The flu bug is back again.  Different symptoms than the ones we had last month, but once again, a holiday where we’ll truly be relaxing and hanging out at home.  It’s the kind of bad feeling that makes a grown adult want their mama.  Just to be there.

Now sick parents don’t necessarily get the rest that they crave, because the house and kids won’t take care of themselves………….or will they?  My kids are old enough to fix their own lunches, pick up their own things and fold laundry.  Mine are still able to do that, and then like their mother, rest between chores (except my son, who despite a sore throat, desperately wants to go somewhere today).  I had planned to go out shopping for New Years treats for tonight, however, since I’d rather snuggle in a blanket and nap, and my husband isn’t quite in the place at the moment, he offered to do that shopping for me and I really appreciate it.

This New Years Eve could very well see our kids staying up late and their parents already asleep.

Happy New Year!

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And I guess I should get caught up before the new year starts.

So, a recap of the past month……….

I celebrated my 42nd birthday.  The day was relaxing.  I was served breakfast in bed by my husband and he did a great job with the gifts (including a pedicure, a 60 minute massage, and a Josh Groban CD)!

My daughter was in a play for our church’s dessert theater.  She didn’t have a speaking part, but she gave a very good performance looking sad and forlorn.  She called it her “Chad Dylan Cooper” look (anyone who watches “Sonny With a Chance” will know who that is).

Then along comes Christmas.  The drum above was an ornament that I found to give to my husband (He really liked it!).  Every year, I give my husband and kids each and ornament (which is something that my grandmother  did for her family for as long as I can remember).

On Christmas Eve, we let the kids open on present.  Usually, it’s a game or a movie or both.  This year, we brought home a Wii!  We had talked about it for the past few years (since we bought a Game Cube).  They sort of guessed what it was, and were thrilled when they opened the present.  We let Heather set it up all on her own, and before we knew it, both kids were playing games together (not something that happens often).

And finally, the last event of the year.  My friend had taken her daughters to get the cartilage of their ears pierced a couple of weeks ago.  Heather had wanted to get hers done after that.  So a few days after Christmas, she and I drove to the mall and had a  Mother/Daughter cartilage piercing.  She’s pretty pleased with it.  I think it’s fun to have.  I don’t intend to get a lot of piercings.  This one is enough.  It didn’t hurt that much which was good.  I was a little nervous, about the same kind of nervousness that one has when going to get blood drawn.  But it was quick and not that bad.  Heather was happy that she got this one, but that she also wasn’t going to do it again.   The ears are a tad sore and only really noticeable when we accidentally bump them while pulling our hair back behind our ears, or rolling over on them when we’re sleeping.

Start the new year with a new hole in your ear!

Happy New Year,
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Well it was another day to just stay home.  Kevin’s feeling a bit better (not totally well, but he’s further ahead in this bug than I am), so he took care of me today.   He bought me a magazine, rubbed my feet, and made dinner.  So today, I was able to really rest.

My son however, is feeling just dandy, and was talking or making his noises all day long and spinning in circles.  Basically back to normal.   I’m still too tired to deal with his “normal”.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will be.

I did venture out to the grocery store yesterday.  It wasn’t too bad, however, it did wear me out and when I came home, I was ready to lay down.  I had sent a text to Kevin when I was ready to leave the store and by the time I arrived at home, he had the kids ready to come out and unload the car for me and then had them put the groceries away.  Which was sooooo nice.   He then, ventured out and picked up dinner for us.  All this, and he’s still sick too.

The ones who are feeling better and have the energy, yet still coughing, are the kids.  They’ve been having a marathon of sorts of their favorite shows.

It looks like our house may be selling.  We have an offer.  It’s looking like a possibility.  So we’re starting to look for a place to move to.

So, today is the second day of mandatory rest.  I did venture out to Weight Watchers but didn’t stay for the meeting.  I did have a favorable weigh in, so that was a perk in my day.

Today, I either have no voice, or when I do have one, I sound like a barking seal.  At some point today, I had to answer a question that my son asked and then he asked, “Why did you say that so softly?”.  I answered that I couldn’t answer loudly.

