I am SOOOO SICK of sickness......

Whose with me? Anyone? Anyone? If you are a mom with sick kids I bet you will agree. If you are a mom that has kids that has escaped the barrage of illnesses that have been floating around all winter, I hate you. Did I say that out loud? I meant to say that I am jealous of you. We had a pretty good start to winter but then the below temps kicked in and our heater started running non-stop! Did I mention how much I hate forced air heating? Don't get me wrong, it is great for when you are freezing your butt off and you need to get warm ASAP! On the other hand, it is drier than a Montana prairie in the middle of summer! It doesn't seem to matter how many humidifiers you have running it is always dry! I guess we could go to plan B....My husband told our kids that we couldn't afford the heat bill so we were going to buy everyone in the family a Snuggie and turn the heat off. (not to be confused with underwear up the butt.....at least that is what we called a "wedgie" in our house when I was growing up) A Snuggie (as seen on TV) is a blanket with sleeves....seems quite practical actually....I almost got sucked into buying one after watching a commercial for it when I was up late one night with a sick kid! (Infomercials are very dangerous to a bleary-eyed mom at 3 in the morning!) The kids actually thought that the Snuggie idea was pretty cool!
The other thing that really chaps my hide is making the decision of "how sick is sick enough to go to the doctor?" MY kids (and I have heard that it is quite common among most youngsters) have a knack for getting better the second I make the appointment and re-crashing and burning as soon as we get home again. (It's like when a woman hears a noise coming from the car but when the husband, mechanic or husband/mechanic tries to hear it they can't and again you are labeled "crazy" for hearing things) Then there is the ol' catch-22....If you don't think they are "that bad" and you don't take them in, you are a bad mom....but if you do take them in and they are "fine" then you are a/an (insert adjective of choice here) mom who apparently has nothing better to do than waste your doctor's time. I know it sounds horrible but sometimes secretly you wish that the doctor will find something wrong so that you don't seem crazy. I know that kids still get sick in the summer but at least they aren't trapped in the house and (if your kids spend as much time at the pool as mine do) hopefully all that chlorine in the pool will kill some of the germs!
So I say again, who's with me? Can I get an amen sister?!?!?! (how about a babysitter?!?! ;-)

What could be better??

Our little family was scheduled to travel to western Montana this morning to watch my two stepsons play football. On Monday my middle darling came home at lunch time because she had a headache. I thought for sure that she would be fine after a day or two....not so and she ended up at the doctor yesterday. Of course the usual happened.....she was sick enough for me to want to take her to the doctor and while we were there I am sure the doc wondered what we were doing there. Normal temperature and everything else, just like all my trips to the doc. (but then crashed again after we got home) I usually don't get too ruffled when my kids get sick but when I took her temp once it said 105!! "Surely that cannot be right!!!" I thought! I took it a few more times and it was finally consistent after the 10th time of taking it! (I am sure she wouldn't have minded had she known where/how they used to take a temp) Lucky for me she only vomited one time during this whole ordeal and it was on the linoleum so at least there is that! As for my question...What could be better?? What could be better than being trapped at home with a sick (but on the mend) child and two other little ones who are just waiting to get it? I say trapped because the doc says it would be better to keep everyone inside. What makes that so hard is that the weather is actually nice and snow free! (I still have my suspicions that playing in the snow last weekend might have had a helping hand in our demise!) My husband and oldest darling went on to the game without us....at least someone gets to go outside! Hope they have fun! To all moms that experience similar situations this fall/winter....I feel your pain! (This may be the first illness of the season but I fear it won't be our last) Until next time....