Day 51- Good News Travels...to everyone but us!

Well, today Jacob is home on his first official sick day. What started as a mild cough yesterday had grown to a full-blown cold, with coughing, sneezing, sniffling, very red eyes, etc.by this morning. In the interest of hurrying him along on the path to good health again, I decided to keep him home and basically tie him down to the bed. Tomorrow is his baptism, you see, and I'd really like for him to be healthy enough to enjoy it!

This leads, of course, to my observation that it is really so nice to have him home, even if he is emitting a constant stream of appalling noises and fluids. All three of my children are home with me again. Aaaahh. This is how it was meant to be. Joshua's extensive unit on the pioneers has convinced me that I was really meant to live out on the prairie with my family and no one else for miles around. Just me and them, living our lives, enjoying each other, farming and cooking and cleaning and basically doing the things I'm doing now minus the constant pressures of the world to compete with the Joneses, be they materialistic Joneses or perfect-spiritual-super-mommy ones. To be able to shout at the top of my voice, which is a fairly formidable decibel level, and not bother anyone. It would be particularly nice if my sisters and parents were there, too, perhaps a mile or two away, close enough to visit often but not too often, if you know what I mean. Jeremy's family could live back east. A letter once every other year or so would probably suffice for them.

Speaking of Jeremy's family, we have just learned that his brother and sister-in-law are pregnant with their third child. This is nice news. What is particularly interesting, though, is how we found out about it. We weren't the first tier of people told, nor were we the second. In fact, we found out more or less by accident after most everyone else knew. The sister-in-law created a cute poem announcement and sent it out via e-mail to basically everyone but us. Interesting. We only found out when Jeremy's mother accidentally included his e-mail address when sending a letter about something else entirely out to all of her sisters, in which she fondly mentioned the joy of having a new baby to love, but clearly not in reference to our pregnancy. When questioned by Jeremy as to the meaning of said statement, she outright denied having sent him the email (he later forwarded it back to her to prove that she had in fact done so. I mean, how the heck would he have known about it if she hadn't sent it to him? I'm sorry, but she's not the brightest bulb in the box sometimes.). Now realizing that we knew something was up, she begrudgingly forwarded the sister-in-law's poem to us. Wow, I am incredibly touched. Here he is Jeremy's own brother, and the schmuck doesn't even bother to call him with the news before his darling wife tells everyone else in the family. Don't even get me started on her. The woman has not said more than two words to me since I married Jeremy. Far be it for her to actually include me in a mass e-mailed announcement or anything. Much, much better that we find out this way. You really couldn't get more insulting.

What really kills me is the knowledge that Jeremy's mother would severely tear into him should he not tell his brother first thing about such news. But Eric? Nooooo, he'll get off without a scratch. You have never witnessed favoritism like these people exhibit. And for what??? Jeremy is a successful engineer supporting a family of six, while his brother got them to take out personal loans so that he could finish college and go on to work at...Walmart! Not as a manager or anything, either! Now he's basically living off of the teaching salary of his wife, who would vastly prefer to just stay home and raise her children, and running off every weekend to go hunting, leaving her alone with the two, soon to be three, little ones. And Jeremy's parents treat him like some kind of king! It's a sad sad state of affairs. These people make me so mad!

Anyway, I remember promising to include something positive in each post, so today's positive thing is...It's Friday! Yay!!! I love weekends! My husband will be home for two whole days and my world will be full and complete. And, as I mentioned, this weekend my boys are getting baptized!!! I am so proud and thrilled for them. I'm sure I will tell you all about it in next week's posts, so stay tuned for details!

Alright, I need to go check on my little sick babooski. TTFN!