Struck

D tested positive for the flu yeserday.

I definitely wasn't expecting that to happen.

She woke up fine, no complaints not feeling well.

Then at about 1:30 I got a phone call from the school nurse.

She told me D's throat was red and she had a temp of 100.5.

The nurse was funny because she said D was surprised to hear she had a slight fever.

See, she was feeling fine except that her throat hurt.

The nurse and I thought for sure it would be strep.

Off I went to school to pick D up and head to the doctor for 2:30.

Once at the doctor, the nurse said that she would do the test for strep, but if it came back negative then they would do the flu test on D.

I never once thought that the strep test would come back negative.

How wrong I was.

Strep test was negative.

So they tested for the flu.

We actually had to leave the office to go get E from school before the results of the flu test were ready.

The doctor made sure to get my cell so they could call me when they had the results.

And sure enough as we were walking out of school with E as well as with my friend R and her kids, the doctor's office called me.

Bingo.

We have a winner.

Flu test was positive.

Boo.

A prescription for Tamiflu was D's prize.

And I must say Tamiflu is wonderful.

It is lessening the symptoms for D.

Her fever is down and actually non-existent at this point.

She is stuffy and she has started a bit of a cough.

I have also started her on her nebulizer medicine.

That should help keep her lungs clear and help lessen the cough.

Tonight when hubby got home she was so chatty with him.

Very chatty.  And funny.

She will be staying home again tomorrow to get some more rest.

But, if she is doing ok at the end of tomorrow then I will send her back to school on Friday.

And I only hope that the rest of us don't get sick with the flu.

D struck with the flu.

D spent the day on the couch.

Lucy was a good snuggler throughout the day.

42

42 is a good number.

When it's the temperature of the room you are sleeping in on the first night of your weekend away with friends, it's not such a great number.

So this past weekend was the weekend in which I was away with my friends J, R, C, and S scrapbooking in a neighboring state up north.

We left on Friday afternoon and came home Monday afternoon.

We had a great time.

Aside from the fact that the heat did not work the 1st night in our condo unit.

And we didn't know this until close to 12:30 in the morning when we were going to bed.

The room temp was 42 degrees.

That's cold.

Very, very cold.

Cold as in can almost see my breath cold.

There may or may not have been a little bit of whining from all of us about how cold the room was at that point.

But, we turned the heater on and were all optimistic that the room would warm up.

So we readied ourselves for bed.

And not long after shutting off all the lights, the heater shut off.

I got up.  Turned it back on.

Minutes later it shut off again.  Up I went and hit the on button again.

And climbed back into a cold bed.

It was at that point 56 degrees in the room.

Well, I should say it was 56 degrees in the 2 square feet around the heater.

None of us slept well.

At another point in the night, R got up to turn the heater on.

By 5, C&J were up trying to get the heater going too.

To no avail.

And it was cold.

By 7am, I was very tired from not sleeping well and very cold.

I was happy to get up and get in a hot shower.

That felt good.

Phone calls were made and maintenance came.

Nothing the maintenance guy told us made us happy.

Especially J.

We discovered that the heaters were run on propane and none of the units have CO detectors.

That's bad.

J's worry all night was that we would die from CO poisoning.

So she didn't hardly sleep at all.

There may or may not have been a bit more whining about how cold we all were through the night.

And there were some laughs too.

I myself had rationalized that we would not die of hypothermia through the night.

42 was cold, but not that cold.  And we all had good blankets on our beds to help keep us warm.

All good rationalizations.

And true.

We decided quickly that we would be moving our things to a different unit.  And definitely not staying in the same unit with space heaters.

I must say that where we stay is a quaint Christian camp on a lake.

It's beautiful, but the accommodations are basic and not luxurious.

And that's good for a weekend when you are hardly in your room.

But, heat is important.

So we moved to a different unit that day after lunch.

Thankfully a fellow scrapbooker(and R's sis-in-law) was staying in a unit identical to ours all by herself.

She gave us her unit and took a room in the main lodge.

All's well that ends well.

And the rest of the weekend was great.

We had lots of fun.

And we laughed a lot.

By Sunday night we were very silly.

Laughing at just about anything.

Let's just say there was a lot of laughing as we were all trying to help R sing this song.

Well, actually just sing one word from this song, "Trouble".

It was great fun.

And I will not be able to hear this song without laughing and thinking about how much fun we had with this song that Sunday night.

Such a great way to spend a weekend with friends.

And I got a lot of scrapbooking done.

Because I really only do it this one time a year.

Who knows?  Maybe I will get some more done through this year.

Maybe.

Here is an oldie but goodie of D&E with J and K.

Sissy and I were telling them to pretend to be tigers while we were taking their pictures.

I just love E's face.

And I love that J and K are getting into it as well.

Such good cousins.

I love covered bridges.

Especially red covered bridges.

J & I ventured out on Sunday afternoon to a Michael's.

There were a few supplies that were needed.

So off we went.

And in our travels out and back we traveled over 3 covered bridges.

Fantastic.

A great weekend indeed.

Snowy Road

It was a beautiful ride to school this morning with the girls.

There were blue skies.

And snow clinging to the trees.

Picture perfect winter morning.

As much as I don't enjoy winter all the time, mornings like today help get me through the icky part of winter.

I very much enjoyed my ride on our country roads today.

And it feels good to appreciate the beauty.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~~Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~~Robert Frost

Snow Day, Sick Day

Today was a snow day.

Our first one of the winter.

Hopefully our last one too.

