What

What I should do: 

start grading the stack of 50+ research papers sitting in boxes on my bedroom floor.

What I want to do: 

watch a movie (uninterrupted), sleep through the night, get a massage, get my hair cut, and load pictures from Moo's baptism this past weekend.

What I'm doing: 

writing a mediocre blog post while eating dinner, loading the latest episode of Up All Night (huge fan), waiting for Phil to call and tell me he's headed home (finally), and listening out for my oh-so-sick little Moo. He sounds like Darth Vader...with a cough and a fever on top of all that congestion. Poor little guy.

There. That's what's going on over here. We had such a special weekend--more on that later when I've have more sleep and am not multi-tasking quite so much. 

No lie.

I was explaining the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" yesterday in class 

and a girl raised her hand and said, 

"I thought it was 'Keeping up with the Kardashians.'" 

She wasn't trying to be funny. 

But oh, she was.

An education degree doesn't begin to prepare you for moments like that.

Oh, the stories I can tell. 

Sometime, ask me about 

"I love peanuts!" girl,

the boy who threw up

the day I sounded like my mother

and the NYC personal driver story (my personal favorite).

Waterproof Mascara

Thursday was my first day back at work after a fabulous 12-week maternity leave. 

And it was hard. 

Really hard. 

Even though my best friend was staying with Moo at our house, 

and even though I was going back into teaching at a perfect time as far as the curriculum goes, 

and even though I knew this day was coming,

I still cried most of the way to work.

Good thing I wore my waterproof mascara.

But then I got there

and things got so busy that I didn't have time to think about it too much

and teaching felt like riding a bike--so natural.

And my students were excited to see me.

And I was asked things like, "Mrs. Johnson, do you like your kid?"

and that made me laugh.

And then I came home and got to love my child for lots of hours and that made me smile.

And then I did it all over again the next day.

And the next day was hard.

But not first day hard.

And I'm still fighting guilt and uncertainty and change

but God is meeting me there

and sustaining me

and I'm grateful.

Date night

Nope, not the movie with Michael Scott Steve Carell and Liz Lemon Tina Fey. I'm talking about the actual date that Phil & I went on last night. First one in two and a half months--much-needed.

Long story, but we were at my parents' house for a few days and my mom and dad offered to watch Moo for us one night. Yes please. So, we went to a movie and then dinner. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie (something we'd been wanting to do since it came out). Apparently, 6 p.m. on a Thursday night with a movie that's about to go out of the theatre is the time to go--we had the entire theatre to ourselves. I'd be lying if I said we didn't take advantage of that. ;)

Then, we went to dinner at one of our favorite Chattanooga restaurants, The Terminal Brewhouse, a hundred-year-old hotel-converted-restaurant. We enjoyed some local brew, delicious food, and uninterrupted conversation. Soooo wonderful.

Best of all, in the midst of a month where Phil works so much that I only see him an hour max a day, several hours together was absolute bliss! Many thanks, Mom and Dad!

Scratch that.

Remember that allergic reaction I had in my eye even though I'm not allergic to anything, my eye wasn't itching, and it felt like something had scratched my eye? Well, it wasn't an allergic reaction.

I woke up the following morning after starting on steroids and found that I was extremely light sensitive. Like I had all the blinds closed and the lights off and I still couldn't hold my lid open--that sensitive. I'm sure I looked hilarious driving to the grocery store with sunglasses on top of regular glasses, the visor down, AND my hand up to my forehead blocking the sun and holding open my eyelids at the same time. That's right: holding them open. Not exactly a shining moment in my driving career. On top of all of that, my eye was throbbing from the back forward and felt like it was expanding in my socket. Not exaggerating. Bleh.

So, I did what I hate to do again: I went back to the doctor for a second opinion. This time, I saw someone more competent who said I did not have an allergic reaction but a pretty sizable corneal abrasion (a.k.a. scratch on my eye). He had no idea how the person before could have missed it, and all the light sensitivity and swelling was a reaction to the steroids I'd been prescribed. Wish I had known that before I spent $45 on steroids that not only didn't work but made things worse. So, I got off the steroids and onto antibiotics and began a week of wearing glasses.

Now, a week later, I'm happy to report that I am wearing contacts again, am fairly pain free, have the blinds open, and will always go with my gut and get a second opinion when I need to.