Christmas, In-laws Edition

Saturday afternoon, after the kids had a chance to play with their new toys for awhile, we headed out to Scott's parents' for the actual Christmas holiday. The kids travel quite well now, watching The Polar Express on the travel DVD player we were given last year for Christmas. We only had to stop once for a potty break, so we arrived in about 2 hours, in plenty of time for dinner.

The kids actually slept pretty well the first few nights, even though Anna was coughing pretty bad and all three were sharing a room. Scott and I slept in the basement in a bedroom immediately under the kids, so we could hear if they needed anything. I use the term "slept" loosely however, as my cough was just as bad as Anna's and has gotten or kept me up every night for the past week and a half. I'm halfway through my second bottle of Robitussin and have yet to go 24 hours without needing at least one dose.

The kids enjoyed visiting Mamaw and Papaw's church, and the adults enjoyed not having to push to get everyone dressed and fed and out the door early -- they combined all their services into one an hour later than usual.

On Christmas Eve, my mother-in-law's family has always come over for a big shindig. This year they are grieving the sudden loss of her niece, my mother-in-law's sister's daughter. So the celebration was somewhat more muted than usual, but they did still come. We only gave gifts to the kids this year, instead of exchanging between siblings. All of us have had pretty significant financial challenges this year and agreed that we'd just buy for the nieces and nephews and of course, the parents. Despite all the excitement (Sam got the movie "Cars" which has been his dream since it came out this summer and Elli got quite a collection of My Little Ponies), the kids slept again. I will confess to not emphasizing the fact that that night was Christmas Eve and there would be more gifts in the morning.

Christmas morning Mamaw and Papaw, aka "Santa," gave their gifts to the kids and grandkids. This year Mamaw simplified things and gave each of us Visa gift cards in addition to a few smaller items. Scott and I immediately knew what we'd do -- the left side of our surround sound burned out a few weeks ago, so we went out and bought a new receiver the next day.

The hit gift for the kids was a drum set and guitar my niece received from her mom. All the kids enjoyed playing the instruments, forming an impromptu band in the dining room. It was cute enough that I almost thought about buying Anna drums for her 2nd birthday in a few months. Almost.

The day after Christmas, Scott's mom volunteered to watch the kids so we could go out shopping and have some time alone. This hasn't happened in weeks and weeks because of the busyness of the holidays and how sick everyone has been, so we jumped at the chance. We needed to make a few exchanges and wanted to find a receiver, so we took off after lunch and spent the evening shopping and had dinner out with Scott's sister. It was a much-needed break for us and we thoroughly enjoyed having an uninterrupted conversation early enough in the day that we could speak intelligently to one another!

That evening, Elli took a brief, 20 minute catnap before dinner. That nap resulted in a two and a half hour battle of the wills over going to sleep for the night. We talked. We prayed. We spanked. We ignored. We used her Dynavox to find out what she wanted, which was the whole bedtime routine. We did the bedtime routine. We moved her out into the living room on an air mattress so the other two kids at least could sleep. Finally, at 1:30am, she finally gave it up and we staggered off to bed.

These nighttime battles with Elli are becoming more and more common. I really don't know why we can't seem to get through to her that even if she isn't tired (because I know we can't force someone to go to sleep short of tranquilizers), she must be quiet so everyone else can sleep. Maybe it's that she's 6 and just doesn't give a rip about anyone else. I don't know. But it's definitely our biggest challenge to date with her.

On a positive note, that was the worst part of the whole visit, so all in all, we had a great Christmas! I enjoyed the break from cooking and the extra sleep (sort of -- I got to sleep in anyway!), and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins and spending time with their grandparents.

Part three of the holidays begins tomorrow when my parents arrive. We'll celebrate Christmas and New Years with them and my sister, and we're all looking forward to that. I just hope that we don't pass along a ton of germs -- Elli has a new cold and I feel like I'm getting a new one too. Nobody look -- I'm walking around the house with a tissue stuffed up my nose to catch the drips so I can function!

Chuckles

Last night we had barbequed chicken for dinner. I poured some extra barbeque sauce onto my plate to dip my chicken in.

Sam noticed and asked, "Mom? Can I have some of that chicken syrup too?"

----

We read an advent book each night of December through Christmas this year. Each page had several figures that we popped out, one a night, to create our own nativity scene on the table. We only read up to the day that we were on.