So for now, I’m camped out on the couch watching “You’ve Got Mail” (my son came out after his room time, saw what I was watching and asked, “Have we passed the swearing yet?”)

but the bug that has been making my family sick, finally found me.  I went to bed with a slight heavy feeling in my chest.  I woke up in the wee hours this morning and that slight heaviness was heavier and I had a sore throat.  So now, I am experiencing what every one else is.   So I’m already thinking about what I need to do to in order for me to rest.

1. It is actually a grocery shopping weekend, and I do need to go to the store, but this time it’ll be for  easily prepared foods and paper plates.  My husband still isn’t feeling that great (these things seem to hit the adults much harder) and he won’t feel like producing big meals.  So easy meals are the way to go.   Another thing I need to get are paper plates. Normally my son is in charge of the dishes, but he’s been sick too, and even though he’s feeling better, I don’t feel like arguing with him about returning to that job right now.

2. I need to weigh in at Weight Watchers.  This happens to be the week that they implement their new plan and under normal circumstances, I’d stay for the meeting.  But I’ll just weigh in tomorrow and then when I’m feeling better, I’ll go to the “get started” or “refresher course” meetings that happen right after a regular one.  I just don’t want to sit in a room full of people hacking and coughing and “spreading the cheer”.

3.  Pick out some DVD’s to watch, make some tea, grab a box of tissues and hang out in my room and not do anything.

has found some “R & R” around here.

Last  Wednesday night, Kylin went to bed with a fever, so we were starting to wonder if half of our family would be staying home for Thanksgiving.  However, by Thursday, he was feeling well, and his fever was gone.    However, after the holiday, both of my kids and my husband came down with fevers and colds.  So, I headed to the store and stocked up on the needed items to get us through this.

I did ask Kylin what kind of juice he wanted, and his answer was: 7-UP.  Please don’t blame that mistake on home education. The boy is just trying to trick me.

By lunchtime, they were feeling better, for some, voices were starting to return and sound normal again. So I made up some home made macaroni & cheese.

Doesn’t that look yummy?  I think so………I could eat the whole pot………..but I won’t………….because really…………..it’s for the children.

Due to the kids being on bedrest, we haven’t had any school this week either……and they haven’t really done any chores (I did those, because who feels like doing dishes or putting wet clothes in the dryer when you’re head feels like it’s too heavy for your neck to hold up?).

We’ve also been catching up on “Spongebob Squarepants”.  We’ve never bothered to watch this show, so Kevin downloaded it from Netflix so that we could see what the fuss was about.  Ok, there isn’t an ounce of anything educational about this cartoon, yet, it’s still pretty funny!

Oh, and during all of this time of infirmity, this is one of the things keeping me charged and awake and going,

It looks like it’s time to make another pot…….

Lp

I’ve been meaning to blog more often.  However, there has been a lot going on due to the holidays, and getting ready to move.  So, first, an update

-Our church is putting on a dessert theater production just before  Christmas.  Heather is in the play this year.  So we’ve had a few play practices to drive to and those are about to increase.

-Our house has been on the market for over a month now.  We’ve had a few showings.  So far, no bites (unless you count the ridiculously low one that we received early on).

– We’re still slowly packing and putting those things into storage.  However, now that the holidays are here, we did have to go back and dig out a few Christmas decorations because we do like to keep things somewhat festive.

-Just before thanksgiving, we also had our first snow of the season.

Initially, the kids were excited about the snow, however it was discovered to be the icy kind and not the kind for snowman making.  But it was pretty while it lasted (which was about a day).

-For Thanksgiving, we went to my sister’s.  She made the entire meal by herself, including 3 different pies (chocolate, pumpkin and apple—–all three were delicious!).  When we first arrived, Nephew #1, age 3, found his buddy Heather and they were off to his room to play.  Kylin checked out the family room where the toys were.  Nephew #2, wasn’t so sure about the unfamiliar adults who just arrived and hid behind a chair, and looked down at the floor, hoping that if he couldn’t see his auntie, then she couldn’t see him.  He was more comfortable with the kids than he was with us.   Heather spent the entire visit playing with her little cousins, so she really slept well that night.   After we were home, and the kids were in bed, we watched “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles”.

