car, I would have had the window down, and my podcast MUCH louder. (Surprisingly the podcasts are better for holding my attention, since I can just zone out singing along to music.) I was tired. Exhausted. Drained. Done. I'm weaving in the lanes, but figure hey, I'm still on the road... As we are nearing Bismarck I see a sign saying 83 South, this way. I have a moment where I'm freaking out thinking I had nodded off and missed the sign for 83 North. Eventually I see that the road I'm on is 94W/83N and am okay. Whew. Keep your eyes OPEN, woman!

I make it through Bismarck. I'm thinking to myself how awfully small it looks, for being a capital city. Somewhere outside of Bismarck, not sure where, I come to a small town. The highway is 70 until you hit there, then it drops to 45, and then 35. My eyes must have been closed when I hit the 35 sign, because until then I had seen them all. The roads are utterly deserted, and really have been since I got out of that St Paul traffic. I see a cop car sitting in a median, and then as I near it, the lights go on. Ahhh crap. Not too sure if it's me he is pulling over, I sort of slow waaaaaaaayyy down and then go over to the side when I see he's still behind me. Did I say I was tired? Lochlan had been crying for the last 20 minutes, but I hadn't wanted to pull over and get his pacifier situated because I was hoping his cries would help keep me awake. (Boy, this is really making me not look like a good mommy.)

I hop out of the van to check on him, and the cop is telling me I need to be in the car... but he lets me check on Lochlan once he realizes what is up. I was going 59 in a 35MPH zone. Hmm. I got a ticket. It's only $12. That's nuts. I've been driving for almost 5 years and have never had a ticket or accident until now. Boo on me for ruining my perfect record!

Ugh. I made it home okay after that. I will never again make a drive like that. At least not with Lochlan in the car.

After all that though, I am so thankful I came home when I did. Wednesday, the day I was originally going to come home, we had a huge amount of snowfall. And wind. And I don't think I would have made it home if we left then. We would have been who knows where waiting for who knows how long, because even after the snow stopped falling, the roads would have been really dangerous to drive on.

Now for the downside of my mom's visit. She managed to get some sort of bug that she passed on to Sully and Caayn, and possibly Lochlan. They all have fevers, and possibly kidney pains (its hard to know where and what hurts on a toddler), sore throats, headaches... Sully is flat out miserable. He won't eat anything, but he's hungry. And to top it off he is still constipated. Lochlan is just passed out. He has been ever since we got home. He'll wake up to eat, get a diaper change, make sure he is being held, and then passes back out.

So yep. That's my story.