A Post About Me

January is almost over and this is my first post. Not a great way to start out the year, but it leaves lots of room for improvement.

Work has been crazy. Beyond crazy actually. It has never been this busy and hectic in the almost 11 years I’ve been there. There are a couple major reasons for the craziness, and unfortunately they both happened at the same time. My co-worker described it best yesterday when she said it feels like we are in a snow globe and someone keeps shaking it. I am going to use this as my excuse for not posting anything this month because by the time I get home from work the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer.

The other thing that has kept me busy this month is a little diet experiment. I have to say, I am not a good dieter. I have virtually no will power to stick to anything and I tend to get discouraged easily if I don’t see results quickly. I’m also not much of a fisherman for the same reason….

However, I had more motivation this time for two reasons. One, I was bad, bad, bad over the holidays and my clothes were all getting a tad too snug. But more importantly, I have to fit into a short, strapless bridesmaid dress in two months. The dress I’m not so worried about. It’s the other five bridesmaids, all but one of which are 10 years younger than me and half of them are not mothers. Big sigh. I don’t want the wedding guests asking, “Who is the old fat one on the end?”

So Dear Husband and I decided to try a diet that worked well for a few people we know. I thought about posting a daily diary of our progress, but then the entire world would know if I failed. By some miracle I succeeded and lost 13 lbs. so now I’m going to brag because I think I deserve it. DH did very well too, but he doesn’t like to brag. Now our mission is to maintain and continue our healthy habits. The more I think about it, this may be harder than the original diet. Wish me luck!

Ticked Off: Part II

Unfortunately there is more to the story. Part II has good news and bad news.

The good news is that now we don't think Princess had a tick embedded in her head all week. The bad news is that we found a tick on Flower yesterday afternoon.

Flower was in the bathroom and I went to help her finish up. I helped her off the potty and noticed something in the crease of her leg. You guessed it, tick number 2. I sent Princess to find Dear Husband. He is a pro at tick removal (and yes, his service is available to anyone in need) now so he showed up with alcohol and tweezers. Princess brought the sandwich bag. DH removed, bagged, and labeled the tick in seconds. Now we have a collection of frozen ticks.

You are probably wondering what the good news is. Flower's tick was barely in her and I know it wasn't there Friday at bedtime so we think she picked it up Saturday morning. We didn't leave the house Saturday morning. This means Princess might have picked up her tick in the house, most likely on Thursday.

From the online research we've learned ticks can only live on another animal or in wet environments. When we got home from our hike on Monday we were all soaked to the bone and muddy. We threw our wet clothes in the laundry. Then we found the leaking water heater and I immediately forgot about our wet clothes.

Thursday I decided to do laundry. I remember sorting the damp, smelly stuff from Monday and cursing myself for letting them sit for three days. I sorted the laundry on the floor downstairs. There is a large plant very close to this area. We think the ticks (hopefully only 2) made their way to the plant or one immediately found Princess.

Now we are all performing tick checks twice daily. I am examining every small round brown thread in the carpet. Keilie dog is wearing a tick collar. I am praying we only brought 2 ticks home with us. DH is leaving tomorrow on a fishing trip and will be gone all week. I hope I won't need the tweezers in his absence.

As a side note, we were seated in church this morning when Nana, Papa, and Grandma M arrived. Princess started shouting to Nana as they approached our isle, "Nana, Nana, guess what....Flower got a tick too!" Flower was standing next to me by the isle so Papa leaned over to say hi to Flower and ask me if she really did get a tick. Flower immediately pulled her pants down and showed God, Papa, and those seated near us the little red mark on her groin. The child is not modest.

Ticked Off

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like a failure as a mother? I had one yesterday.

It all began Monday when we went for a hike. We got caught in a rainstorm and forgot our snack bag in the pickup but that is another post.

Fast forward to Friday morning. The girls were brushing their teeth and I was combing their hair. Princess wanted pigtails. As I started to brush her hair she said her head hurt. I asked her if she hit her head on something and she said no. I started to part her hair looking for a bump and found a tick. Yes, a tick. A wood tick to be exact.

I’m sure you have already done the math. Four days. It had probably been there since Monday. Four days a parasite had been living on my child and I didn’t notice.

