OK - so this has not been the best few weeks for the Polley family.
We are in the process of saying goodbye to Eric's dad. He's lived a long, full life. We'd like it to be a little longer and he would too. We're going to miss him very, very much. His death is taking longer than he would like which is heartbreaking. In healthier times, he would usually be the last to leave a party. It seems his body is just used to those types of departures.
There have been all kinds of bittersweet (with a heavy emphasis on the sweet) ending and beginnings for Sarah. The end of preschool and the start of kindergarten in a few months is thrilling for her. Even the idea of choosing a snack to bring to day camp and packing it herself in her little lunch bag is very exciting. These changes are exciting for me too, but I am a little emotionally worn out from the happy-sad tears on top of everything else.
Last night Eric was heading off to the hospital to be with his dad and I was attempting to put Sarah to bed. She was coughing like crazy and needed to have an extra dose of her asthma inhaler (Full disclosure, I suspect that first dose might have been from an empty inhaler. Oops.) By this morning, she was coughing non-stop and I needed to take her over to the doctor to get her on some better medicine. Obviously, it isn't the same thing but the constant cough was also a recent symptom of my father-in-law's so my nerves were a little jangled.
At this point I need to add this -- we are all actually surprisingly fine despite everything.
But. When checking out at the Jewel after picking up the medicine, we opted for the self-checkout because Sarah loves pretending to be a cashier. (She asks if you want paper or plastic after every item which I think is quite thorough.) We got down to the last item -- a container of strawberries. I used the "look up item" button and there were no strawberries listed. I looked again and again until finally an actual cashier came over and said "just scan it!" I came as close to losing it with this woman as I ever have (other than when I was in labor.) I had to stand there and take deep breaths while swiping my debit card. Hey, that Lamaze was actually useful!
So I think the end of this post is this: We are sad but basically fine and a little more crabby than usual. We're very grateful for our friends, family and our sense of humor.
