Happy Valentine's Day.

Forget everything I wrote Sunday about Kates recovering from her bout with the flu.

She thought she was good to go Sunday night and returned to teaching on Monday. She even completed a full day. … But when she visited the doctor’s office after school on Monday afternoon, the doc said she wasn’t out of the woods yet and needed at least three more days of rest.

So I sprang back into overdrive Monday night, picking up the girls from school, getting them fed and taking them to their gymnastics classes.

Yesterday, Kates stayed home from school as the doctor ordered. I went to work – where four members of my 10-person staff were already sick at home, and a fifth went home by lunch time. “Dang, we’re going to have to fumigate the office,” one my colleagues said when I informed him of the fifth one to go on the disabled list.

By the time I arrived home with the girls – and Sonic, because Daddy doesn’t cook – Kates was feeling worse. She laid on the couch with us in the living room while we watched the Olympics – the pairs skating and Shaun White killing it on the snowboard. … But later, as she was heading to our bedroom to go to sleep, she was so light-headed and weak, she nearly fainted in the hallway. It was cause for concern for sure, and tears were shed because we're now on day nine of this. I immediately concluded I needed to stay home with her today, to make sure she was ok and got back to the doctor if she needed.

So today – Valentine’s Day – we woke. I got the girls to school and returned home for the day to nurse Kates. She regained some of her energy. And as far as returning to the doctor, she called in to the office and the nurse said she just needs to let the virus run its course. Great. … She stayed in bed all day while I worked from our kitchen table and refilled her water cup whenever she texted me with a request to do so.

During the noon hour, I headed out to run some errands. In all of the chaos around our house, Kates hadn’t done anything for the girls for Valentine’s Day. So I headed to Walmart to find a pair of cards for them and – per our Valentine’s Day tradition – a Bearcat shirt for each of them that pronounces their love for the team in a literal form. I succeeded, finding a shirt for Faye that has a green heart with the word Bearcats emblazoned inside the heart and a shirt for Phoebe that reads “Everyone loves a Northwest girl.”

Without Kates knowing, I also ordered a heart-shaped pizza from Pizza Hut and scheduled it for pickup around 5 when I would be picking up the girls from school.

Back home this afternoon, I continued working … and then news broke of another school shooting. This time in Florida. 17 dead. I was glued to the NBC coverage as the news unfolded from about 2:30 until I had to leave to get the girls. And The Onion is again running its now-infamous headline.

Happy Valentine’s Day.