Not the best day ever

Yesterday was one of our more challenging days that we've had recently. Our morning didn't get off to the best of starts. JC was moving somewhat slowly, and I was pretty irritated with her by the time we left for school. I was in Kindergarten yesterday, and I had forgotten how absolutely physically exhausting it can be. The class I was in yesterday was one of the smaller ones, but also one of the rowdier ones. I was feeling pretty drained by the time I got home, but that was only the beginning of our adventure for the day. HT had pointed out to me on Tuesday evening that his big toe was swollen. Uhm, yeah, it was swollen, red & white, and full of puss. YUCK! I soaked it Tuesday evening and put on some antibacterial cream, and was getting ready to soak it again when he pointed out that he now had a finger that matched his toe. The toe caused him a great deal of pain whenever it was touched, and putting it in water to soak it caused him to scream. Not just any screams, but blood-curdling, my-mom-is-torturing-me screams. I called my husband and began to cry. I just couldn't keep doing this to him, and I was convinced he needed medical attention. Because of our doctor's lack of office hours (I think retirement is near) and my work schedule, we decided to head over to Children's Urgent Care. This is an amazing facility for children and they keep the kids as entertained as they possibly can be in such a not fun place! Before we could head out the door however, I notice that JR had a bump/scratch on the side of his head. I asked him if something happened at school, and to make a long story short, a school bully in his gym class basically got mad and tried to beat him up. I am NOT using the word bully lightly and just throwing it around. I have known this child for years, and he has had more than one incident involving fighting at school that has led to in school suspension. My son defended himself, but the gym teacher isn't really into supervising his class, and he only saw the end result and gave both boys warnings. Now I understand warning my son, but the other child should be under a zero tolerance policy...he should not be allowed to touch another student. Period. I took pictures of JR as proof, because in addition to the scratch/bump on the side of his face, he also had a bruise on his nose and a partial black eye. I immediately called the school principal and left a message, and I'll be honest, I'm not particularly pleased that he hasn't returned my call yet. I have to go into work in three hours and I sincerely hope that the man returns my call BEFORE I get there. Anyway, I left JR at home because he was going to the UD game with my husband, and the rest of us headed off to Urgent Care. As luck would have it, it was a busy night, and there were a couple of very serious emergencies that were rather involved. The staff kept apologizing to us for having to wait so long, but I do understand. I would much, much rather be the parent who is sitting there waiting for hours (it was a 2-1/2 hour wait overall) then to be the parent of the child for whom they needed to call an ambulance. We finally left armed with a Rx for antibiotics, and by the time we picked that up and ran through the McDonald's drive through, it was 8:00 before we got home. We were all pretty worn out by then, and I felt BEYOND drained. The kids finally got to bed about 8:30, and I got to work on the laundry I had hoped to get finished a few hours earlier. While it was an exhausting day, I still knew when I went to bed last night that I was very blessed. My kids were relatively safe and healthy, and we were all sleeping under our own roof last night.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day full of love. We gave the kids each a card and a package of Reese's Cups for their gifts. My wonderful husband gave me a box of Esther Price chocolates (my favorite kind) and I gave him nothing. Okay, I gave him a card. In honesty though, he's supposed to go pick out his own iPod touch so I still think he comes out okay in the deal. Dinner was tuna casserole before JC went to scouts, and my husband took HT to their basketball practice. I'll be honest though, even though we aren't all home together, having such an incredibly full and blessed life is the best Valentine's gift ever!

Random Monday

Some random thoughts for a Monday...

1) I'm beginning to wonder if I have a concussion. I smacked my head very, very hard this morning and I just can't seem to make the pain go away. I know that if I do, it's very mild, but I am wondering how long this headache is going to last. I'm also wondering if it's safe to take a nap, but I'm not sure that I'm going to have much of a choice based on my eyelids.

2) JR went to school today, which is only noteworthy because Saturday night he was running a fever of 101.8. Yesterday the highest it got was 99.9 around Noon, and after that he was normal the rest of the day. I could tell that he felt much better this morning.

3) I ran some errands this morning, and was really annoyed when I got to the grocery and realized that I had left my list and coupons at home. UGH! It was also very ironic because when I left about 10:25 to begin my errands, I thought to myself that if the school was going to call for an afternoon sub job, they would've called by now. Of course, when I got home I saw that the school had indeed called, and according to the caller ID it was at 10:29. UGH again!

4) Tonight is our ONLY evening of the night where we have nothing at all on our calendar. Normally my wonderful husband would have a grad class, but that was canceled. My plan is to make sure that we all actually get to sit down at the same time for a nice dinner.