Last week we reached the last page. The second night we read that page, Scott read that the shepherds went out from the manger. There he stopped, asking Sam if he remembered what the shepherds had told everyone.

Sam replied, "To pay their taxes."

----

Christmas Day Scott's mom made two kinds of pie for dessert, pumpkin and banana cream. Elli was the only child who stuck it out long enough at the meal to see the adults start to dip into the dessert (the others either tuckered out and needed naps or hurried off to play as soon as they had eased their hunger!). Papaw helped himself to a large piece of banana cream pie, and Elli, who misses nothing, watched every step he took back to the table.

Then she started turning on the charm, smiling this really sweet, butter-him-up smile and bouncing up and down in her wheelchair. Mamaw swung her Dynavox back up within reach, and Elli went straight to dessert. I had updated the page with both kinds of pie, which just tickled her to death. When she found "banana cream pie," she said it over and over and laughed with such delight that she got the whole group of us laughing with her.

----

Two night ago, Scott and I started watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Last night we finished the Fellowship of the Ring, but neither of us remembered to put the disc away before we went to bed.

This morning, Sam asked if he could watch "Cars" which he got for Christmas. Scott agreed, and since Sam knows how to use all our equipment, he got the DVD out and opened our DVD player. As soon as he saw the LOTR disc, he frowned and asked, "Who's been in my house and watching THIS?"

Did You Miss Me?

It's been a busy nine days, but it's also been a good break from the normal routine.

Elli was so excited about Christmas and her parties at school Friday that she would not sleep Thursday night. We finally moved her out into the family room at 1:30am so that at least the rest of us could get some sleep. She woke back up at 6am, so we bundled her off to school with a plea not to let her sleep there. At all. And we didn't tell the kids that we were planning to let them open presents from us the next morning, lest none of them sleep Friday night!

Fortunately, Scott was off Friday so he came to Sam's "Jesus' Birthday Party" at preschool with us that morning. Sam was the best cow ever to grace a preschool manger scene. And the eleventh-hour cow costume Scott and I whipped together the night before turned out pretty well!

Friday night we had some excitement with Anna. She has been sick for a few weeks now, and that afternoon I took her to the doctor because she suddenly spiked a fever and her cough got worse. They put her on a strong antibiotic. We're not sure if the antibiotic did it, or if she had a 12-hour flu, but she started vomiting around 11pm and didn't fall back to sleep until 1am. So we started the weekend on a severe sleep deficit. She woke up right as the rain the next morning and no-one else got it, much our to our relief!

Despite the physical challenges of sick kids and little sleep, "Christmas morning" was a lot of fun for us. We set up this teepee and tunnel set we got the kids for the basement and tossed in these Winnie-the-Pooh pillows we got for each child (Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet). Sam and Anna have really enjoyed crawling through the tunnels and playing in the tent and teepee.

I bought this toy both for our kids and for the kids who will be coming over every Wednesday night starting next week. We're hosting a midweek prayer and fellowship night and the kids will be playing in the basement while the adults pray together upstairs.

As I predicted, Sam claimed Tigger and Anna claimed Pooh, so Elli has Piglet.






Elli's favorite gift was the computer we bought her with some help from Mamaw, Papaw, and the county. We set it up and loaded some games for her the night before. She was delighted, and asks to play it every day now. In fact, she was torn between staying home to play games and leaving the computer to go to Mamaw and Papaw's house. Normally, either grandparents' house is the hands-down winner!



All three kids are excited about the computer games, as you can see. They were captivated by "Blue's Room" and Sam is quite a good helper for Elli.










This concludes part one. I'll have to post the rest of our Christmas in two more parts as I have time. We're still laboring under an onslaught of germs. Anna and I both are still getting over a nasty cough, and last night Elli launched into a new cold. So far no signs of lice or chicken pox, though!

Quote of the Day

Scott and I were enjoying sitting together at the dinner table tonight after everyone was done eating. He leaned over to give me a hug and then noticed that Sam was watching us.

"I love Mommy, " he said to Sam.

"I do too," Sam exclaimed with a grin.

He paused. Then...

"Ok. I think that's enough, Dad."





Later, Scott asked Sam what he would think if Scott kissed me.

"I don't think that would be very good," he grumbled.

We leaned in for a kiss.

"Bluhhhhhh!" He made a fake puking sound and dove under the table.

Excuse me, but I thought this boy was only 4! Isn't it a bit early for this kind of behavior?!

