The Monday Report

Well my friends, the first round of midterms is over!! It actually didn't end up being as crazy as I thought it would be. Because Steve had Monday off, he went and worked nearly all day which meant he got a TON done! So by Thursday night, he had finished both of the midterms up. We got the whole stinking weekend with him. It was seriously glorious.

Thursday my mom called and asked if we wanted to go out on a date Friday night. Ummmm....yes, please! And since Steve was finished up, we were able to go out for the whole evening. We dropped the kids off at dinnertime and then headed to downtown Santa Cruz which is pretty close to my parent's house. We walked around hand in hand and finally settled on a place to eat-Kianti's, which serves really good Italian food and pizza.

For some reason we really connected at dinner. This doesn't always happen when we go out (gasp!! yes, I'm admitting it!). We always have fun being together but, sometimes we're tired or stressed or just who knows what!! One of the times we went out recently, I felt so sick at dinner (1st trimester woes) that I ordered a large Sprite and loathingly watched Steve eat-definitely not our finest hour. Ha ha! But this night, probably due to the first round of midterms being behind us, we were able to enjoy each other, talk and really connect. I was so thankful.

Since we had the whole evening, we decided to go see a movie after dinner. It had been a long time! Steve suggested The Vow. I didn't know much about it. But when he mentioned that it was based on a true story, I was intrigued. It ends up the story is about the sister of someone we know from Cal Poly. I want to write more about this movie later. But I'll just say this...I silently cried throughout the entire movie. I'm NOT a crier but, after having an amazing dinner with my husband and watching this incredible story of a man laying down his life for his wife who had lost her memory, I seriously bawled. Mostly because I knew that I was loved that way and I didn't deserve it.

We ended the night with incredible ice cream from the Penny Creamery. Their ice cream is made in-house and they have all sorts of amazing flavors. We decided that one flavor that Steve got and one that I got were the best combo (Yes! We indulged and got doubles!)...we'll know for next time. By the time we got back to my parents', it was late and we had the best of times. But since it was late, we decided to just let the kids sleep and crawl into bed ourselves upstairs in one of the extra rooms. Nevertheless, just as we decided, I heard it, the barking cough...I had no idea who it was, but I knew what it was-croup.

I ran up to the kids' room and exclaimed, "Who is that?" as I was fumbling around in the dark trying to grab the sick kid gasping for air before they had gotten too worked up. You see, we've been through this before...a couple of times now. Croup sounds so horrible but really it's okay. You just have to get the child calmed down quickly enough to be able to breathe and one of the best things to do is to immediately go outside with them. The cold air forces the inflammation to go down a bit so they can breathe. In times past, we've had to go outside numerous times in a night to try and help a struggling child breathe.

I was about to turn on the lights but then heard Josh let out a cry. It was him! So I grabbed him, yelled at Steve to help me and ran him downstairs. Out the door we went. Steve is the master of calming down children in these types of situations and so he was on duty. I went back inside for Joshy's inhaler (more as insurance, it doesn't necessarily help tons with croup) and a blanket. By the time I came back he was coughing and able to breathe a bit better. Phew! I was SO thankful we were there when this happened and that it didn't fall on my parents. They're troopers for sure and amazing with the kids but it's so scary and the last thing I ever want is for my babysitters to have to deal with situations like that!! Lucky for us I had packed some Tylenol, just in case, since Caleb had shots that day. That came in handy since Josh was also burning up.

It ended up being a long night with Joshua. We've all had them. Yet, we actually hadn't had a night like that in awhile. One of us had to be holding Josh all night to calm him down when he would wake up not being able to breathe. But once he was calm, his breathing would get better and he could fall back asleep. Steve and I took turns. Amazingly, we only had one night like this with Josh. In the past, when we've experienced croup with the other two boys, there were many nights of waking up and barking/struggling to breathe. But Friday night was the only bad night. We've been super thankful!!

The rest of the weekend was spent resting the sick child, visiting with friends, and spending time with Daddy! I felt like I was on vacation. I didn't want him to go back to work today!! Such a great, full weekend despite Joshy being sick. The best part was getting midterms done early and spending all of Friday night out with my best friend. Truly the best!

Until next time friends...that is today's Monday Report.