In my defense, both Nana and myself had bathed and shampooed Princess since Monday. I combed her hair every morning this week. Great Grandma M even brushed her hair on Thursday afternoon. None of us noticed the tick. Princess didn’t notice and apparently it didn’t hurt until yesterday.

I immediately called Dear Husband. Ticks fall in his area of expertise. He didn’t answer his office phone or his cell phone. I left messages to call me asap. Then I got the tweezers out. I had all the methods of tick removal running through my head; burn them with hot tweezers, smother them with petroleum jelly, and never, ever let them break off in your skin.

I took a deep breath, grabbed him with the tweezers, and pulled. The second his little legs started flailing I was done. Up until that point I wasn’t sure if it was still alive. I thought maybe he was dead and would pull out easily. I was wrong.

Since he didn’t look like he wanted to come out of Princess’s head easily, I got the petroleum jelly out. I covered him in it. Big mistake. Now Princess had a tick embedded in her head covered with Vaseline. Even if he did pull out I wouldn’t be able to see it so how would I know to remove it. Then DH calls and we discuss all the information he was reading online. Tip #1 – Never use petroleum jelly, it just makes them mad. Check.

I called the doctor and they told me to bring her in over the lunch hour. I decided to try to wash off the Vaseline so I put Princess in the shower and tried to gently clean it. That didn’t work very well either. I am going to be washing Vaseline out of her hair for the next month. I was able to get enough of it off so we could see the tick again so that was good.

DH came home from work. He said he could tell by the sound of my voice I wasn’t going to be able to pull the tick out. He was right. He read online to pull very, very slowly and let the tick release on its own. He did and it worked perfectly. One tick removed completely.

We got it done in time to go to the end of year picnic at school. Then we went to the doctor. He examined the hole in Princess’s head (it’s about the size of a pencil eraser and bright red). He said we did a great job removing it. DH said we were supposed to take the tick to the doctor so I did. The doctor said not to worry, ticks around here don’t carry the really bad diseases and this one probably doesn’t carry anything due to the area where we picked him up. Nonetheless we are to put the tick in the freezer and keep an eye on Princess for the next week. Any sign of a fever we are to come in immediately and bring the tick for analysis.

Princess is very proud of her tick. She showed it to everyone we saw yesterday. Her music teacher lived in Maryland and she said ticks were so common there that her pediatrician’s office removed and tested every single one. I guess we should feel fortunate we don’t have to deal with ticks that frequently.

Nana and I still can’t believe we both missed it all week. The part of my brain that tries to rationalize everything is wondering if maybe the tick was hiding in her coat all week and got on Princess Thursday night. It’s probably not true, but it makes me feel better.

Thursday Evening

Thursday evening is my favorite day/time of the week. Three days lie ahead of me and none of them include going to work. You’ll notice I didn’t say none of those days include work.

As one of my coworkers was leaving the office tonight she told me to have a nice weekend. Another coworker asked if I was taking tomorrow off. I had to give him a hard time for asking….I have been working four days a week for over two years and his office is next to mine, surely he has noticed my absence every Friday.

I love my four-day workweek. I wouldn’t trade it for anything; however, Friday is no vacation. I still get up at early, take Princess to school, come home and frantically clean house and do laundry until it is time to pick up Princess. Then we come home, have a quick lunch and rush out the door to music class. By the time we get back, sometimes after errands, I am exhausted. We usually have a nap or quiet time and watch a movie.

When I write our Friday routine it doesn’t sound like much, but somehow it wears me out. Now that summer is almost here I have a feeling my house will be neglected and hopefully the yard will look good.

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days when you have a list of things you need to do that is a mile long but you have absolutely no ambition to do anything? I think I am having one of those days.

First of all, I always have long list. I don’t have as many lists as Homestead, but I admit I’m a “lister” also. I imagine my list will end when I meet my maker, and not a day sooner.

Today I am blaming my lack of motivation on Dear Husband. He took yesterday off and that put a wrench in my schedule because it felt like Saturday. My usual Friday schedule is take Princess to school, come home and clean the floors (and maybe a bathroom if I’m moving really fast), pick Princess up from school, home for lunch, off to music class right after lunch, and then home again to crash because by then I am absolutely exhausted.

