It's Not You, It's Me

I think I may have been avoiding you. I don't really want to, and I'm not sure why, but I am. I went back to work two weeks ago, and while I like it very much while I'm there, I'd rather be home. I guess I knew this before I went in, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring in some extra money for my family, and also help out a friend who needed a replacement after she had her baby.

It really should be getting easier this week as John is done with school now (except for preparing for his online summer class that starts in two weeks). But my Gertie is already picking John as favorite again, and that just hurts. Bad. That didn't start until the very end of this 3-month gig the last time. He must be a good daddy.

Last week was hard because both Ethan and Gertie were sick. Ethan had a bad cold that had been going on for a couple weeks. Started out as a sore throat, turned into a cough. By Monday evening he was having a coughing fit every ten minutes. Gertie woke up from her nap on Monday a little clingy, but that isn't that unusual. By Tuesday morning she had a fever but was behaving fine, but since I had made an appointment for Ethan I thought I'd have her checked out as well.

Ethan was diagnosed with a sinus infection and allergies. She put him on Zyrtec and he woke up a new boy. I just couldn't believe it cleared it up that fast. Gertie, on the other hand, was diagnosed with an ear infection. This is only her second, compared to Grace, who had many, and Ethan had a bunch too. But anyway, her week only went downhill. I stayed home from work on Tuesday and sat with her on the couch. There was no getting up (at least not without taking her with me). She seemed to get worse and worse. On Friday she was still running a temperature, and her eyes were pink and watery, runny nose, sneezing, coughing. I called the doctor and she prescribed Zyrtec for Gertie as well.

She is doing so much better. We had a pretty good weekend. We didn't go anywhere, though. In fact, Ethan came into my room on Saturday night before bed and said:

What are we going to do about Memorial Day?

What do you mean?

We always go to Yankton to the cemetery on Memorial Day.

(This is somewhat true. We go to Vermillion's cemetery to visit John's dad's grave. I tried to tell Ethan this, but he didn't believe me for quite a while.)

We just didn't get back there this year.

Why not? Is it because of the price of gas and the taxes? I saw on the news a story about the price of gas and taxes. Everybody's worried about it. Is it because of the price of gas and the taxes?

I just love that kid. He is so darn cute. He looks just like his dad.

This year was a whole different deal. We worked on our yard. And trust me, there is still plenty to do. I'll have to get some pictures of it up here, but for right now my rear is stuck to the couch at 6 a.m. I've been waking up so early. I am talking like 5 a.m. It is kind of nice because the house is so quiet and I can catch up on whatever and do my Bible study in peace and quiet. The down side is that I falling asleep at 8:30 or 9:30 every night.

Well, Grace heads off to tour the capital today, and then her first day of play practice. It is going to be a very long day, as they aren't supposed to return from the capital until 5:30, and play practice starts at 6. But it will be a good day.

Gertie is going to play with Elizabeth and her kids. She's our sitter. John has some training classes for the internet software they use to teach with. I'm glad he's going. Maybe this will help him be even more efficient and use all the goodies they have to offer for that internet instructing.

It is a trial week for me. We'll see what kind of drama enters the courtroom today. Sometimes a good story unfolds before my very eyes.