cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

 We went to my in-laws' this weekend for xmas #1. On the way out of town Friday night, it started snowing. The weather forecast said NOTHING about snow, so we figured it'd pass.

I think Alex gave me his cold. My throat is scratchy and my eyes hurt. And I'm exhausted.

I think...no dance tonight. Sleep. And maybe hemming my new pants. But mostly sleep.

I don't have time for this. Ugh!

10 hours of codeine-induced sleep last night and I feel significantly more human today. My voice is still shot all to hell, my throat huts, and I've started coughing, but I'm upright and moving around.

...

I had been about to write something about how even though I'm sick, it's an okay day. Then a customer called with OMG!EVERYTHING'S BROKEN. And an internal person called and said that they need a project manager for the Giant Diagnosis Project at my customer and they all assume I'm that person and I HATE being a project manager, but the person who SHOULD be doing this has way too much on his plate and so can't possibly.

And now I'm sad. And coughing. And frustrated. And generally feeling miserable.

Friday - No visit from my sister. Very sad me. Made it home reasonably early and just chilled.

Saturday - Tried to sleep in and utterly failed. So I got up and made muffins and coffee. Then I sat on the back porch in my PJs with my book, muffins with Real!Butter, and coffee. It was lovely and peaceful. That was about it on the peaceful front for the day, though.

Downwood mowed and I tried to convince Ox to use the potty. I played some GW2 and harvested asparagus and rhubarb from our garden. Emi ate all the asparagus right away and asked for more, but our poor plot isn't doing so well this year, so I couldn't harvest extra. The rhubarb, though, is going gangbusters. So I made rhubarb-raspberry jam and got three jars worth of delicious red stuff. You can't actually tell that I harvested any rhubarb, since the plant is still enormous. Maybe I can get more next weekend!

Sunday - Everyone got to sleep in for a while and woke up to a very chilly house. Turns out that if you leave windows open overnight and the temp drops to the 40s-50s, it gets cold. Who knew?

I woke up with terrible back and head pain, so I drank some coffee and took a bunch of Advil. By the time the Advil finally kicked in, Emi was up and about and requesting pancakes because "It's Sunday, so the pattern says to have pancakes on Sunday).

I had a couple of wonderful hours with my sewing machine. I got quite a bit done on two skirts and a dress for me. I also have a prototype of Emi's summer Elsa dress nearly done. Since the Spoonflower fabric is freaking EXPENSIVE, I don't want to cut into it until I'm sure I have my ideas down pat.

I also did a ton of laundry, because it was Sunday. Sunday is cleaning day (also, according to Emi's internal patterns). We also went outside and planted a bunch of flower seeds. Not sure if any of them will grow/survive/bloom, but if they do, it'll be lovely.

Talked to my mom for a while because Mother's Day. Got some updates about family, which was nice.

At bedtime, we couldn't find Ox's lovey. This is his Most Important Thing. We tore the house apart looking for it, but eventually had to give up. No idea where that little blanket went to. Not good.

Emi was also a pill at bedtime, interrupting my reading every paragraph or two to ask dumb questions. Things like "What does 'fire' mean?", when she knows darn well what a fire is. Or a frog. Some of the things, yeah, she won't have seen a heron or some of the other random words, but come on!

My bedtime sucked. I could feel my ears getting clogged up and the drainage starting into my throat, so I went to bed early. And laid there shivering uncontrollably for an hour. Then I was finally warm down to my bones, but still couldn't sleep. I know I got some rest at some point during the night, but I couldn't tell you when or for how long. Just miserable.

Today - I overslept on purpose by a half hour. Just feeling icky. Some coffee and orange juice got me to the point of being able to get Emi out of bed and me into the shower. I came out of the shower to absolute CHAOS.

Emi was in tears because she thought she was the snack leader at school, but she couldn't find the yellow snack bag. Downwood checked the schedule and found out that, yes, Emi is supposed to be providing snacks for her class today. We tore apart the house, but couldn't find the snack bag. We figure she left it on the bus *AND* she'd put most of her schoolwork folders into it, so we're working at a double disadvantage.

