To the dogs

Today I went visiting teaching and ended up getting bit by a dog.  I know, it's a dangerous business that church stuff...... I shouldn't joke about this because it is really serious and it actually really got me thinking about the whole situation.  My kids have been sick for about 2 weeks.  Rachel started with it:  a horrible hacking cough, fever and incessant whining.  Then she passed it along to Josh with which came: a horrible hacking cough, fever and incessant whining thrown together with waking up at night, no energy (which is a miracle for this boy) and that sad sick look in his eyes.  Then Kate managed to get this thing (I know how could that possibly happen?) Luckily she only got the horrible hacking cough, incessant whining and enough snot running out of her nose to fuel the entire state of Utah.  (I don't really know what that means, but you get the point, right?) 

So ALL of them have had this cough and the incessant whining and they have been driving me nuts!  Okay I get that you don't feel well but do you have to yell at me and throw a fit every time I say ANYTHING?  I honestly have been trying to be the patient, loving mother that never raises her voice and stays up all night tending to the sick child.  But I need sleep too!  I need to not be coughed on for 3 minutes straight and the boogers?  I could do without those too.  I have been going nuts and I apologize if you've seen me in the past 2 weeks and I've bitten your head off.  I'm just wound a little too tightly these days. 

So this morning started out like every other morning with drama, tears, fighting and finally me getting so mad the kids are afraid I'm officially going to come apart.  (Seriously, the lid to the toothbrush?  This is why you are making everyone miserable?  You think I'm joking that this was a cause for a meltdown...don't you?)  Well I got Rach off to school and Josh, Kate and I were going visiting teaching.  We hit one house...success!  Then as we are approaching the door to the next house we hear a dog going crazy barking.  I look up and this dog is headed straight toward us...first at my companion, then at me (who was holding Kate), then came straight at Josh.  He was barking like crazy but I knew this would scare Josh to death (he's already kind of afraid of dogs besides our next-door neighbor, Cash).  So I blocked Josh in the corner of the entryway to protect him. I put my leg out and that's when I got bit.  I know without one doubt in my mind that if I wouldn't have done that he would have bit Josh.  This was not a nip either.  I was wearing jeans and I have 1 long bite, a puncture and a scratch, 2 of which were bleeding.  If he would have gotten Josh it probably would have snapped his leg in two. 

I've always been a dog lover, but this was totally unprovoked. They said they are going to put the dog down today because this is not the first time it's happened (like the 10th).  The bite didn't hurt too terribly bad, about as bad as a puncture wound and a scratch can be, but after we came home I totally had a come-apart at the thought of that dog getting Josh.  He seems totally un-phased, thankfully.  But it just helped reassure me that no matter how crazy my kids make me (and yes I feel like I'm going to ram my head into the wall sometimes) that I will protect them at no matter what the cost. 
Had that been a bullet?  I would have taken it without even blinking. 
Some mad man with and axe?  Come and get me. 
As long as those kids are safe from everything I can protect them with then I am a good mom even though I really don't feel it most of the time.  I know I'm just rambling at this point but I know that I'm not the only mom out there that is being driven nuts by their kids.  Don't loose faith.  Don't lose hope in them and think that they will become a menace to society.  They know their mom loves them and would take a dog-bite for them.