To: the Cornish family, From: school

Dear Cornish family, it is the 2nd week of public school for 3 of your children. To initiate you all into this world, I've sent you a little something. I'll do it subtly the first time, but no worries, you'll get it in full force in the future. Today, however, I'll just start with a few dots on Emma's nose in the evening. Then the next morning when you get her out of bed and snuggle her, you'll notice another 9 or 10 of them spread out across her face. In fact, you'll consider just sending her to school because they look like little bites... but since I gave you that little hint last night on her nose, you'll second guess the bug bite idea. In fact, since you keep your house warm and the kids have been sleeping without shirts on, you'll be pretty sure it's not bug bites when there's nothing on her chest or back. Off to the doctor you will go.

And since Micah doesn't have school yet, you'll bring him with you to the flu-infested doctor's office. Then, you'll sit for an hour in the waiting room before being called back to the room. Then another 45 minutes in the room before you see the doctor. Your children will throw the 'clean' toys you brought with you, they'll throw fits, they'll wiggle to get down onto the floor, and eventually both will have breakdowns and just scream for a little while. It will make you thankful that you only have 2 with you today and make you wonder how you'll handle a third in the midst of this situation because the baby inevitably will be along for these fun visits soon.

Then when you finally do see the doctor 2+ hours after your appointment time, he'll say "probably just a virus" then swab Emma's throat for Strep. In 5 minutes he'll pop back in and say "let's do him too, she's positive." Of course in the midst of all that, Emma will have thrown a FULL BLOWN FIT and be impossible to comfort, so when the doctor comes back in she'll break back into hysterics. And when Emma was swabbed, Micah will feel the need to scream then too. And, of course, Micah and Emma both will begin screaming again when it's Micah's turn. If they didn't, the trip might seem a little too easy.

When the doctor comes back in a little while later and says Micah's is positive too, he'll then suggest you bring at least Brianna in to be checked. And Kristopher if you think he might have it too. So you'll call your husband to pick Brianna up from school even though she has no symptoms. He should be coming home for lunch anyway soon. And you'll call your mom to watch the two that are sick so they don't have to spend even more time at the doctor's office that day. After all... 3 hours is quite a while for any child.

Then you'll spend about 20 minutes out of the 45 that you have at home writing emails to the kids' 3 teachers to let them know that 2 of the (school) kids have strep and to figure out how pick-up for Kristopher will work... and Mike will have to pick him up after school. When everything's arranged for all the kids, you'll go spend another hour at the office and, yes, she'll come back positive with strep too.

When you finally get home after a long and exhausting day, you'll swallow hard a few times and begin to wonder if you, too, might have Strep. And what about Mike and K? Ah... this is the best subtle little gift you could have received the 2nd week of school, isn't it?

Look out, this is just the beginning! I have so many more surprises in store for you and your family! Ah... but don't think I'm ALL bad. After all... Emma might not really be having as many adjustment issues as it seems. It could be that she's just sick! And Micah might some day sleep past 5:30am when this is taken care of. And Brianna might sleep through the night again instead of waking every 3 hours. See? When you thought maybe your children were all going berzerk and that you were going to go nuts with them... I showed up to save the day. Really, you should thank me! And no worries, I'll be around again soon once I've sent my gift to a few other families.

Keep those antibiotics flowing!