And, meanwhile, I feel like death warmed over.
So, I had this amazing blog post in mind for Sunday, guest starring these amazing, ooey gooey s’mores bar brownies I made the other day (side note: they were delicious). As I stood in the kitchen making dinner (meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans, if you’re curious), The Baby got this really funny look on his face. He then proceeded to throw up on the floor.
He then proceeded to throw up every twenty minutes for the next three hours.
The stomach flu is like a creepy little hooligan, waiting for just the right time to strike. You won’t know when Stomach Flu is coming. But you know he’s coming for you.
It hit The Toddler Monday night. Twenty minutes later, it hit me. The Hubs got it the following morning.
Needless to say, it was awful. We were this miserable little family, just sitting around the living room wrapped in sad little blankets, sharing sad little blue puke buckets. Nobody got dressed. Nobody really cared. Terrible.
Let me take a brief moment to pause and say, this was one of those moments when I realized, officially, yes. I’m a full-fledged veteran parent. When I was in high school, I babysat two amazing little boys named Charles and Davey (who are now in college!!!! What?!?!). Their mother told me, “Heather, you will know you’re officially a parent when you’re willing to catch vomit in your hand.” I was sixteen and like, “Yeah, right.” And now that I’m…substantially older than sixteen, I can confidentially say this weekend I was chasing my children around, cupping my hand under their mouths saying, “Mommy’s got it, it’s okay!” rather than have to clean up additional puddles. Hello parenthood. We’re all official-like now.
Speaking of official, my business cards came in the mail! Yes! Even faster than anticipated (way to go, Vistaprint!). I love them. Love. Them. I ordered about a million of them, so I’d better love them. Behold! All the loveliness that $10 can buy!
Look, they even match my kitchen counters. It’s a whole new level of awesomeness surpassed only by those days I realize the color of my underpants matches the color of the shirt I’m wearing and I think, “Heather. You really have things together.”
Anyway, anyway, I’m really excited for conference. Business cards for networking opportunities? Check. Completed manuscript? Check? Editing finished?
Here we pause.
Since I’ve spent the last few days puking my brains out, I’ve done nothing in regards to writing. Well, other than opening the box of business cards and giving a dehydrated squeal of joy. It’s probably a good thing since I haven’t been on my A game. Or my B game.
But I’m still taking steps in the right direction. For example, I finally got the entire thing printed out. All 312 pages of double spaced, semi-colon peppered, “certainly/certain” overused manuscript joy. It was pretty satisfying to snap all 312 pages into my binder, followed by a brief moment of panic that the rings weren’t going to close because I’m cheap and didn’t buy the “wide” size…and concluding with confirmation yes, it does close. You’re fine, nerd. 
312 pages was a lot to go through in the high level edit I did before having it printed out. But yikes, that sucker printed out and laying on the bed was pretty intimidating. Intimidating as in, “Man, I hope The Baby doesn’t pull that off the bed because he might actually get hurt or something.”
Actually, he’s going through a paper eating phase right now, so that’s probably more of a concern than it landing on him. He’s sneaky. And deceptively agile.
I’m a firm six chapters into my hardcopy edit. We’re getting there.
Conference is officially two months away, so there’s a reasonable amount of time to have the edit done. And the synopsis done. And the query done (one of the pitch sessions I’m going to requires a finished synopsis). So…yeah. Let’s not panic yet.
Soon. But not yet.
