Day 2

Houston we have....complete and utter system failure!!!

I awoke on day 2 of my adventure at 4:30am. Why? Because my wonderful, caring, FORGETFUL husband failed to turn his alarm off. It wouldn't have been a big deal at all except that I was a. petrified that it was going to wake either the children or my friend Katie and b. I've never been able to figure out Steve's alarm clock. If you happen to (fumbling in the dark) touch ANY button other than the correct one, it irrevocably sets the sleep function and/or a second alarm. I have been unable to find a way to turn either one off once engaged. Therefore, I now found myself fumbling around behind the bed for the plug so that I could unplug the blasted thing. The only problem with that is that is that the wall behind our bed is directly behind Colby's head and I was still living in fear of waking him up! I noticed I had a headache, but determined that a trip to the medicine closet was not worth the chance of waking the rest of the crowd. I should've chanced it!

By the time I awoke "for real" at 6:30, my head was POUNDING and I felt a little like tossing my cookies. Not a good way to start the day!! Things were going along as well as can be expected under that circumstance. I was due to host one of Kailin's friends for a few hours that morning while her mom was at work and I figured it would be good to have some entertainment for Kailin. The girls soon reported to me that Peanut had vomited all over the floor. Thankfully it was on the linoleum, but it was still a royal mess. No sooner did I have that cleaned up than a report of Sugar vomiting came in. Seriously?! BOTH dogs in one morning? Sugar did it on the carpet (of course) although it was less of a monstrosity of a mess than Peanut's contribution. Fine....moving on....going to have a good rest of the day. Or not.

A neighbor came to the back door to let me know that we could pick the raspberries of another neighbor. A kind gesture. Peanut's reaction was NOT kind. When I finally had him convinced that the house was not actually under siege, he repaid me for the relief of duty by relieving himself all over the kitchen floor. I was NOT pleased.

I made the kids some early, light lunch and we were due to head off to a welcome home party for a friend's son. My head was pounding, but we'd agreed to go and I figured it might be a better distraction to get them out of the house than to keep them home. I had everyone loaded into the car and was just buckling Kailin into her seat when she accidentally jabbed me in the eye with the comb for her dog and it hurt soooo bad!! It wasn't until minutes later that I realized my contact was gone. For anyone who doesn't know, I wear gas permeable contacts and I don't have any extras as a result. I was just...well....reduced to tears at the thought of having to wear my glasses (and thus no sunglasses) to drive 1.5 hours each way to and from the party with a smashing headache. I searched EVERYWHERE for the contact to no avail. I finally ended up pulling myself together and driving down the road with my sunglasses perched atop my eyeglasses. I was a spectacular sight!

I was due to go to Julie and Julia with my friend Katie and let it slip to Kailin that Caleb was coming to play. She immediately launched into a mantra of "I don't want you to go" that literally lasted til the very moment she fell asleep in the car on the way home and began again the moment her eyes opened. I tried reasoning with her that I would come back just like I always do. I went so far as to ask her if she was going to drive away to school every day this fall. She said no. I was nervous that we were headed down that road when she said with a smile, "the BUS DRIVER will drive, Mom. You're silly. I can't drive!" I modified my question and she said that yes, she was going to go off to school every day. I asked if she was going to come home every day and she said yes, she was going to. I asked if she promised. She said yes. I asked if I should stand at the bus stop every day and wail loudly that she shouldn't go. She saw right through me and said, "No mom... and that's different!" and then launched back into the mantra. Hrmph.

I felt bad for poor Caleb, but not bad enough to stay home!! The movie was great and the rest of the night was uneventful. The day didn't give me much hope overall for the week that lay ahead, but I figured it really couldn't be much worse, and that gave me a strange sense of peace.