April 27th

There have been several times in the past few months when I’ve said, “I can’t do this anymore.” Working full time, doctor and dentist appointments, extracurricular activities, volunteering, home responsibilities...it has all gotten very overwhelming. We are thankful that Jarrod has a steady job right now, but working 6am-6pm means all morning and afterschool responsibilities fall on me. Almost every morning starts with STRESS! Work has been stressful with meetings/testing and trying to make sure my students are getting what they need from me. There’s very little time to complete any paperwork at school, so my nights are spent writing IEPs or completing other paperwork. This past week I had 6 meetings. I was up past midnight at least 2 nights. There is rarely a day after school when there are no plans. Mondays are Durham Children’s Choir rehearsals, Tuesdays are Ronald McDonald House, Wednesdays are Staff Meetings/Curriculum Committees after school, Thursdays are typically our appointment days, and Fridays are usually spent curled up on the bed or couch passed out from exhaustion.

The past 24 hours have been a roller coaster ride of emotions! Last night we noticed our cat acting strange. I decided to keep a close eye on him and make an appointment if things got worse. I needed to finish paperwork for 3 IEP meetings and finally got to sleep at 2am. When my 5am alarm went off I was EXHAUSTED. I fed the cat and watched him for a little while. He jumped in our bathtub and tried to pee, but when I looked all I saw were a few drops of blood. That really worried me. I waited until exactly 7am and called the vet. They said I could bring him in and drop him off for the day. Unfortunately we didn’t have a carrier because we haven’t needed to take him to the vet since we’ve had him. I put him in our car and he settled in at Eli’s feet. After dropping Abby off at preschool, the boys and I took him to North Paw. They let me borrow a carrier to bring him inside the office. I’ve never taken a cat to the vet, but today I became an expert on the subject! I opened the carrier, picked up the cat, and easily placed him inside….NOT! He went wacko and got away from me. He took off across the parking lot. Joseph finally got close enough to him to grab him. He put him back inside the car. Then I climbed inside with the carrier. After wrestling with him, I finally got him in the carrier and closed the door. When all of this excitement was over, I had to drop off Joseph at his bus stop and make it to school for my 8am IEP meeting. I knew I would be a couple minutes late, so I sent a message to the parents. Thankfully they weren’t waiting for me at school because they were also running late. These extremely thoughtful parents brought me a Frappucino from Starbucks! I couldn’t have made it through the 3 meetings without that caffeine boost! The rest of my school day was uneventful, thank goodness!

After school, I talked to the vet. Our cat will be fine, but our budget was destroyed! He is totally worth it, but after we eat beans and rice for a month to save money I might have a different opinion (kidding!) At some point I was looking at Facebook and saw a post offering free tickets to Nashville Songwriters at DPAC. Earlier in the week I had considered buying discounted tickets from a good friend, but unfortunately Jarrod wouldn’t be able to go with me because he’s been working late all week (12+ hours a day). He didn’t think he would be able to stay awake. When I saw the post offering free tickets, I decided to claim them and take Joseph. After picking up Abby and the cat, we got everyone settled at home. Joseph and I left for the DPAC and knew we needed to hurry or we would be late. As we were quickly making our way to our seats, a DPAC employee walked up and offered us front row seats with wristbands for the lounge with free snacks and drinks (every teenager’s dream!) We were so shocked and thankful!

One cute Joseph story: The lady asked him if he’d ever sat in the front row and he replied, “No, but I’ve sang on the stage.” She was impressed!

The show was AMAZING! Joseph especially liked songwriter J.T. Harding. After singing his new high energy song, he tossed his guitar pick to Joseph. I didn’t think the night could get much better for him, but it did. After the show, we saw J.T. and I asked if he would take a picture with Joseph. He recognized Joseph from the audience and chatted with him for several minutes. Then he gave him another guitar pick with an emoji donut on it! He told us to look him up on Instagram and keep him updated on how Joseph is doing. Joseph has been on Cloud 9 for the rest of the night!

I’m so thankful that my stressful morning turned into an absolutely amazing night! We are so extremely blessed. I could probably spend the next hour writing about more of the details of our night, but only getting 3 hours of sleep last night is definitely catching up with me! Time to turn everything off and hopefully get a full night’s sleep!