Whew.

I gotta say.....this has been a LONG week.  LONG. 

REALLY long.

Soooooo.....yesterday my sister Debbie called me at work to say Happy Anniversary and also to give me a heads up that she had just spoken to our mother and that they were sending her home.  NOOOOOOOOOO......NOT TODAY I cried.  I really COULD have cried.  Evidently they had wanted her to go to a nursing home for rehab for a week and she, being the stubborn New England girl that she is, said N.O., NO.  So I called her and tried to talk to her without arguing and getting her upset and failed miserably.  Then I talked to a nurse and her homecare worker and finally gave up.  Then in the middle of my lunch out with a couple of colleagues I got a phone call from a case worker who explained that if she didn't go to a nursing home she would need 24 hour care at home.  So I sat and worried through my lunch (chicken panini and paprika chips at Picasso in Urbana....o.k.) and headed over to the hospital as soon as we were done.  I sat and talked to my mother and told her that I was worried about her going straight home----she'd been flat in bed for almost a week and when she sat up for awhile the other day it exhausted her.  She finally agreed and was pretty gracious.  She'll go for a week and get physical therapy to get her stronger so she can go home again.  Whew.

Then I raced back home so we could go to parent teacher conferences.  No problems there but I didn't want to miss them as there were a few issues I wanted to discuss.  They both have great teachers this year.....what a relief-----I am so grateful to them as I think they have very tough jobs.....  Whew.

Then we headed to Fries and Peanuts for a our celebratory anniversary drink.  We'd originally thought of something slightly more romantic but we were a bit frazzled by that point.  The boys called on the cell phone screaming at each other and I told them that if they made us come home right then they were going to BED.  That lasted about three minutes and they called back...Ernie shoved me toward the bar and took the phone outside.  He was out there a LONG time but finally came in and we sat and pondered how different our life was from 21 years ago.  Not bad mind you.....just AWFULLY different.....  Whew.

We headed home to find the boys playing in perfect harmony (grrr).  Pumpkins were carved, I played the youtube clips of Kane Welch Kaplin playing at our anniversary party last year.  Then my mother called sounded all happy, saying the nursing home was great and she was glad she was there.  Whew.

We ordered Papa Del's and curled up with the boys and ate pizza and drank prosecco......and then.....I'm ashamed to admit it....I went to bed at 8:00. 

21 years.  Whew.

I love you baby.....we'll do something more celebratory for 22.

It was still pretty great though.....