Friday, I found out that Heath had been given a great opportunity at work. The only catch was that he had to fly to LA for training almost immediately, and would be gone Sunday afternoon through Wednesday night. We both were a little nervous about him being gone, considering how things have been going here at home, but I wanted him to take the opportunity. "I'll just hire day care if I have to!" I said.

Well, the kids have been sick, so my plan of putting them in daycare did not work out. Also, our neighborhood daycare lady that sometimes watches them did not have any open times until today. (In retrospect I wish I had gone ahead and scheduled for today - I am absolutely exhausted.) But surprisingly, Sunday and Monday went really, really well. We went to Target, the playground, and house church on Sunday after dropping Heath off at the airport. Then, we had another pleasant day together on Monday, generally in good moods and enjoying each other's company. We even made it to WalMart in the afternoon, then to Exploration Place and swung by McDonald's drive-through before coming home to watch the prime time premiere of Dora Saves the Mermaids before bed.

Tuesday was a little rockier, because I didn't get as much sleep, forgot to take my meds on time, and basically just didn't get as good of a start to the day. We had to take the dog in to the vet first thing in the morning to get a mass removed, and with the kids having been up in the night with their colds (eventually ending up in bed with me), we had a hard time getting out of the house on time and got scolded by the vet's receptionist. The vet wasn't even there yet, but apparently it was important for me to have the dog there at the crack of dawn. Still, yesterday wasn't a total loss - overall we still had a good day, and I have been very thankful for how smoothly things have gone. We went to McDonald's again for supper, but we went in and played in the playplace this time and the kids loved that. We couldn't go anywhere else yesterday because it was too cold for playgrounds or the zoo, and the kids were too obviously sick during the day (coughs and runny noses) to take them anywhere indoors. I may be a bad Mom for taking them to the playplace in the evening when they were sick that morning, but I'm just trying to survive. At least I didn't invite any of your kids to come, right?

This morning, the cumulative sleep deprivation really hit me. I tried to be proactive about fixing it, and as soon as I got Samuel down for his morning nap I laid down and turned a show on for the big boys. It didn't work - they pretty much tortured me the whole time. So now I'm just trying to pump as much caffeine into my bloodstream as possible and survive until bedtime. Heath will be home tonight, horray! I was hoping to go visit some of you friends this week to make the time pass more enjoyably and quickly, but with the kids sick I didn't want to do that to you (or your kids). They do seem in better health today though (thus me wishing I had scheduled them with the daycare lady). I'll get a break tomorrow morning for Mom's Day Out, if they will take Ethan back after he repeatedly ignored and disobeyed the teacher last week. Is it bad that while the teacher was reporting this to me, I was thinking, "Why are you telling me? I left them with you to get away from it. What do you want me to do?" Instead I said to the MDO teacher, "I'll talk to him about it." Yes, I'll talk to my 3-year-old about it. I'm sure it will have a big impact. What would they do if someone was like, "Oh, I see. I'll have to take him out to the woodshed when we get home." Is that the response they are looking for? (Don't worry, we don't actually have a woodshed, so he's in the clear.)

I'm just praying for a chance for a nap this afternoon, because by the time I finished this post it become clear that I am past the point of caffeine having any affect. Heath just sent me a message that he just has a few more things to take care of before going to check out of his hotel and get to the airport. Horray! Maybe we can still salvage the day, I'll let you know...