Thump......back to the Sandwich Life....

The only way to get me to stay up late is either to have me worry obsessively about something or put a great band in front of me.  So the Vertebrats got me to stay up past dark both Friday and Saturday---woo-hooooo---even though our children chose to get us (well, actually I mean Ernie) up early both days.  Sunday night we were all so tired that we were getting cranky with one another by 9:00 p.m.  I tumbled into bed then and Ernie not long after....bed and sleep has rarely felt so good.  When the phone rang at 3:00 in the morning I came to blearily and listened as Ernie searched for the phone that is supposed to be next to our bed.  As he raced downstairs I lay there thinking, "wrong phone number, wrong phone number, please let it be a wrong phone number."  No such luck.  My mother had fallen trying to transfer herself from her wheelchair back into bed after getting up to go to the bathroom.  Ernie was wonderful as always and took off so he could let the paramedics in.  I dozed on and off waiting for him.  He was back by 4 am but it took a long time for us to go back to sleep.

After work today I'll go over to the hospital supply place and see if I can get something to help her with the transferring.

sigh.

I don't think I even told you that last week on one of the days I was sick Ernie woke me up mid morning to say that my mother couldn't manage to get dressed and needed help.  I just stared at him....pretty much saying, "are you fucking kidding me?" with my eyes.  He offered to go but hell she needed help with her underwear....I couldn't do that to either of them.  She just doesn't function well in the morning.  So I pulled myself out of bed and drove over....probably unsafely but what are you going to do?  Owen was sick as well so Ernie needed to stay with him.  I got her dressed, got her insulin and breakfast into her and headed home and back to bed.

sigh.

On the way over I was in this bleary, spacy state and it came to me that perhaps I have these challenges in taking care of loved ones in ill health because I haven't adequately challenged myself in other areas of my life.  It felt like a revelation at the time but now I'm chalking it up to a fever.....  Who knows why these are some of the challenges that I won in the  challenge lottery.....I won far more blessings so I'm not complaining but I AM worrying about the future for my mother.....no question about that.

Now my sweet pea Leo is sick.  This is the second day he's had a fever.  It's not outrageously high but high enough to make him feel awful and of course he refuses to take tylenol until he's at the point where he's too sick to argue.  He seems a tiny bit better today.....at least he THOUGHT about eating...but still has a fever so I don't know if he'll make school tomorrow either.

By the time I got home last night from an evening work program he was already in bed.  Owen met me at the door, kissed me, apologized for earlier foul behavior, fed me grapes and kissed me again.  Then he leaned against a chair and talked about how he really hoped Leo was going to be o.k. because, as he said, "I sure love that guy."  Then he proceeded to tell knock-knock jokes, tryed to pretend to be a banana and other activities that I can't quite describe.  Whenever I spend time with one of my children alone I realize how wonderful it is and what a good thing it is that neither of them are only children LOL.  Owen did tell me that feelings sometimes seemed like food.  Evidently when you're mad it feels as though you're a nacho and somebody is crunching you, when you're sad it feels as though you're a popsicle being licked and when you're happy you feel like a piece of bread being toasted.

And there you have it.....the Sandwich Life in a nutshell.....

And just to make me happy.....another video of the Brats----one of my favorite songs: Turn On Your Face....