Survivor

Hello, yes, I am still here. Thank goodness last week is over. It was a perfectly disharmonious chord, a dissonant triad of me working overtime, Anthony being gone, and Colin being sick. I knew it would be tough at the beginning of the week, and I felt ready. Then life as a single parent working full time kicked my ass.

The salve for last week was our wonderful new Manny. He's a graduate of Texas A&M, like us, trying to do the musician thing here in Austin. He's not satisfied with his other jobs - substitute teaching and food service. He picked up Colin at preschool on Tuesday, then called me at 4:30 when the vomiting started. I got home to a sick boy, but a clean daughter, who had finished her homework and was fed and bathed. The kitchen and living rooms were clean!

Wednesday I only worked until 2:30, so Colin came with me and watched videos in the breakroom. He was feeling better and snacked on crackers and soup. That afternoon he was perky, played outside, and ate a full dinner. After a full breakfast Thursday, I figured the worst was over and sent him to preschool.

They called me at 10:30 and said he'd vomited all over the classroom. Yikes! I had a full appointment schedule, and of course Anthony was over 2 hours away. I called the Manny, and he dropped his midday plans and picked Colin up. He took a bucket in his car, just in case (smart!). When I got home that evening, again Anna was ready for bed, and Colin was pitiful but calm. "I'm still sick, Mommy. But (the Manny) picked me up and take care of me."

So the Manny for sure is a keeper. He got nothing but vomit the first week, and he seems eager for more! I hope next time he and Colin can play.

Friday I took Colin to work with me again. Thank goodness I have a job where I can do that; although, staying home with him would've made the doctor schedule a nightmare, so I'm pretty sure work is happy with that compromise. Colin watched more videos, and thankfully never vomited again.

Anthony arrived at my work at 1 pm to get Colin, and I was so happy to see him, on so many levels! There was more fun for me, I got to work Saturday morning, too, but thankfully it was routine with no crazy emergencies to work in.

In retrospect I never would have volunteered to work so much if I'd known Anth was going to be gone all week, but it was all agreed to before he got this great new job. It really became a necessary evil, and anyway it all worked out in the end. Except I didn't get that long night of uninterrupted sleep that I'd anticipated with my occasionally snoring husband gone. Instead I got to sleep with my occasionally vomiting son.

On Thursday I tried staying up to watch the rerun debate, and woke up when Colin on my lap said, "This is boring. When are they going to stop talking?"