Limping Across the Finish Line

This is the last week of school.  And can I just say that I'm so relieved?  These last few weeks have been kicking my trash.

Craig has barely been home at all, which I hate.  I know, I know-- most of you women out there are awesome and do just fine when your husbands are gone.  Some of you even rise to the occasion by doing super fun things with your kids and generally just being awesome.  I seem to be incapable of doing that.  I hate having to do bedtime on my own, and I hate not having another grown-up around to talk to.  And quite frankly, I really like having Craig around.  He's awesome and fun and makes me happy.  So when he's gone, I don't do as well.  Life-- especially life with kids-- is a little bit more of a struggle.

So two weeks ago, Craig had something going on every night of the week: Monday was the Senior Slideshow, which he runs.  Tuesday he had class at GMU.  Wednesday was high council stuff.*  Thursday was back at GMU.  And Friday was the father-son campout.  Saturday he was home, but spent the whole evening writing a paper.  It was a pretty lame week.

But I knew it would be lame, and tried my best to make it work for me.  I wasn't thrilled with the situation, but I did what I could.  I did all super-easy non-cooking meals (lots of frozen pizza and mac'n'cheese).  I made plans to hang out with friends so I'd get some adult conversation time...  And I survived.  

After that week, I figured the next week wouldn't feel so bad, since Craig would only be gone a couple nights.

I was wrong.

Craig was around a little bit more.  But not a lot.  And my two little guys got completely sick.  It started Sunday night when Colton had a fever and some suspicious-looking spots on his feet.  The doctor said he had hand-foot-and-mouth disease and a double ear infection.  Poor Colton! 

In this picture he had also just bonked his forehead into the sharp part of the door jam.  It was so sad...

We started him on antibiotics and I considered ourselves quarantined.  No more grown-up conversation.  And no more happy kids who sleep through the night.  Because despite the antibiotics, Colton didn't seem to get any better.  And then Thursday morning Ryder woke up burning with a fever and proceeded to nap on the couch for half the afternoon and cry whenever he wasn't asleep or drugged with Tylenol.  And Colton refused to eat all day.  And I got very worried.

 

And meanwhile, in the rest of my family, my 99-year-old grandmother fell down and broke her hip (for the second time) and had surgery to fix it.  And my aunt managed to break a bone in her foot and is wearing a boot for it (in addition to being scheduled to have a scary, cancer lump removed next week).  So it's been a rough month for a lot of people I love.

Anyway, I made back-to-back appointments for both boys to see the doctor, and took them in Friday morning.  This time, Colton was diagnosed as having pneumonia, and Ryder had bronchitis.  They were supposed to start their antibiotics that day, but I misread the dosage and gave them a tenth of what they were supposed to be taking**, so they really started on Saturday. 

They both slept through the night last night, so I'm hopeful that that's a good sign for their recovery.  Bentley is now coughing a lot, but says he feels okay, so I'm praying that it doesn't develop into something worse for him.

And now here I am, Monday morning, staring down the last week of school.  And wondering if we can make it.




*Did I mention that Craig got put on the Stake high council?  He did.  He is officially old.  How did I wind up married to such an old person???  (If you're not Mormon and you want me to explain that, just ask and I'm happy to explain.  But for now I'm going to assume that all my readers either know this term or don't care enough for me to bother with a full-on explanation.)

**In my defense, extreme sleep deprivation.  Extreme.