The Lapse in Blogging

Sorry for the recent lag in blogging. I have all sorts of pictures and stories I need to post about Cade's birthday, but I was sick last week. That really, really bad type where you don't know if you are going to make it or not. I haven't felt that way in years, luckily though Saturday afternoon I finally made the switch to the land of feeling good and I knew I was going to survive. On Friday Jay started getting it so we went to Urgent Care and got him some Tamiflu. I'm not sure how the mom was the only one who didn't get any Tamiflu and had to fight hers the old fashioned way, but that's how it turned out. Thankfully though I believe we are one the road to recovery this week. But looking back on my days of not feeling good at the beginning of last week have made me laugh. I kept thinking it was a cold and I was going to feel better any day. I did not need to go to the doctor. Clearly there were some signs at the beginning of the week that I either ignored or I was too out of it to realize there was something going on…

1. FCS has something called the Patronage Program. Every year we give our customers back a dividend on their stock they have invested in our organization. This year it was a huge deal because we did not give one in 2010. The week before we had a big customer appreciation day and handed out these checks. These dividend checks were sitting on our receptionists' desk in bright yellow orange envelopes. Over 400 checks in bright envelopes just waiting for their owners to pick them up before we mailed them out later in the week. Hard to miss. Monday morning I had a customer call(we will call them #1) and she needed a check cut from a loan they have with us. She told me to mail the check. All was good and fine. Then another customer (#2) sent her daughter in to pick up her check. These two last names are nothing similar, but apparently in my mind I got them confused. I thought "well, she told me to mail it"! I was quite irritated. So I handed the daughter the check I had cut from customer #1's loan. She looked and it and said no, that is the wrong last name. She said her mom talked to Pam and Pam said their check was here. I completely freaked out internally. My armpits started sweating. I thought did I cut the check from the wrong loan? Did I think I was talking to one customer and was actually talking to another? What in the world had I screwed up? Total panic set in. I asked Darrell if he was working on a new loan for customer #2, he wasn't. Customer #2's daughter started to get irritated so she called her mom to make sure she was in the right place. I could overhear customer #2 on the phone and she didn't' seem to be pleased. Don't forget while my mind was completely freaking out I was coughinig, aching and snotting over everything in the office. I was never so thankful to see Pam return from lunch. Since I didn't seem to be able to control anything in my body I was afraid I might start sobbing from sheer terror and frustration at any moment. Pam walked right in and went to the enormous stack of patronage checks and pulled out exactly what customer #2's daughter was looking for. I was so embarrassed. How in the world did I manage to over look a huge stack of 400+ checks. Thanks to the flu I will forever be known to customer #2 and the daughter as the airhead of FCS. Nice.
   

   
    

2. Moment #2 occurred with Cade and a Donkey Basketball game that same day. A week earlier the thought of taking Cade to this fundraiser at the high school was a great idea. The day of the actual game the thought of it made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. I did not want to go, but I had promised him. Jay was gone so I knew I had to pull myself together and take him. Unfortunately for poor Cade I wasn't very nice about it. He likes to take toys with him everywhere he goes. Most of the time that is ok, but when I got in the car Monday night and saw those Transformers I lost it. I think I looked like Chevy Chase when every one tried to leave the house after the Christmas Eve disaster….Oh, no no no…I am paying $16 for the two of us to go to this game and you will not take in toys. Cade's response was "what if there is nothing to do"? I said "It's people riding donkey's playing basketball, surely you can find something to do". That caused some tears from Cade. He kept saying "don't yell at me" I kept saying "I'm not", in my not so nice voice. It was a rough night. At half time Cade told me it wasn't what he expected. I could've told him that – we have about the same sense of humor….watching Parks and Rec where they ride a ferris wheel to try and spot a missing miniature horse is hilarious….watching people fall off of donkeys is mildly entertaining for 5 minutes. But I was determined to teach Cade a lesson – we paid good money to come to this game and we are not leaving at half time. Why is it when you try to teach your kids a lesson it really ends of biting you? I could've left at half time but instead I made us both tough out the rest of the game.
   

Finally Tuesday I broke down and called the doctor. As much as I hated to go I had to admit some thing to myself….really, was I doing any good as an employee or as a mother? Would I be more productive if I went to the doctor and maybe took a day off rather than giving everyone who walked in my office the death stare? The look where if you hand me one more thing to do you're going to pull back a stump. Or before I did any more psychological damage to my child. So Tuesday afternoon I went to the doctor – I had a fever and I left with an antibiotic and bronchitis (which also turned into the flu). Yes! (with an arm pump). There is something strangely satisfying about actually leaving the doctors office with something to show for your time and money.