Yesterday DH took Princess to school and went to the office for a bit. Did you catch that? He took the day off but still went to work. Someone needs to explain the meaning of a day off to DH. Then he picked up Flower and I so we could run some errands before picking Princess up from school.

After school we went to Costco. If anyone needs anything from Costco go today. They are having Super Demo days and we ate so many samples we were too full to eat lunch. Then we headed home, dropped off the Costco stuff and DH, and the girls and I headed to music class. By the time we got home I didn’t feel like doing anything productive so I vegged on the couch.

Now I am avoiding a pile of laundry and a dirty floor. I do have to point out one positive thing about Keilie dog’s knee surgery. The floor stays much cleaner when she has to be chaperoned to go outside. So, I guess I’ll sign off, go read the newspaper, and start a load of laundry. Happy Saturday everyone and may you find motivation to do whatever makes you happy today.

He Reads My Mind

Last fall I wanted some brown shoes. I have a pair of brown pants that are too short to wear with my “every day” brown shoes because they have a small heel. I was looking for a pair of suede or leather casual shoes that were comfortable for walking but dressy enough to wear to work with slacks.

My co-worker had a pair from Lands End that I really liked and at the end of the summer they were on sale. I ordered a pair in my size and they were huge. I thought about exchanging them for a smaller size but they were very wide and probably wouldn’t have fit anyway.

So I gave up on the brown shoes. Wednesday I needed some moisturizer so I ran over to the mall. On my way to the cosmetic counter I noticed a horde of women in the shoe department. I heard someone say they were having a 70% of sale on last season’s shoes. I made a quick detour by the rack with shoes my size.

I saw a really cute pair of brown shoes and I wanted to try them on but didn’t have time. I’m trying to cut back on the impulse buying, although I could have got around that because I’ve been “shopping” for brown shoes for months so I don’t think it would qualify as an impulse item….right?

I picked up my moisturizer and headed back to work. I didn’t think about the brown shoes again.

Last night when I got home from work the girls met me at the door with an early birthday gift. Dear Husband had ordered something he wanted me to try on in case it was the wrong size and needed to be exchanged.

I opened the gift and to my delight were the exact same brown shoes I saw at the mall. Even though I give DH a hard time for never listening to me, deep down I know he really does pay attention.

Goodbye 1989

I need to clean out my closet. Homestead and I have discussed this over the years. She is a much better purger than I.

When I got home tonight Flower followed me upstairs to change my clothes. She looked in my closet and pulled out an old swimsuit. I wore that suit in high school. I loved that swimsuit. It was the first, and one of the only, swimsuits that has ever fit properly. It is over 20 years old. Why do I still have it in my closet? It's two (or more) sizes too small and 1989 neon pink.

Flower asked me what it was. I told her it was an old swimsuit that is too small. She gave me a confused look and told me to throw it in the garbage. So we did. If she was a couple feet taller I would have her go through my other closet.

The Miracle Morning

Yesterday I had a lot of stops to make on the way to work. Drop Flower off at daycare, Keilie dog at the vet, and take Princess to school. Dear Husband has been out of town all week so I’ve been on my own.

My alarm was set for 5:15 AM because I am the slowest person in the world when it comes to getting ready in the morning. Auntie C can attest to this. I don’t know why I am so slow, but I have been that way since I can remember. I prepare and pack as many things as possible the night before and it still takes me almost two hours to get myself and the girls up and out the door in the morning. Why am I telling you this? Because I needed to leave the house by 7:15 AM yesterday morning and I could not be late.

I heard the girls’ bedroom door open yesterday morning. I heard their footsteps and the rattle of woof-woof. I didn’t move or open my eyes because it was not 5 AM yet, or so I thought. Flower came to my side of the bed and asked to get in with me. As I prepared to shoo both of the girls back to their own beds I opened my eyes and looked at my clock.

The last two digits said 16 and my first thought was “My alarm was set to go off one minute ago, I wonder why it didn’t?” Then I saw the digit preceding the 16. It was a six. OMG!!!

I shot out of bed, put the girls our my bed, turned on cartoons, and ran for the shower. Refer to paragraph one. It takes two hours to get us out the door and I have less than one hour. If that doesn’t get your blood pumping I don’t know what will.

To make a long story short, we made it. We left the house at 7:20 AM, only five minutes behind schedule. The girls ate breakfast in the pickup, which we do quite often. I didn’t get any coffee so I felt like a walking zombie after the adrenaline wore off, but overall we did really well.

