Recovery

It took a lot out of me. More than I thought it would. Or maybe it was just the trip home... I'll skip all the details. Suffice it to say that our flight that was supposed to land at 11:15 actually got in at 1:30. And then there was luggage to get. And the long drive home from Manchester. We walked through the door at 3:30. But, of course, there were some messes to clean up. And a panicked little boy who didn't know where he was. I finally hit the pillow at 4:15 this morning. After being up at 4:00 the morning before. It was a long, long 24 hours.

Today was supposed to be for recovery. Sleep in. Get Barkley. Have a nice brunch with the family, since we didn't have any real Easter plans. Do some laundry. You know, enjoy the last day of spring break. Except that's not what really happened.

Justin and I woke up at 10:15 to a little boy asking to watch Elmo. Oh, I didn't mention that I brought him into bed with us when he started screaming? It's the only time he's ever slept with us. I just didn't have the patience to soothe him to sleep. I rolled over around 7:00 this morning to find Justin essentially sleeping on top of the child. Luckily, everyone survived.

After the "early" wake-up call, I showered and went to pick up Barkley from PetSmart. Easy in and out, right? No. They brought him out and asked if I'd noticed he was shaking his head. I believe my exact words were, "Notice? He's been here for NINE days. When would I have 'noticed' that he was shaking his head?" And then I pulled back his ear. Puss. Blood from scratching. All sorts of debris. And I'd smelled something when they brought him out.

I hit the roof - absolutely furious that Barkley had been in so much discomfort for so long. After all, something like that doesn't happen at the last minute. Barkley and I went immediately to the vet (conveniently located in the same building!). They got us in right away. Poor Barkley had to get an injection for pain and a thorough cleaning. They sent us home with ear meds and more pain killers. And on his birthday, none the less...

Fortunately, PetSmart really stepped up to the plate. The covered the $250 vet bill (just the injection was $32!) and reimbursed us for Barkley's entire stay. I'm still feeling bad about being so angry, but it's my BarkBark. He gets ear infections fairly often; I just like to catch them before they get this bad.

Things did start to look up. We met Micah and Allie for an Easter lunch at Ixtapa - nothing says Easter like some Mexican food. And we hit Bedford Farms for ice cream (back to Jenny Craig tomorrow!). Robbie played and "helped" me clean up the house. He never did take a nap... But he was asleep at 6:45. I'm hoping this means getting him on schedule will be easier.

So, it's Sunday night. The laundry is drying. The house is clean. The blogs and pictures are posted. And it's time for bed. I'll post about the gator show (and insulting tour guide) tomorrow. Until then...