9:43 p.m.

It's 9:43 p.m.

I just put my kids to bed, after babysitting my nephews. The evening ran later than anyone anticipated, which happens. But my kids are two hours past their bedtime.

Grace, I think, fell unconscious as soon as she hit the mattress. Aidan, though, has long passed the overtired stage. I don't even know what to call this, other than crazed with exhaustion coupled with complete denial. He has been screaming from his bedroom, "I want to read a story! I want to read a story!" We skipped the story tonight, for obvious reasons -- it's just too stinking late. I prayed with them, I sang, but no story. But the screaming, wailing ... I feel very much like I have a split personality in these circumstances. Part of me is holding out, wanting to ignore this insanity. But the other part of me -- the tired part, the achy part, the I'm-not-over-my-cold part, the stressed out part -- wants to tear in there and scream right back, proving that I can freak out way way better than he ever could. At this moment I am typing, my fingers on the keyboard gluing me to my seat, unsure of which part of me will win. I'll tell you -- the latter is gaining the upper hand right now.

So ...

My dad is in the hospital.

And the peace is ... where?

He had a "heart episode" in church this morning, that odd tightening feeling he gets from time to time. But this time, however, the little nitroglycerin pill that he popped instead of his usual church mints didn't do the trick. It was supposed to. But it didn't.

We were hoping that they would run the usual tests, give him the usual results, tweak his medicine a bit, and send him on home. They didn't. They admitted him. Why? Because the nitro pill didn't work, and they need to know why.

Next on our agenda of dramas: heart cathaterization. I have no idea how to even spell that word, and I am too tired to look it up.

So ...

My dad is in the hospital.
My mom gets the results from her MRI tomorrow afternoon, to see what her liver is up to these days.
I have to cancel my job interview tomorrow morning.

And it's not even Monday yet.

And I am grateful for ...