Not that I don't enjoy snow days.

I just don't enjoy the extra days that we have to go in June to make up the snow days.

Regardless, today was a lovely day to have a snow day.

You see, I am sick.

I have a terrible cold.

It hit me full force Monday.

Monday night sleeping I could barely breathe.

It was not pretty.

And yesterday I didn't feel well at all.

By last night I felt awful.

So, I was actually hoping today would be a snow day.

Mostly because it would help me stay home and just rest.

And that's what we did.

The girls had a great day.

They played.  They watched some tv.  They played in the snow.

And they barely bickered at all.

That was music to my ears.

It was a really good day.

Restful.

Just what I needed as I get ready to go away for a girls weekend in a couple days.

It was perfect snowman making snow.

They girls were quite zealous in their rolling.

Trouble was the snowballs got to big.

And too heavy.

Oops.

E recruited D to come help her try to move her giant snowball.

Really to no avail.

But they sure had fun trying.

I could see them struggling together to push the snowball.

And then they would giggle because they were not getting anywhere.

It was fun to watch them work together.

Like I said, it was a wonderful day with very little bickering.

I stayed warm in the house, snapping shots of them through the family room windows.

With the way I felt today, the thought of getting cold and wet just didn't appeal to me.

It was a great snow day.

And while it's not fun to have to go an extra day in June, today sure was enjoyable.

I am actually feeling like I've turned the corner on my way to getting better.

A snow day while having a cold.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Savor

When I was thinking of a blog title for today, the word "savor" instantly came to mind.

For a couple of different reasons.

I will share those in just a bit.

The interesting thing is I looked up the definition of savor.

And you'll never guess what I found.

There are 10 different definitions/meanings for savor.

That's a lot of definitions.

And it can be used as a noun, a verb(without an object), or as a verb with an object.

Golly that's a complicated word.

And wouldn't you know it, but the definition I was thinking of was #10.

Savor~~to give oneself to the enjoyment of: to savor the best in life

So, go check out all the other definitions of savor.

See which one you like best.

Back to the reason why "savor" is a perfect word for today.

Lucy was enjoying the warm January sun we had streaming through the back doors today.

Savoring it, if you will.

She was so cute in the sun.

It made her sleepy.

She was quite happy to lay in the sun and snooze for a while.

It was a good day to savor the unusually warm January weather.

Any day it reaches 50 here in January, it needs to be savored.

Especially since it looks like there may be some snow coming in the next few days.

Silly E with an orange smile.

These are moments that need to be savored as well.

The sweet moments I have with my girls.

Because the years are starting to go too quick.

And soon they won't do silly things like this as easily as they do now at 9.

E was home today because she wasn't feeling great.

She's had a headache for a couple days.

No other symptoms. Nothing.

So off to the doctor we went.

Just to be sure there wasn't anything more serious going on with her.

Like the flu.  Or strep.

Nothing serious.

Most likely a virus of some kind.  Maybe.

So back home we went to chill out for the day.

It was nice to have her home.

She was sweet.  And funny.

And I made sure to stop some of my busy work around the house to make sure I enjoyed her company.

Because I know that these years are fleeting.

Before Hubby & I know it, D&E will be all grown up on us.

So I am making sure that I savor these moments with my children.

What happens matters.  Always.

Homeland

Hubby & I started watching a new show a couple of weeks ago.

Some friends had recommended we watch.

It is Homeland on Showtime.

We watched season 1 in less than a week.

And now we are halfway through season 2.

It.is.so.good.

Every episode.

Damian Lewis is excellent.  I have enjoyed his acting since Band of Brothers.

And Claire Danes is excellent as well.  And Mandy Patinkin too.

We are staying up too late at night watching.

But it's worth it.

And if you don't have Showtime, rent it on Netflix.

Again, so worth it.

Moved

Sissy and I went to go see Les Miserables tonight at the movies.

I have been waiting to see this movie ever since I first saw a trailer for it over the summer.

I have loved Les Mis ever since I saw it on Broadway my junior year in high school.

It was a field trip to NYC to see a Broadway show.

I loved it.

The music is just incredible.

Hubby and I went to go see it in the mid-90's when it came to the big city's theater.

He loved it.

I love that he loves Broadway shows.

On a side note, he's a huge fan of Phantom of the Opera.

Anywho.

It had been a long time since I last saw the show.

Details were fuzzy.

I remembered the bare minimum of the story.

But, I remembered all of the music.

It is so moving.  And so very beautiful.

It makes me happy.

And the movie did not disappoint.

Amazing isn't strong enough praise for this movie.

In my opinion.

Hugh Jackman.  Anne Hathaway.  Russell Crowe.  Samantha Barks.  Eddie Redmayne.

Fantastic.

And I cried.  Through so many parts of the movie.

It's a good thing Sissy had tissues.

Otherwise I would have been a blubbering mess.

Sissy used her share of tissues too.

There were lots of sniffles throughout the theater.

This truly was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.

And I am so happy that Sissy came with me tonight.

She had never seen Les Mis.

She loved it too.

Hubby is wanting to see it too.

I told him I would go see it again in a heartbeat.

I will be sure to remember the tissues.

Anne Hathaway's single take singing of "I Dreamed a Dream" in the movie is breathtaking.

There is so much emotion that she pours into the singing of that song.

Gut-wrenching.

That was the first time I cried in the movie.

And certainly not the last.

And I will gladly see it again.

Go see it.  Soon.

You won't regret it one bit.