Today was totally exhausting. Yesterday wasn't actually too bad. Carey had bought some movies from Hastings Tuesday evening in an effort to cheer me up. There were several including Emma, Curious George, V for Vendetta, etc. I managed to accomplish all three of the kidlets (James was with his grandparents) taking a nap at the same time. Score! So I decided to take advantage of it and tried watching Emma. Not really what I would have gotten for myself, but it is cute. A very appropriate love story for Valentines Day about a match maker that messes things up and gets her comeuppance.

However I was interrupted by a nice call from Carey's sister Lisa. They're coming up for Easter, which will be very nice. I was also interrupted by our post man Eric. Apparently, while he was away for his fathers death, the substitute post person had some packages to deliver when I wasn't home. Standard deal; you're supposed to get a little card saying hey, come get your stuff. Well, we never got it. I asked Carey and he said that no, he had never seen it. Eric had noticed some packages with our name on them at the office and was kind enough to ask about them. See? It does pay to get to know you post man. :D He was going to deliver them for us today.

Since it was Valentines Day, Carey wanted to spend time with me although I was getting ready to leave to come up to my parents for appointments. I wound up with a really bad headache, didn't go up to my parents and we still didn't get to spend much time together. I took a nap and felt better but it was too late to drive up to my parents by then. So, we played Carey's new game The Order of the Schtick. We didn't get very far but it was fun.

Poor little Kitty, as well as Carey, have both had nasty coughs the last week or so. We've been toughing it out, thinking they would both get over them but last night was the straw that broke the camels back. Poor Kitty was coughing so much she couldn't sleep and guess who that kept up? I think Carey and I each got a total of three hours sleep all together. And she was coughing so hard that she was gagging and puking. Enough was enough, I was going to take her into the clinic after her shots. So, we were all up at six to be out the door by seven. I was about 10 minutes late, not too bad for me. I always move slow in the morning. However, I had just reached the edge of town when I realized that the tank was almost empty so I had to turn around to get gas. Grrr.......... So I finally get out of town and on the road at 7.30. Sigh... I get to my parents with enough time to drop of Deedee, and get my mom woken up enough to accompany me. I was a bit worried that I'd be late with wet rainy roads. We were right on time though.

I enjoyed talking to the nurse that gave Kitty her shots. I've known her most of my life and she's one of those people that I feel comfortable talking to. She asked us about WIC and she got upset with me when I told her we weren't on it. She asked why so I had to explain the whole I rarely use them because it's too hard to go shopping with the kids, don't feel like shopping by myself, Carey usually gets the groceries but can't sign for the checks thing. It's all really confusing. We tried to set it up so Carey could sign the checks but they won't let him. And his schedule just doesn't allow for him to go to the appointments. It's either, or, and they wouldn't work with us. They said they just couldn't do that. Although, Gail talked to their WIC representative and she was told that they should have no problem letting Carey help with the checks and she didn't understand why they wouldn't let him. Sigh.... Maybe I"ll talk to them again. Kitty did very well for her shots. She only wuffled a little bit although she packed the maximum amount of pitiful into it so everyone felt sorry for her. Gail gave Charles a Tootsie Pop. He wanted green (his favorite color lately) but wound up with blue.

When I was done there, I took Kitty to the clinic as a walk in hoping I'd be able to get in. While we were waiting, Charles sucked down the "healthy" drink I had bought for my breakfast; a mixture of veggies, fruits, algae, spirulina, etc. It didn't look very appetizing although it doesn't taste too bad. Charles absolutely loved it and he kept running up to people telling them about his green juice. It was the same with his sucker too. :D We finally got Kitty in, only to have the doctor take one listen of her chest and send us to radiology. He didn't like the rattle he heard and wanted to take a look at her chest. It didn't take us long there. It felt weird, and kind of scary, to be looking at a picture of Kitty's insides. I saw her little ribs and her tiny heart. I was really scared that she'd wind up in the hospital, but when they called later they told us she was ok; that it wasn't that bad. Thank Goddess. On our way out of town, we just had enough time to pick up her prescription to take care of her cough as well as an ear infection that's probably exasperating the cough and run to the grocery store.

Charles went in with me and had a blast running around with one of those mini carts. And yes, he certainly went "shopping" and put a few things in his cart that I hadn't planned on getting. He chose three lunchables, one for each of them which was very nice of him. However, the only reason I let him keep them was because he was being so polite and asking people to move very nicely. Everyone smiled when they saw him coming and he was so proud of himself. LOL One time, there was a man wearing a cowboy hat in his way so he boldly walked up, patted him on the leg and said "excuse me, cowboy". The man just laughed and moved aside for him.

We got home with just enough time to grab the other two kids and make it to our PAT appointment. I came in to find Deedee asleep though so I just left her with her Uncle Jason while I tool the other three. This is the first time that I ever took the kids by myself. Mom was unable to make it because Gram had an appointment today for the resulsts of a test earlier this week. The lump they were worried about came back benign. That was a huge relief for everyone. I really do wish mom could have been there though. Charles was pretty much no trouble but James really acted out today. He was screaming, yelling, running around like a wild man, hurting his brother, not listen to either myself or Joanne, and on and on. We even caught him with his pants around his ankles and playing with himself. That really shocked me. He's never done that away from home before and at home he knows that he only does that in the bathroom or his bedroom when he's by himself. I just don't understand what got into him today.

So, by the time I got back to my parents the lack of sleep and the emotional toll of the day had really gotten to me and I was ready to collapse. I was able to take a small nap though and felt a little better, especially once I got some chocolate in me. That always helps. :D