I walked about 7 miles today, after a 3 day rest. The rest is because last week I hurt my ankle. Or my leg– I’m not really clear on exactly where the pain is coming from specifically, but I am clear that it hurts. And the pain was back during today’s walk. So I am coming to terms with the fact that this walk is going to hurt- not in an abstract, “gee, I might get some blisters or my knees might get sore or something might happen,” but clearly and specifically knowing that my leg/ankle is going to be hurting while I walk. And I’m trying to be ok with that.

It is scary, to think about the pain coming my way. I don’t like thinking about it. And I really don’t like considering that all the other hurts might still come on top of what I am expecting and I might get to know pain in ways that I haven’t known it before. But it is ok. I know I can push my body to a certain point, and if I get beyond that, and beyond the extra, secret store of I-can-do-this-ness, there are sweep vans. And if I really need to, I can take them. But I’d really rather not.

It is my plan to walk each and every step of these 60 miles. And I believe I will do it. Its just going to hurt. But that’s ok.

Katie missed Thursday and Friday of last week. The first day, she laid in bed, the second day, she was mostly fine and did crafts and drew pictures. She was very sad to miss all her friends, and devastated that she couldn’t go to the play date we had scheduled for Friday afternoon. There was crying and flailing and attempts at negotiation and bargaining. It was so hard for her to understand that she couldn’t play because she hadn’t gone to school; that germs are things we don’t want to share with our friends.

Maggie’s fever, which was actually higher than Katie’s, seemed to affect her less yesterday. She mostly lay in bed, but was able to make it to the library and do a little homework, too. She read a whole book, got dressed and was in decent spirits. Today, her fever is just about gone, and she is anxious to get back to school. For the second time in her three years at school, she’s missed picture day.

And I’ve been faced with the unending quandary about when to call the doctor. Is a fever enough? What about these sore throats they complain about? Is it strep? Or just the general fever virus that makes them feel icky all over and they notice it more when they swallow? So far, although I’ve had the phone in hand, and some numbers dialed, I haven’t made an appointment. The fevers seem to be going away on their own too quickly to be anything other than weirdness.

If all continues the way it is now, it looks like both girls will be back in school tomorrow for the first time in a week. And since I volunteered at the school this morning, I got to hear about the strep, stomach bugs, flu, pink eye and general fever disease going around. And I can only wonder how long both of them will be in school for this stretch.

When Derby has visited, it has been easier to walk him along the main road because there are fewer smells of both the human and canine variety. So I thought the same would be true for Lucy. My plan was to walk along the sidewalk in a pleasant stroll, Katie and I holding hands and talking while Lucy happily trotted along beside us.

Not so much.

Both Lucy and Katie were very excited about the idea of a walk. Katie desperately wanted to hold Lucy’s leash and be the real walker. Lucy was fine with Katie holding the leash, but also wanted to be in charge, she was able to pull Katie wherever she wanted to go. Katie managed to say on her feet, but only barely.

As I struggled with Lucy and her poor leash manners, Katie noticed the dandelions which have sprung up in the grass. She decided to pick all of them so she could wish for everything in the world. This meant that Lucy was pulling me forward (and into the street, into yards and into the air) while Katie was calmly wandering off looking for her wishes, and then trying to find places to stash them all.

Finally, we were able to cross the street and make it to the sidewalk on the main road. I have walked this stretch of road many times, but usually in off hours when there is very little traffic. The addition of cars and trucks doing 55 or so made it a different experience. Also, I learned that one of the people along the way has a pit bull who happened to be outside as we walked by. Lucy was unconcerned, but I was reassured to see that not only was the dog tied to the doghouse, but the doghouse was chained to the tree. Katie also didn’t notice the dog, and kept wanting to wander into the yard to pick the dandelions she saw there.

We cut the walk short and went home. I think I need to get a training collar for Lucy today, and an ice pack for my arm.

We didn’t however, ask for good weather. And though a bad day at the beach is still better than a good day away from it, this is both the coldest and the windiest vacation we’ve taken. The other day, there were a few of us sitting on the beach, and the winds were so bad that I imagine I know a bit about what a sandstorm looks like.  There were waves of sand blowing on the beach, and looking down the shore, there was a haze from sand that was blowing more freely.  The girls had boogie boards in the water and did a decent job with them, considering that when they were out of the water, they flew like kites.

Today’s high is 64, but we won’ hit it until 5 or so. And, that is a full 10 degrees warmer than yesterday’s high, and the winds are blowing at about half speed as compared to yesterday, so it is going to feel good. Maybe not swim in the ocean good, but good. Also? It isn’t snowing here. And it snowed in Atlanta yesterday. In April.

There have been other maladies here, as well.  Cramps, certain schedule that are apparently synchronized to produce maximum grumpiness and irritablilty and some other things.  And while I’ve been writing this, Lisa walked by and said that she had just scratched her neck and a hunk of skin came off.  She claims it in’t leprosy, but I’m not convinced.

Yes, you read that right.

