I just can't get it together

in my head, I can't help but compare the other kids to Nolan.  it's not fair.  this is making me a worse mom!!!!  I have had so many people tell me how what happened to Nolan has made them a better mom.  yet, me, the one who lost my son???? i'm a much worse mom now.  i'm angry and sad all the time.  I yell.  I disappear into myself.  this made me a worse mom.  how can there be a God when this stuff happens?  There is no reason for this.  there is no purpose to this.  i'm miserable.

taco bell

We ate taco bell for lunch today.  It was the first time since the day before Nolan's death.... on Dec 30, we went to church.  We were minus daddy, but plus a friend of ciara s.  We drove her home after mass.  Nolan sat in the front seat, next to me.  The kids were thrilled with my announcement of lunch at taco bell.  Daddy hates taco bell, so we don't have it too often.  Nolan had two bean burritos, his favorite.

Today, we went through the busy drive through and all I could think of was the last time we were there... how 24 hours later my world had come crashing down....  taco bell.... forever I will think of it as part of my last day on earth with my precious son.

so many things that will never happen

so my dear sweet husband kind of messed up on my 40th birthday (don't think he even realizes it)... but you know, it was the big 4-0 and i wanted something special... either an a) surprise party or b) a surprise vacation... he got me knives.  yes, i had wanted some nice knives.  so in that respect, he did fine.  but that was more of a 39th bday gift of a 41st.  so... i had thought to myself, i am going to make myself clear that iw ant something special for my 50th.  something big like an a) surprise party or b) a surprise vacation... now that nolan is gone, i honestly don't care.  granted.  that is 7 years from now.  but for one thing, my birthday is nolan's birthday.  that will always take precendence over my day.  so a big 50th bday for me?  or a memorial for nolan who should be turning 20 on that day.... see?  no fiftieth bday for me.

another thing i had really, really hoped to do.... i wanted to redo our marriage vows maybe at 20th anniversary... and i wanted it special.  a party.  all of our friends and family.  our kids up there with us.  our kids.  up there.  as we redo our vows.  and now???? how could i do that and think that it felt right???? a party with our whole family WITHOUT NOLAN?????  how can that happen? 

those are both selfish things... things for ME that i have dreamed of.....  of course, there are all the many, many things that i think of about nolan... things that won't happen.

there's a girl we know through our catholic homeschool group.  for some reason, i just had this thought of "he's going to marry her".... and now???  anytime I see her, when i see her post things of fb, when i hear from her mom about things... right now, not a big deal... but when she actually does get married????? i'm going to be crushed.  

Nolan will never marry. 

Nolan will never have a first kiss.

Nolan will never graduate from high school or college.

Nolan will never get a first job.

Nolan will never drive a car (though he did often sit on daddy's lap & help drive). 

Nolan will never go to Europe (hell, at this rate, neither will I)

Nolan will never be a father. 

It's all so heartbreaking... I can't stand it. 

food

food makes me sad....

i used to cook 32 ounce package of spagetti every friday night & have to make sure everyone  had enough.  nolan would be going back for 3rds and 4ths and then IF there was any leftover, IF, he would be snacking on it later that night or the next day for breakfast... There was never too much pasta.  every week lately, i have had to throw away leftovers.  this week, i made 24 ounces instead of my usual 32.  still threw away a lot.  i guess Nolan was really the only one who would eat it so much the next day...

i made fish tacos last night, one of our family favorites.  granted, i didn't bread the fish, and that is everyone's favorite way, but still, they all love fish tacos, period.  not only did we have enough leftovers for lunch, we ate lunch and STILL have some leftover.  i miss my growing 13 year old boy who would be upset when we were out of fish because he wanted more. 

the other night we had dinner a some friends' house.  I made some bruschetta and roasted some goat cheese with fresh tomatoes & basil.  Nolan would have been thrilled.  He loves goat cheese.  He's always been the only one to love goat cheese of my kids, though Ciara and Logan were snacking on it at the Harrison's house.  Nolan also was my only feta cheese eater.... I was sad when I bought the goat cheese on Saturday. 

nolan, the one who didn't want jelly on his peanut butter sandwiches... i make them almost every friday for co-op lunch.  i'm sad when i don't have to remember to make one without jelly. 

Nolan would snack on saltines and peanut butter, i don't see anyone else doing that lately.  He'd eat a couple hard-boiled eggs as a snack or breakfast.... I haven't even been making hard-boiled eggs lately. 

