He Let Me Sleep In. I Wouldn't Shut Up.

The thunder actually shook the house.

We were in the middle of a storm and suddenly BOOM and the house was shuddering. My husband, who because of his job has been around such noises, jumped out of bed and peered out the window.

"Are we being bombed? Syria, not now," I grumbled into my pillow.

"It's thunder," Tom said and got back into bed....where he proceeded to toss and turn for the next half hour before deciding he was up. He's not the best sleeper. He gets up at random times of the night. "I'll get the kids to school. You can keep sleeping," he added.

I immediately turned off my alarm.

"No take backs. Thank you and goodnight." I shut my eyes and thoughts immediately went through my mind.


Wait. Tom doesn't know what to do in the morning. He's never done it. When he deployed the kids were in different grades. Tommy is in middle school now, he doesn't know that routine. I've got to show him. I imagine he'll figure it out but Tommy has Autism which means he likes things the same. He likes to find his cereal bowl waiting for him on the counter with his cup. Tom doesn't know that.


So I got up. I went downstairs and Tom was like, "Huh?" and I went, "I'm just getting things set up for Tommy. Do you know what times he leaves the house? Tommy knows but he gets distracted with his video games. He leaves at 720."

Tom wrote this down.

"And Natalie gets up at 740 and we leave the house for the school at 820. You can just leave her hair down. I have a barrette to put in it and--"

"Amber. I know. Go back to bed."

Yes. I needed to go back to bed. Weren't all the experts saying that the reason why men don't do more is because the wives freak out about doing it their way? I wasn't freaking out though. I was calmly explaining.

I went back to bed, got under the covers, and thought, "Oh no, will Tom remember to grab Natalie's water bottle?" The kids are allowed to sip on water throughout the day at school. I forgot it once and Natalie wouldn't let me hear the end of it. "You left my water bottle. I was so thirsty. My mouth was SO DRY!" I replied, "Don't they still have water fountains?" and she went, "They do but it's NOT THE SAME!"


So I went back downstairs. Tom sighed and shook his head when he saw me.

"I know," I said. "I know. I'm going after this. For real. You need to remember Natalie's water bottle or else she'll get all dramatic about it."

"Okay! Water bottle. Check. Go back to bed," Tom said.

"I'm going. Oh, one more thing, Tommy needs to be up by 640."

Tom made a motion for me to move along.

"I'm going," I repeated. "Thank you."

And so I got to sleep in. I woke up a few times wondering, "Did Tom remember to get Tommy? Did Tom wake Natalie up?" because he also plays video games and he also can get distracted. But he did everything right. When I came down the stairs at 9 both kids were gone.

"Thank you again," I said to Tom.

"I figured you could use a break. I know you aren't a morning person."

He's seen me many times grunting and shuffling around like a zombie at the crack of dawn. He's used to me moaning, "CAFFEEEEINNNE!"

The next time he lets me sleep in I won't be as crazy. I just...okay, well honestly, I should just let go. Tom is competent, he'd figure everything out.

(Although I did leave out the outfit Natalie had to wear that day. This is because the times he has dressed the kids on his own they've been in pajama bottoms and a regular top. He claims he couldn't tell the difference..)