A Sick Teacher and a Tired Mom

I have two of the best jobs in the world. No other jobs can be as noble as mother and teacher in my opinion. Today, I wanted a vacation from both. Not a pink slip from them, but a vacation. I went to bed last night at 8:30 P.M. because I was nauseous and had a fever. I had been nauseous all day and had soldiered on until my husband got home to take over.

I contemplated calling in sick, but if you have ever been a teacher you know what a pain it is to make up sub plans for substitute. You have to be on your death bed before you feel it necessary to go to all that trouble. The problem with that is that when you are on your death bed sick you get to haul yourself to school, make a billion copies (subs can't do anything else but throw papers at students), write very detailed directions for self-explanatory copies, and get the heck out of there before school starts and your sub doesn't show up and you get the look of, "Please stay" that will surely come. Any other job that a person can have can call in sick and be sick. No one else has to haul their nasty, sick self out of bed to make sure their job runs smoothly. I'll step off my soap box now.

I woke up this morning and felt death bed sick. I hadn't called in a sub yet. Major no, no. I called the system with a hope and a prayer that someone would come. I took a shower, ran a comb threw my hair (barely), and drove to the school trying not to become the third person to throw up in my car. I made it, and managed to make copies, write plans, and escape before the bell rang. Even though my students screamed at the top of their lungs in protest when I passed them in a dead run for the car. It couldn't be helped.

I got home and ate a little and felt a little better. Natalie and I watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, a real classic, and relaxed. 11:00 A.M. came around and I was exhausted. Natalie had been up since 5:00 A.M. with her dad, so I figured she was ready for a nap too. Not so! She screamed for 10 minutes at the top of her lungs, so I stumbled in and brought her to my bed hoping she would sleep. Instead she made babbling noises, blew bubbles, smacked the pillow next to me, snuggled with my foot, sat on my foot, body slammed me. Needless to say I didn't get to sleep.

I know Natalie will be ready for a nap soon. Around 2:15 P.M. Right before I have to pick up the invasion force. Good times.