When Eric is Away...

Eric went to Ohio at the beginning of February to visit his family, and to help make the arrangements to get his mother into a nursing home. Not easy stuff for anyone, but life marches on, and this is what eventually comes...

So Eric did a great job leaving me, for the 9 days he was gone, a plan of who would pick up the kids after school each day, and where I had to go to get them. Huge thanks to Laura and Frauke, for without them this would not at all have been possible. However, if only it had all gone according to plan...

Day two I was in an all day meeting with people that had flown in specifically for us to work on an executive presentation. And there we are in the middle of a teleconference to discuss what we had put together, when my phone rings.

School principal.

I need to come pick up Bennett as he has gotten in trouble and he needs to go home for the rest of the day.

What?

Turns out there was a girl who had a book he wanted. Rather than ask her to borrow it (how pedestrian) he decides to get a tack and go out in the hallway and put the tack in her shoe. His thinking: when she puts the shoes on later, it will "weaken" her, and then he can get in there and get the book. Unfortunately, his plan was foiled due to the teacher catching him in the act. And the only reason he had to go home was because he showed the principal no remorse for what he had done.

Buddy: next time, show remorse. You will eventually (by the time I got to the school Bennett was a sobbing mess), and you can save us a lot of trouble by just getting it over with. Better yet - don't make bad choices next time... how many times in this lifetime will I discuss bad choices and have it seem like we are starting from zero each and every time???

So then Friday Karl complains that he isn't feeling so good - I tell him he is fine, and pack him off to school - Frauke calls me that afternoon that he really isn't feeling well, but that he can lie on the couch at their house until I get home from work. I get there to find him napping - so we enjoy a pleasant dinner, to only have him come down and announce that he has thrown up. This is turning into a Somerville family tradition, as Bennett threw up at the Galia's house before as well - but hopefully a tradition that ends here.

Karl and I both thought that it was something he ate, as he felt better immediately afterward, and Saturday, though weak, was still a relatively active day. By Sunday he was getting weaker, such that our day trip to Lichtenstein (check that country off our list!) was a bit lackluster as he felt worse and worse. By the time we got home I found the information for the new children's hospital - if it was strep throat, he would need antibiotics before he got worse.

After four hours of waiting we see the doctor who makes the declaration that it is not strep, but just the flu - and only bedrest and time would make it better. So day 8 and day 9 were spent at home with Karl instead of at work. So much for all of our plans.

One other thing that happened while Eric was away is that I got to sleep with our fluffy down comforter again! The day before Thanksgiving Eric gets the bright idea that the comforter is making him allergic, and replaces it with think cotton quilts.

Really? The day before Thanksgiving?

It turns out it snowed the next day. And then it snowed, and snowed. But there we were with our trusty, thin, cotton quilts. This was killing me...

Once in a while I would sneak upstairs to sleep on the guest bed with the big, fluffy, overly decadent feather comforter. I had this crazy feeling that come spring time, he would realize he wasn't really allergic and we would go back to the feathers - just in time for warm weather. So for a week I luxuriated with the comforter on our bed, and when he got back, Eric was nice enough to try it for a few days. But the allergic feeling came back, and away the comforter went again...

But all is settled back into place now and we are back into our normal routine. And somehow now that Eric is home everything seems to be going to plan...