Today I have been asking myself why does it take me two hours every morning to do what should only take one hour?

When you thought I wasn't looking

I had a long day at work and my brain is not capable of composing something interesting right now. Instead I'll share an email my father-in-law sent us today. I thought it was something worth sharing...especially for those of you with children.

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING

A message every adult should read because children
are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you hang my
first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately
wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a
stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind
to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my

favorite cake for me, and I learned that the little
things can be the special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a
prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always
talk to, and I learned to trust in Him.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make a
meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I
learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you take care
of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have
to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw how you
handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't
feel good, and I learned that I would have to be
responsible when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw tears come
from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things
hurt, but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw that you
cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking I learned most of
life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and
productive person when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking I looked at you and
wanted to say,'Thanks for all the things I saw when
you thought I wasn't looking.'

I AM SENDING THIS TO ALL OF THE PEOPLE I KNOW
WHO DO SO MUCH FOR OTHERS,
BUT THINK THAT NO ONE EVER SEES.
LITTLE EYES SEE A LOT.

Each of us (parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, friend)
influences the life of a child.

How will you touch the life of someone today? Just by
sending this to someone else, you will probably make
them at least think about their influence on others.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.


Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.

Now I Understand

I was craving a glass of iced tea yesterday afternoon so I jumped in my pickup and headed to McDonald's. Where else can you get a huge glass of brewed iced tea (not that disgusting fountain stuff posing as iced tea) for $1?

I pulled on to the one-way street next to my office at the same time a lady pulled on from the mall parking lot. I needed to get in the left lane and so I slowed to a crawl waiting for her to accelerate so I could change lanes. She went a few yards down the street and stopped eight car lengths behind the car waiting at the stop light in front of her....leaving me hanging in the middle of the street still trying to switch lanes.

I don't think she even noticed I was two inches from her bumper. As I was cursing her in my head I saw her license plate frame. "I can do anything....I'm the mother of 3 girls!" Ok, so I'll cut her some slack.

Ideas...anyone?

We are attending the wedding of a high school classmate this weekend. It is the second marriage for both of them. They both have kids. They combined households last year. They are not registered anywhere. I need a gift. So far all I have come up with is a picture frame, pilsner glasses or wine glasses. I'm sure everyone other person attending the wedding is thinking the exact same thing.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Friday and our weekend went from no plans and yard work to a parade in the rain (or snow from the looks of it), lunch with the great grandparents, an early Mother's Day celebration with different great grandparents on Saturday, and a day trip to out-of-town relatives on Sunday. The girls are watching the Wonder Pets Mother's Day special so I thought I'd take a moment to post a quick note.

I was about half way through my pregnancy with Princess on my first Mother's Day. We were visiting our parents that weekend and at church they asked all the mothers to come up front. The pastor said a few words and we all got a flower. I remember feeling a little strange with all the other mothers who were mostly my mother's age because compared to them, what did I know? I didn't deserve any recognition, heck, I hadn't done anything yet. In fact I wasn't really showing and didn't plan on getting out of my seat but Papa insisted. I was excited about becoming a mother, but I had no idea what a wonderful, amazing thing it really is.

Mother's Day is suppose to be about celebrating your mother and reminding her of the fact that without her you wouldn't be you. I don't just mean that literally. I'm very fortunate to have a wonderful mother. She's caring, compassionate, and always sacrifices for the good of her family. I can't think of a time when she has put herself before someone else, especially her children. She's the glue that holds everything together. Without her we'd never make it. I know there are days when she feels like she just can't do it anymore. I don't blame her. I know I couldn't walk a day in her shoes. But she always does, and I don't tell her how much I appreciate her often enough.

I think Mother's Day is also a time to cherish your children if you are a mother. I had a great life before Princess, but it's beyond belief now that I have her and Flower. They are both amazing people, even at such a young age. They make every day new and exciting. They make us laugh. They make me smile. I have no idea what we did without them. Life must have been really boring. I'd like to take all the credit for creating such beautiful children, but I know they are the result of God's blessings and a loving family. I'm a total believer it takes a village to raise a child.

