Echo...echo...echo....

Hellooooo.....
Helllooooo.....
Hellllooooo...

Is that an echo? I need to clear the bloggy cobwebs, huh? Ohhhhh, my friends...what a week it has been around here!

Both of my kids had a short-lived tummy bug at the end of last week. Mitchell's came back in the middle of the night the next day though (meaning more pukey sheets to wash!) and a fever came with it, which was different from Georgia who simply threw up twice and was fine two hours later. I took him to urgent care on Sunday after learning that our neighbor (who is also his classmate at school) had just tested positive for strep the day before and sure enough -- he had it, too. The doctor was nice enough to write me a pregnancy-friendly prescription, too -- that way I could save myself the $50 copay if I started having symptoms.

Anyway - for me the sad part (you know, in addition to having sick kids and having to repeatedly clean up throw up with a delicate pregnant nose and wash sheets 6 - yes I counted- times) was having to miss our annual "cookie day" at my mom's house. We get together and make all kinds of cookies for Christmas: iced sugar cookies that we really get into decorating, russian tea cookies, chocolate chip (a different than usual recipe), peanut butter, raspberry jam filled sugar cookies, Danish dapples, and peanut brittle. It's a big-time tradition for us and a day that I always really enjoy. Even though *I* wasn't sick, if there was a chance that I would be, I didn't want to be preparing food that 35 people would eat on Christmas Eve, as the cookies are our family's dessert every year. I also stayed home from making our yummy meatballs on Sunday which also bummed me out, but again - better safe than sorry. Sooooo, anyway - Sunday was a pretty good day - Mitchell seemed much better and the rest of us felt fine.

Then, on Monday - yes, that would be Christmas Eve - I ended up having the other kind of tummy issue allllllllllllllllll day long. Chris had to work and when he left for work it wasn't too terrible yet, but it quickly got to the point where I was pretty much non-functional. (I have hit that pretty much constantly nauseated point of my pregnancy, so that on top of the other stuff = not good.) I knew Chris had a really big, important meeting at 3pm though, so I just decided to suck it up and handle it myself. Both of our parents offered to come help me take care of the kids, but there was no way that I wanted to pass this stuff around so I just managed. The tv was on literally all day long and they ate things that required me to get up no longer than about 2 minutes: cereal, cheese quesadillas that I nuked in the microwave for 30 seconds, fruit, etc. The rest of the time I was either parked on the sofa or in the bathroom. I think Georgia must have sensed just how yucky I felt because all she wanted to do was sit on me all day. Literally. That girl never left my side -- I think it was the most still I've seen her. Ever. Such a sweetie -- and Mitchell was such a big helper to me. So, we made it through the day. By the time my husband fought traffic, stopped at the store for me and finally arrived home, it was later than he had hoped. He got the kids fed and into bed and then came downstairs with me.

He started acting really weird right about then. Now, I don't know if any of you have the type of husbands who will just readily tell you when they don't feel good, but if you do - count your blessings. I have one stubborn man who pretty much tries to hide and/or downplay his illnesses. It is always sooooooooo annoying when he's denying that anything is wrong, but on this day it was particularly feather-ruffling for me. After he tidied up the kitchen, he came and sat on the loveseat directly across from the couch that I was laying on. He had his hands between his knees, his head bent over and he was rocking back and forth slightly. I asked him what was wrong and he said he was just really cold.

Really cold? MY husband? I have never in our almost 6 years of marriage heard him say that he was ever slightly cold unless we are literally outside in frigid weather. Usually I will have on three layers of clothes, two blankets (so not kidding) and still be cold and he'll be talking about how it's hot in the house since I turned the heat up.

Anyway - I knew something was up, so I had him come over and let me take his temperature. It was 101.5 and I just sighed. Here we go again.

I'll spare you the long, drawn out version - -ha! Too late, huh? I ended up being up all night long with him (he slept most of the night though) worrying myself silly because his fever climbed all the way to 104.9 and wouldn't come back down past just under 102. He was in pretty bad shape and it was worrisome for me to see him have such a high fever, as that is COMPLETELY unusual. I did the whole alternating tylenol and ibuprofen thing every 3 hours and let me tell you how fun it was to convince him each time to sit up and take it. Uhhh, yeah.

Luckily, I started actually feeling much better during the night and by the time Tuesday (Christmas morning) rolled around, I actually felt like I was halfway human again. The yuckies had stopped and my stomach was no longer constantly rolling. I was actually hungry and enjoyed drinking some water and gatorade. Funny how little things like that will make you so happy sometimes.

We had cancelled our annual Christmas breakfast with all of the grandparents, but my parents still came over to see the kids open their big surprises. (I ran around - again - with the lysol spray and clorox wipes prior to their arrival.) Poor Chris managed to make it to the landing, where he sat to watch a safe distance away from everyone. After about 2 gifts for each kiddo, we packed them up and shipped them off to grandma and grandpa's for the day and a sleepover. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how sad it was for me to not spend Christmas with my children, but it was important for us to make sure that they still had an enjoyable holiday, and we knew that it was the best thing.

Chris went back to bed for a few hours and then it was back to urgent care again. I should mention that it was snowing hard all day on Tuesday, so we got to do all of this running around in the middle of a very cold, blustery day. The doctor told him that he had influenza, gave him a shot of something and a prescription for tamiflu. Off to the pharmacy! Of course the one that is about a mile from our home was closed, so it was off to the Walgreens about 20 minutes away. It turns out that half of the world was in the same place and we ended up waiting almost two hours for our prescriptions. (I decided to just go the cautious route at this point and take the antibiotics.) As we were sitting there waiting and people watching, we knew that the kids were definitely where they needed to be and we were thankful to just be together. When our name was finally called, we grabbed a frozen pizza and some drinks on the way out, which gave us a good laugh. We never envisioned grabbing our Christmas dinner from Walgreens. I also told him that no one had selected "pizza" on my what will you have for Christmas dinner poll, yet here I was.

As we drove home, a little piece of irony came to my mind. My friend and I write the group's discussion questions for half of the MOPS meetings, and one that I myself had come up with for our most recent meeting was about a holiday where things didn't go as planned. Nice foreshadowing, don't you think? On our slow, snowy drive home, we were talking about people we know that have critically ill children who are in the hospital, friends who have endured major family losses so close to the holidays, and all of our country's soliders who would LOVE to be driving home with a frozen pizza from Walgreens, as long as they were with their sick-as-a-dog spouse on Christmas. We still had a whole load of presents to open with each other and the kids, even if it was a day or two later.

We decided right then and there that we really didn't have too much to complain about after all.

So, the good news is that we *hopefully* got all of the sickies out of the way before we head out of town. We are off to the mountains today to spend three nights at a lovely little condo. Just the four (and a half) of us. We're really looking forward to it and have already decided that instead of killing ourselves to get the house all crazy perfect before we leave, we're going to call the realtor's office and tell them no showings this weekend. That really wasn't a difficult decision at all. At this point, it's all about our family and what we need: some time to get away together, relax and unwind.

Happy New Year, friends. May you all enjoy a year filled with love, peace, happiness, health, and an abundance of God's blessings. Thank you for filling my year with friendship, hope, encouragment and laughter. See you in 2008!