-We didn’t venture out at all for “Black Friday”.  Part of me would like to try doing that, and the part of me that doesn’t like crowds is happy to stay home.  My daughter thinks that it would be a lot of fun.  I’m thinking that I might actually try it next year, with my daughter.  This year, the stores were open at 10PM on Thanksgiving night!  Would a shopper going out to this be considered an “early bird” or a “night owl”?  I have friends who took part in this late night event, and not returning home until mid afternoon the next day.  That’s insane………..but it sounds like fun, if you’re with friends or daughters.

-Now that Thanksgiving is over, we seem to have caught a little cold and we’ve each been in various stages of feeling bad or feeling better but needing Kleenex.  Twice now, we’ve had a lazy day around the house and I’ve been in my pj’s past noon (today included).  Sometimes it’s just nice to have a day with very few demands.   However, I do have some Christmas decorations that need to be put out……….and I do need to venture out and get a newspaper.

Lp

We’re currently in the early stages of moving.   Early, in that we’re packing all of the decorations and extra items that we aren’t using (for example: all of my bakeware is packed because my oven doesn’t work).    So we’ve been asking around to friends, and friends of friends and local grocery stores for boxes.  When the boxes were first brought home they were stacked in front of the house.  It didn’t take long before this happened:

Oscar,

And I found this later on,

Fonzie (I will be washing those grocery bags before I use them again……….just in case anyone is looking at this photo and getting grossed out that my son’s cat is using them as a comforter or a pillow.)

Hmmmm……When moving day comes, I wonder if this would be a viable way to move the cats?  Just kidding 🙂

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Yesterday, we were watching “Live With Regis & Kelly”, and apparently a viewer had e-mailed the show stating that Regis wouldn’t have such a hard time dialing numbers for their trivia contest, if he had a rotary phone.  So, that brought the question out of my daughter, “What’s a rotary phone?”.  Did someone just slap me with an “old” label!

So I posted that comment as a status on my Facebook page and that brought on other comments.  I was reminded of the days when we had party lines.  I remember trying to call my grandma or my dad, and discovering that there were other people having a conversation on my phone.    Then someone commented on how when they worked in a thrift shop and a record player was brought in.  Apparently the 17 year old co-worker didn’t know how to put the needle on the record.

My husband and I have told our kids about our childhoods, in which we didn’t have personal computers (I didn’t, but my husband did when he was about 15), and our televisions only brought in 1-3 channels and we didn’t have cable (as Jeff Foxworthy once said about those days, “When the President was on, your night was shot!”).   When I was 12, my mother put our black & white tv in our pastor’s garage sale, so I wasn’t watching any channel for several years (until I had my own apartment and my own tv, and soon after that, my mom and stepfather acquired another tv and it was ok to have in the house again).

My kids have heard of records, but I don’t think that they’ve seen them.   My daughter likes to ask, “What are those?” everytime they’re mentioned.

So because they don’t know what these things are, does that make us “old”.  I’d rather use the word “classic”.

Lp

Yesterday, my son spent the latter half of the morning playing with his model train set, out in the garage.  It provides a quieter home for the rest of us when he does that.

(I realize that I’ve used this photo before, but he’s wearing the same shirt as he did yesterday and he is playing with the trains!)

So at lunch time, I fixed their chicken burger sandwiches and set the lunch on the table.  I called out to the garage to let the young engineer know that his lunch was ready.  Normally, he’d say, “coming” and be at the table in no time.  Not this time.  No, this time I was told, “I’ll be there in awhile”.  So I said that he needed to come to the table right now, before his lunch is cold (which would bring on complaining if that happened).  So he reluctantly comes in and sits down, and then asks me, “Mom, have you apologized for interrupting what I was doing?”

Uh, no, I make no apologies for refusing to starve my kid!

Lp