it said “the stars are stacked against you girl, get back in bed”

This is part of the e-mail that my mom sent to Jen, Karen and I this morning. (Cori is on vacation) —–Original Message—–From: MAUREEN KONKEL [mailto:mjkonkel@sbcglobal.net]Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 10:17 AMTo: THERESA DIXON; KAREN, KONKEL; JENNY GOFORTH

Pisces (Jen) Be careful how you broach a sensitive subject today.  You will be inclined to overreact emotionally, causing a fuss.   

Capricorn (me) Lighten up a little and try to enjoy the company of others. Be careful not to let someone you are fond of cast you financially.  Your company alone should be enough. 

Scorpio (Karen) There is plenty to be said for making a new investment but, before you move forward, make sure you can afford it.  Only a surefire deal will pan out for you today.  Focus on creating a better workspace.  

So I read the above as Tim was on his way home from work at lunch time. We were totally out of bread and I traded an early return home this evening for the delivery of a few items from the grocery store. I sent the following reply…  

—–Original Message—–From: Theresa Dixon [mailto:ttcadixon@sbcglobal.net]Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 10:46 AMTo: ‘MAUREEN KONKEL’; ‘THERESA DIXON’; Karen Konkel; ‘JENNY GOFORTH’  

Well it sounds like you two are going to have your hands full at work — I’m going to “enjoy the company of others” at the Racine fountain with my girl friends… T  

… And when Tim arrived he helped me make PBJs and put together a picnic lunch for the kids. We packed the car and off I went for what seemed like a nice way to spend a blazing hot day with four kids. The only glitch in the day was that I planned to leave the fountain for 40min so that Cole could go to his tennis lessen.

Everything was going great. The fountain was not too busy and in no time the kids were off enjoying the sunshine. My girlfriends agreed to keep Anna Mae and Tru so at tennis time off I went with Cole and Grace.  

When I got home, Cole took off on his bike for the park. Another friend was there already so I knew Cole would be fine as I grabbed Grace’s lunch and put her in the stroller. As I was walking out the door I heard the familiar sound of a mail message coming into my in box. Unable to resist took a peek and found this message… 

—–Original Message—–From: Karen Konkel [mailto:karenk@eua.com]Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:47 AMTo: Theresa Dixon  Tough life Theresa.  Tough life. 🙂       

I just make it look easy ‘cuz here is how the next few hours went… 

Once I got Grace to the park I went over to the shade and started feeding her. She suddenly looked a bit green and then spit up the entire bottle that she drank just before we left for the fountain. And yes, you do remember right – I don’t do puke! Yuck! All right, “breathe deeply” I muttered to myself and went over to my friend to asked her to send Cole home after tennis. I got Grace home, gave her a bath, re-dressed her, took the cover off the stroller, threw it in the laundry, put her on the floor to play for a minute where she laughed, rolled, and worked on crawling. So assuming it was just a little spit-up I put her back in the car when Cole arrived, repacked the car and started off for the fountain again.  

I drove about four blocks and suddenly heard the worst possible noise from the back seat. “Cole,” I asked frantically, “what is Grace doing?” I could see him look around her bucket seat and then, “Oh, gross she is spitting up all over.”

Turned the car around called my girlfriend – no answer – called Tim – asked him to go to the fountain and pick up Anna and Tru – I was going home to clean up puke again. I got Grace home and clean. Cole actually came and told me that while life would have been nicer if he were an only child he wasn’t too mad about having to deal with the other three. I asked him to find the old pack and play so we could create a puke safe zone for Grace. Once we put her down for a nap I re-filled the blow-up pool with both air and water and told Cole that he could swim all he wanted by himself until dad arrived with the other two. Ten minutes later they did arrive wet, hot, and suspicious that Cole was having a better afternoon than them. Cole reassured them that it not the case and they all went out to the back yard where they chased and screamed and tried to spray each other with the artic water that comes from the hose. 

Trying to convince myself that, for the neighbors it would sound like the joyful noise of children playing and not an amateur wrestling match, I made myself a glass of ice tea and the phone rang. It was Karen. “Did you re-decorate your office today or make a huge investment?” I asked. 

“Neither, actually I received some help on a project that I was working on and I got a lot done. It was a pretty good day at work and …” Yup, I thought, as I heard Grace wake up… for me too… 

(BTW – She has been fine ever since so we chalked it up to what all parents of four kids who’s child, still of pre-speaking age, behaves in a way that is totally unlike themselves – it must have had something to do with teething…)