Love at it finest...sick wife, sick baby!

OMG. That is really the only thing I can say. I have just experienced my first go around with both Ashley and I being sick..at.the.same.time. She started it; germ carrier! I took her to the doctors on Saturday (God bless my doc having Saturday hours!) he diagnosed her with the "common cold". No antibiotics. By Sunday night I could feel it coming, the nasty wave of SICK. My husband was already slated to stay home Monday to give the mini one more day home. I woke up Monday like I had been hit by a mack truck. Not to mention the puking in the middle of the night. I called the doctor first thing and wouldn't you know...2:15pm was the earliest appointment. Excellent. I just laid in bed and cried. I could hear Ashley coughing in the other room and really, I could not go to her. I felt awful. I drifted in and out of sleep until my doctors appointment. All the while my amazing husband was tending, ever so gently, to our sick little one. I could hear him playing with her, talking to her and comforting her.  When I finally peeled myself out of bed, got dressed in my loveliest attire...wrinkled sweats and a t-shirt from the floor...brushed my teeth (ack!) and headed out; my car wouldn't start!!!!! really?! I ran back in grabbed my husbands keys and off I ran in his car. All I could think of is ****...he is supposed to go out of town tomorrow, I'm sick, baby's sick, my car is dead...insert more tears here. After a 2 hour ordeal at the doc's got home and off he went to get the car fixed. Crisis averted, dead battery. He kept me updated on his timing knowing I was laying on the floor like a lump watching Ashley just enough so she didn't get hurt. I needed to go back to sllllleeeeepppp. Arg. 4am rolled around and Ash was up with a coughing fit. Dad to the rescue!!! He jumped out of bed and took care of her. He had to be up at 5am so getting up even that one hour earlier SUCKS!!!!  That let me get more, much needed, sleep. I knew I would be on my own today; but thanks to modern medicine I am on the mend. Not great but I'm going to live.
Rewind to a few weeks ago when both my husband and I were both sick (thank you again to our germ incubating child)...that could possibly be hell on earth. Let's just say my husband and I didn't do so well working out who was pulling what duty.
This time was different. My husband did what every wife hopes and prays her husband does in a situation like this...acted like a wife! LOL! Ashley was fed, changed, bathed, and happy, dishes were done, house was clean, dog taken out, cat box cleaned, etc... It was amazing. I could just be sick and rest. I am so very thankful.
Sometimes in our marriage I don't always feel like our responsibilities are divided up equally. Being a full time working mom, every second of my day is accounted for. I saw a hilarious Swiffer commercial about how Swiffer makes cleaning faster and after cleaning the mom picks up a book dusts it off and says "I'm going to read one of this!!!" I laugh every time I see it because, THAT'S ME! Reading...last.on.the.list. Just like everything else that has to do with ME.

We've been married almost 10 years. What I know about marriage is that it is easy to let the little things slide even when they mean so much. Some times the tenderness and patience wanes. Sometimes you feel like roommates. Marriage take work; effort. I am certain I will continue to feel there are days we pull different shares of the household and baby duties. I will continue to feel the strain of working, taking care of my child, the house and my husband. I will always pray for more time. But what I am most certain of is that my husband will be there to pick up that last dish, scoop the cat box just one more time, and rock our sniffly, coughing baby to sleep at 4am and to love and care for me when I need it most. Thank you for being an amazing father and husband. Thank you for being everything I ever hoped for. Thank you for loving me even when it's hard. I love you.

Confessions of a bully...and the bullied

In elementary school I was the catalyst for my group of friends to turn on one of the group. This girl spent one whole summer with out friends. Her mom must have hated me. At the time I remember my Mom asking me what happened and if I had done anything to cause this. I was indignant and blew her off the only way a 5th grader knows how. I remember thinking, she was right, but I didn't know how to unwind what I had done. At the end of the summer one girl decided to re-friend this girl and all of us followed suit.

In junior high, I got mine. My group of friends; my BFF's decided they didn't like me anymore. It was explained to me "you've changed". I wasn't invited anywhere any more. I was devastated. My life was O-V-E-R. 

Recently, my niece experienced her first go around with "mean girls"...she was un-friended on Face Book by one of her BFF's. She was a wreck. Hearing this made me want to kick this little bitches ass. I've been there, I could feel the sting of the rejection as if it had just happened to me. 

At the risk of sounding like my mother or grandmother, things just aren't the same for tweens and teens as they were when I was that age. Information is always moving, so for us, when we went home from school the only communication was the land line phone that your mom picked up and said hello 16 times. Now, with FB, Twitter, internet, texting, cell phones, etc...it seems like the bullying can go on 24/7. Lovely.

I hope the girl that I bullied reads this and knows I have felt the sting of guilt each and every time I hear her name, think of elementary school, hear of mean girls, and think of the same thing happening to my daughter. I hope she knows how sorry I am. I can only imagine the anguish her mom must have gone through watching her little girl alone all summer long. Stab.to.the.heart. 

Becoming an adult heals a lot of those childhood hurts. I grew up, matured, gained confidence, found my strength in God and make an effort to be a NICE person. I hope that through my experience as a bully and as the bullied I can better teach my daughter to not be the "mean girl". I hope that I am never that mom that says "oh, Ashley would never do that..." OF COURSE SHE WOULD...she has a little kid brain. I recently read an article in Parents magazine (I attached the link below) that gave me hope that if when my kid is bullied there is a reasonable parent on the other end that will partner with me to make our kids better people. Nicer people. 

http://www.parents.com/kids/problems/bullying/mean-kids/