text: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
  
  Here's how it went down:
  
  8:00:04 - I check Cayna's throat. There is a BRIGHT red tiny-dot "rash" covering the back of Cayna's throat.
  
  11:45 p.m. - I predict strep throat, and tell Kevin I bet Cayna will barf in the middle of the night. I am late getting to bed because I couldn't tear myself away from the computer and working on my talk.
  
  12:00 a.m. - "MOMMY!" Cayna calls me because she says she feels like she is going to throw up. I dread our first barf episode with her on the top bunk. How on earth will I clean THAT up? I bring her the barf bowl, cover her up and hope for the best. (The barf bowl, in our house, is also the popcorn bowl. Wanna join us for movie night?)
  
  4:24 a.m. - "MOMMY!" Cayna calls me because she says she is scared. I am, too - it's no picnic having sick kids. And it's dreadful cleaning up barf in the middle of the night. She feels only barely feverish. I cover her up and hope for the best.
  
  6:45 a.m. - Cayna wanders in our room and hops in bed with me - I'm trying to sneak in a few extra minutes to compensate for the late night.
  
  8:36 - Call the pediatrician.
  
  9:15 - See the pediatrician.
  
  9:20 - Pediatrician commends me on my diagnostic skills. Cayna has strep. Didn't even do the culture - you shoulda seen her throat - it was like fire. In dot form. Dotty fire, nausea, low-grade fever and headache.
  
  10:15 - Pick up filled prescription. Kids are watching "Goofy" in the van. All plans involving other children have been canceled for the next 24 hours. Hang "QUARANTINE" sign on the front of the house. Fed Ex guy comes and throws my delivery out of the truck without stopping. He's no dummy.
  
  10:30 - Administer first dose of antibiotic. Set Cayna up on the couch, cover her up and hope for the best.
  
  In homeschool, if one kid is sick, I vote the other gets the day off, too. Mom, too - though I can't figure out how to make this work.
  
  Teri Love
  
  Follow Me on Twitter!
  
  On Instagram!
  
  "Jesus' life was a constant demonstration that there were only two things that really mattered in this life - God and people. They were the only things that lasted forever." -Rebecca Manley Pippert in her book Out of the Saltshaker
  
  "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." -Hamlet
  
  "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well." - H.D. Thoreau
  
  "You're tougher than you think you are, and you can do more than you think you can." - Ken Chlouber motto for the Leadville Trail 100