A New Nadir

na·dir (nā'dər, -dîr') (from the American Heritage Dictionary at dictionary.com) n.

1. Astronomy A point on the celestial sphere directly below the observer, diametrically opposite the zenith.
2. The lowest point: the nadir of their fortunes.

Actually, I think this marks several new nadirs.

1. I had to lock myself in my room to get the privacy I needed to change my clothes yesterday. At which point, Anna threw herself on the floor screaming and kicking my door. So I went into our bathroom and turned on the vent fan so I couldn't hear her.
2. I was up with each of the three kids last night... at different times. I think I got less sleep than when I breastfed them as babies! Anna has a mysterious wake-up-3-4-times-between-midnight-and-2am ailment. Sam wanted to sleep with us in our bed, and when I refused, asked me to sleep in his bed with him. Not sure what that was about! Elli woke up at 5:30am with severe diarhhea and is home from school.
3. Speaking of sickness, we've attained a new maximum in the number of communicable diseases we've been exposed to or contracted in the last two weeks:
1. Head lice
2. Chicken Pox
3. Diarhhea and fever (stomach flu?)
4. Multiple varieties of head colds
5. Hives (? -- haven't heard yet what the dr said to the mother about this one!
6. Strep throat

I think it's been over a week since I slept through the night without interruption. If it isn't the kids needing a hug or some medicine, it's Scott and I coughing and sniffling and unable to breathe from congestion. And somehow, every single night for the last 5, the second, and I mean the literal second, I finally get past the I-just-laid-down coughing and drift into sleep, someone wakes up crying or coughing or comes barging into our room. Without fail. And repeatedly for a couple of hours. Two nights ago I sat up in bed with a knitting project rather than endure the endless cycle for another hour. I wake up and trudge back to bed with the same prayer in my head, "Please God... let them sleep. Let me sleep." Or when I'm really tired, it's truncated to simply, "Please God... please God..."

Needless to say, I've scaled back my expectations for the week. Everything has now been reassigned to "if" status. If Elli recovers, if no-one breaks out in chicken pox (we got the vaccines, but I've heard some kids are still getting a few spots), if the entire family isn't puking our guts out in another 24 hours... There's nothing quite like the uncertainty of flying by the seat of your pants during the holiday season.

Don't get me wrong -- I love this time of year and it's been such a joy to teach the kids through our Advent calendar about the story of Jesus' birth and hear them pray (Anna and Elli started praying on their own this week -- it's SO precious). It's just really hard to be an energetic, creative, enthusiastic, fun wife and mother when I'm so physically run down. I guess God is working on breaking my self-reliance!

We interrupt the holiday craziness to bring you...

these silly kids.

The Amazing Wrestles-Bears-as-Big-as-Herself Anna


Sam, the Cat-Taming Clown
(Anna spotted him wearing her coat and flipped out,
so this act wasn't a big hit with her!)

Just a Wee Bit Overwhelmed

Yesterday the sheer mass of what remains to be done in the next ten (well, nine if you figure we have to be ready by Christmas Eve when we leave for my in-laws' home) days knocked me on my rear end. With flu, colds, school stuff, church stuff, still getting used to the new house and its monthly bills, a super-secret project in the works (more info to come... stay tuned), work stuff (Did I mention my boss is leaving after 18 years? We're scrambling to get everything out of her brain and onto paper before she leaves.), and me still trying to stay on top of managing this household... well, it got away from me altogether. I now have late fees piling up (wonder how high your library fine has to get before they revoke your card?) and lots of things falling through the cracks.

Just 2 1/2 weeks ago I was on top of everything. Unbelievable how fast things can turn around. Hopefully I can turn it all back around with some nose-to-the-groundstone dedicated work over the next week-plus.

So I'm going to be blowing my nose, doing laundry, finishing decorating the Christmas tree (it's only taken a week so far!), finishing my shopping, wiping other people's noses, wrapping gifts, working on our special project, making gifts frantically (I have one super-special one that I've got to work on every spare moment if I have a chance of getting it done on time), making music schedules for church, packing, making a cow costume for Sam's preschool Christmas play, practicing for the church Christmas program on Sunday night, cleaning the house, and trying to keep on top of the mountain of paperwork that threatens to bury us daily.

Probably not blogging.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and Happy New Year to you all! May you get everything done you need to, enjoy this special time with your families and friends, and remember what it is we're celebrating in the first place.