So I guess this wasn't a short post after all. But all you mothers (and children too) out there will understand. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Mother's Day! Love you mom!

K-

Park-n-Play

The girls went to the park for a picnic with Nana and Papa on Saturday. Dear Husband was skiing….yes, in May, I know, will this snow ever end? I ran some errands and met up with everyone at the park.

Princess is a little shy around strangers. The big and little variety. She refuses to speak to adults she doesn’t know, which is mostly fine except when the cashier at Target gives her a sticker and she needs to say thank you. Princess usually doesn’t speak to kids her age either, even those she has been in tumbling class with for six months. Both DH and I are more on the quiet side in group settings so she comes by it naturally.

Flower isn’t shy. She’s the one we need to keep a very close eye on. I wouldn’t put it past her to leave the park with a stranger if they offered her ice cream and balloons. This frightens me but we’ll deal with it.

By the time I join the party at the park lunch was over and it was time to play. Princess took Papa to the swings and Flower took me to the train. A little boy ran over to Flower and tried to strike up a conversation. Flower replied to the best of her ability and made a new friend. Princess eventually came back to check on us and the little boy tried to talk to her. Luckily he’s young and didn’t take offense to Princess’ aloofness.

Princess finally warmed up to the little guy and the three of them played together very well. I was chatting with his father who told me he was three and not bashful which I had already deduced. They were a nice pair and the girls enjoyed the new playmate.

That evening at dinner we were telling DH about our day and I was describing the little boy’s father to DH because he looked familiar to me. Princess broke in and said “Mommy, I thought the man was Johnny’s grandpa but he kept calling him dad.” So that leads me to my next question. Do I look old enough to be someone’s grandmother, or do I look very youthful for my age because I don’t think Johnny’s daddy was much older than me?

Ready 2 Read

Go here, Montana Momoirs, read this. Great information for parents with preschoolers.

Princess has always been interested in reading. We’ve been reading to her since birth and lately she’s really taken an interest in writing. She has been able to write her name, or at least two of the four letters in her name, for quite some time. A couple months ago someone helped her practice the other letters and bam, all of the sudden she can sign her name without any help and it’s completely legible.

As I was reading the above post I ticked off all the items on the list. We do all of those things. I’m going to take this opportunity to pat myself on the back. We also have the advantage of a retired schoolteacher spending a couple hours with us almost every day. Nana has taken Princess’ interest in reading and writing and began to foster it.

Flower is another story. Once again, just another example of how different two children made from the same DNA can be. We tried to read to Flower from the beginning, but she wasn’t really interested. When she was old enough to move around on her own she would grab at the book and try to wrestle it out of your hands. She made reading bedtime stories very, very challenging.

The last six months have been different so I have hope. Flower finally started showing interest in reading stories so we made them part of her bedtime routine again. Now she looks forward to stories and has her favorite books. It amazes me that she knows the names of her favorite books when all this time I was sure she wasn’t paying attention.

Recently Flower has taken to reading to her daddy or me. Some nights when we snuggle into the chair in her room for stories she tears the book out of our hands and gets upset if we try to read the story to her. She babbles some words and turns the pages for a while before she will hand the book over to us. She also started counting, or at least rattling off numbers. She’s fairly reliable with 1, 2, 3….although she does not understand the concept of counting. Then she points to items and throws out random numbers. I suppose she’ll figure it out some day.

Waiting for the Cable Guy

We bought a new cabinet for our TV and all the other electronic equipment Hubby can’t live without. We got a great deal on it at a local trucking warehouse that sells the furniture they drop for cheap. It’s not the exact color I was looking for, but I really like it anyway. It goes well with the sofa and love seat we purchased at the warehouse last year for $250.

There is a really, really long story about moving it in the house last weekend but I’ll spare you the details. Basically the darn thing is so heavy it takes two very strong men to move it and for some reason Hubby decided he and I could do it alone. We (which really means Hubby with a hand cart) managed to move the cabinet out of the garage and up the stairs into the living room. I might also add there was no swearing or new dents in the wall either so he did well.

After the cabinet was in the living room Princess and I went to town for groceries and Hubby started the “move”. He had most of it done by the time we got home but the high definition channels were not working. Apparently there is an HDMI cable that makes all that stuff happen and it wasn’t doing its job.

