A glimpse into my future...

So, this week has been hard. Really hard. Work has been stressful, because both kids are sick (plus my hubby), which means that I am sick. Plus I'm trying to get Kindermusik stuff all figured out, and it's coming along very slowly.

On Wednesday, for the first time in the year and a half that I've been a nanny I felt like a mom. I had to take A to the doctor because she had an ear infection. No big deal, I thought when her mom asked me the evening before if I could take her. I've taken her lots of places. How is the doctor any different?

Wow. Was I in for a shock. She was fine until we got back in the room and the nurse took her temperature. I have never been clung to more tightly. Then the doctor came in and tried to listen to her heart. The poor woman got smacked in the face, and I got little nails dug into me. And then the ears. Oh, the ears. It took me basically laying on top of her legs and holding her arms while the doctor held her head and cleaned out her ears so she could examine them. A was screaming and sobbing the whole time and all I wanted to do was push the doctor out of the way and hold this poor little girl.

A few minutes later, we were done, and I realized I had made my fatal error: I FORGOT TO BRING A PACIFIER. WTF. She cried the entire way out to the car, the entire way to CVS to get her antibiotics, and while we were in CVS until I did something that I hate -- I helped her turn to food for comfort. That's right, I opened up a bag of mini Chips Ahoy and let her (and M) eat them for the twenty minutes we were in line to drop off the prescription. (I should mention that M was a perfect angel the entire time. He tried to distract A during her appointment, he tried to cheer her up with her sticker from the doctor. Basically, he was an amazing big brother.) When we finally got up to the register we found out it was an hour wait to pick up her medicine, so we went home (after paying for a half-eaten bag of cookies) and got the "pacie" and snuggled for awhile. Then she got to take a nap. Me? Nope...I got to play with a 3-year-old and try to hide my exhaustion. He had been such a good boy all day that I wanted to make sure we got lots of quality time while A was sleeping.

His turn was coming, though. I went to pick him up from school on Thursday, and his teacher said she didn't think he was feeling well. He didn't eat his lunch or a birthday cupcake that a little girl brought, which is a big deal for him. This kid loves his food. He came running out to hug me and he was pale and his eyes were so sick-looking. We got out to my truck and he burst into tears..."I want to be at home!" he wailed in the middle of the parking lot. We got home, I put A in bed for her nap, and I took his temperature. 102.8 degrees. Fabulous. Meanwhile, I'm starting to feel like crap. I can't breathe through my nose, my head is aching, and I'm soooo tired. I gave M some children's Tylenol and laid him down on the couch watching The Backyardigans while I went to the kitchen to call Scott to bring me some medicine. Apparently my conversation was disturbing him:

"Who are you talking to out there, Stefanie?" M asked me.
"Mister Scott. He's going to bring me some medicine because I don't feel very good, either."
"Me too."
"I know, buddy. But your medicine is going to make you feel better soon."
"Maybe Scott could bring two medicines to my house."

The kid can even make me smile while he's laying half-conscious on the couch watching cartoons. :)

The rest of my nine-hour day (ugh) involved finding cartoons for M, trying to get him to drink water, checking and re-checking his temp, and dealing with a cranky A when she woke up (part of the reason she was cranky was because she had poked M in the face after he finally fell asleep, and I scolded her...she was not happy).

And I worked today (normally my day off). And I'm working tomorrow for a few hours (Saturday). I love my job, and I love those kids. I would do anything in the whole world for them. But I'm still not feeling well, so I'm just praying that God reaches down and miraculously makes me feel better. Like in the next five minutes would be nice.

Just because I think it's funny...

3-year-old logic

A conversation M and I had on the way home from preschool:

M: Hey, Stefanie...
Me: Yeah, buddy?
M: On my next birthday, I'm going to be... [long pause]
Me: [trying to help] Four?
M: No... [thinking really hard]...twenty...ummm...five!
Me: [laughing] Twenty-five?
M: Yeah! That's how old I'll be.
Me: Did you know that I'm twenty-five right now?
M: Yeah! And on my next birthday, I'm going to be twenty-five!
Me: Well, it won't be very long before you're twenty-five. But three is a pretty good age, too. I think being three is lots of fun.
M: [dreamily] Yeah...

I'm sure this made God giggle a bit...