It's Really 3:50am

I've been up with Anna for over an hour, waiting for cold medicine to take effect. The poor girl has had this dry, hacking cough for 2 days now, and it seems resistant to medicine. At the same time, it produces nothing. She was so tired initially that she managed to sleep about 6 hours without any medicine at all, but as soon as the sleep deficit was gone, the coughing set back in. She has no choice but to zonk out now, after my special desperation-induced cocktail of Triaminic Night-time Cold and Cough, Tylenol's Simply Stuffy (this is a great knock-out drug -- straight pseudoephedrine), and Delsym 12-hour cough suppressant. The Triaminic has different active ingredients than the other two, so don't you worry about me double-dosing her on anything.

Meanwhile, I can feel myself sliding further and deeper into the muck of my own cold. It was inevitable after Anna poked her slimy germ-riddled finger into my eyes and mouth two days ago.

Normally, I'm able to dodge 5 of 6 colds by taking plain ol' zinc vitamins (not Zycam -- just zinc from the supplement section of the store) as soon as a cold enters the house, or as soon as my throat starts to tickle. I take 1/2 to 1 tablet in the morning and 1/2 to 1 tablet in the evening, always with food (otherwise you feel queasy for awhile) until everyone has been well for a day or two. My colds usually stop at a mild day-long sore throat. It's fabulous. It seems to help Elli too -- I use a pill splitter and give her 1/4 tablet in the am and pm, crushed on her food. Haven't figured out a great way to give it to the other kids yet, and I'm not sure it would really benefit them in the long run -- they actually need to get sick some so their bodies develop immunities to these germs.

But every once in awhile I either forget to take the zinc regularly, or the cold germs are just too strong. This is one of those times. I'm still not nearly as sick as normal, but this one has progressed to real crud in the throat and congestion. Makes it tough to sleep, but I hesitate to take something hefty like Nyquil (love that stuff!) when the kids are sick too. I'm afraid it will knock me out so much I either won't hear them at all or will be too out of it to take care of them!

So here I sit, wondering if my sore throat will even let me sleep, and debating whether to just sleep on the couch, where I'm furthest from the sound of coughing emanating from the girls' room but will definitely wake up when Scott heads out early, or cozy back up in my own bed where I might get to sleep in a little since none of the kids is having the best night of sleep. I suppose if I wait too long, my body will make the decision for me!

Santa

Today Elli had an opthamology appointment at Children's. She needed her eyes dilated, so we had to kill half an hour while the drops took effect. I took the kids on a walk, dropped her wheelchair tray off finally to get some adjustments made (I've been trying to remember this for 2 months), and stopped by my office to get some letterhead and envelopes for a mailing I need to do.

I'm very fortunate to work with people who love kids. My office is in the Family Resource Center, full of books and toys and games to give kids something fun to do. My coworkers all came out to see them, exclaim about my hair...

(Oh. Did I mention I did something with my hair on Saturday?
No?
Sorry. I did.
I'm donating that ponytail to Locks of Love. If you get the urge to chop more than 10 inches off your hair, I highly recommend donating it to this organization. They make wigs for children suffering hair loss from cancer treatments.)

I take no responsibility for the girl's Easter hat Big Boy is wearing.

...and ask the kids about Christmas. They talked to the kids while I grabbed what I needed in the office.

My boss asked Big Boy if he was excited about Santa bringing gifts for Christmas.

He replied, "Santa is just a story."

She was horrified, and protested, "No ___! Santa is real! He brings gifts on Christmas Eve! If you really believe, he is real." Then she hurried back to tell me in secret that I needed to do some major damage control because someone had already ruined Christmas for my only-four-years-old son.

"Who would tell him something like that?" she cried.

"I did."

"Why?" She just couldn't believe that we could have Christmas without Santa.

Tonight at dinner, Big Boy said, "Mom, your work girl said that Santa is real." He said it again at bedtime. We explained that it's a fun story just like the cat in the hat, Dora the Explorer, and the Higglytown Heroes, but the real celebration is that God became man and was born a baby.

Big Boy protested. "But Mom, your work girl said that Santa is real."

"Who are you going to believe? Your parents, or someone from work?" I asked, a bit offended.

"Someone from work."

I guess I asked for it.

Dilemma

To nap or to blog.

Today has so much blog fodder.

But because it has so much, I'm wiped out. And I'm trying to get a sinus infection, which is also zapping my energy. (Just quit already! I don't want a sinus infection! I don't have spare energy for this with Christmas only 13 days away!)

