Life in Bullets

• Julianna's sick.  Really sick.  Yesterday when I picked her up from school she was crying as she walked to the car.  I asked her what was wrong and she told me she had been feeling really sick all day, headache, stomach ache, chills and aches & pains, but the nurse wouldn't call me because she didn't have a fever.  She feel asleep on the 1/2 mile drive home.  Yes, I am very upset with the health office.  It's ridiculous.  She should not have been in school.  Her teacher emailed me and told me she won't allow that to happen again, so there's that.  Anyhow, Julianna's running a high fever (104.7), and I'm not working and hopefully she'll be better soon, but realistically I'm just hoping she's better by Monday.  Some unscheduled, unpaid, and I know inconvenient time off that hopefully the parents I work for won't be too upset about.  Nature of the business and definitely nothing I can do about it.  
• A good friend of mine's mother died yesterday.  It makes it hard to care too much about the unpaid time off and even how upset/not upset the parents are.  I am just heart-sick for her.  It was completely out of the blue, her dad died in mid-November, and she's hurting so much.  I now have infinite amount of patience with Julianna, nothing like a very vivid and sad reminder that life can change in an instant.
• Lori has quit her job, which is wonderful for her.  I proposed that I still watch the kids for a few hours once a week to give her some time alone, let me see the kids, and give one of the little ones I watch her weekly Matthew "fix".  Ellie loves playing with Matt.  Anyway, yesterday when Matt came in he was visibly upset.  Long story short, there was ice cream for snack at preschool and some kids got ice cream cones, but they wouldn't allow Matt to have a cone.  So frustrating!!!  Matthew has a peanut allergy and the school, in an abundance of caution, wouldn't let him have one.  The thing is, according to law, if a product has peanuts in it or is produced in a facility with peanuts, it must be on the nutrition label.  These were clearly safe.  They didn't want to take a "chance".  Then why have them in the classroom in the first place???  This preschool supposedly has a peanut-free strict policy.  If that's true, there should never be a product there that a child with a peanut allergy can't have.  I encouraged Lori to go back to the school and let them know how upset he was.  Bad advice.  They just didn't get it.  To them it was no big deal, something he (and she) is going to have to deal with.  The end.  I'm so disappointed in them.  I have sung the praises of this preschool forever.  It's where 3 of my 4 children have gone, we have a relationship that goes back 14 years.  To see them be so clueless about this is truly bothering me.  No a cone or not a cone is not the end of the world, but to a five year old it is a pretty big deal.  They should respect that.  If they truly have a peanut free policy, Matt should never be put in that position to begin with.  Finally, he kept trying to tell them he was allowed to have those cones, that he has them at home, and they just didn't listen.  So insensitive, and not the child friendly place I've always known them to be.
• J's got a job, and it's a job he absolutely loves.  I swear, there's pep in his step.  He's at such a different place, it's amazing.  He's tweeting again.  He's blogging again.  He's happy.  His self-esteem has soared.  I love seeing it.  It's such a wonderful thing to see your child so fulfilled.
• I'm missing Rebekah.  It's different this time.  When we took her to school in September it was hard, but it was greatly cushioned by knowing she'd be back for a long break come November.  Now, she's pretty much gone until mid-June, and she's truly gone.  She has a life there, and it seems to be (thank God), a good life.  She's happy, she's thriving, and it's all wonderful except I miss her so very much.

Well, that's what's going on here.  Mark and I are still sick, hoping that passes soon.  Praying for Julianna and that she gets well soon, and my friend who's going through such incredible loss.  Hopefully it will be a weekend of healing and rejuvenation.  We can all use it.