What. A. Dump.

I spent the weekend attempting to recuperate from the unbelievably nasty cold I'd picked up either a) from my brother, b) from my aunt, c) from the tons of people to which I was exposed in all those airports/airplanes, or simply d) from the grocery store across the street.

I was so sick last week I actually took a day off on Thursday (and should have stayed home Wednesday as I ended up with a slight fever). I haven't taken a sick day in well over 2 years. The last sick day I took was when I ended up in the hospital while passing that @#$% kidney stone when I was 7 mos pregnant with Izzy (never EVER want to go through that again). Anyrate, I don't get sick too often and don't usually miss work for minor colds. So what I'm saying is: this cold kicked my @$$.

I felt better Friday, but probably should have stayed home anyway. Keith had his physical at the pediatrician on Wednesday morning and (as always) ended up with a 103 fever due to his shots. The fever went down Thursday night but was back in full force Friday morning. If I'd known THAT was going to happen, I would have just mailed it in for the day and stayed home snuggled on the coach with Keith. As it was, John got the duty of picking up Fever Boy from day care and staying the afternoon with him.

Anyway, I actually felt worse Saturday and Sunday than on Friday. Therefore the house is a complete DISASTER. With my being sick last week and then being out of town (and tired from said trip) the week prior, the house has gone from "lived-in" to "scary." The dust! The dirt! The sink full of dirty dishes! The trash that needs to be taken out! The LAUNDRY! OH MY GOD, THE LAUNDRY! Piles and piles of dirty clothes, clean clothes that need to be folded and put away, clean clothes that ARE folded but need to be put away, and oh no, the laundry basket is full again but I can't even get up off the couch to do it....! Yikes!

And then to top it all off, Keith got over his 103 shot fever--to pick up my cold and the low-grade fever that goes with it. Then he was grumpy and whiny all weekend. John was going crazy having to deal with the sick wife and the sick, whiny son.

And despite all this, we managed to get the kids bathed, combed, and dressed up for the annual Christmas-but-oh-dear-now-it's-March pictures last Saturday. Keith cried the whole way, "I don't want to get my pictures taken!" I asked him if we waited until he felt better would he want to get them done then? He solemnly shook his head NO. Well, then we're doing it NOW and getting it done and over with!

Despite the sickly one and the other whiny one who didn't want a bath and didn't want her hair combed (i.e. Mary)--(and then we had Izzy at the other end of the scale being incredibly happy-go-lucky and just made us smile at her never-ending exuberance)--everyone did behave and smile, and the pictures turned out pretty well.

In case any of you are now thinking of calling the CPA on me, I did manage between Sunday night and last night to get SOME of the laundry piles and trash cleared out. I even cleaned the kitchen. Hey, as long as the kitchen's clean, I can fake everything else.

At least we didn't have the stomach bug hit (knock on wood--just THINKING that sets Murphy on the warpath directly to my home).