Tim and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Vacation

Ever since Christmas, we've been planning for, and looking forward to, a Spring visit from Tim. He decided not to come at Christmas, because he would only get to see his niece and nephew - Clara and Robert - for one day, and he wanted to come when he could spend more time with them.

He finally settled on coming May 13 through May 22. I made hotel reservations in San Antonio, so we could go have some fun there before heading to Katy to visit with Chris, Kelsey and the kids. We'd spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning in Katy, giving Tim lots of time with them. What Dan and I were most excited about was that we'd all get to attend a concert that Clara would be performing in on Saturday, as a member of the Katy ISD Elementary Honor Choir.

You know that old adage that begins: "The best laid plans of mice and men . . . " Well, Tim's visit was living proof of that.

Tuesday before he arrived (on Saturday), I came down with a terrible upper respiratory bug. It laid me flat. I was feverish, had a headache, coughed day and night, had a sore throat, and was short of breath and light headed. I finally went to the doctor on Thursday. She did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia and a strep test. Both were negative. She sent me home with a couple of prescriptions to help control my cough and help me sleep. All I wanted was to be well by the time Tim arrived on Saturday.

By Thursday afternoon, Dan started having the same symptoms. When Saturday arrived, I convinced myself that I was feeling better. I had an important meeting to attend that afternoon, so Dan pulled himself up by his bootstraps and made the trip to the Austin airport to get Tim. We all got back home about the same time.

The next day was Mother's Day. Tim and I went to church, while Dan stayed in bed, realizing that he wasn't even close to being over his illness. I really wasn't well yet, either, but I was in denial, knowing I had to make the best of Tim's visit. Tim enjoyed visiting our new congregation, in Salado, and meeting some of our friends. But we didn't do anything special for Mother's Day, since Dan was at home in bed, and I really wasn't feeling that well, either.

Dan and I tried our best to avoid passing on our germs, but that just wasn't in our control. By Tuesday Tim came down with the same bug. We ended up canceling our hotel reservations in San Antonio, but held out hope that we could still go to Katy later that week and see the kids. On Friday I might have been well enough to go, but neither Dan nor Tim could have made it. Our last chance to go came on Saturday morning. We could have gone just for a one-night stay, and gotten to attend the concert. I asked Tim, who I knew would be most disappointed at not seeing the kids, what he thought we should do. I was proud of him; he very unselfishly replied, "The responsible thing is not to go." I knew he was right. Sharing these germs with the Katy Judds would have been wrong, so we let Kelsey know that we were not coming. We kept our germs at home and talked with the kids via Skype that evening. Kelsey said Clara's choir performance was amazing. We ordered a video recording.

On Sunday, I was the only one well enough to go to church. And on Monday, we all drove to Austin to put Tim on the plane and send him home to Albuquerque, probably back to 75 percent wellness.

I felt so bad for Tim. He had taken his vacation days to come see us and to be with the kids, and all he did was get sick and try to get well. Even a one-day visit with Clara and Robert at Christmas would have been better than this. It wasn't what any of us wanted. As Dan said, at the airport, "We'll have to do this again . . . without getting sick."

No pictures to post. They wouldn't have been pretty pictures!