I Promise...To Do My Duty

I have not been sick for a really long time. For those of you who have known me longer than a few years, you know how amazing that statement is. I had bacterial spinal meningitis about 17 years ago, and my immune system went bonkers. I caught every cold, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia that came my way. Even after extended treatments of Vitamin B12 and Gamma Globulin shots, it took a while to get to the point that I could fight things off. So, I really haven’t been sick for a few months. I’m making up for it now. I have had some nasty thing for over a week. I cough uncontrollably, have no voice (tough when I talk all day for work), and have had a horrible time sleeping. I actually even called in sick to work on Friday. As several people have said, you know you’re really sick when you WORK FROM HOME and call in sick! Here’s the real crazy part – today I was driving to do my carpool duties and coughed so hard that I seriously pulled a muscle in my neck! So now it not only hurts my ribs and chest when I cough, it hurts my neck and shoulders! I’m ready to hear some good home remedy ideas for uncontrollable coughing. Please share!

I’ve been trying to stay in as much as possible the past week. But Saturday, it was impossible. We had the baptism of our good friend, Abby. Abby & her parents are some of our best friends. We couldn’t miss their special day. Kristin (Abby’s mom) was sick, too, and her voice sounded a lot like mine. So we hung out together, and I didn’t feel so bad. Ryan & Abby had fun at the luncheon playing with Ryan’s new iPod Touch.

We went home & changed our clothes, then headed for Scout-o-Rama. Our pack does a booth every year, and Ryan and I had committed to the last hour of working the booth, and then taking it down. On the way there (a 35 minute drive) I told Ryan that I wished he could drive so I could nap! We spent a little bit of time walking around the different booths. Many of the booths offered the requirements to earn belt loops, but Ryan had already earned everything that we saw available. So he hit all of the sports booths, of course. He had fun shooting a variety of guns (including rubber band) and bows (including a marshmallow cross bow) and golf.

There was a basketball booth with a very long line. But he wanted to do it. As we stood in line, a teenager and his dad were in line ahead of us. They were trash-talking each other about who would make the most shots. The son went first. He only made about 3 or 4 out of his 10 tries. The dad had a lot of fun with that, but then only made about 5 or 6 out of his 10 tries (after saying, “Let me show you how it’s done.”). They left. Ryan was next. He made his first six shots IN A ROW!!! He missed his 7th shot. He then made his last three shots! I kept thinking how much I wished that the teenager and his dad had stuck around so Ryan could “show them how it’s done.” The man running the booth was amazed! He said that Ryan had BY FAR the longest streak and the highest number of shots for the whole day.

Ryan and I went to our pack’s booth (the Science belt loop and Ooblek) and had a lot of fun working our hour. We have done this for a few years, so Ryan was an old pro. He even let me sit down a couple of times to rest.

Even though I didn’t feel well all day, Ryan and I had fun together. And, as with all good scouts, we followed through with our promise to do our duty.

I have to add that when we got home at the end of the day, someone had mowed our lawn! I assumed it was my dad, but when I called him to thank him, he said it wasn't him. So...whichever neighbor or friend took the time to do that for us, THANK YOU!!! I hope Copper let you mow the back without freaking out. Thank you so much. It meant a lot to us that someone would take the time to do that for us!