All The Feels In This Week

Nostalgia--Brian and I went to the Garth Brooks concert late Saturday night. So many of his songs were definitive of our lives. "The Dance?" Amidst our college years when we were ready to take the world on. "Two Piña Coladas?" We heard it twenty-hundred times on our honeymoon. "How Do I Live?" The first night we spent together ... On the concrete ... With a gazillion others waiting in line to buy Vince Gill tickets. So much nostalgia. 

Worry--Because the temps were so cold and the girls wanted to be grown up, we left them home alone (without having my mom stay over) while we hung with Garth and Trisha. The 10:30 concert didn't start until after midnight. We didn't get home until almost four. For all intents and purposes, the girls spent the night by themselves. Not only was I very anxious about this, Briley was as well: she stayed up until we got home because sometimes parents die and no one tells the kid. She watches too much Disney Channel. 

Devotion--I woke up at nine Sunday morning after getting to sleep at almost five. Brian's and I are leading our small group this session. I actually like leading small group a lot. 

Pain and Weariness--a middle of the night migraine Subday night left mr feeling achy and exhausted all day on Monday. 

Excitement--The official "welcome to high school, parents" letter came this week. I'm so excited to see my girl growing up and growing into her place in our world. I'm also a little bit panicked because when I look at her, she's a three year old with a huge vocabulary who's taller than I am. 

Amazement--Watching Briley pitch. Man. That girl's an athlete! My squirrley girl who cannot seem to remember that her shoes/socks/clothes don't belong in the middle of the living room, can throw that yellow ball with authority. 

Exhaustion--I found myself wearing down as the week did. There was snot moving into my body at an alarming rate. I was drooling on my own chin and didn't care because wiping off was too much of an effort. 

Defeated--Three weeks to the day after Briley was diagnosed with the flu, Hadley was diagnosed. We had become way too intimate with Lysol products; I was bummed that that seemed in vain. Also. Buy stock in Tamiflu. Whew! That stuff's made of gold. 

Bummed--originally, Hadley was supposed to help with the kid lock-in at church. Briley has her sleep over. Brian and I were going to have a kid-free night. Damn the flu. 

Content--Briley's at a sleepover; Brian's at a hotel hoping to miss the flu yet again; Hadley and I are home, Advil'ed up and watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix. Aside from the germs battling for control of our immune systems, this is a great way to spend my Friday night. 

#ThankfulThursdays: Two For One Post

Last week was a blur. Is it finished? I don't remember much of it because we were so, so busy! Our project last week was to make Get Well Cards and take them to the hospital for the nurses to deliver to patients who could use a pick-me-up. It was evident between softball, cello, The Tulsa Run and such, we didn't get around to making the cards, so we bought them and wrote sweet messages in them.

Then, we got sick. And by "got sick" I mean, we got really. Really. Sick. All of us. The cards are signed, sealed and ready to be delivered. There was a time when I figured one of us would end up in the hospital--yes, we were that sick--and I hoped I had to wherewithal to not only take care of my family but to grab the cards on our way out the door. Alas, or Hallelujah!, we escaped going to the hospital, and the cards are still on our table. After I disinfect them with massive amounts of Lysol, we'll deliver them.

In the meantime, it's next week. Or it's this week. Or it's now. Whatever. This week, our schools launched their canned food drives.

The Daughters love to drag out our wagon and go door-to-door in our neighborhood asking for canned foods. And they'll still get to do that.

We also have a great opportunity to feed the hungry through our church.

But, I wanted The Daughters to understand just how expensive groceries can be. I gave them $10 to spend at our local Aldi's Store and told them to buy food for their schools' canned food drive.

Daughter 1 surprised me. She said she wanted to buy a meal. In her mind, a meal is macaroni and cheese. Instead, she bought two cans of vegetables, two cans of beef stew, instant potatoes, pre-made gravy, a box of stuffing and some macaroni and cheese. Of course. The only reason she bought the beef stew was because she didn't have enough of her $10 left to buy a main course. She felt good about her purchase, but also came to the realization that she'd feed a very small family one meal with her $10.

Daughter 2, however, had one motive in mind: Get the most items for her money. Her class set a goal to collect 150 items. She not only wanted to meet the goal, but she wanted to win. I'm not sure what they'd win, and neither did she, but that didn't' matter. What matters is winning.

Initially, she was going to purchase thirty boxes of macaroni and cheese. Then, she realized that while that would be thirty days of macaroni and cheese, she'd get bored of macaroni and cheese, and she put some back and bought some stuffing instead, which she would eat for thirty days straight if we let her. Then she put back two boxes of the stuffing and bought a box of spaghetti. Even though she doesn't like spaghetti, some kids do, and when Momma makes spaghetti it lasts for days. Maybe she was thinking about others after all.

So, be sure to contribute food in whatever way you can and make them smart contributions. And when this season of #ThankfulThursdays is over, remember to continue to give food. In February those food baskets are long gone, but the hunger isn't. 

For next week, we'll be delivering bottles of water to our local homeless shelter. I hope you'll join us for #ThankfulThursdays!

A Man Cold Almost Killed Me

Last week, Daughter 2 came home sick. Fever, aches, puking, stuffiness, sore throat, chills, snot, snot and snot. We high-tailed it to our favorite pediatrician (where Daughter 2 did cartwheels in the waiting room--it's what she does). Strep and The Flu were ruled out; it was a virus. We'd have to wait it out. So I slept maybe three hours during this run of her virus and then ...

... Daughter 1 got it. And then ...

The Hat, Part II

True to my word, I wore that hat all weekend long.  We went to the falls; I wore the hat.  We went to the water slides; I wore that hat.  We grilled burgers; I wore that hat.  We chatted late into the night (or morning); I wore that hat.  We got fried pies on our way home; I wore that hat.

Extreme Hair Styles

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

The End.

OK, fine.  The drastic measure was chopping off about nine inches of Daughter 1's hair.  The drastic time was a Sunday morning where she'd been "grounded" from church, and I was zoned out on Lortab, and the hairbrush was MWA - Missing Without Action.  Let me start from the beginning.

A public apology to the hernia patient

I owe the hernia patient in recovery next to me an apology.  It wasn't personal.  It's just that I had forgotten what good sleep was like.

Thanks to morphine, my moment wasn't ruined

I spent Saturday morning in the ER getting juiced up on anti-nauseau meds, morphine and re-hydrating my completely barfed-out body.  My own momma drove me from the ER back to my home where I promptly crashed in my bed.