The Expected, the Unexpected, and the Unbelievable

We are home from our little family trip.  A little over two weeks ago we drove to Boyne Mountain MI (northern MI) where we had a nice family reunion with my family.  Then we drove to my parents house near Detroit.  We stayed there for a few days and then drove to my sister's house in Cincinnati.  We stayed there for a few days then drove to Peoria, IL.  We stopped for the night and then finally, finally drove home, home sweet home.  In total for this trip we were in the car for 39 hours, 46 if you count in stops for gas, bathroom, lunch, playing, etc and so on.  That's a lot of hours for small bodies that have large amounts of energy.

The following is a list of things that were pretty much Expected:
- Behaviors rapidly deteriorated the longer we were in the car.  And really, it wasn't just the four and under crowd.
- No one took a nap lasting longer than an hour.
- My girls are either totally quiet and just chilling, or completely off the walls and screaming.  Is that typical, or do other kids have a middle range volume setting?

The following is a list of Unexpected things that happened:
- Hallie apparently gets carsick.  Sorry kiddo.
- Hanna, for no apparent reason that we could discern, vomited all over the car.
- I can pump a bottle for Heather and drive at the same time.  I make no apologies to passing cars for what they may or may not have seen.  I mean, I try to be discreet, but I'm driving and keeping my family alive is more important, so yeah.

The following is a list of what happened that is not only unexpected, but patently Unbelievable:
- I have a hernia sized bump on my belly button.
- It gives me hernia sized pain.
- I tried not to cry hernia induced tears all day today.

But really?  Is this even possible or is there some other totally logical, totally reasonable explanation that I am overlooking in my insane desire to NOT have surgery again three weeks after I had surgery - to fix this very problem?  Because if that is the case, please let me know what it could be.  I would be more than happy to hear that I have a colony of bugs living in my belly, or a very tiny alien baby, or a growth of hard fat cells.  Any of those are totally legitimate, not hernia, reasons for having what otherwise looks and feels exactly like a hernia, right?

So right.  Right. Right. Right.

Actually, I wouldn't really be what you might call "happy" to hear that it was one of those things, but I would be maybe, "glad to have it be NOT exactly the same thing that they just messed me up in order to fix" (painkillers really make you feel messed up, don't they? I don't actually understand how anyone can become addicted to them?)

Ok, so really, if you know what it seriously could be, you'd let me know wouldn't you?  Because there are so many many many things I'd rather spend my money on that isn't another surgery.  Would you like a list of those things?

Things I'd rather spend my money on than have surgery:
- A couch
- Kitchen Chairs
- Nice pictures hanging on my walls
- Pretty flowers in my yard
- A bed frame
-  Books
- Clothes
- Music
- A college education for my babies
- A trip to Europe with Al
- Getting a master's degree in Children's Literature
- A new computer

Oh wait, cross that last one off. We just bought one of those.

And so, in closing, the trip was great, it was marvelous to see everyone, the drive wasn't too bad except when we had to pull into the adult bookstore to clean up Hanna because there wasn't anywhere else to stop, and now maybe I have a hernia but maybe it is something else, and we have a new computer coming in the mail.