Back in the day

I used to think. a lot. About important things.
I miss those days.

Combat Compensation

It's been a counting-down-to-grad-school kind of week. N got Swine Flu. Luckily if you catch it quickly enough there are antivirals that flush it out of the system. Unluckily, it's still best to be quarantined for about 5 days. That means I was home with 2 semi-sick (cough, runny nose) must mostly normal kids for 4 days this week. No playdates, minimal excursions. Yep, just me and the very energetic and defiant kiddoes. Friday morning when I went upstairs the dad informed me that the kids were a little stir crazy. I'd already figured that out from the running and yelling I'd already heard that morning. They were literally bouncing off the furniture and running around insane. We went to Build-a-Bear (they had gift cards) just to get them out of the house, and that went better than expected as far as behavior. During B's nap N had an epic meltdown. He completely lost control out of frustration over a video game. He nearly knocked me over a few times, was swinging his arms and screaming and ramming into me. It was the worst he's spun out with me in a long time. His dad eventually came downstairs and carried him away (he very rarely gets involved with discipline when I'm working, which is good, but I'm very glad he took this one over). I got off at 3 as an hours trade for babysitting tonight, but I felt like I'd put in the full 10 hours plus overtime. I went and got a massage, and have stayed away most of today. Needless to say, I'm not exactly looking forward to going upstairs to babysit in 10 minutes.
On the bright side, my boss acknowledges and appreciates what a difficult job this can be, and gave me a little bonus for "combat pay."
Here's hoping I can just let them eat dinner and watch a movie and go to bed early tonight.

Stir Crazy

I've been itching to travel and also very much in need of a reprieve from the kiddoes. I love them, but lets be honest they aren't my kids and I am at liberty to want to go away from them for more than two days at a time.
I'm going to visit Rachel (Seminary friend) in Bloomington, Indiana for Thanksgiving, which will be awesome and much needed. But when I bought those tickets it was still about 6 weeks away. In Seminary I got spoiled on reading weeks and holiday breaks and getting to travel to go somewhere and visit someone about every 2 months. Real life is not like that, I know, but I really want it to be. So I decided that I also need to plan a trip to the UK to visit Matt and Jeni and wee Hosea. I use the word "plan" loosely. There wasn't so much a plan as an expedia search and then a purchase and then a Skype conversation letting them know I'm coming.
The funny thing is I was telling my friend Jess (from church here) how much I needed a break and wanted to travel. I said, "I haven't been anywhere since . . . August." Yeah, that wasn't that long ago. I guess I really am spoiled.
Be that as it may, the nomadic life appeals to me, and since I can't have that right now I'll just seize the opportunities I do have and get the heck out of Dodge.