Calling Nurse Manny

Thus far, being of God like greek heritage, my husband has yet again, avoided the sickies in the midst of germ warfare. He has been home today, tending to 3 sick children.

I had to leave detailed instructions for medicine dissemination and while relatively confident in his ability to play nurse, I'm not going to lie, I worry. Apparently, I'm not the only one less than confident as my sister in law suggested I teach Sofia how to do a nebulizer treatment to make sure he's doing it correctly. He's also got oral antibiotics to administer to 2 children and Motrin for all 3 at different dosages. Fun with meds!

I did receive a text message from him around 2 letting me know that they were all sleeping. I was happy to hear that all was well.

How wrong is it that upon finding out that she had a mild temperature this morning, my daughter went off *skipping* to excitedly share the news with her father.

"Daddy!? Daddy?! Guess what? Mommy says I have a fever!!!!!!!!!!!"

Twisted, just twisted, it is.

I wonder how long before poor Steve gives in to the sickies.

Nimrods and Furr Monitors

So, both boys have ear infections, David is having an asthma episode. By all accounts, it's been a most joyous weekend.

Highlight number one? Having the pharmacy accidentally change William's Rx to "David" as David was in the system, William was not. After much explaining to the pharmacy staff, they changed the Rx to William.

Fast forward to today, when I went to pick up David's Rx for the exact same meds. The insurance company will not pay as it's "too soon." Well, of course it is, thanks to Nimrod putting it through as David yesterday. Granted, she changed it to William when I arrived, but it had already been put through as David.

I'm dealing with this fun with twins situation in Long's while Sofia is scoping out the toy aisle for things to ask for and David is barely able to hold himself upright in the cart. This is taking ten times longer than I anticipated and Sofia has brought me a Dora doll and Barbie Diamond Castle doll for purchase, which I then have to explain are not in our budget or her reality.

Really, the cherry on the cake of all of it was Sofia screaming out "MOMMY! I NEED TO USE THE BATHROOM. NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" whilst wandering around the store, firm grip on her privates. I almost panic as there is no restroom in Long's, but calmly explain to her that she's going to have to hold it.

We did eventually get the insurance snafoo straightened out and were able to make the 5 minute drive home without any accidents.

Highlight #2 of the weekend? Sofia asking I take her temperature with the "FURR MONITOR." That ranks right up there with Girl Cheese at the Ho-Towel. I'm just sayin'.

Can't wait to see what fun this upcoming week brings.

Oh yeah

Oh yeah. I lost another 1.6 lbs at WW today. That's a big deal as I'd thrown journaling to the wind and had a dinner party where I indulged in many high points foods. Of course, being sick for most of the week probably played a huge part in it. It's not much, but I'll take it! Down about 8 lbs. Not earth shattering, but going in the right direction.

Funk-a-Funk & All That Jazz

I awoke today in a funk. A funk-a-funk-a-funk. Like a dog with wet fur, I tried repeatedly to shake the ickies from psyche, but they just clung to me for dear life, as if feeding on my anxiety.

It all started last night, really. So many things weighing on my mind. My husband’s lack of a job, my own job instability and the abysmal results of my ongoing job search (no bites, only borderline sketchy recruiter types - it's ugly out there), the attempts to figure out Steve's Cobra application process and subsequent costs for our family and most importantly, the angst surrounding the monumental decision of whether or not to sell or rent our vacant house, a decision that needs to be finalized within the next 7 days.

Up to this point, I have been on auto pilot. There has been cause and effect, at least in my brain. I will do this and that will happen. Trying to go with the flow.

My situation is no different than thousands of families out there right now. In fact, according to many articles, it is slowly becoming the norm. This does not ease my mind.

I think, over the last few days, it’s all been hitting me. The uncertain future. The living on borrowed time. The horrible job market. The even more abysmal real estate market. The living on my one paltry 30 hour a week income for an unknowing undefinable amount of time and the accompanying heart palpitations. I finally let it all in and without the shield of Zoloft to blunt it, I am like a walking, open sore.

