It’s been a while…

Since my kiddos were sick. 

The past year…we haven’t been sick very much at all.  I mean nothing.  Not even so much as a runny nose. 

It’s wonderful when your kids get a little older, their immune systems mature, and they are able to fight off the typical sneezes and sniffles and the occasional doozy of an infection, on their own!

Yesterday, just five short days before the first day of 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade, and the Nursing Program…Jack decided to succumb to the germs, and he’s sick!

Strep throat.  An ear infection.  Upper respiratory infection.  And croup!!!

All at once. 

He’s on a double dose of antibiotics, breathing treatments, and steroids, and Tylenol and Ibuprofen round the clock to attempt to keep his fever in check.  He should be right as rain, and no longer contagious by the first day of school, though.

But, what about the rest of us?

My head feels funny and my throat is scratchy…and I’m convinced that Lily and I will come down with this crap, come Sunday!!  We’re the only ones excited about starting school, and it seems like it would fit that we’d be the ones to be stricken with the crud, forcing us to stay home!! 

I know, I know…I shouldn’t be so negative, and I shouldn’t send shit like that into the universe.  Hopefully, it’s just psychosomatic, and it’s nothing.

Hopefully, come Monday…I don’t look anything like this…

Some things money can’t buy…

Designer scrubs…$60

Stethoscope…$80

Textbooks…$350

  

Realizing a dream…PRICELESS!

My T’s are crossed and my I’s are dotted.  I’ve been oriented.  I’ve been tested.  I’ve served my time, waited my turn, and on Monday…a dream of mine comes true! 

I start nursing school. 

Until this point, it has just felt like something I’ve been talking about.  Something I’ve been planning.  Now that I have my equipment, have my seat in the classroom, and have my clinical assignment…it’s feeling pretty real.

I’m really gonna do this thing!!

Metal mouth…

The girl had her braces put on the day before we left for vacation, and she was thrilled.  She even requested that I take pictures at the dentist office!!!

Before…

 
During (per her request)…

 
And after…Just look at how fast that gap closed up!!

 
And…just look at how beautiful my girl is, even with all that metal in her mouth (if I do say so myself)!!

Toes in the sand...

A toss up...

It's a toss up as to whether these guys are having more fun hitting the beaches of Destin, FL...

Or, watching cable for the first time in seven months!!!



We've been soaking up rays by day...


and soaking up the boob-tube by night! It really is paradise, just look how happy Jake is to be watching a live Ranger game!!!

The wall…

I’ve hit the metaphorical wall. 

That glorious point in the kid’s summer vacation where they are at each other’s throats, trying to kill one another, and I am at theirs, trying to kill them. 

It’s bad.  Last summer I was locked in my bedroom with a stack of notecards and a textbook to read, and Jake was running the show.  I liked last summer better. 

Lily was gone for two weeks at the beach with some of my family…but, she’s the easy kid, so the screaming, fighting, and wrestling to the death didn’t let up at all with only 2/3 of my children at home. 

It’s just these boys.

I swear that they are literally trying to kill each other. 

Last night, I broke up a brawl.  Avery slammed the door in Jack’s face, knocking his tooth loose, and Jack went postal on him, and punched him square in the face.  Ave didn’t like that, and went all Ralphie on him.  Sitting atop him, swinging wildly, muttering under his breath, while Jack pleaded with him to stop. 

We’re going stir crazy, I think. 

They’re a motley crew, my three…

  
And in the best interest of  my children’s mental health and physical well being…THEY NEED TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!

Pink-eyed...

Ave has pink eye...

He's sporting the 'stache, for two reasons, 1) like his father, he thinks 'staches are cool, and 2) it takes the focus off of his eye of pink!

When we got back home from the doctor, for fun, and to appeal to the "little boy" in my little boys, I said, "Do you know how you get pink eye, Ave?"

"No," said The One Who Knows Everything, much to my surprise!! He will usually just make something up, to give the illusion that he does indeed know everything!

Channelling this hilarious scene...


I said, "You get it when someone farts on your pillow." To my youngest, I said, "Jack, did you fart on Bubba's pillow, and give him the pink eye?"

Immediately, Jack said, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO...I didn't!!!"

Avery didn't believe him, and yelled, "YOU FARTED ON MY PILLOW?!? You little..."

"HEY! Watch it!!" I interrupted.

Avery, obviously mad, yelled some more, "I'm gonna...I'm gonna...I'm gonna fart right in your eye!!"

With that disgusting threat, Jack leapt at his brother, and a playful riot began.

Arms were swinging, legs were flailing, the two boys were a tangled mess, and over it all were their mutterings...

"I didn't fart on your pillow!"

"Yes you did! I know you did...I have pink eye!!"

"Oh yeah? I'm gonna fart in your mouth!"

"Oh yeah? I'm gonna fart in YOUR mouth!"

Lily and I watched for a few minutes (they are entertaining), but, eventually I had to separate them, and explain that I was just kidding, and that farting on someone's pillow will not give you pink eye.

I don't think they believed me, though, and I think I may have planted a seed, and possibly started a war!!

Note to self: Flip your pillowcase over before you lay down, and/or change pillowcases often, on the off chance that the farts of little boys can, indeed, cause pink eye!!