Ever have...

One of those mornings?

One of those days?

Maybe it was a week.

Or a month.

Or more.

This morning I dumped my hot Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte in my lap. In the car. On the freeway. Thankfully I had already dropped off Mason and was only one exit from my house. I was able to swing back by, change my pants and get a towel for the drivers seat.

It has been one of those mornings.

Last night Mason woke up at 12AM and could barely breathe. He had one of those "seal coughs" you hear about and when he coughed he cried. It sounded painful. When I held him he calmed down and his breathing was a little less labored-- but I couldn't sit there and hold him all night. At 1AM we called the advice nurse. For an hour we sat in the bathroom with the hot shower running, squirted warm salt water into his nose while he was swaddled in a towel, suctioned gobs of goo out of his nose and coaxed him to drink hot vegetable broth and hot water with agave sweetener. While I was on baby-duty in the bathroom Tage had gone out to the drug store in the middle of the night in search of a humidifier. That was after he dug ours out of the garage and attempted to get it to work without any luck. Finally, some time after 2AM we all three got back into (our) bed, humidifier running, and slept.

It has been one of those days.

I am in the process of applying for a teaching credential program and finally finishing my credential after 8 years. It is about time. The deadline is March 1st and I still need 3 letters of recommendation and a subject matter competency letter (there is more but those are the most pressing items on the list). I received an email this week from a former professor who can write me the SMC letter as long as I don't have any C minuses in my transcript. If memory serves, I have one D. All I can do is submit my transcript and hope for the best. If I don't get the SMC letter I'll need to take a test to prove I am competent enough in the subject I have a Bachelor's degree in to teach it to middle school and high schoolers. My subject is Physical Education. Go ahead, laugh. I've heard it before, "Anyone can teach P.E." Apparently the state of California does not agree.

It has been one of those weeks.

The other night I received a call from my OBGYN with the results of my latest pap. Abnormal cells. Again. In the past few months I've been through two paps and one colposcopy. Each time the results have shown abnormal cells. I have had several friends say, "That happened to me too and it was just HPV." Maybe it's just me, but having HPV doesn't sound like much of a relief. I guess when you consider the alternative can be cervical cancer, HPV doesn't sound that bad. The next step is another colposcopy. I'm young. The abnormal cells can be removed if my body doesn't heal them. The thing is, the more biopsies and colposcopies and whatever-ies I have to have, the more tissue that is removed, the more "damaged" the integrity of my cervix becomes. Then you get into infertility issues and early labor issues and a whole mess of other issues that come into play if Baby Valone wants a Brother (or Sister) Valone.

It has been one of those... you get the idea.

In my small circle of friends (who are mostly 30-somethings) we have dealt with marriage, divorce, infidelity, pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, labor and delivery, colic, sickness, health, learning disorders and more. All in less than 10 years. That is life though, right? That's what it's all about. It's not easy for anyone. No matter which "one of those" I'm going through, I always know I have someone who will return a text (thanks Rose), return a phone call (thanks Kim) or who will meet me for a drink (thanks Linds). Regardless of what these next test results reveal, whether or not this year is the year I finally get my credential, how much sleep I forgo until Mason is feeling better or if the latte ends up staining the seat of my car, I just keep repeating this:

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord. 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.'" - Jeremiah 29:11

God is so good.