Well, it's been a very interesting night. Short, too. I have been keeping Stephanie's boys here overnight, as she has had a breakdown... probably delayed reaction from her husband's death in August... and can't do anything pretty much. So I've been keeping her boys (age 6 and 2) to give her a rest and a break, BUT!! They are used to sleeping in a king-size bed with their mother!! They didn't want ME to sleep with them, however, so I put them into Katy and Dianna's beds (because Katy and Dianna are at Rich's this weekend). Well, I managed to get them to fall asleep... but Ethan (the 2-yr-old) woke up at midnight wanting to play. I gave him the choice of my bed or his bed, and he chose to go back to sleep in Katy's bed. Until 3:30am, anyway! Then he woke up his brother, and we have all been awake since then. Let me tell you, the past 3 1/2 hours have DRAGGED! We are waiting for it to be 8am so that we can go get Katy to play with Zach. I'm actually just waiting for daylight so that perhaps I can feel a little more human. I wasn't able to sleep until 2am, due to worrying about the boys waking up, so the night was extra extra short for me!

I am hoping Stephanie will be able to cope by lunchtime today. Her other friend Amy is helping too, so perhaps she could take the boys then if Stephanie still can't have them. I am really worried about Stephanie, as she hasn't been eating, and she has been having anxiety attacks and shaking and stuff. I don't want her to end up in the hospital. Unfortunately, I can't take care of the boys and take care of Stephanie too, but Amy and I did the best we could last night. I hope it will be enough. I would be the same way, though, in Stephanie's place... in fact, I wouldn't have coped thus far as well as she has.

Anyway, Stephanie has been planning to drive up to her family in... Maryland? West Virginia?... somewhere like that, to spend Christmas with them. Hopefully the thought of having family to help take care of her very soon will motivate her to pull herself together.

In the meantime, she is going to have two very tired boys and one very tired friend today! Ahh... but I see the beginnings of light in the sky now. And the boys are occupied watching a movie and playing with a train. So things are looking up.