I saw him when I passed by the first time and made a mental note that he was there. I had a quick errand to run moments from my house, and I knew there would be no way to avoid him on the way back. Hopefully he would be gone when I returned.

On my return trip I saw him at once, and held my breath as I passed him. I’ve had a headlight out for the better part of a week, but with the rough week we had, I never got a chance to deal with it. I checked my speed, confident he at least wouldn’t catch me on that. Once past, I kept checking my rear view to see if he would move. A car was about a hundred yards behind me, and if he would just catch up, maybe I’d be OK. 

But no luck, I saw the black and white cruiser pull out from its position. Here we go. The kids had been arguing and screaming for the past few minutes and I let them continue as I watched the cruiser get closer and closer. My speed was still good.

After about eight blocks, the lights turned on. Sigh. I pulled over and waited for him to come to my window. Finally out of curiosity the kids became silent. I rolled down my window. 

Do you know you have a headlight out? I nodded that I did. And one of your break lights? That I didn’t know about, but I guess it was one light  too many and he asked for my license and registration. He seemed in a hurry as he took my license, and opting to not wait for the registration, he rushed back to his cruiser. Ninety seconds later he was back at my window handing me my license and a printed warning. I have to go! He said urgently as he pushed them towards me. He ran back to his car and drove off. 

A warning. Thank goodness. With the van moving again, the kids peppered me with questions the rest of the way home, wondering why he had been so mean to pull us over when I hadn’t done anything wrong. 

I was quick to correct them. He was right to pull us over. It’s his job to keep people safe. 

Officers put their lives on the line everyday, often for people would never return the favor. I’m grateful our community has a strong, positive police presence, and a warning about headlights seems a small inconvenience to pay.

Thank you to those who serve!  

This boy will be five in a few short months. He is my handsome pants and my go to cuddle buddy. He plays with my ear lobes, calls me his girl, and tells me he’s never going to get married because he wants to live with me forever. I know one day he’ll change his mind, but for now I’ll enjoy the machine gun kisses and his perfect little arms wrapped around my neck!

Thank you so much for your kind words and prayers. Today’s appointment went very well, and I was pleased at how encouraging, positive, and helpful the doctor was. She was able to clarify a great many things for me and explained everything in a way that was completely understandable. Overall it was a very good experience.

I apologize that this post is so short, but my house is incredibly quiet at the moment and I want to embrace the silence! Goodnight, dear friends and once again, thank you!

My mind is racing tonight with a million different topics and I can’t put even one of them into words. So instead, here is a sweet picture, of a sweet little hand, on a sweet little boy that has my heart.

So remember yesterday when I told you I had only gotten three hours of sleep? I was so happy to have Tim at home last night, and while he was feeling under the weather and went to bed early, I felt confident about taking some medicine and going to bed. No sooner had I swallowed my Tylenol PM (the pills probably hadn’t even reached my stomach yet) I heard Big E crying upstairs. I headed up and as I neared his bedroom I heard a gush of liquids.

Oh no… 

I open the door and there is vomit everywhere… the floor, his bedding, his body. And it’s still coming. Both of us traumatized I moved him into the bathroom and cleaned him up. Then I cleaned up his room and remade his bed. I got him in bed with a bowl next to his head. As I closed the door I hoped it was a fluke and he’d sleep through the night.

Well dear friends, it wasn’t a fluke. 

Poor Big E was vomiting every twenty minutes without fail from 10:30 last night until 5:30 this morning. EVERY TWENTY MINUTES!!! 

Ugh, it was disgusting and the poor child was miserable. And so tired. He’d throw up, hand me the bowl to rinse it and when I would return to his room he’d be half asleep again. I’d make my way back to my couch-bed after thoroughly washing and hand sanitizing and then hand sanitizing myself again and crawl under the covers, only to hear him calling me again.

So, needless to say, I didn’t actually get any sleep last night. At around 7am, Tim got up to take the day shift with the kids and I crawled into bed, where I spent the majority of the day. By this evening Big E was finally starting to perk up. He’s definitely on the mend. 🙂

But now we hunker down until this thing runs its course. I’m praying that if it hits anyone else, it does it soon so we can just get it over with, but preferably it would be wonderful if we could just be done!

I’ve been battling a cold for the better part of a week. There’s nothing to be done about it but to wait it out. It has all the classic symptoms- a runny nose, a sore throat, etc. The unfortunate reality is that sore throats make it very difficult for me to sleep. No sooner do I start to drift off, then a sharp stabbing pain forces me awake. I’ve tried a variety of remedies, but the only thing that really works is to pretty much knock myself out- This means Tylenol PM, or Benadryl, or maybe alcohol.

Last night I needed something badly, but my husband was away and I was hesitant to take anything that might make it difficult to respond to the children if they needed something. So I opted to just take a couple of regular Tylenols and call it a night.

Unfortunately, that didn’t do the trick and I spent the better part of the night on the cusp of sleep, but not actually attaining it. In all, I managed 3 non consecutive hours. So when my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning my brain and my body screamed in revolt. I stumbled through something that vaguely mirrored my morning routine and finally got the kids up.

“Please be helpful this morning. Mommy didn’t get much sleep last night and I don’t feel well.” I was able to utter as I handed them their clean clothes.

“Oh, that happens to me sometimes! ” C said as she sat up.  “I’ll tell you what I do.” She leaned in close in preparation of her big reveal, “I lay in my bed. And I close my eyes. And I just lay there… And I fall asleep.” I blinked at her. “Maybe you should try that next time too!!” she concluded proudly.

If it was only that easy, kid!

Friday night ice cream party!