To nap or to blog.

The kids are in bed. But they fell asleep on the way home. For 30 minutes. The odds of them remaining in bed for more than 20 minutes are nada. zip. zilch.

Better nap. I'll be back later.

Not Norman Rockwell

Saturday we took the kids to a local Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree. The day was breezy and chilly, so we dressed everyone in snowpants, heavy coats, hats, and mittens. Sam outgrew last year's snow pants, so we put him in Elli's and dressed her in sweatpants with wind pants over them, wool socks over two extra pairs of socks, and her actual winter coat (coats and wheelchairs do NOT get along well, so I usually throw a thick poncho over her and call it done).

The people at the tree farm were really nice. It's a family-owned farm and everyone got in on the act. The men took turns driving the tractor that pulled the wagon out into the trees, and they would let kids "help drive" if the kids wanted too. They helped Scott lift Elli up onto the wagon, wheelchair and all, which just blew me away. Elli LOVED bumping around on that wagon and out in the woods. Sam would have traipsed through the trees with Scott all day.

Anna, on the other hand, was having a diva moment. A moment that lasted the entire time we were out there. She fell asleep on the way there, and we were not equipped with adequate sustenance, so she justs bawled for momma to carry her. I couldn't carry her and push Elli over the rutted dirt road with one hand, and Scott was carrying the saw, so he couldn't do it either, so Anna just needed to suck it up and deal. We decided on a tree, made our slow and tear-filled way back, and rode back to the barn on the wagon. Once seated on my lap, Anna's tears stopped. Temporarily.

Scott tried holding her for the family picture with the tree, but he was also holding up the tree with her on the tree-side of him, so I think she thought the tree was attacking her. I grabbed a cup of hot chocolate with a big marshmallow and took her straight to the van. She was finally happy once she had a semi-melted marshmallow to lick and momma all to herself. I think she had woken up too early and immediately had a sugar crash.

All in all, I think the trip was a success. It just wasn't something your typical holiday greeting cards are made of.

First Snowfall

A little bit of Narnia, right in the front yard (anyone else think of Lantern Waste in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?>



Anna was too excited to play in the snow to stop and get properly dressed. There's something adorable about a toddler with flyaway hair and little jeans.



The jeans, sneakers, and no-mittens thing didn't last long. We got bundled up in a snowsuit and boots, and she raced back out to play more.



Sam had a ball. I got a glimpse of how weather extremes don't affect boys when they're having fun. He only came in when he got thirsty. He also wasn't bothered at all by the minimal accumulation (though he did comment that it wouldn't make a good snowman).

Fuzzy Feet!

I finally have some knitting pictures to show. I finished my sister's birthday present of Fuzzy Feet with an hour to spare, when we were approximately 1 hour from her house.

Here are the slippers before felting (it was fun to wrap them at full size -- they were a good 3 inches longer than my husband's feet!). The instructions next to them are printed on standard 8.5x11 paper, so you can see how big the slippers started out. We tossed them into a washing machine half-full with warm water and a large towel (agitation helps the shrinking process). It took about 20 minutes total, though we stopped the machine to check on them every couple minutes.

Here they are after. They are still quite wet in this picture, so they look a little limp. But they definitely shrunk and thickened. I didn't knit the opening at a consistent tension, which bums me a bit. But they fit her feet just right, so I'm hoping that one foot having a wider opening than the other won't matter.

In other knitting news, my first sweater isn't going very well. I was all excited -- I finished the sleeves early last week. Then I went to sew them to the sweater and discovered I had made a major mistake. The sweater sleeves were supposed to gradually widen from wrist to shoulder. I had missed this part of the instructions, so they are a good 2 inches too narrow at the shoulder. I put one on, and knit a diamond-shaped gusset into the gap in the armpit, but I made the gusset too big and it looks really sloppy. If I finish it, I need to knit another gusset for the other armpit, then knit the collar on and find some cute buttons to finish. But honestly, I just want to chuck it, even though it's really cute and I put a lot of work into it. Maybe I'll feel better if the other armpit turns out better.

Anna Speaks

Every day I am blown away with how much Anna is talking, and how fast she is learning both new words and how to put words together.

Here are some of the things she has been saying lately.