All this time, I had been cooking dinner. It is important to know that my oven is old and has venting issues that mean that whenever I am cooking something and open it, even if nothing it burnt, the smoke alarm goes off.  So, when I opened the oven door to tend to the chicken, the BEEP BEEP BEEP just ticked me off and I ignored it because it happens almost every day.  Little did I know that there was something that looked frighteningly like this:  going on on the other side of the wall.

So I calmly walk into the living room with a hammer (literally around Maggie and the burning brush) to turn off the smoke detector.  It really confused me that it wouldn’t go off until I started to smell something… amiss.  By this time, Maggie has dropped the burning tissue onto a snowman indoor doormat thing that Lisa lent me.  The fire was out by this time, but Maggie is still speechless and starting to panic and sob.  The rug is burnt, there are burnt wisps of tissue flying around and all I can come up with to say is “Maggie, why?  Maggie, what?” And the smoke detector is still going off.

Poor Maggie shook and cried for a good 10 minutes.  Stagg dealt with the wreckage while I held Maggie, made sure she wasn’t hurt and then very calmly went over some basic fire safety rules.  Like paper and fire is not a good combination, and fire is hot and when you accidentally start a fire in the house, even if you think you can handle it, CALL FOR HELP.   Meanwhile, Maggie is trying to explain that she knew there was trouble when the tissue burst into flame, but she thought she could blow it out.  She said she tried really hard, and blew and blew, but the fire just got bigger.

Stagg told them that if they can’t respect the candles, we won’t burn them anymore. I told him that we would still burn candles, but the girls wouldn’t be allowed in any room with a candle burning in it anymore.  This, of course, brought on a whole new set of sobs because, “Like my bedroom?!  That is so unfair!  I just know that you are going to light a candle in my bedroom and then I WON’T BE ABLE TO SLEEP!”   I’m not sure, but I think I’ve got me a drama queen over here.

Meanwhile, Katie had been looking through a cookbook for kids.  So while all the chaos is going on, Katie is running through it to show me pictures of the new things she wants to cook with me.  She has no idea what they are, but the sure do look like fun.  And by the way, what’s going on in here?

We got very lucky. Maggie managed to drop the tissue before it burnt her, and there were so many things that could have gone wrong(er) and ended up with a really big fire.  Instead, we got comedy gold.

On the way home from our walk, Derby became increasingly interested in the leaves and fire hydrants along the way. He was sniffing, and when he is sniffing, he is essentially an unmoveable object.  Katie, of course, learned this when they were happily running along and Derby stopped short at an interesting smell.  Katie, wearing patent leather shoes and running in the leaves that had fallen, caught enough air to turn completely around and fall facing Derby.  She spent a couple seconds trying to figure out what the heck had happened before realizing it didn’t matter at all because it hurt all over.  Luckily, there was no blood, so she will live to see another day.

The remaining time of Derby’s play date will be spent with Katie cuddling with him or largely ignoring him.

Maggie was so impressed when it happened. My thoughts were racing, trying to decide if I needed to go to Urgent Care or the actual ER, wondering who was going to take Maggie and if Maggie would want to come with us and so many other things.  Katie was crying and screaming both because it hurt and because the blood was freaking her out.  Maggie followed behind us, saying, Wow, that is so cool. All that blood makes it look like Katie has red hair!  And look, it looks like her shirt is red, too! Apparently, Maggie is not a child who gets weak at the sight of blood.

Katie did incredibly getting the stitches.  The doctor and nurse had offered a medicine that would relax her, but I said I thought she might be ok. And she really was.  Once she got the cold pack on her, it seemed like she had mostly forgotten about her head being hurt.  On our last trip to the bathroom before the stitches, she bent over and then lifted her head up quickly.  She looked at me with a surprised expression on her face and said that it hurt just a little bit when she did it.  And then, she did it again just to make sure.  In the suture room, she felt well enough to argue with me about what movie was playing– she said it was Happy Feet while I said it was Surf’s Up.  I was right, and she admitted it once she realized she could not remember surfboards in Happy Feet.  Then she was just happy to see a little bit of a new movie.
By the time we left Urgent Care with the stitches, Katie felt fine.  She was mad because she wanted to stay in the waiting area and play with more of the toys. She was also mad because I told her she probably wouldn’t be able to go to school today.  But Stagg and I were able to rinse enough blood out of her hair before bed that I was able to send her in. And boy, was she ever happy about that.

Yesterday, we did a lot of talking about why we don’t sit on the coffee table, and especially why we don’t do it in a big bucket.  Katie assured us that she was never, ever going to do that again because she understood how dangerous it was.  But guess what she was climbing into this morning?  I just hope she isn’t going to try to settle the score.

Early in the practice, the girls were swimming close to one another and Maggie ended up kicking one of her friends in the face, hitting her in the goggles.  Yesterday being one of those days, the goggles cracked and cut her friend’s face.  She ended up going to the doctor and then to the ER.

Maggie was beside herself once again, but seemed to feel better after leaving a long message on their voice mail saying again how sorry she was for kicking her, how much she hoped that she was ok and didn’t need stitches and what a good time she had playing at her house after school.

Thankfully, the friend is ok. She didn’t need stitches and thoroughly enjoyed her trip to the ER where they glued her face back together.  Maggie was happy to see her friend this morning and I have a feeling she’ll be keeping an eye on her today.