Missed time report

I've been MIA but not quite as much as it looks here. While I haven't been writing, I've been looking and playing with a fresh look for here. (and this tan and blue template is NOT the look I want...so expect to see a change again sometimes soon) I don't know why it takes me so long to figure out graphics. It used to be the most time consuming and frustrating part of making webpages too.

We all had a great Christmas even though some of us were sick. Jake was dx with strep the Fri before Christmas. Carrie and Luke had to miss Christmas eve because they had it also but weren't covered with antibiotics by then. We didn't want to risk exposing SIL's newborn and all those kids, so Sean, Carrie, Luke and I stayed home for the night.

I worked hard and stayed up late the week before Christmas to make sure I had most things done. I still ended up not going to bed until 3am Christmas day. I can thank my older kids for that. I actually had to tell them....go to bed NOW! I have work to do so I can go to bed! For the first time ever I took a nap after presents were unwrapped and Tom did the assembling and unfastening. ahhhhh!

All week after Christmas the kids didn't feel good on and off. After our New Year's Eve celebration at church they were all complaining and were exhausted. The next day I made an apt for everyone (Michelle on down) that weren't being treated already to get a throat culture. The next day it was reported that 6 tested positive for Group A strep (that requires antibiotics), the other 2 tested positive for Group B strep (that the body is able to fight off itself but can be helped by antibiotics). One also tested positive for haemophilus. Needless to say I opted to treat everyone. To make things even better some of us also dealt with a stomach bug. Luckily it wasn't that bad in terms of accidents. It seems most people made it to where they needed to be, when they needed to be there. Poor Val still doesn't feel well. This has been going on since the beginning of November for her (when she was hospitalized). She's feeling pretty broken right now.

I've been enjoying Michelle being off from school. Because kids were home from college she was given less hours at work (they allowed college kids to come back and work while they were home on break). This meant I had days at a time when I stayed home. You'd think that my house would benefit from this, but it didn't.

Michelle starts classes tomorrow and the madness starts. We'll need to be out the door by 8:45am on Tues and Thurs. (as soon as the little kids get on the bus) I am NOT looking forward to dragging Sean and Danielle out of bed and into the cold. The poor girl has to stay at school until 9pm!! Oh well, it's her LAST semester! After this she will have her 2yr degree.

Tom and his brother are done working on their parents' house. Woohoooo! It is now on the market. It was so weird to have Tom get home before nightfall and be home all weekend. We had a bit of an adjustment period for the first few days. I was used to doing everything by myself. We actually ended up arguing over who was going to make mashed potatoes one night. lol Thankfully we're all adjusted and things are going well.

With Tom home I find I'm feeling a lot better. Just before they finished the house I realized that I was barely making meals and totally avoiding the housework. This place was a disaster area!!! With him home and being gungho about getting things in order/fixed up around here my attitude has changed. Until this weekend things were improving but very slowly. I'll talk about this weekend in a separate entry since it's a long story and this entry is already long enough.