Whoop! Whoop!

I forgot to mention that due to some crazy mixed blessing, Ben was able to be home with us for a very long, luxurious extended weekend. (Which, due to the blizzard, was another blessing in and of itself. I'm glad that I didn't have to worry about him commuting home from work in near white-out conditions, going at a snail's pace and arriving home 5 hours after leaving the office.) On the afternoon of March 25th, Ben got a lovely email from the higher-ups at his job downtown that a co-worker had tested positive for whooping cough. When I first heard, I wasn't all that alarmed since it's a big bank, lots of floors, lots of people. But when Ben came home and told me that he had worked on this lady's computer and noticed that she was "hacking up a storm" and that he suggested that she go home, I knew we were in for some potential trouble. Not to mention that Ben wasn't feeling all that well and was starting to cough--not good signs. He immediately called our D.O. and got an appointment for the following afternoon. Our faithful doctor noticed that Ben was presenting classic whooping cough symptoms and decided to be proactive, not waiting for the test results--which can take up to a week--and started Ben on a antibiotic regime as well as giving him the Dtap vaccine. Of course, being that he was probably contagious, Ben was told not to report to work until Monday. Thankfully, other than a few bouts of coughing and a low-grade fever, Ben has been his normal self and has been able to enjoy having this lazy weekend with the family. It's been a long time since we've had him home for this long of a stretch and it's been really nice. I'm sure that he has appreciated the 8 hours of sleep a night too, a drastic improvement from the *maybe* 3 1/2 hours that he tries to survive on (Did I mention that my husband is my hero?). We spent lots of quality time together, doing nothing specific, just enjoying each other. I can't put it into words, how nice it was. We felt like a normal family for a few, rare & VERY special days.
That all ends tonight as Ben prepares to start his work-week again and we return to the normal routine around here albeit no school for Caitlin due to Spring Break. I am always bittersweet come Sunday nights, but today, I am even more so. I'm going to really miss my husband. Okay, I think I'd better go grab some tissues and cop a hug from the big guy.

**Edited to add: The girls & I are symptom free so far. I'm praying that we're good to go!**

Lost & Found

Temporary panic set in a few days ago when I could not locate my cell phone. I even backtracked to both Walgreen and the local pizza joint where I last had conscious thought of having the phone on me. When the phone didn't turn up at either establishment, I tore the house apart looking for it--did it get in the wash, in the trash, in the toilet? How would I survive without being able to text message? Oh goodness me! Ben, Caitlin & I looked everywhere we could think of over the course of a few days with no luck. I finally gave in and called Verizon to hear about any special deals that they had on phones since this one was not insured (It didn't seem worth it at the time because it was a free phone, retailed for $30). The best deal that I could find on a compatible phone was $60, which in the wireless world is a good deal. I was so upset going to be throwing $60+tax down the tubes because of my carelessness! This is how Verizon and other cell phone providers make money...off of scatter-brained, burnt out, but desperate moms like me. After 48 hours without a phone, I decided enough was enough, piled the girls into the car and went down to the Verizon store prepared to come home with yet another new phone (we had gotten a new one for adding Ben to my plan just a few months ago). As we were heading to the store, Caitlin pipes up from the backseat, "Mom, your phone is going off!" I told her that she must be hearing things because we had searched the car and my phone wasn't in there. She didn't hear the beeping noise again, so we dismissed it. When we got to the mall's parking structure, I decided, what the heck, let's look through the car one more time before we blow a hole in the wallet. I pulled my seat all the way forward and lo & behold, what do I find? My trusty cell phone, right there on the floorboard under my seat! Caitlin had heard my phone's low battery alert noise in the car! I was so thrilled that I took her out of her car seat and twirled her around the parking structure. People looked at me like I was nuts, but I didn't care! $60 is a lot of money to us, and now, we could spend it on something else. As a reward, Caitlin got to pick out a small bag of candy from the candy store. She was in hog heaven. I went to the Verizon store but only to reactivate my phone (I had it shut off in case someone found it and tried to call Mexico or something) and charge the battery. Final cost=$5.64 for the bag of candy. MUCH better than $60+tax! It pays to have a child with the hearing of a bat.