One of those weeks

It's been one of THOSE weeks.  You know, the kind that you have to experience every once and while to remind you to appreciate all the other weeks.  It's tough when you're in the thick of it, but in the end it's just a few aspects of life ... that all happen to occur at the same time.

First off, it's still deadline time with my job.  It's stressful, time-consuming and makes me grumpy.  And since it's so busy it takes me away from my kids.  I only have a few weeks out of the year like this, so I shouldn't complain.  But I am looking forward to getting this semester behind me and having some time to put together a few puzzles with Jack, push Jude on the swing, and make Julia giggle.

Last week, Jude dropped my phone.  Nothing new here, that poor thing has gone through much worse.  Which probably meant it was plum out of luck.  This time the screen shattered.  Not really a big deal.  If you're willing to renew your contract smartphones are $.01 on Amazon.  And since I don't anticipate ending my cell phone useage anytime soon, I bought one that evening and had it in my hands in less than 48 hours.  Of course, there is the terrible inconvenience of re-downloading all my apps and re-entering all my log-ins and passwords.  I was finally settling in to my new piece of technology when ... Jude dropped it again.  I hadn't even had the phone for a full day, it was the first time it was dropped, and apparently it broke the ear piece speaker.  Of course, I didn't know this until two failed phone conversations, a 45 minute troubleshooting session with the Verizon techies, and a visit to the store later.  Yes, an entire bust of my Saturday evening (which I hold quite dear by the way).

After only being able to use it on speakerphone for two days my replacement came in, along with a cover, and we're going on six days now with no injury to phone #3.  No, wait.  I did accidentally set it down in a puddle of water on Saturday and the sound was garbled for a few hours until it had a chance to dry out, but other than THAT it's been good.  I haven't had a chance to update my settings and apps yet, but at least I can hear and be heard on my phone.

Phones, schmones.  The real dig this past week was waking up with a sore throat last Wednesday.  I gargled salt water and drank lemon tea all day and tried to figure out why my allergies were coming back so soon again.  And then I went to bed at 9pm.  That should've been my first sign that this was more than allergies.  After waking up with a fever a few times in the night I finally had to admit something wasn't right.  I finally asked Jon around 5:30am if he could stay home that day, counted down the hours until I could call my doctor at 8am, and then laid on the couch until 11:30am when I could finally get in for an appointment.  My suspicions were confirmed - I had strep throat. 

Not only was I in pain, feverish and extremely miserable, but I was also contagious for another day (and had been for the past few days).  I made it through the appointment and the wait at the pharmacy and the walk back to the car before I started to crumble.  As a mom, I'm supposed to be the one to take care of my kids and protect them, and here I was putting them in danger.  It was a little more than I could handle at the moment.  And then I had to go home, walk in the door and not kiss or hug or breathe on my babies for the next 24 hours.  It was heartbreaking. 

Stay-at-home dad for the day.  (And a good chance to try out my 50-200mm lens that I got for Christmas.) 

I'm so thankful Jon was able to work from home that day because I literally laid around and drifted in and out of sleep.  At one point Jude snuck into the room to bring me his "'nack" and he kept asking for a kiss.  It was so sweet and pitiful.  I'm fairly certain Jack watched TV all day that day.  And Julia sat in her walker and played next to Daddy most of the time.  And meanwhile I felt doubly-guilty for really neglecting my kids.

But a few days of antiobiotics and lots of prayers later I'm on the mend and the kids appear to be just fine.  Well, I mean, they-don't-have-strep-throat-fine.  I can't speak for any other kinds of fine at this point.  Once I was feeling better my husband pointed out to me that I have ringworm (I have no idea where I got that from!), and tomorrow we'll actually be returning to the doctor as Jack accidentally cut his finger last week and now has a nasty infection.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that this is what my kitchen currently looks like?

The Hubster did the demo all by himself.

Now that's what I call an excuse to not make dinner!  Unfortunately, a kitchen like that also means a living/dining room that looks like this:



And a guest room that looks like this:

Now where did I put that sugar?

Not to mention all the dust and weird smells that have taken over my house.

But of course, it's all going to be worth it in the end.  And I suppose, if one is going to get strep throat, phone calls from panicked procrastinating students, broken cell phones, dental bills (apparently military healthcare doesn't cover *everything*), infected butter knife wounds and ringworm, it's best to get it all out of the way before the new kitchen is finished. 

I'm happy it's Monday, the start of a new week.  And Jude and I were both happy to watch the old week get tossed into the dumpster and hauled away by a "big twuck." 

Here's to new weeks, new semesters and new kitchens!