So, I co-teach (with A) the K-5th grade class at our church. Yesterday, I realized that I had gotten done with the lesson way too early, so I decided to play a nice game of Hangman with the kids using some descriptive words of God that we had talked about during the lesson. Teams were boys v. girls, it was the boys' turn, and the board looked like this:

__ O R __ I __ I N G

I asked the team spokesperson for a letter, and all of the sudden M (L & A's son) appeared to have an epiphany.

"Do you have a guess?" I asked hopefully.

"Boring?" M asked innocently.

A and I lost it. Luckily, the word was "forgiving," so I'm sure that M was forgiven about thinking "boring" was a good way to describe God. Actually, I'm pretty certain that God may have been laughing as hard as we were...

Ewww...

Me: "What's wrong? Why are you glaring at me like that?"

L: "Indigestion. I'm just trying not to burp."

Thoughts from the brink of exhaustion...

First of all, I should apologize in advance if anything in this blog doesn't make sense. After a very late night last night I went into work extra-early this morning, and I have just shooed my friend Apryl's kids off to bed as I am watching them during her band rehearsal for church. So, I've basically been watching kids for 13 hours (with a one hour break in between) on very little sleep -- and yes, before anyone thinks it, I realize that's what the next eighteen years of my life look like once we have kids. Yeah, yeah, I know. So I'm spoiled with my current childless existence (which, when you think about it, isn't childless in the least bit). I will share a total "Mom Moment" I had tonight, though...Apryl had told her boys that they needed to pick up their rooms while she was gone or a certain rear body part may be hurting tomorrow. Well, Jadon (8 yo) came downstairs showing me a bunch of random things and then was ready to play some video games. I asked him if he had cleaned up his room, and he said no and went upstairs. He came downstairs literally 30 seconds later and told me he was all done -- with the most guilty look, I might add. Not being a pushover (well...at least when it comes to kids), I asked him again if he was sure, and he said yes. So, very nicely, I said "Well, let me go up and make sure it looks okay." That hopeful, guilty look quickly faded into a typical Jadon scowl and he stomped upstairs saying, "Okay, fine." Then I made him tell me that he actually hadn't done anything before sending him up to finish. Definitely a practice moment for about ten years in the future...wait, my hubby will probably read this...I mean twenty years in the future...twenty-five? Thirty?

Well, the reason for our late night last night was totally justified...we went to see David Crowder in Columbia, SC. Kind of an armpit of a town, but David Crowder is worth it. We were running a little (AKA a lot) late, missed the first opening band and only caught the last few songs of Phil Wickham, who is a current fave new artist. (Interesting side note: I learned last night that Phil Wickham is not, in fact, British. I don't know why I assumed he was, but he's not. He's from SoCal. Pretty much the opposite of being British. I don't know if he sounded British (is that racist?) or if (being the huge Jane Austen fan that I am) I was thinking of George Wickham from Pride and Prejudice? Whatever. He's not.) If you haven't heard his stuff, check it out. Even the music snobs in my life (Jamie and the Hubby) approve, so you know it has merit.

David Crowder is awesome in concert. There's nothing else to say (except, of course, what I'm about to say)...he's hilarious and personable and talented and worshipful and every guy on stage seems to care about the fact that people in the crowd paid money to hear them. They played a lot off of their new CD, Remedy, which is pretty much amazing, but they played a lot off of their other CDs, too. It was nice to just be able to sit and worship and not worry about if the hubby was stressed out or if my kids were going crazy for the teacher filling in for me in my class or if enough people had showed up or if people were engaging in worship or ANYTHING. I got to sit. And worship. And not think about any logistics. And just be with God. It's been awhile...too long, in fact. And it made me realize that I'm going to need to make more of an effort because David Crowder will not, unfortunately, be within driving distance on a regular basis. And I need to take more responsibility in pursuing times for worship, whether musical or otherwise. I've slacked, and last night opened my eyes to that fact.

With that scattered post, I'm off to watch Grey's Anatomy. Don't judge me.

Example of typical convo in my house...

Hubby: "Man, my nose is stuffed up. I feel like Duncan Sheik."

Me: "Why, because you're barely breathing?"

Hubby: "Exactly."

I was a little frightened about how well I've come to know the workings of his mind.