Barf & Jury Duty: Not A Fan

The promised photos will be posted. Some day.

I awoke on Saturday to find Lil' Bro spiking a fever pretty close to 104 F. That's always fun. So while he puttered around - at times as if his skeletal system had gone missing - we got the cousin caravan packed and on the road.

Future ex made himself useful by coming up to stay with the boys while I went shopping for my church's big reopening the next day. While in the checkout line, I got a call that The Boy had thrown up. Not the one with the fever, mind you. The other one. Great. Very promising, that.

I got home to a rather mellow set of boys. And within the hour, Lil' Bro joined the puke fest. I have to say, both boys were very brave and didn't cry. Just got it done with and then resumed their boneless existence on the couch.

Unfortunately, I did not emerge unscathed. I was lucky enough, however, to avoid the barf-a-rama. I just had "wiggly intestines", as I called it. I will spare you the details but will tell you that I'm a huge fan of Immodium. 'Nuf said.

Future ex stuck around to help comfort and attend to the boys. I have to say, that was great. It's when the kids are sick that I tend to hate being a single parent the most. So to have him chip in this way was awesome. Co-parenting in actual practice. Nice.

Since the next day (Sunday) was my church's big shindig, future ex came through again. He dragged his butt out of bed early and made it up to my house by 8am. Granted, we got to set the clocks back an hour. But still, I'm not sure I'd do that for too many people if I didn't have to. So he came up and stayed with the boys while I drove the 952 thousand pounds of food to my church (and yes, that's an exaggeration - I can't really lie about food I got for church, now can I!).

We had quite a few visitors for our church's reopening. I sang with the worship team and really felt God there. I really wish I didn't have to stand at a stationary mic. I mean, when I'm feeling it, I am feeling it. I need to move. And when you do that and your eyes are closed and you're stuck at a mic stand, you sometimes smash your mouth against the microphone or you whack the guitarist in the back as you raise your hands. I'm just sayin'.

About half of the cornucopia of food I brought was consumed. I think regulars were tentative about eating, in order to leave some for the visitors. And I think (based on my own past experience) new people who aren't used to a food service at church are hesitant to help themselves, lest they seem greedy. Or maybe that was just me once upon a time. Either way, there were enough people to have eaten all of that food. But since they all pretended to be dainty or on diets or some other silliness, we ended up forcing a lot of yummy leftovers on many of our regular members. They were all willingly forced, by the way.

I'm pretty sure there was no puke on Sunday - having trouble recalling. But Lil' Bro continued to spike high fevers. So I told both boys they would stay home the next day. Which was met with much rejoicing. Then, I suddenly realized I had jury duty on Monday! And my parents are away in Florida, selling their house. And my sister works. And most of my neighbors work. And Lil' Bro's neighbor-care has 4 kids and I can't send them THERE. In the end, I did call his caretaker and ask if she could possibly come to our house. Her hubby didn't have to work until near noon so we were hoping I'd be out of jury duty early.

This morning, my wonderful neighbor Beth - Lil' Bro's day caretaker - showed up just before 8am. Just after Lil' Bro calmly walked downstairs asking for something to drink. And while he was drinking, he informed me that, oh yah, he had thrown up in his bed - just a little. Yah. It wasn't just a little. It wasn't a huge horrid mess. But it was a mess, none the less. I had to leave it for later. Mmmmmm....hungry yet?

I'll wrap this up because I'm tired and my eyes are blurring. I got to jury duty. Sat with the rest of the cattle. Determined there were absolutely NO cute men present and therefore determined God would NOT be introducing me to my next husband at jury duty. Wondered how these women got THAT much makeup on THIS early. Noted that not one cowboy hat was in the whole place. Wrote in my travel journal. Listened to 2 MercyMe songs on my MP3 player. Listened to the court house people explain how things would go. Heard them say, "If anyone would like to claim an exemption, please come forward." Went forward with a ton of other people. Told the lady I had 2 kids under the age of 10 and can't afford to be on a jury unless they can promise me I'd be home by 5pm every day (which they can't) and got dismissed. I was home by 10:30am.

That gave me time to clean up Lil' Bro's bed and wash the sheets and make it back up again. Lil' Bro is still spiking fevers so he'll stay home tomorrow again and probably go hit the doctor's. I know it's just a virus that has to run it's course. But 3 days of high fevers has to be looked at. You just never know.

But all in all - YEAH!

God rocks. I mean, tonight, I already thanked him for my rockin' neighbors pulling it out of the hat for me - AGAIN. For the apparent cessation of puke in my house. For getting me out of jury duty quickly and legitimately. And for life in general. I just love that he sweats the little stuff. Seriously. It's very cool.

I'm so outta here.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....