NOT amused

Hanging out in the hallway with all the doors closed listening to the sweet, sweet January lullaby of tornado sirens.  I am not amused.

thems the breaks :: flu edition

Well.  It happened.  Our house was infected with the flu.  Well, half our house anyway.  (Thankfully, the dramatic half - me and Nate.)  We are hoping the Tamiflu (which costs millions of dollars and does seemingly nothing) helps to spare Karl and Nora. 

There's not a lot to say about grown up illness that is funny.  I definitely was at about 20% for about 5 days.  ALL I could think while I laid there moaning and shivering was PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't let the kids get it.  I would call Karl at work and he'd be all, "How are you feeling?" and I'd be all, "IT DOESN'T MATTER.  The kids can not get THIS."  

I quarantined myself to the bedroom and by the end of the week we thought for sure K and the kids had gotten a pass-go-collect-200-dollars pass.  I was even attempting to enjoy my time alone (fever or not!) in bed by watching the entirety of Season 1 of HBO's Girls in one day.  But the flu is a tricky beast.  Right when we started to get a teensy bit confident, Nate woke up with a slight (very slight) fever Friday morning and I knew that was it.

It was so much harder than my worst nightmare about it.   Having a sensitive kid and having a sick kid don't mesh.  I am not downplaying the illnesses of the non-sensitive kids (some kids just sleep when they're sick, right?) but after hearing MY HAIR IS TOO HEAVY 14 times, I honestly wasn't sure we were going to survive.   (He also mentioned (several thousands of times) I DON'T LIKE IT. I DON'T LIKE IT and, once, oddly, MY TOES HAVE SPARKLES AND THEY HUUUUUUUUUUURT.) 

At one point, he was sitting on my lap in the bathroom crying and I'm pretty sure my heart shattered (a little piece fell off for sure), when he asked me if he "had gotten old" and was he going to die.  I MEAN REALLY.   What do you say to that?  For the record, I told him he was still 'new' - his word for young - and he was going to be fine.  (Not long after that we called our amazing ER pediatrician friend Jon to help talk us off the ledge of actually taking him in.)  

I haven't been to work in upward of forever and we still can't go to school tomorrow!  I know it's all thems-the-breaks kid but JAYSUS MARY AND JOSEPH MAKE IT STOP.  

weekending with the weekend

We made some copies of action figures:

Took a car nap or two:

Karl and I snuck away all day Saturday to go to the horse races in Hot Springs to celebrate a friend's 40th.  We won ZERO dollars betting and spent much more eating the famous corned beef sandwiches and drinking delicious bloody mary's.  I attempted to go out afterwards with the group but couldn't make it.   Day drinks aren't all they're cracked up to be these days, eh? 

Nora Kate attempted her first bike ride. 

We texted silly pics to far away family. 

We drank a little coffee. 

We bought a birthday gift for a friend (had to try it out first, make sure the webage worked):

"We" insisted upon spending our Sunday evening in this fancy getup (over our clothes).  Perfect for family dinner on the floor! 

Now the kids are in bed and I'm settling in for MASTERPIECE THEATER!  (So on the Downton bandwagon.  After a day of NFL playoffs Lady Mary and Mr. Crawley are a welcome change of pace.)

I have a little Sunday night anxiety going on so I'll leave you now to snuggle under my covers and pretend I don't have to go to work tomorrow.   

survival mode and champagne chardonnay

In no particular order, for your entertainment...  (or, really, for my own recollection)

We bought a new, smaller (cheap!) table.  We started to assemble it and it was missing so. many. pieces.  Took it back and splurged on a new, smaller (expensive!) table and some new (non-fabric -hooray for easy clean up!) chairs.  We're continuing the Great Purge of 2013 (we even rented a storage unit and filled it) in anticipation of (maybe?) selling our house.  Really, we have no idea.  We continue to look but nothing seems to fit.

Arlo (yes, we still have the dogs) continues to escape out of our backyard once a week or so despite our best efforts at repairing the fence OVER AND OVER AND OVER (and putting additional fencing inside the fencing).   Our neighbors (miraculously) continue to bring him home (though he just sits in the carport when he gets out so I don't know why they bother).

I was out of work for the break and yesterday my boss welcomed me back from 'vacation.'  HA!  Seeing as someone in our house was ill (I STILL feel subpar) or without power for the duration of the holidays, I had to laugh at her usage of the word vacation.  (Dear God, when can I have a vacation!?!)

Nora just got two new teeth (the vampire ones!) which explains her recent night-wakings and crankiness.  Remember how I said she was SUCH AN easy baby?  I TAKE IT ALL BACK.  She's like a little teenager in a 15 month old body!  She's obsessed with shoes and coats and clothes (but still straight up refuses bows and headbands).  I need to dedicate a post to her - her antics are HIGHLY entertaining as of late.

Nate continues his football obsession, though, recently, he has also been obsessed with pretend cooking.  I give him flour, sprinkles and various other ingredients from the fridge.  It's SERIOUSLY messy and SERIOUSLY disgusting (think sandwich meat meets orange juice meets water meets christmas sprinkles meets shredded cheese meets chile seasoning) but HIGHLY entertaining to watch.  I make Karl dispose of these little projects as I fear my gag reflex could not handle cleaning out some of the pans (they always go in the fridge to 'cook' when they are mixed).  I like to think it's a BONUS for when he arrives home after a long day at work.

Karl and I tried to go on a one hour sushi date while our 16 year old (boy) neighbor watched the kids.  Nora was already asleep and we set him and Nate up with some video games.  45 minutes and three phone calls later, we threw in the towel. (Picture me wine-gulping at the table - HA).  We did have several follow up drinks upon return (once Nate cried himself to sleep and we cleaned Nora's soaking wet (& later vomit-covered) sheets!).  GOOD TIMES!

We caught someone (a kid - seriously) trying to break into Karl's truck at 6:15 on Sunday morning.  The driver's side door lock is jacked up and it looks unlocked - clearly tricked this kid who set off the alarm and furiously pedaled away on his bike when the alarm went off.  Little did he know we'd be awake at 6:15 in the AM - though I'm not sure what good it did as he was halfway down the street on his bike by the time Karl got out the door.  MORE GOOD TIMES! 

We did NOT go to Tulsa for New Years as planned (See all above bullet points - you get the idea of the atmosphere around our house lately!  SURVIVAL MODE PEOPLE.)  But I did make Karl go get some champagne (actually it was something extra FANCY called Chardonnay Champagne because real champagne makes my head hurt simply by looking at the bottle).  We made it to midnight and played our favorite NYE in the City Game - Gunshots or Fireworks!?!? 

I have so many things I want to do in 2013.  My friend Amanda and I are working on a new little project/venture (in my spare time, right!?) and I can't wait to share all the details with you guys! We're having a photo shoot this weekend so details will definitely be sooner rather than later!!  Eeek!