A fabulous day indeed. And then, today.

Yesterday, although not picture documented, was FANTASTIC!!

A little background. We play cards, spades in fact, with our friends, the Crabbs, every week. We play boys verses girls and have done so for years. In early 2008 Jonathan suggested we "make it interesting". We decided the winners would each get $50 blow money (so $100 total!) and a whole Saturday off totally free of all kid-duty. If you have children you know just how high stakes this proposal really was. Unfortunately, the girls lost. Dismally lost. (Sidenote, if you know me, you know that not only is this quite uncharacteristic of me, but highly irritating to me as well). Leigh-Ann, in a moment of brilliance, suggested that she and I would take the kids out of town for a whole weekend (leaving the boys alone for the whole weekend in their video game heaven...) if we could have one day later (with no free money). Score! We took the kids to my parents' house and had a ball.

Back to yesterday. We cashed in. It was glorious. Truly, glorious. I slept until 8:30 and went downstairs to eat pancakes Chris had kept warm for me. Leigh-Ann and I each had a gift certificate for a massage so we scheduled those for 10, then met at PF Chang's for lunch. We hit 1 shoe store then the pool. We layed out in perfect weather (never once being asked to hold anyone or anything, get in the pool, provide a snack, take someone to the potty or even open my eyes. See? Glorious.). We then showered, got a pedicure and went to a new hip restaurant, Flip (owned by a Top Chef winner, I don't know who, I don't watch it. However, it was delic!). After that, we hit a couple of shops, Target (of course) drove through chick-fil-a to get the (absolutely-to-die-for-good) peach milkshake then went to Grape (a cute wine bar with live music on the patio). We didn't get home until 11:30--it was SO FUN!! Thanks Leigh-Ann for the great day. Thanks babe for being so awesome and taking care of the kids (including doing the pool by himself with 2 for the first time and taking them to CFA for dinner! Isn't he amazing?).

Chris mentioned that Ryan had been kinda hoarse and "sounding like Darth Vader" all day yesterday, but that he had played/acted fine (thus, the pool and CFA). When I went in to get him this morning he sounded the same so Chris offered to stay home from church while I took Anna-Kate. When I got home and held Ryan he felt a bit warm to me. Add to that a peculiar cough I decided to call the ped to see about getting a Monday morning appointment. When the nurse called me back (at 12:55) she heard him and told me to turn the shower on hot and keep him in the steam for 20 minutes at which time she would call me back. I did, and she did. When she heard him she told me to immediately drop whatever I was doing, put him in the car and drive to Scottish Rite (the local children's hospital). As he was already 15 minutes late for nap I asked if I could let him nap first and she said absolutely not, he needs to be seen immediately, and, by the way, tell the person checking you in he has "stridor" and that should get you to the front of the line asap (which, incidently, it did). The sign said the wait time to be seen by a nurse was 2.5 hours. We saw the nurse, did billing and saw the doctor in about 30. From what I understand (anyone else is welcome to weigh in on this if I am missing something), the big problem with "stridor", as opposed to other types of croup, is that the esophogas is the most restricted/swollen and so often enough oxygen isn't getting to the lungs/brain etc. Once I learned that, I was pretty scared. However, his oxygen levels were good all things considered, but he had to have a shot of steriods and a breathing treatment. Neither went over well. (I know a lot of kids regularly get these, God bless you Mama's, I don't envy that!). After that we had to wait 2 hours to be observed and make sure that was enough medication (I say two hours, in fact, we waited 25 minutes of "Despereux" and the entire "Little Mermaid" before the doctore came back in to talk me through things, check him out and then get officially discharged. Thankfully, I reclined some in the chair and he slept on my chest for almost 2 1/2 hours. LONG DAY. I didn't get home until 5:45 (and that was with getting a "go-to-the-front-of-the-line-free" card. Thanks stridor.

So, yet again, if you need to find me, I'll be at home.

Ahh, welcome back to mommy-hood. Saturday was a great run and just the break I needed so I could hit the ground running today!