"muh-muss chin" : Christmas tree

"dadjoo" : thank you

"joo-joo chee" " juice please

"baf" : bath

"ah bur-day do you. ah bur-day do you. ah bur-day woo woo. ah bur-day do you." : Happy Birthday song

"whew woo" : where are you?

"bed" : depends on the context. Can be bread or bed.

"'pess" : Polar Express movie

"cack" : cat or Aristocrats movie

"ee-buh-y cack" : "everybody wants to be a cat" song from Aristocats (she sings and dances to this one!)

"doo-wah" : Dora the Explorer

"buh down" : get down

"B I B I B. E I O." : Sing the B I B L E song and/or Old Macdonald Had a Farm.

"chis" : cheese

Losing My Mind

This morning Elli had some crud in her eyes that I needed to clean off. Our pediatrican has told me that Johnson & Johnson's baby wash works best for getting that off, so I grabbed a washcloth and headed to the bathroom to grab the baby wash. It wasn't there. I had left it on the counter yesterday after cleaning her eyes up, and it wasn't there.

My husband had done a lot of cleaning and picking up last night while I was at a ladies' Christmas party for church. So I started looking where he might have put it "away." Nowhere in the kids' bathroom. Nowhere in ours. Not in the drawer where I found it originally. But in that drawer I found a really tiny sample size. So I grabbed that and, shaking my head at this mysterious disappearance, headed out to wash her face.

I sat down on the couch next to her, and looked down at my hands. There, in my hands, was a washcloth, the tiny bottle of soap, and the original bottle of soap I had been searching for. I still have no idea when or how it got into my hands.

To Do Today:

(Edited 4pm, Monday.
done
postponed til another day
in process)

Shower
Get dressed
Quiet time
Dress kids
Breakfast
Feed kids
Clean up breakfast
Elli's breathing treatments
Take Sam to preschool
Take Elli to pulmonary appointment
Get Elli's labs drawn
Pick Sam up from preschool
Mediate fights between Sam and Anna
Lunch
Feed kids lunch
Get kids down for naps
Take a nap (yesterday was super-hectic because Scott agreed to preach at the last minute, requiring him to study instead of sleep and me to take over music and child responsibilities)
Call hospital for lab results and to check on cancelled appointment
Clean up lunch
Pick up house
Sweep kitchen floor
Clean table and floor
Clean bathroom
Pay bills (I paid one)
Do at least one load of laundry
Fold and put away current clean loads of laundry
Bake 6-dozen cookies
Print "from" address labels for Christmas cards
Print "to" address labels for Christmas cards
Make dinner
Dinner
Return overdue CD to the library
Attend ladies' Christmas cookie exchange/card addressing party
Go to bed

My Best Friend

I've been thinking about friendship a lot since I wrote a few days ago. I realized that perhaps I'm greedy. After all, God has blessed me with a helpmate in Scott. He's the best friend I have here on earth, the only person I never get tired of being around, the only person who has chosen voluntarily to stick with me to the end (my parents and sisters are stuck with me!). We have been through a lot together, and with God's help and the support of our family, church, and friends, our relationship has strengthened through it all.

I've also realized that while we humans were created to be with other people, all I really need is God. My relationship with Him should be strong enough, and my heart should be so focused on Him, that I look to Him to ease the aches and pain and loneliness in my heart. People let you down, move away, grow apart. But God is unchangeable and only He provides full and endless joy.

So while I think it's OK to want friends and worthwhile to work on being a better friend, it's unfair and perhaps even sinful to expect people to fill a need that only God can.

Crossing My Fingers

So far, so good. No-one has vomited or developed the runs. Elli did come down with a new cold, so she had to stay home from school yet another day. Between Thanksgiving break and being sick, she'll been to school 3 days in the last 2 weeks.

I got to go in to work this afternoon for a few hours. It was one of the first days in awhile that I've really looked forward to going in. It's been a long week and I enjoyed being the expert on family-centered care, not the jungle-gym tissue-wielding vomit-cleaning housemaid chef entertainment coordinator for a few hours.

It was also great to return home to cheers of "Mommy!" and ketchupy hugs.

I learned that my boss, who has been at the hospital for 18 years, is resigning in 7 weeks. Her husband is a doctor and took a position in Texas. Four years ago. They've been in a "commuter marriage" for 4 years. I just can't even imagine how that works. While I'll miss her knowledge of the hospital and everyone there, it's long past time she moved back with her husband. I hate being apart from Scott for a few days! They see each once a month or so! It boggles my mind.