Always Mrs. Bennet

I would love to be more like Elizabeth or Jane Bennet, Elinor Dashwood, Anne Elliot.  I'd even take Emma Woodhouse.

But more often than not, I'm Mrs. Bennet.

Friday afternoon I talked to Mark and he was sick.  He was unable to get a Covid test until Monday.  I tried to figure out a way to get him a test, but to no avail.

Adam called Mark and asked if he wanted Adam to come and get him.

Mark said no.  He said he didn't feel like traveling.

So he was quarantined in his room.  The cafeteria delivered his meals and they were gluten free.  Saturday morning he got Rice Chex, milk, some fruit and...some cream cheese.

I'm guessing other people got bagels and it kind of cracked us up that they still sent the cream cheese.

I didn't talk to Mark all day.  I texted him and he texted back infrequently and he was his usual succinct self.  I called him in the afternoon and he didn't answer.  I called him around 5:00 PM and woke him up.  He sounded terrible.  I checked his blood sugar and it was sky high.

Cue Mrs. Bennet.

Later I was texting him and he answered sort of and eventually.  My fertile imagination pictured him feverish and incoherent.  I worry about him more than my other children.  My mom understands why.  So I cried and channeled Mrs. Bennet and we finally got Mark on the phone.  He was in better spirits than I was expecting.  He told us about the cream cheese incident and he seemed OK, though sick.  Adam said, "I'll come tomorrow and bring you medicine and try to get a Covid test.  (Some medicine messes with his monitor and we didn't send him with a good supply of medicine.  I think the year when everyone was masked and didn't get sick lulled us into a false sense of health.)

Mark said, "I think I'm OK.  How about I call you tomorrow if I want you to come."

Adam glanced at me and said, "I'll come."

Because though I'm Mrs. Bennet, Adam is and will always be Colonel Brandon.  

Adam got all the medicine that Mark could take and bought a home Covid test and Mark's results were negative.  (Can you trust those tests?  I have no idea.)

For my part, I had to stay home because I was teaching in Relief Society.   Also, Braeden texted a link because he was speaking in church and I got to watch him.

For all the downsides of the pandemic, that's an upside.

In the evening we celebrated Emma's birthday.  She is going to California to visit Braeden and Anna later this week so we won't see her on her birthday.  In lieu of brothers, we had cousins.  It was fun!  It's been a while with our busy Sundays since we've had them over.

I didn't get a picture of the group, but we had Desi and Mason, Liberty and Nikki and Liliana.  Adam took this picture of the (dairy free) cake I made.  (Mason can't eat dairy.)

We played Codenames:  people born in Nevada verses people not born in Nevada.  (The Nevadans lost.)  And then we sat around the table and swapped stories.

Somehow my humiliation of crying to the junior high principal when Emma was in 8th grade came up and we've come full circle.

Me = Mrs. Bennet.

Acceptance is the first step.