What do I title this entry? Exhaustion? Fatigue? Beyond Endurance? or perhaps Bring On the Cartoons? I sometimes wonder if I'm just a little psychic. At the beginning of this week I had a feeling that exhaustion would be the theme, and boy was I right.

It started Tuesday night with Georgianna waking up ever 30 minutes. Yes. I'm serious. I counted 12 sessions between the hours of 11:00 and 3:00. I quit counting at the point because I was just too tired. It continued Wednesday night with Reagan who woke up at around 2:00am with a high fever and an upset tummy. I'm not sure if she has a stomach bug or if she has heat exhaustion.

That's where the theme bring on the cartoons comes into play. I don't usually let the girls watch movies during the week. I read somewhere that the average child watches 2 hours of television a day. I shake my head when I think of all the time they waste when they can be imagining, playing, painting, drawing and building things, but today, I think I got an inkling of why this happens. I got out the Dora the Explorer disc which has almost 4 hours of cartoons and pressed play. Then I put Georgie in her play pen with some toys, and I crawled into bed. I didn't sleep, but I didn't have to be upright either.

On the upside, when Tanner got home, both Georgie and Reagan were ready for their naps, so Kate and I decided to walk to the store to get some crackers, 7up and chicken noodle soup. Reagan started to cry when I explained to her that she couldn't come with us, but palpably brightened when I asked her what kind of soda she wanted me to bring her. She smiled and said, "green soda, please." Okay. I guess I would have to find green soda.

We picked up the mail on our way to the store, and found a letter for Kate from my Auntie Caroline. So, since I had to pick up some espresso beans, we went to Starbucks. We ordered vanilla milk, a cappuccino and a 1/4lb of espresso. Then we sat down and Kate opened her letter. She brings me such joy at these times because she is so grown up. It makes me hope that when she's a young woman we will enjoy little coffee dates just like this one. She spread the letter on the table, and said, "Oh, look Mommy, she sent pictures." So, we studied the pictures of a very muddy cousin, and another cousin swinging on a rope. Kate was able to make out the salutation which made her very proud. Then we carefully folded the letter up and continued our walk.

I was actually able to find green soda for Reagan, crackers, soup and 7up. I had to make sure that we bought the smallest packages since I would have to carry it all. We had to take the walk very slowly since it was muggy and hot. I think the temperature reached almost 88 today and the humidity was very high. Luckily there was a breeze so that kept everything bearable. When Kate and I got home, I knocked on the door for Tanner to let us inside. No answer.

I started to laugh and leaned against the front door. I couldn't help but remember the story Sheri tells of Chuck sleeping soundly in the apartment in spite of the pounding the door took, the ringing of the phone and the shouting at the open window. I knocked again and again and again until finally I saw Reagan through the frosted glass sort of stagger up from the couch. I shouted to her, "Go wake up DADDY." She started to cry, "I can't see Daddy!" After about 20 minutes of trying to direct her to where I thought Daddy might be sleeping, I was so relieved to see Tanner stagger out of our room.

He frowned at me when he opened the door. "Why are you making so much noise?" he asked in a disgruntled tone of voice. I just smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It was Kate that said, "How come you took so long?"