Hanging in there... just barely.

I was almost to I-495 this morning when I realized that I had left my ID card in Finley's diaper bag, in her new daycare cubby. My stomach sank as I flipped an illegal U-turn and headed back for it. So much for getting In super early to make up for the fact that I would have to leave at 4 to haul back across town to pick her up, on my hectic second-to-last day at USALSA and fifth nutty day of solo Finley duty. I definitely wouldn't miss this commute, at any rate.

I automatically checked my fuel gauge as I drove by the gas station at Walter Reed, and it was a good thing I did. I was running on empty, and the way things were going this week I probably would have run out of gas on the beltway during rush hour. My phone rang from an unfamiliar number as I was grabbing for my credit card. It was the Belvoir welcome center telling me that I had waited so late to start the 10-day outprocessing procedure prior to switching jobs that my orders would be cancelled if I didn't show up within the hour. That wasn't going to happen; I was still more than an hour away. I assured them I would be in by 1, and as I hung up I noticed the unmistakable smell of a dirty diaper from somewhere in the depths of my unusually filthy car. I rummaged for it with one hand while replacing the fuel pump with the other, dripping gasoline all over my clean-ish uniform in the process. I found the dirty diaper while I dabbed frantically at the gasoline stain with a running sock I found on the floorboard. Somehow my elbow caught the edge of the plaque I had been given at my work farewell the week before, sending it tumbling to the ground and shattering the glass.

As I swiped at glass shards on all fours I wanted to climb into my car and burst into tears, but that would have made me even later. Score one for necessity. I raced into work 45 minutes later than I had planned, and within a half hour had spilled coffee all over the ten copies of my orders I needed to outprocess. I managed to finish my final evaluation anyway. Right as I was about to hit "upload," my computer crashed.

That's when the tears came. I slammed my door right before it got really ugly. I'm pretty sure only the cleaning guy was at work early enough to have seen it, so at least there's that.

I've said it before and I'll think it every day for the rest of my life. Single parents are my heroes.

And that's pretty much how the past week plus has been. We went from my being sick to Finley's weeklong stomach bug which cost many, many sleepless nights. In the middle of that, Seth left for six days and I had been in "scramble" mode since Thursday, trying frantically to finish up at work, outprocess, and get to the new job, with plenty of snafus along the way.

Finley and I had both survived the weekend, though, and in bonus news on Sunday the switch flipped and Happy (if not Sleepy) Finley was back. (Pathetic Finley-the-papoose is pictured at left, and the rest of this week's blog photos are dedicated to the return of the big grin.) We had definitely missed her! She was an exceptional brunch date on Sunday- a small sriracha incident notwithstanding- and Mom and Dad took her for the afternoon so I could run in to work and get some groceries. Which was a total godsend.

And we got to take her to the park, which was a treat since she's getting big enough to crawl up the slide!

The photos of the week are from Grace's birthday-cake-and-ice-cream on Saturday. Finley got to swim in the dog bowl, play with swords, and sample chocolate frosting. Surprised face. She loved it.