Poor Joey. She had a fever all day. It hovered between 101 and 102 degrees but since she wasn't uncomfortable, I didn't reduce it. She was tired, though, and slept most of the day. She didn't eat anything but a handful of goldfish crackers at 2pm and sipped juice throughout the day. At 4pm, her fever spiked to about 103 or so and it seemed prudent to reduce it. I gave her some ibuprofen and put her back to sleep. At 4:30, she woke up in a sweat and her fever was down. She was finally hungry, too.

It's amazing how different she is with a fever and without. When her temp gets above 100, she gets really quiet and still and wants to sleep. Once it comes back down, she turns into Chatty Cathy. It's like all the words she would have said all day must come out in the 4 hours she's fever free before she goes back to bed. It was very cute, though. Since Ed's out of town, I'm it for conversation. Sometimes that's too tiring, but today it wasn't bad. She even did her piano practice with no fuss, no muss. I was afraid she'd be cranky about it, but I think she really enjoyed the diversion. Her teacher sent home a work packet and her homework folder so we're going to play "School" tomorrow. I promised to make her hot lunch tomorrow, too. She ordered pizza rolls with brocolli and apple wedges.

She said "Mom, Hailey at school--the one with glasses, not the one with long hair--told me something that sounds interesting. She said that brocolli with cheese is really good. Is it?" I said that brocolli with cheese sauce is indeed very tasty and she said "I've gotta try that. Mmmm." This is the same girl who, at two years old, ordered "bokwee, hot bokwee" for dinner when we were in London. (Just FYI, it's not easy to find steamed brocolli in London. I guess they're not fond of it there.)

At school today, I printed a night shot of a street in my little town while a car drove by. The car is blurry but is identifiable as a car. It's kewl shot. I really like it. I also blue-toned one of my double-exposure pictures. It looks really great in blue. I like toning pictures--I want to do more and more and more. Especially sepia toning. I have the stuff I need, so on a day when there aren't a lot of film developers, I'll do some toning. I have several pictures that I want to sepia tone.

It was so very nice to have Evi here to watch Joey while I went to school. I feel so very fortunate that I have good friends who are willing to help out like that. My neighbor offered to go to the store for me so I wouldn't have to take Joey out. Another neighborhood friend offered the same thing, or said she'd come over and sit with Joey if I needed to go anywhere. It was so nice. I'm just amazed that the great support network I have here in my neighborhood and amongst my friends and church members. It gives me such a sense of security and peace to know that net is out there.

Ed called tonight. One thing that I love about him is that whenever he goes out of town, he calls every night. Always. And when I've gone away without him, we still talk every night. It's just a ritual--I don't feel like I can go to bed unless I've talked to him. I've often joked that we almost talk more when he's out of town than when he's in town. That's not really true, but we do have more email conversations when he's out of town and I really love that. Email was our lifeline when he was in Malaysia or the Philippines because we didn't want to talk too long on such a long distance call. We still talked every day, but they were short calls.

Ooh, we get to learn how to shear a sheep on Martha's Kitchen tonight. I wonder if she'll say something like "these are my own sheep but any sheep will do..." like she said about her honey. ::disgusted sigh::

Later....

--L