Saturday, April 18, 2015

Fevers and Frankenstein (and Fitness)

When I pulled out of my driveway Thursday morning, wearing an increasingly rare full suit with jacket and feeling rather powerful in it, I thought I'd have a full day of testimony followed by a rush to Landon's soccer practice and a second rush to get the kids home at the exact second JP pulled up in the driveway so I could run to my new barre studio to give my trial class to the two owners and my barre idol. I stopped at Starbucks on the way in for a Venti chai in preparation.

By Thursday at 3 p.m. I was done with testimony, had been told soccer was canceled for rain, and had a call with the other owner of the barre studio which ended with me not only not needing to do the trial class but somehow teaching three classes a week of my very own starting on Tuesday.

I drove home playing victory music and leaving a message for JP to meet me and the kids at Gloria's for celebratory margaritas and queso (and whatever else). Landon fleetingly mentioned having a headache when I picked him up, but I assumed queso would fix it as it does most things. I pulled up in the driveway to change out of my suit and heels and let the kids run around for about 45 minutes and then, and as I was holding Cora and leaning into the car to grab my purse I somehow smashed my forehead into the car door.


And I mean smashed.


It was breathtakingly shockingly stunningly painful. I couldn't even curse, I just started to cry, which freaked out Claire way more than cursing probably would have. When she saw the horn that immediately sprouted from my head, hers eyes got big and she said, "I'm going to go make you a card!" and rushed off to the play room.


I set Cora down and prayed she wouldn't start crying like she usually does when I set her down between 5 and 6 p.m., took some ibuprofen, sent a picture to my mom asking "do I need to go to the hospital?", and put some frozen corn on my head. While I was stretching out on the couch with my corn to google head injuries, I looked over at the other couch to find a shivering Landon huddled under blankets. I directed Claire to our thermometer, heaved myself up to take Landon's temperature, and discovered it was a 103. 103! Landon hasn't had a temperature since he was 2 years old, so of course the one time he gets sick in years, it's when his mom nearly bashes her brains in and can't care for him.

JP got home an interminable 90 minutes later to find Cora and Claire holding down the fort. He fed everyone, bathed everyone, and refreshed my frozen corn bags. By 10 p.m. my horn was much decreased, which I superficially cared about far more than the pain, and Landon's fever was still holding strong at 102.8, even after a second round of ibuprofen. We found him mumbling incoherently in his sleep, so we called the pediatrician, basically saying, "I know this is our third kid and blah blah fevers are productive, but this kid never gets them, never ever ever, and it's freaking both of us out."

The doctor told us some things to watch out for and Landon didn't have any of them, so I took my corn to bed. Landon stayed home from school today- an absence he was most upset about, and stayed huddled on the couch under blankets taking sips of Powerade and contemplating crackers. He wasn't even excited about his unlimited access to Netflix or my offer of any food in the house or grocery store. I had a brief errand to run at 4 and asked him if he wanted to pick up the girls or go home to another hour of quiet, he said, "another hour of quiet please." Poor kid, he was really quite sick, but woke up fever free and close to perky this morning, much to his sisters' relief.


So back to the barre- I'm teaching 3 classes! This may be too much, but my new bosses know this is a concern, so we'll take it as it comes. I used to go to class on Monday and Wednesday nights, Friday mornings and sometimes Sunday afternoons. Now I'll be teaching Tuesday and Thursday nights at 7:30 p.m. and Friday early mornings at 6, so that will just take the place of all my former class going, only now I'll get a 10x harder workout, get paid, get to cancel my previous monthly studio membership, and get a discount at Lululemon! So I feel like I'm winning. Now I just need to get people to come to my class!

I went by this morning to get a picture for the facebook page (taken from my back right so you can't see my Frankenstein's monster horn), but I forgot my real camera and had to settle for my iPhone. Not the best, but it does give a preview of one of my favorite moves!


We actually went with this pic for the facebook announcement.


I love it because I had to crop out a giant Lili's burger and gorgonzola fries, which is why my smile is so big. It's also why I go to barre. If you're in Fort Worth or know anyone else who is- come join me!

6 comments:

  1. Ouch! You have been very unfortunate lately! I am so glad for the barre teaching. Yay!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great picture of you! Off topic, but I recently saw Costco is offering a $40 off coupon for a Cuisinart food processor. Thought I'd mention it since you've been thinking about getting one :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay for the new job! FWIW, I would totally choose your class based on the presence of a cheeseburger in your announcement picture. I figure if you can eat burgers and still look awesome, I'm in :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats!! That's wonderful!! Can't wait to hear about your teaching adventures. Hope everyone on the up & up at your house

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congrats!! I also saw the Costco deal on the food processor and thought of you. I love ours!

    ReplyDelete
  6. OUCH!!! That horn looks seriously painful. Claire's reaction is priceless and adorable. Amazing that you had the wherewithal to capture the moment.

    ReplyDelete