I Think I'm Human Again

...not entirely sure yet...  We have been sick.  

First Little Man, then Sissy got it and then Momma got it.  

So I ended up taking almost a week of vacation time for sickness 

(can you hear my teeth grinding.).  

Last week Little Man had a cough and some sniffles for a couple of days.  He was a little scratchy and whiny but didn't seem that bad.  

I took two days off so he could get rest at home.  

Sissy had a cough but no fever and this mean old Momma made her tough it out for a couple of days because I just couldn't see keeping her home 

from MEAP testing without a fever.  

On Thursday I started feeling a little sore-throat-ish myself.  

Friday, I had a meeting I had to be at in the morning 

and we were heading up north for our big family Barn Bash 

and if we didn't feel good enough for work and school 

then we shouldn't head to Barn Bash now should we?  

So we all had to suck it up and do our duty Friday morning.  

I made it through my meeting and then left 

to go home and pack when I got a phone call 

"Momma, Mr. Watson asked if you could bring me a cough drop..."  

(This cracks me up even though I realize that 

the teacher has no way to know that would require 

over an hour round-trip commute for me at 

1:00 p.m. after being off work for two days.)  

Lucky for her, I was already halfway home so I rerouted and picked her up early.  

Still just a cough though so we loaded up and headed to the great "up north".  

It was a quiet ride up which I realized was unusual and chalked it up to 

the exhausting week...until we pulled in to the gas station in the last town 

and I realized Princess was looking more than a little flushed.  

At first I thought it was because she had her jacket on in the warm car 

and she had fallen asleep with her head buried in her pillow pet.  

When we got to the cabin and she didn't bounce out with excitement 

and head for the hills with her cousins 

but curled up quietly on the bed I was making, 

I broke out the thermometer.  

Yup...101.7...great...  

Thankfully everyone else was out at the barn and 

so I snuggled her in to her own bed and give her some Tylenol.  

She was out in minutes.  

At 7:30 p.m.  

A fourth grader.  

At a party.  

Willing to go to bed.  *sigh*  

Little Man was on the go and having a blast with his cousins and uncles though 

so we just kept him running until he climbed up on my lap at the bonfire, 

pronounced "I think we need to go to bed now" 

and fell asleep in about 2 minutes.  

The rain began after that and we spent much of the weekend 

in the cabin and barn just relaxing.  

The Princess was not her normal self but was able to carve pumpkins 

and do her cool costume idea for the non-hayride (more on all that later) 

between napping on the couch.  

Sunday when we got home, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  

My voice was gone, my head felt like a ton of bricks and I felt feverish.  

And then I felt really bad for being the mean Momma and 

making the Princess "tough it out".  

Because I felt like I was dying all day on Monday and a little less on Tuesday...  

And while I huddled in my bed in a fog, 

the kids were so great and sweet to this mean Momma.  

They read books and played games on the Wii 

and played quietly and put up with the strange assortment 

of random food we had access to since I was in no shape 

to go grocery shopping Sunday night.  

We even missed hockey last night because no one was 

feeling good enough to skate for an hour in the cold rink except Little Man 

and he didn't want to be out there without Sissy.  

So now I want to know, 

have you ever been the mean Momma, 

making your kids "suck it up" because you thought they were being 

a little dramatic about how bad they felt and 

then realized later that they really were sick/injured worse than you thought?  

Misery loves company...