I did have a sort of cry fest to my boss this morning and while it helped a bit, she offered no words of consolation. In fact, she led me to believe that the company very well be in trouble, all of our future's uncertain. While not what I wanted to hear, it's probably what I needed to hear right now. Knowing the entire picture will help me as I try to navigate through all of this. That which does not kill me makes me stronger and all that jazz...

I’ll get over it. I’m the sole breadwinner right now. I kind of have to keep it together. But I’m allowed to have minor freak outs once in a while, right?

The cry helped a little to alleviate some of the pent up emotions. I knew I either needed a good workout or a good cry. The pouring rain was preventing any possibility of a workout, so the cry was just what the doctor ordered.

Onward and upward!

Checking In

I'm not quite on the other side just yet, but getting there. I'm not running a fever anymore, but am still achey and have a rip roaring headache and chest congestion.

I've pretty much torn through all the TV on the bedroom DVR and am now working my way through the family room DVR. My newest addiction? Ghosthunters. I can only watch it in the day, but it' s quite riveting. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm ODing on television! I would read were it not for the constant, vice like headache.

The boys are both running mild fevers and acting like they don't feel well. So far, Sofia has avoided this thing.

I'm planning on going to work tomorrow, so we.shall.see.

See You on the Other Side

I'm home, sick as a dog, congested, feverish and achey. No kids. Just me and the DVR.

I have about 19 Oprahs, 3 The City's, 7 The Views, 8 Jon and Kates and the new I Love Money to watch.

I've taken some Theraflu, so I'm about to head into a DVR/cold meds coma.

See you on the other side.

Let Me Entertain You

So, dinner party = success.

Houseful of kids (6 under 5) was off-the-charts chaotic, but ever so worth it.

Using Macaroni Grill as the caterer was a splendid idea (if I do say so myself) and would highly recommend it. Did I mention that they deliver for $20? Sweet. The delivery lady was about as sweet as could be and even offered to stay and set up for me. After a nice tip for her, we sent her off on her way to watch the sunset down the street.

The cost of the meal was no worse if we had taken everyone out to dinner or if I'd attempted to buy all the food and ingredients myself. We had chicken marsala for the entree, bread and their house salad. I also ordered chicken nuggets for the kids and for anyone who has had "chicken nuggets" at Macaroni Grill knows this equates to huge pieces of chicken cooked in thick batter. We had enough chicken nuggets to feed an army!! I sent most of the leftovers to my sister in law's today, to feed my children and her 3 hungry boys. We also had my shrimp/veggie dip and a bunch of munchies (mini quiches, courtesy of Costco.)

I managed to stay pretty focused on my "sobriety" for the evening. (I have taken to calling my Weight Watchers sobriety, mostly because I've been watching too much Sober House and it's the only word that snaps me into line when something like cheddar pretzels or guacamole beckons to me. ) I do consider myself a food addict, so it works for me. Can't risk my sobriety, I tell myself and surprisingly, it has worked. I did not count points for the dinner party, but for anyone who entertains regularly knows, overeating is usually a moot point. Over drinking, on the other hand..

I balanced things out by eating mostly zero points or low points food yesterday and am feeling pretty good about things.

Highlight of the evening? One of the blowhard husbands telling me I needed to up my water intake to 50-80 oz a day as this is what worked for him when training for Iron Man. I'm fairly sure that borders on water-poisoning levels, but will have to check on that.

~ Listening to Sofia run around the room, saying "I'm Jewish!" and giggling, for no apparent reason. We're going to file this with the I Have No Idea/Champagne comment. We are not Jewish and I 'm perplexed as to why she would run around saying this like a manic little diva AND think it was hilarious to boot.

~ Aforementioned blowhard husbands chiming in when we were talking about how different my twins look with "What about their genitals? Are they different too?" Exqueeze me?

He made a few other very inappropriate and/or homophobic references which has led me to believe that he, himself, is gay. I am intrigued at people who live a double life, in this day and age, but my gut is telling he may be one of them. In addition to the homophobic comments, he made many other comments, asserting his masculinity. Yep. Pretty sure on that one.

All the kids got along quite well, so that was great. Three girls can be a recipe for disaster, with someone always feeling left out, but fortunately, this was not the case.

Quite an enjoyable evening and I'm proud that I attempted to beyond my comfort zone.

The boys playing chase around the table