Did I mention that I've had a terrible cold since we've been home? Well, since before we've been home because I got sick while I was still at my parents' house. Yesterday was plain awful.

"You can say that again."
"Yesterday was plain awful, but that's not now."
"That's then!"

(I couldn't resist.)

(Can anyone name that movie?)

Where was I? Oh yes, yesterday was plain awful. All the fluid in my head decided to expand, and my brain didn't like that idea very much. A migraine grabbed me fairly early in the day, but I still had motherly duties to perform. Somehow, the three of us girls survived, and thankfully when Daddy came home, he put me to bed.

This morning, I ate breakfast for the first time in a while. I was actually hungry! And then I buckled down to business: a load of laundry, a load of dishes, two girls into the bathtub, mop the kitchen floor, vacuum the living room and dining room, organize the bathroom drawers, lunch time, another load of laundry...

Phone call to Dad: "Hey, Dad, I'm standing next to the dryer. Can you tell me what that noise might be?"

"That high-pitched grinding squeal of protesting pain?"

"Yeah, that. And it's not Liberty or Mercy."

"Sounds like your idler's off and the drum belt is out of place." He should be called the Dryer Whisperer. "It will get louder and more incessant as it gets worse."

"Okay, thanks, I guess."

It got worse. A burning rubber smell now fills the air, and the dryer is out of commission.

But like I always say, "Better it than me!"

I do too always say that.