5) There pretty much seems to be no point in mentioning this, but there is snow in our forecast tonight. I'm fairly certain that the forecasted two inches isn't going to get us a snow day, but sleeping in a little bit tomorrow for an hour or two delay sure would be wonderful! That doesn't seem to be in the cards for this winter though.

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Bad News Bears play basketball

I have just returned from HT's basketball game. I'll be honest, it is actually a painful experience. They might be the worst group of second graders I've ever seen put together as a team, God love them! I feel responsible because I'm the one who drafted the team, and of course my husband feels responsible because he coaches them. Part of the problem, which obviously no amount of coaching is going to change, is the fact that we have the shortest kids in the league all on one team. Only three games left, which right now feels like an eternity. Ugh!

Soon it's gonna snow

That's right, we are actually going to be getting some snow around here...later this evening and into the overnight. We might even get up to THREE WHOLE INCHES. My husband has started calling this "the Winter that wasn't". The weather has been unbelievable. Not only have we had no accumulating snow, we haven't had any kind of snow day at school...not even so much as an hour delay! It's rather disappointing. After all, beautiful snow is one of the "perks" of living in this part of the country. And one of the (few, these days) benefits of being a teacher is the fact that sometimes you get to stay home on a snow day. Our school district has averaged seven snow days a year since our schooling experiences began. This year is obviously going to be bringing down the average!

Painful

WARNING!!!! I AM ABOUT TO COMPLAIN!

Okay, you are still reading, so consider yourself warned! I am in pain. I had a somewhat rough night last night with pain in the shoulders and wrists, specifically, but I also have some pain in my knees and ankles. Notice these are all joints in the body. When researching Fifth Disease, I had remembered reading that joint pain could occur. I got online again this morning and found that it occurs mostly in adult women and will probably last between 1 and 3 weeks. The good news is that rarely does permanent joint damage occur. That is good news. But I've got to tell you, it is very painful. I could not believe how difficult it was just to pick up my coffee mug this morning. I've been taking some ibuprofin, but will have to be careful about what I take because I am allergic to the pain relievers that fall into the nsaid category. I have a brand new appreciation for my friends and relatives who suffer from arthritis. At least I know that my pain should go away within a month!

Our week

Another week has come and gone, and it's brought us into February. I know I keep saying this, but I just can't believe how quickly time is FLYING by! We had lots going on this week (as usual). It was made more challenging by the fact that I haven't felt particularly well all week, and even my wonderful husband stayed home Monday and Tuesday from a violent stomach bug. Those were the same days I started feeling pretty lousy with what appeared to be a milder version of the same bug. Fortunately, the kids are pretty much old enough to take care of most things themselves, and Monday especially, they were very cute at helping to take care of us as well. As it turns out though, I probably have Fifth Disease. This has been running rampant through our schools, and JR had it the week before. Symptoms are fairly minor with flu like symptoms happening about a week before a lacy rash appears on one's body (mine appeared Thursday night into Friday morning), and is also noticeable on the forehead and cheeks. I had swollen lymph nodes behind my ears that I started noticing on Wednesday, and I pretty much freaked out. I knew I hadn't felt well last week, but I've never had lymph nodes swell there before. Because of my friend with leukemia when I was young, I am pretty neurotic about swollen lymph nodes, especially in the neck area. So when the rash broke out and I realized I probably have Fifth Disease, it was actually something of a comfort...at least I knew that I had a virus and that would be a good explanation for the swollen lymph nodes. I plan to keep close tabs on them though, and am already thinking I'm going to the doctor this week just to be CERTAIN I have nothing more to worry about.

In the meantime, our busy lives carried on. JR began baseball camp last Sunday afternoon. This year he's only doing the hitting portion. Neither the timing nor the finances made it feasible to do catching again this year. This camp is run by different people than the one he went to last year, and they have a different hitting philosophy that JR is struggling with. My wonderful husband reminded him that it's always good to try different things and to be able to determine what will work best for him. My husband didn't go to his grad class Monday evening because of being ill, but he did still drag himself to HT's basketball practice Tuesday evening, while I took the older two to karate. Wednesday I was back in the classroom as well as my husband, and that evening he took HT to a UD game. Thursday brought more work and karate again, as well as a scout meeting for HT and a booster meeting for myself. Friday I worked a half day, and I was pretty worn out by the end of that. HT spent the night at his BFF's house (those were HIS words!) and my husband and I had dinner with good friends we hadn't seen lately. It was wonderful to catch up! Yesterday HT had a basketball game in the morning (it wasn't a pretty game for our team) and then we attempted to run some errands. It was a pretty icky and miserable day though, and we were all happy to be home in the middle of the afternoon and in for the day. Last evening was very relaxing and we are looking forward to another crazy week!