Hubby is allergic to the telephone, have I mentioned that? If something has to be done that requires a phone call I have to do it. Normally I don’t mind but when it comes to the cable it’s not my favorite job. I have to call the tech line and speak to someone who is asking me all these questions, which I have to turn around and ask Hubby and then repeat back his response back to the technician on the phone. I dislike being the middleman.

I….actually we….spent about 20 minutes on the phone with the technician unplugging this and resetting that to no avail. He finally decided we may have a bad cable, or damaged it somehow in the “move”, and we need to have someone come out and replace it. I took the 9:00 – 11:00 slot this morning so here we sit.

So the cable guy showed up and replaced a bunch of cables so I’m back online. It snowed quite a bit last night and the poor guy had to shovel the patio off to get to the cable box. I wonder if that’s in his job description?

Pillow Talk

Homestead brought up the subject of pillows so I thought I’d chime in.

We have nine pillows on our bed. Five are functional and four are decorative.

We painted our bedroom blue last winter and then went shopping for a new duvet cover. By some miracle we found a set that both Hubby and I loved and went with the new paint. Then we walked around the corner and found the wall hanging that matched. It wasn’t one of those “sets”; it just happened to catch our eye and the colors were exactly what we were looking for. To this day I’m still amazed we went to one store and found everything we needed to completely redecorated our bedroom.



Back to the pillows. I have three and Hubby has two. We both have one flat form thing that goes on the bottom of the pile. Then we both have a fluffy feather pillow, which I can’t recall where they came from but they may have been wedding gifts. They are hand made by Hutterites and I love them. I also have my feather pillow. It’s a tiny pillow, also made by the Hutterites, which belonged to my mother. She used to have two, but as a child I latched on to it and I can’t sleep without it. Seriously. I take it everywhere. My mom has a picture of me as a toddler sitting on her bed with these totally 70s sheets (wild colors with a turtle print). I always used those cases on my pillow so it’s called my turtle pillow. The cases didn’t survive my high school days, but I still call it my turtle pillow. I’m sure you are wondering where the other pillow from the set went. My sister took possession of it and it lives in Arizona with her.

We also have four decorative pillows….two in shams and two small pillows. Princess made our bed today and I think she did a pretty good job.

Just Another Way to Say "I Love You"

As you already know Flower has been a little under the weather lately. Nothing major, just a little fever, vomiting, and last week the diarrhea started. Luckily it was pretty minor and short lived so I didn't think much of it.

Grandpa and Grandma came to visit last weekend and it wasn't more than 30 minutes after they left on Sunday that Princess made a quick trip to the bathroom. You guessed it, now she has the runs. Again, they were short lived and by Monday I thought we were in the clear once again.

Monday was a holiday so we stayed home. Hubby came down with a cold. I too thought I was getting a sore throat but it subsided and I gave Hubby a hard time about being sick.

Our beloved daycare lady is out of town this week on family business so I had a nice schedule worked out with Nana, Hubby and I to cover Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We each took 2 half days so I didn't have to use all my vacation this week. Hubby was on the schedule Tuesday morning so I got up and went to work around 7:00 am.

About 7:30 my stomach started doing weird things and I thought I must be hungry so I grabbed my yogurt. By 8:00 I was beginning to wonder if I might have picked up the little bug the girls had. By 9:00 I was started think I really was sick, but my brain was telling me I can't be sick because this was my only full day to work this week and I needed to get a lot done. At 10:00 I called home to check on the kiddos and tell Hubby I was coming down with something but I was going to try to tough it out. At 11:00 I had to run through the office to get to the bathroom and at that point I knew I was sick. The bad stomach virus sick. My co-workers would have helped me out the door but no one wanted to get that close and I don't blame them. I called Hubby and said I give up, I'm coming home.

So I've spent the last 72 hours laying around moaning in pain and running to the bathroom. The girls have done their best to take care of me. Princess follows me from room to room with the bucket in case I need to puke and my pillow and a blanket. Flower has perfected the phrase "What's wrong?"

I was finally able to eat dinner tonight and after a hot shower I'm feeling much better. Hubby is scheduled to fly out of town on Tuesday to attend a conference. I hope he can avoid the bug because vomiting in the airplane bathroom does not sound like fun.

So, I just want to end by thanking the girls for caring enough to give me their very best....