Everything is so different.  My entire life has been altered.  Even the mundane like grocery shopping and cooking... Doing dishes.  I picture Nolan in the kitchen doing dishes.  he hated it.  But he did it. 

am i ever going to sleep easy?

every single morning i wake up scared... scared to check on my children... scared that one of them will be dead.  it's a horrifying way to live, really.  is that every going to fade?  i just don't see how it will... i honestly think that will be how i wake up every morning for the rest of my life... every night i go to sleep thinking of the same thing, but i also go to sleep worrying that i may be the one to die and then they would find me and be further traumatised.  what a terrible way to fall asleep each night.  i know many of you out there would just say that i need to pray, and yes, i know i do.  but that is just hard right now.  I tell my daughter not to worry so much... I know I am worried too.  Even more than she is because I understand genetics. 

the good, the bad, yeah, mostly the bad.... sorry

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I don't want to inundate my friends on Facebook with my grief, my sorrow, my pain.  I have always kind of lived out loud on fb from sharing my children's exploits to my adventures in the kitchen to my passion for lord of the rings.... my statuses have ranged from mundane (guess what I had for dinner) to exciting (it's a girl#!)...  the death of Nolan hasn't been something I have talked about in my little status updates each day on fb.  oh I have a couple times briefly... of course, but not only is it just too much sorrow to share like that, but I really don't want everyone to feel sad....I know I'm going to have that effect now on people.  when they see me, for a long time, they will feel sad.  sometimes, random crazy bereaved mom thought, when I'm in a public place and I feel the heaviness in my heart and behind my eyes, I want to walk up to strangers and say, my son just died....he was 13 and we still don't know what happened.... but I don't.... I watch the strangers going on with their lives....I scan their faces to see if I see any signs of sorrow.   if I see an elderly person, I especially look at them....they have had more time to experience something tragic. wonder why I want strangers to know my sadness....

perhaps it is my anger at the world for going on....how dare these people lead a normal life when my precious son was taken from me.  or maybe it is simply that I am consumed by sorrow.  consumed.this anguish taints the entire world now.


so writing here, living out loud, I can say a little more about my thoughts and feelings than I can on fb.  and if someone wants to read it, it is here.... but no one has to

were there symptoms and we missed it?

I will always question some of my choices that I made concerning Nolan...  I think twice he told me he had a pain or just feeling in his chest.  not super recently, but within a few months.  both times I asked him to do his inhaler and asked if it felt like asthma.he did not continue to complain.  so I chalked it up to nothing.  my kids always have been slightly paranoid about every physical symptom.  so as a mom,I have tried to make them fear not.  because most of the time it is nothing....I now wonder if I had taken him to the Dr, if he would still be here.  did his chest still hurt and he just didn't tell me?  did he think . that he didn't want to bother me?

also, my memory stinks, but I think the night before we lost my precious boy, he told me something was bugging him when I said it was time to do dishes..... I cannot remember what now.  why can't I remember????   sometimes the kids do that though when it is time for a chore.  so I said "it is a good thing there aren't a lot of dishes then."  the thing is, he didn't complain the rest of the night.  he watched a movie, said prayers with daddy, ate a bunch of food..... I think he would have mentioned it if something was still bugging him. and he did act fine all evening.  what if though???
what an absolute epic failure I am if those three times had to do with this horribly wrong mysterious death???????????     and why can't I remember his exact words from that night???

see Liam has also complained of chest stuff here and there....but always briefly.  and we always thought it was nothing because it stopped quickly.  since this hell started, we had Liam have a huge cardiac checkup... everything looked fine, but we still have more checking to do.  one night his chest hurt and I made Patrick take him to er.  he was fine.  they said it was his chest muscles, not his heart.. how do you know though?  now I feel like I must take my kids for every little symptom.
when Nolan had a big mole on his shoulder a couple years ago, he was convinced he had skin cancer and was so scared. he was so paranoid for awhile about any Sun touching his shoulder.  we really had to work to make him not be scared.  he had the mole removed, it was fine.  but he was a little hypochondriac-ish.  so you see, for mental health, I always tried to make my kids NOT worry when they had a headache, tummy ache, chest ache....  I thought I was being a good mom.

I should say that I am a hypochondriac of sorts.  and when the kids would complain of symptoms, I would worry.... but I'd tell myself to chill out...the kids were healthy, nothing to worry about. I'm saying this all in past tense...I still worry, even more so now.  I have always worried about health stuff in me and my kids... yet here we are.

the kids will tell me every time something"feels funny"..... like a strange ache in the shoulder, a tummy ache, sore finger....  what if some THING that felt funny with Nolan was IT.....the cause of this anguish.  what if my attempts to stop my kids from being hypochondriac s were the cause if missing something important????? what if Nolan just didn't want to bother me?  what have I done wrong to make him think he is a bother????   I'm always distracted, busy, tired, grumpy.....  what if he just did not want to bother me....  I feel so responsible for his death.  I feel like i should have known.  I feel like I missed something.  I'm his mom.  it is my job to keep him safe.  I failed