The Rainy Day Blues

What a busy weekend ahead; tonight the Patapsco Valley Republican Club's Patriot Day Reception; tomorrow the Aaron Shust concert...both events sans children.  Yet here I am, curled up on the couch with a glass of tea and my computer dragging through the day.  It all started yesterday.  I felt tired, like pregnant tired, and then I got that coated feeling in the back of my throught, the kind where you know it's going to hurt.  By the end of Bible study, I officially felt horrible.  At first I thought it to be allergies since I was sneezing constantly, so I went searching the house for benadryl.  Now you know you're desperate for relief when you're willing to down two Children's Benadryl Perfect Measures.  Those things are nasty.  I don't understand why my kids love them.  Anyways, no relief at all.  I found my self drifting off to sleep just as my nose would start to drip.  Thus began a seemingly endless cycle of up, blow, wipe, drift, drip.  Finally I was able to prop myself into a position where my nose stopped drifting and I was able to get to sleep.

In a perfect world Moms would be awarded full night's sleep when sick, but we live in a fallen world, right?  Around 2:45 this morning, Owen crawls into bed with us.  At first I was willing to just ignore the fact that there was a child in our bed, but his tossing and turning and moaning and groaning sent me over the edge.  I sat up in bed, and was about to drag him back down to his bed, when I felt overcome with dizziness, so I did what any good mom would do...woke up his dad.  Not even 20 minutes later, Blake was whining up the stairs, literally.  I actually coaxed him to the top of the stairs and then made the same mistake twice.  Maybe he'll just lay down and go to sleep, then I'll take him back to his bed and skip the whole crying fit at 3:15 in the morning.  Nope, this child got into our bed and started on the same path his brother had just taken, toss, turn, moan, groan.  This time I didn't want to wake Neil, so I carried the ornary 2 year old back to his bed, changed his diaper, got him a drink of water, and laid down beside him.  In about 5 minutes, the boy was out like a light.  At 3:45 AM, I plopped my achy body back into bed and drifted off into oblivion.

I pulled myself out of that same bed limb by limb at 7:00 am this morning.  My head floating, my muscles aching, my scalp tingling, my throat hurting, and I've been dragging ever since.  I'm hoping a late afternoon shower will wash away some of the yukiness, and slipping into my pretty black dress for tonight's reception will once again make me feel like a woman (and not an infestation of snot).