What A Week

Last Sunday (Feb 24) I started to feel a little under the weather. It wasn't any better when I woke up Monday morning, but I thought I would shake it. So my husband left for work and I took my oldest to preschool. Little did I know that by the afternoon I would have a fever of 102 and would be on the couch wrapped in blankets trying to get rid of a horrible case of chills. Thankfully my mom was able to come and get my oldest, but my youngest ended up spending about four hours in her crib until her dad came home and rescued her. Yes, I did change her diaper and give her books to look at, but I was in no shape to chase her throughout the house. She survived (no worse for the wear) and I sprawled on the couch. I knew that I wouldn't be sleeping with my husband that night (to keep him from getting sick) so I tried to get comfortable on the couch. After a horrible nearly sleepless night moving from the couch to the futon to the floor and back again, I went to the bed at about 3am and told my poor sleeping husband that I was desperate for some sleep and laid down. I couldn't sleep there either and went back out to the couch until morning. Finally, the next morning I went into the bedroom and feel asleep on our queen size bed. I ended up staying there until Saturday, getting up only to make myself food (when I could eat) and to go to the bathroom. I also took a brief trip to the Dr on Wednesday where I was told (big surprise) that I had the flu. I must have looked awful because a lady in the hallway actually offered to get me a wheelchair. It was an awful week as I had every symptom that can accompany the flu at one point or another. On Saturday James had a meeting in the morning so I told him that I felt well enough to take care of the kids for a few hours. I got up and saw the state of my house for the first time - I don't mean to insult James; he did a wonderful job taking care of the house and the kids, but I could tell that a lot had piled up in my absence - and did WAY too much. I did three loads of laundry, changed the sheets and towels, cleaned up the living room, and who knows what else. By Saturday afternoon I was having trouble breathing and called the Dr. Well, if you've ever called the nurse on call and told them you are having trouble breathing, you know that they tell you to hang up and call 911. I didn't feel that it was that urgent so James took me into the ER. The checked my vitals and gave me some Tylenol and Motion (I could have done THAT at home). They really didn't do any other tests (except to make sure I wasn't dehydrated), but the Dr said that my symptoms didn't really fit the flu exactly any more. He believed that I had developed an infection secondary to the flu. This one was likely a bacterial infection so this time I got broad spectrum antibiotics. So back to bed I went...

I'm sure that it is horrible when any mom gets sick, but I think it is especially problematic for stay-at-home moms. If I had a job outside the home, I would already have childcare arranged for my children and would just continue to take them to daycare while I recuperated. As a SAHM I don't have that option. There is no one else to take care of my children. Therefore my poor husband was left trying to come up with childcare options at the last minute. Thank you so much Mom, Heidi, Carol, Marghie, and Rachel for taking one or both of my kids while I recovered. James only ended up having to take one full day of work off. PTL!

Now it is Tuesday and I am still sick. However I am well enough to take care of the kids. I had them by myself for the first time yesterday. It went pretty well. James had gone grocery shopping (for the first time in years) and gotten some convenience-type foods for me to feed the kids so I wouldn't have to cook too much. I took it easy and spent much of the afternoon in bed. Raquel actually took a nap so I am so thankful for that. Today is another day trying to get well and get some stuff done around the house without doing so much that I relapse. We'll see how it goes. As for now my voice is still weird and when I cough it still sounds like I am going to hack up a lung, but at least I can move. Thank God for small miracles.

Something about Wednesdays

Our youngest daughter, who is almost 2 and a half, has always been a great sleeper. I sincerely hope that she will be one of those children who takes a nap up until the time they start Kindergarten (I would not know anything about such children since my oldest stopped napping at 22 months - but I've been told that they exist). Several months ago she stopped napping for several days. I was bracing myself, thinking that she was giving up her nap. However, suddenly and inexplicably, she started napping again regularly after about ten days. So when she stopped napping last week I began to wonder if this was another "episode" or if she was actually giving it up this time. She stopped napping last Monday (2/11) and has not had a good one since, except for Wednesdays. It is the strangest thing because that is the night when we usually go to church for dinner and New Community. It is the one night that we keep them up late so if she doesn't nap it becomes unbearable. It's like she knows that she needs to take a nap those days or we will be stuck at home. So thanks Raquel for taking a nap on Wednesdays so that mommy can go to church. I appreciate it! Now if we could just go back to napping everyday...

Life after Death (and Taxes)

(For those of you out there who are Relient K fans, yes I am aware that I stole the title for this post)

Well, as you can guess I finished the taxes. What an absolute pain. I know that I should not complain since we are getting money back, but you would think that the government would make it a little easier. I even used H&R Block Taxcut (I've got people, apparently). But the tax software doesn't actually help me determine when we stopped being Michigan residents and became Ohio residents. It was a very ambiguous experience. Anyway I think I figured out the dates that were both accurate and got us the most money back. At one point I just sat at the computer and cried. We probably should have broken down and paid an actual person, but I've always done my own taxes and it is something in which I take a lot of pride. Since I don't bring home a paycheck, it is nice for me to be able to say that I got my family some money! Next year should be a lot easier since we will have lived in the same place the entire year. Yippee! I must say however that Ohio has the coolest tax filing system. They let you do your taxes online through an interview process and then you can submit them online for FREE! Take that H&R Block! They even let me file them online with a part-year resident status. Taxcut said that I couldn't do that. Score one for the Buckeyes!

A Foray Into the Known

I've finally gotten around to making my own blog. Aren't you so proud of me? It has been a long time coming. I have my own Facebook page and my own photo website (smugmug.com - it rocks), but for some reason I haven't made the time to jump on the blogging bandwagon. My sister and a bunch of my friends have them and I've heard it's very cathartic. So here we go..

It has been a long day (aren't they all) and I decided that I deserved some computer time this evening. We had our friends Matt and Abby and their daughter Claire over for dinner this evening. It was a really fun time. We are really enjoying getting to know the people in our ABF better. It is so nice to be able to swap stories with others in the same stage of life. We ended up spending the majority of the time talking about Facebook and how cool we think it is. What a bunch of dorks we are! Earlier today I cleaned the entire house. I told James that we should have people over at least once every two weeks so that I have motivation to clean the house. I also did all the laundry. Then, of course, Raquel decided not to take a nap and had a leaky diaper all over her freshly changed sheets. It never fails! Oh the things we do for our children!

Anyway, it feels good to have gotten so much accomplished today. Maybe tomorrow I will finish the taxes. It looks like we are going to get money back so I guess I should be looking forward to it. Well, I think I am just rambling now so I will sign off. See you soon...