Back in 2 and 2

The week after Virginia, Sandi went back to school. She now wakes up every morning to work a full-time job, then attends class Monday – Wednesday evenings until about 10:30, and on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. She really likes it and is doing awesome so far (no surprise to anyone who knows her) and for my part, I watch the kids. So since Virginia, our lives have been work/school/sleep or work/kids/sleep, depending on which one of us you ask. You'd also get a different answer to "which of you is more tired?" depending on which one of us you asked (hint: it's me).
I also believe that we seriously underestimated the emotional drain Virginia would be on us all. A few days after the last post, exhaustion set in and we finally understood that we'd been running on adrenaline for a long time. So I apologize for the lack of posts lately. But every time I sat down to try to write, I had to step away to stop a fight, make dinner, help with homework (by the way, when the fuck did first graders get to the point of doing 1 – 3 hours of homework a night?) ... you know, all the stuff parents do. Oh, and to every single single mother who ever lived, RESPECT! Dudes, I'm part-time at this and I'm turning into that creepy, insane looking guy from the Aqualung album cover.
When I finally did get a few minutes to sit down and write, everything that came out just seemed trivial and verbose. How do you follow something as weighty as surgery unless it's with another surgery or a report on results? Anything I could think to offer would have been like following Haiti earthquake coverage with recipes. Suddenly my day-to-day observations seemed ridiculously quaint and totally uninteresting -- even to me. So rather than bore you all, I think I'll call it a mini-sabbatical -- just until we adjust to the new schedule or something interesting and relevant happens.
To that end, our new surgery is scheduled for March 4. We'll need to get a new CT scan by the end of February and send it to Dr. Brad so he can confirm that Ethan's infection is gone and we're declared "go" for surgery fun. Keeping our fingers crossed.
Speaking of crossed fingers, those who sent out the vibes for little Jalia last time? do me a favor and take March 4 off. Turns out she had an ear infection, too, and Dr. Brad was unable to complete her surgery. I'm starting to think it's you all. Maybe you don't have this "well wishes" thing down quite yet. Don't take it personally, lots of people confuse the word "well" with "infection." Here's a little test for you: tonight before bed, tell someone "sleep well" and if they wake up with an infection, you should definitely stop using the word all together. Either that or start charging for your regards much as a hitman would. I personally know quite a few people I'd like to see "well." But that's neither here nor there.
So I'll leave you with a song that Thomas learned in Y-Care and was kind enough to sing to me on the way home the other night:
Tarzan the monkey man
Swinging from a rubber band
'Snap' goes the rubber band
and Tarzan breaks his balls.
Think I'm starting to see why kids his age are being given so much freakin' homework.

"There is no harm in patience and no profit in lamentation." -- Abu Bakr