Another Day in Pleasantville...

5:30 am: Eldest son's computer alarm goes off loudly and wakes everyone but him.

6:00 am: Eldest son leaves for work. After work, he is heading to his future university where he will have a percussion lesson prior to a scholarship audition. Said college is a good 4 hours away.

6:10 am: Same son returns home. "Somewhere around Walmart, the brakes made this really loud pop and don't seem to be working any more." Sudden changes are made in the day's routine as transportation is rearranged so that he can take the family van.

6:30 am: Wake youngest son, who upon rising collapses into the floor in tears. His legs hurt, he says. Dad digs back into that year and a half of PT grad school from his past and checks the little guy out. Determines the three days of relatively high fever have probably left him a little dehydrated. Start pushing fluids and making him walk around to loosen up. Looks like a weepy Frankenstein for a while.

6:45 am: Check the email. Discover one came from the health insurance company with whom we'd sought temporary coverage. Our petition for coverage was denied. (Who could blame them?) So back to square one with trying to get health insurance before dad's starts in May.

7:00 am: Decide the youngest is still not well enough for a day of school, but mom must go to school for end-of-the-term business and dad must go to work as dad's boss arranged for dad to give a presentation to a large group of people. So--youngest will camp out in mom's classroom for the day, coloring and playing video games while classes come and go.

7:10 am: Whole entourage pile into dad's car, which is a perfect size for him, his briefcase and supplies--but becomes rather cramped when two more backpacks, another briefcase, three more people and a portable TV and video game system are added to the cargo.

7:45 am: Eldest son has taken off with mom's school keys. Mom borrows the secretary's master key. Fortunately only needs to do this once during the day.

8:15 am: Mom discovers she left the children's ibuprofen at home. Hoping the youngest one's fever does not return. Goes back to the secretary to see if any stock of generic children's ibuprofen is kept in the cabinets.

9:05 am: Most of mom's classes run smoothly. Kids are amenable to the little guy "visiting" for the day. Dad's presentation goes well, too.

2:00 pm: Mom's school day does not finish as peachy as it started. One kid skips out on class. Begged a bathroom run. Took a long time...finish reading War and Peace type long time. Then tells her that he had something he needed to take care of in the office and this delayed him. But secretary's story was that when the boy came to the office, he said he'd been sent there to see if he could help out at all. Oops. Got caught.

2:20 pm: Mom learns from yesterday's substitute that several kids acted up in computer class. Mom walks into the office. "I need oh--about a ream of discipline referral sheets."

3:35 pm: Dad picks up the crew.

4:10 pm: Driving home, whole family decides to do their once-per-paycheck frivolous spending. The day certainly qualifies for it. They go out for Chinese at a wonderful buffet.

5:05 pm: Too bad Dad didn't realize fever and a queasy-stomach virus were going to hit this soon. He probably would have skipped the sushi.

6:01 pm: Current time. Afraid to predict the evening. Going to check on Dad. Mom signing off.