The Good and the Bad

I hate being sick!! I have apparently caught that "virus" that's going around, that resembles the flu, but lasts longer. WONDERFUL! So for the past week I have had a sore throat, body aches, congestion and cough. I have managed to function with regular dosing of ibuprofen and Tylenol, along with some Sudafed and some nighttime guaifenesin for the cough. I did check with the doctor, just to make sure I didn't have anything treatable like strep throat or a sinus infection. No luck there. I will just have to wait it out. Austyn and Adalyn must have started it all, but their "virus" also contributed to secondary bacterial ear infections, so they have been on antibiotics for the past week. They seem to be feeling much better, just a little residual cough and some runny noses. So now Ryan has started with the same symptoms, since Saturday, but thinks he needs to see the doctor because his sore throat is different than mine. Whatever!! Just another co-pay so the doctor can tell him he has the "virus" just like the rest of us. Besides that, he wants me to find him a new doctor on the other side of town because, apparently, the office staff is nicer on the wealthier side of town? Again, Whatever!!

Good news for this week, I actually had a full day of work yesterday and the potential for another full day today!! I won't get my hopes up for tomorrow, but at least we're off to a good start for the week. I'm sure as soon as people can actually GET to the doctors in Wisconsin (once some snow & ice melts) there will be much more work for me to do.

So, Adalyn turned 2 last Wednesday. We hardly mentioned it on her actual birthday, as she was sick, along with the rest of us, but we had a big family party for her on Saturday. She quickly understood that it was finally time to rip the wrapping paper off her presents and was quite excited to open all her gifts. She was quite excited about a box of crayons she received from her aunt Kelsi and just wanted to color after opening that present. It took a few minutes to distract her from her drawing and get her to finish opening the other gifts.

Ryan and Andrew managed to survive their campout in the snow a couple weeks ago. Andrew was a little cold in the night, but no major problems. As this was a regional campout, there were quite a few scouts up there and they all participated in games on Saturday morning. Our little group of 5 scouts managed to do pretty well and Andrew even won a new sleeping bag.

We were able to find & purchase a vent-free gas heater on clearance this past week. It will run on natural gas and can heat our whole basement, which will be great for next winter. It will also be a good backup heater, in case we are without power and cannot run our regular heater.

We didn't do much for Valentine's Day this year. I helped the kids with their valentines for school and tried to get some work done throughout the day. Ryan brought home a couple pies from Marie Callender's, which was great! We were able to go to the temple together on Saturday morning, which was a nice date.

The kids were all off school for Presidents' Day yesterday. Andrew & Ashley helped a bit with the laundry and dishes in the morning while I ran a couple of errands and took Alexia & Austyn to play with friends. In the afternoon all the friends came here to play while Adalyn took a nap and I worked.

We haven't had any major snow storms in the last couple of days and have had some general warming and melting going on. It looks like 40s for most of the week with hazy skies and bad air. We even walked to church on Sunday as the weather was so mild. (I guess it's pretty sad that I usually drive to church when it is barely a block away.)

I feel like my blogs have been really negative lately, so I have trying to think of some positives to put in.
1. Bright sunny day! :-)
2. Kids are feeling better and getting over their colds. :-)
3. Andrew wants to wrestle and is willing to use his OWN money for the registration fee. :-)
4. Looks like I have some decent work in my cue for today. :-)
5. Adalyn is ready for her nap. :-)
6. Days are getting longer. :-)
7. Checking account has not dropped below $0 for over a month! :-)
8. With Adalyn on the other side of the house, we have all been sleeping through the night. :-)
9. Spring is right around the corner. :-)
10. I got gas for $2.78 a gallon at Costco yesterday! :-) (Remember the days when that would not have been anywhere near a positive comment!!)

I guess I better get on with my day. Hopefully I'll be back soon!