Derby Day!...and the No Good, Very Bad Day Day

Derby Day is alway a favorite of mine.  I was born in March 1985 and my first trip to Louisville for the Derby was May 1985.  My parents had serious dedication...because I made it back every year after until my senior prom fell on the same day in 2003.  Then I made it back for a few years, bringing along friends and John... until we stayed home the year of our wedding...and then the next year I was pregnant with Rudy...and the next year I was pregnant with Avery...and this year I have two young kids and couldn't get up the energy to haul them to Louisville!  Sooo we decided to keep our Kentucky spirit here and celebrate the day with our close friends and family at home.  

We spent all week trying to get the outside of the house ready and cleaned up (things we have wanted to do for awhile, but nothing like inviting people over to motivate you to get going on the "to-do" list!)...the weather had been getting nice and we pictured the kids being able to play outside and the adults enjoying the courtyard and easy access in and out for food and the TV.  

But it rained.  And rained and rained and rained.  No big deal, right?  Right. 

But the rain wasn't the only downfall of the day...

It started with John having to decline an extra shift at work.  They called at 6:30 and wanted him there at 7, but of course he had to turn it down...which we hate for him to have to do considering how much extra money he gets for it.

After breakfast, John and Rudy were playing basketball in the living room.  Something they do just about every morning (and noon and night) when John says from the couch where Rudy brought him a ball, "I'm not even going to attempt to make this because I'll break a window" as he tosses it in the direction of the other balls and "CRASH!" -- broken window.

We got the glass picked up from inside and John went outside to pick up the rest of the glass and didn't notice that he stepped in a pile of Rufus poop and proceeded to track it through the house... the house that we had been up cleaning until 10:00 the night before.

Quick trip to Lowe's and Mr. Fix-It had the window boarded up.  He decided he was still going to take Rudy to the gym so I could shower and he could "run off some steam" -- which is what he was doing on the treadmill, at full speed, when the power went off...and well, I'm sure you can imagine how that went...

John comes home and finds my dad messing with the TV -- the TV that we are just figuring out does not have cable working (considering people were coming over to watch the TV, not great timing).  So he spends an hour or more on the phone with Comcast (which includes some threats of us canceling our service entirely) and climbing in the attic messing with cable wires.  But by noon, we were back on track!

By 2:00 we were all set up, kids were asleep, and John and I were able to spend an hour at the OTB making bets and relaxing before the party started (thanks to Gran for keeping watch of the kids) -- and we were determined not to let our morning ruin the day!

John couldn't help but bet on "Itsmyluckyday" to win the Derby...turns out it wasn't Itsmyluckyday's day either...

I had checked out the horses earlier in the week and initially liked "Orb" but when I found out it was the favorite, I thought, "I can't bet the favorite.  That's no fun..." even though I am always noticing orbs in pictures I take or am in and, much to John's annoyance, carry on every time I see one.  We were walking out of OTB and I said to John, "I kinda wish I would have just bet on Orb" and he said, "I kept waiting for you to say something about that.. you are obsessed with orbs."  

Guess who won???....ORB!    (Not picking the winner is no reason for a day to be considered 'bad' -- picking a derby winner is something I'd be happy to do once in my lifetime!)

We had a wonderful rest of the afternoon, thank goodness!  Lots of family and friends, good food, mint juleps, big hats, horse races and all good stuff that I love about the derby! 

 Avery was the object for photo attention.. Rudy doesn't sit still enough for many photos :)

...until Rudy came inside crying at 7:00.  Icing on the cake.  He was holding his left arm and kept pointing to it whenever we asked, "what hurts?"  We tried distracting him over and over again with anything and everything... phones, balls, candy...nothing worked.  He wouldn't use his left arm and if he did calm down and stop crying, whenever he went to use his arm, he'd start crying again.  Then it started to look red and slightly swollen.  This went on for about 45 minutes and the consensus among everyone still around was that we had better take him to get checked.  Nothing like leaving your own party on a Saturday night to take your kid to the ER.  

About 10:00 we are sitting in a room at St. John's and it was as if Rudy had been miraculously healed.  Out of no where he wanted down and used his arms to try and climb on the bed, without crying or acting agitated at all.  Then he was a monkey in there -- wanting to climb, touch, and see everything, laughing, having a great time.  My germ-o-phobe mode kicked in and if he was acting this way and not in pain, I wanted out.  And John was never convinced anything was wrong in the first place, thought Rudy was probably sore from falling but carrying on because he was just tired and so many people were around...needless to say he had no interest in sticking around either.  We hadn't even been seen by a nurse yet.  Had we already had x-rays I'm sure we would have hung around just to make sure, but we would have been there all night at the pace things were moving.  There was no way Rudy would fall asleep there and all of us were losing patience trying to contain Rudy to sitting with us...so we left.  And Rudy hasn't acted phased or hurt in the slightest bit.  Kid is incredible.

Something tells me this won't be our last trip to the ER with this guy, so might as well document it, right?

On the bright side, we came home to a completely picked up and cleaned house thanks to our family and friends that were around when we left.  That really was the icing on the cake.  Really good icing on really good cake.  

By the end of the night, I was laughing at the absurdity of the day.  Things could have been much worse, no doubt, but we just couldn't catch a break!  Oh well...memories.  I love a good memory and this Derby Day will not be forgotten!  

Oh and I woke up with only one of my earrings.  My favorite earrings that I have worn just about every day for the last 3+ years.  I could be hopeful that it is somewhere in our house, but I'm going to be reasonable and just take it as another loss for the day.