Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Coming up for Air

Yes, I am still alive, crawling out from under a mountain of laundry just in time to deal with a house full of sick kids. I knew it was coming. Despite the free-flow of hand sanitizer at Disney and Sea World, let's just say that a bazillion germs went from hands to mouths during the course of a few days.

SaraGrace started it off with a croupy cough, which morphed into an asthma bark. She barked all.the.way.home. on the plane. I thought about mentioning something about SARS really loud to see if I could freak anyone out, but thought it might backfire so I just enjoyed my little joke privately.

Kate was next to succumb and then Jake surprised us all by 'barping' in his bed on Sunday. Oh the joys.

Kate and SaraGrace needed medical attention and they are now on the Bubblegum stuff for an ear infection (Kate) and possible strep (SaraGrace). You just haven't lived until you experience the drama of SaraGrace taking ANY type of medicine. Even the bubblegum stuff. argh. And we get to repeat this little exercise three times a day.

They are all taking turns getting both viruses. Some have been unlucky enough to get them in tandem. The croup scares the little kids and last night poor Zoey was freaking out that she sounded like a seal. I took her (and Kate) into the bathroom for the make-a-sauna-by-running-the-shower therapy. It barely helped but the extra attention from Mom seemed to calm them. As of this moment, SaraGrace and Molly are the only ones not sick. The rest of them are groaning with severe stomach pain and fevers--even the teenager. Poor babies!! No one else has 'barped' though, THANKFULLY!

We are closing on our house this Friday--oh yeah--have I mentioned that we are moving? Let's hope that neither Jeff nor I get the stomach virus because we both have to sign a lot of papers that day. We can't reschedule because our interest rate lock runs out that day. Woo-wee...fun times.

Yes, we are moving about 10 minutes from where we live now. We have had the privilege of renting a beautiful house for the past year. It's HUGE and gorgeous but it's time to get back to reality. We have about 6 weeks to move because our closing date and our rental overlapped, so hopefully, that will significantly lower the stress.

The trees are in full bloom right now, so I'll leave you with a few glimpses of God's majestic creation. Seriously...how did He think up all these beautiful flowers?

I took this at our local Target. They have beautiful flower beds in their parking lot. Molly slunk down in the car as people stared at the strange woman down on her hands and knees taking photos. I know...it's sad...I've become shameless.


I saw this gorgeous Dogwood tree in the doctor's office parking lot yesterday. I went back today to take some photos. Hopefully they didn't see me skulking around in the bushes.


This was also in the doctor's office parking lot. But I was able to hide behind my van while taking it. Alas...the kids were clearly visible sitting in their carseats, munching happily on their kids' meals (which is how I bribe them into taking these little photography jaunts with me). The fresh air was good for all of us. I opened the window for them...don't judge.


My mother-in-law and I love lilacs. Sadly, I had to leave mine behind in Michigan and our new house doesn't have any. I guess I'm going to have to buy a teeny-tiny one and watch it grow an inch a year until I get some lilacs. Until then, I sneak around other people's houses taking photos of theirs.


And last but not least, this was across from our new house, in the flower bed in the middle of the street. No lilacs but the crabapple tree is very pretty.