2014 is Starting out on the UPswing!

Soooo... it has been awhile since I last blogged.  We have been super duper busy around here.

I finished my statistics course.... Note to self: online, basically self taught classes are all fine and dandy, but never again with Stats.  EEeekk!!!

Christmas shopping was completed (thank you Amazon dot com) and a small mountain of gifts were wrapped (thank you to an awesome boyfriend who happily watched television on multiple 'date nights' while I sat on the floor wrapping).

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with family...and I even got in eight hours at work on Christmas Evening (such is the life of a nurse).

Tristen turned seven (just doesn't seem possible) and we had a great time at Chuck-e-Cheese playing games and eating pizza.

And we conducted Kylie's science experiment in the garage (ie: torture to parents).

 

Then the real fun began.  Kylie started coughing during the night (of course while spending the night with a friend) and the next morning had a low grade fever. No big deal, right?  Tylenol, Motrin deal with it Mommy- you are a NURSE and you can HANDLE ANYTHING!!  :)

Then that evening the fever got seriously high and Kylie, who is normally just content to lounge around when not feeling well, started to complain.  Dizzy, severe headache, TEARS (double eeekkkk)- saying that she was sure she would not make it through another night.  And the cough got so deep and raspy my heart went out to her (seriously-- do you know how hard it is to get sympathy from a mom/ER nurse???)

No big deal- I will call the doctor's office ASAP when they open in the morning.  7:30AM--- busy signal.  7:40 busy again... 50 again.... 7:55 THE RECEPTIONIST ANSWERS!!!  "I'm sorry honey, we don't have anything other than the walk in clinic this evening"  Shoot.  She is MISERABLE and I just can't see another 10+ hours of making her miserable.  To the ER we go (yes, with all four grumpy children---)

The doctor says that he is going to test her for influenza... WAIT! We got our flu shot- I'm an advid believer (and if you are not that is fine, I can respect that, but let us not discuss that- K?)  He gives me the look.  "Now, Anne. You know that the shot does not protect against EVERY strain.. just the 5 or so thought to be most prevalent..."  Sigh-- swab her.

Positive for INFLUENZA A.  Ick... double and TRIPLE ICK!  I don't want to think about the ramifications of this.

No TamiFlu at my regular pharmacy (which because of my insurance is much more pocket book friendly) so I pay $116 for liquid TamiFlu and home we go.

Then I break it to the kids... that New Year's Eve get-together they were soooo excited about hosting....NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

THEN THEY START DROPPING LIKE FLIES.   (Mind you I have to work NYE day shift-- luckily I have an AWESOME sitter who took phenomenal care of my babies)  Emma's fever got up to almost 104, Alaina is coughing her little head off.

So I call my wonderful Family Physician who promptly put all three younger kids on TamiFlu (my FSA card is now properly depleted for the year --- see the positive side of this???)



So for NYE I dosed everyone with TamiFlu, Motrin and Tylenol.  Ordered Papa John's, made cheesy nacho dip, opened a two liter of soda and had two great movies delivered by my awesome boyfriend (who I insisted go to the NYE get-together that friend's of ours were good enough to host at the last minute)

                              

Such a nice and relaxing evening.. the kiddies and I really enjoyed snuggling on the couch.  You have not lived until you have creatively found a way to snuggle with four not-feeling-so-hot-so-they-gotta-all-be-next-to-mamma kids at once.

 Gary came in around ten and shared in the movie and couch time.  It was seriously nice.

Kids didn't make it to midnight- but they came fairly close.  And they all went to bed without any tears or histrionics.  SCORE!!!

I did get a New Year's Eve kiss right at midnight- for the first time EVER! (yes- even after being married for 10 years I had never gotten kissed right at midnight.. it had almost become a joke)

Now we are here on January 1, 2014.  Kids all woke up happy and fever free.  Still a little coughing and some serious lounging on the couch time.   But I am choosing to celebrate.

They are all feeling good enough to play some.


They all woke up with smiles on their faces.

We have a roof over our heads, a warm home, plenty of food in our bellies, and five warms beds to sleep in at night (even though they insist on grouping up and sleeping in a pile of limbs).

The flu is on it's way out the door.

And we are gonna ROCK 2014!!!!  

Happy New Year everyone!!