I got to work an hour later than usual. I've had some ice water and hot tea with honey, but my throat still feels not good. I'm very tired and lacking all motivation. Bleah.

Also, I forgot to restock my emergency Xanax, so today needs to get better in a hurry. Yuk. Depending on if I feel better or worse as the day goes on, I may or may not be at dance tonight. Right now, I don't want to talk or eat. Or breathe. Or stay awake. So we'll see how this goes.

Grr time change. We hates it, we does. And I forgot my good headphones so people will be making me crazy today with their loud awfulness.

---

Ox came down with the same tummy bug as Emi gave me. He started throwing up Thursday night and by Saturday morning still hadn't been able to keep anything down. So I followed our health care protocol and first called our clinic so they could call urgent care and find out which clinic would be best for us to visit.

Urgent care said that if little dude was as dehydrated as it sounds, he'd need IV fluids and they don't have the facility for doing that for little guys, so we should just go to Emergency.

So I grabbed a couple of things and drove up to the UW ED (where they told us to go). We got in right away and Ox got hooked up to things. They drew some blood and put in an IV. Based on his lab results for kidney and liver function, they wanted to admit him to make sure he could keep getting fluids overnight. To demonstrate how sick Ox was, he barely fought when they put in the IV. It was mostly a whine, not a thrashing trying to get away from the pain. Totally lethargic and sick.

So Downwood and Emi brought me my meds and a change of clothes and sat with Ox while I moved my car to the correct parking lot.

And then I stayed with Ox.

Ox slept almost all of Saturday once he started getting fluids. He hadn't really slept at all while he was dehydrated and sick at home, so that was a good chance for him to rest. He started to perk up late Sunday morning and the nurse brought in some toys since Ox wasn't allowed out of the room. And since he was perking up and not sleeping the whole time, I wasn't allowed out of the room, since he wanted me with him.

Ox was still throwing up off and on when we left. Mostly when he'd had too much at once or got worked up about something (like taking tylenol to have his head stop hurting). The ongoing vomiting made me super worried that they'd want to keep him for another day and I just couldn't handle the thought. Very lonely, very isolated, very worried, very sad.

But the doctors said he would be fine, even with the continued tummy upset and let us go home in the afternoon.

We got home and Emi was beside herself. Total hyperactive attention-hogging 5-year-old. Ox played with Lego and a fishing game for a while, snuggled on the couch, drank some juice, had a bath, and went to sleep in his own bed.

I did more loads of laundry, folded all the things that Downwood washed and finally took a real shower.

------

This morning was rough. I haven't had a good night of sleep since last Monday and it's starting to show. Add in the fact that I'm once again getting up and leaving the house when it's still dark (FUCK this time change) and I'm not happy. The one good thing about the early morning at home is that Ox got up at his usual time so I could get some hugs and snuggles with him before leaving.

I've come into work and defused a situation that I should have been dealing with yesterday (upgrade, so I should have been on call), but I let the main person I work with know what was up with Ox and she basically told everyone there that I was not to be disturbed and they'd just have to call in the after-hours help.

I just got word from Downwood that Ox has had juice this morning and has actually asked for his formula! (first time since maybe Thursday). He's also asking for chips (unsurprising). So he seems to be perking up. I can't decide if I want to go to dance or if I want to go home. I have lots and lots of Momma Worry working right now, plus general exhaustion making anxiety and depression way worse than they need to be, but exercise would help, but but but but....yeah.

-----

I can look forward this week to having Wednesday afternoon off. I'm getting my peacock colored the rest of the way. Expensive, but will be worth it. I can also look forward to finally getting my hair cut on Thursday. I think I'll still keep the length this trip and then at my next one go shorter for spring. Need to look through Pinterest for hair ideas. I can also look forward to Ox feeling better soon. I hope.

Time to be grown up
About how bad I'm feeling.
Heading to doctors'.

I have a head/chest cold. It's now to the point where if I don't get someone to look at it, I'll end up with bronchitis or pneumonia, neither of which will help me get things done this holiday season.