When It Rains...It Pours

This has been a crazy week. I have been fighting allergies for several weeks and by Monday I finally went to the doctor. I had a sinus infection, of course. Then Monday night about 10:30 Mason started having a croupy cough. I ended up taking him outside (3 times) into the cool air to open up his airways. We also had an inhaler from a round of croup in March, so I used that on him too. After about 2 1/2 hours he finally settled down and was able to sleep. He even ASKED to go to his bed. (I guess sleeping on me in the recliner wasn't very comfortable. He flipped and flopped about every two minutes.) Tuesday morning he woke up with blisters on his hands. I immediately thought "Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease" but took him to the doctor just to be certain and to make sure his chest sounded okay after the croup. Everything was confirmed- croup & HFM Disease. The doctor did say that his chest sounded good that morning so she wasn't going to give him a steroid. By Thursday morning Mason's cough was still going good (only it changed to a wet sound), and he had green junk coming from his eyes & nose, and he said that his ear hurt. So back to the doctor we went. Sure enough he had an ear infection, so this time he got an antibiotic. (I'm just hoping we didn't pick up something else from sitting in the waiting room...like Swine Flu!)

I was hoping that Anna wouldn't catch the HFM Disease. But that was wishful thinking. Thursday evening I noticed bumps forming on her hands, feet and in her mouth. I prayed that it was just my paranoia and she would be okay Friday morning. Didn't happen! So Friday Anna missed her first day of school (and we are only 2 weeks into this thing). I never expected that she would have perfect attendance (look at our track record), but I didn't expect that she would miss this soon. Thank goodness this is a 3-day weekend for Labor Day. Hopefully she will be able to return on Tuesday!!

Things other than sickness happened this week too. Monday Anna came home with her paper where she had learned about the color blue. Mason came home the same day with a paper about the color blue. I was singing a song about blue that was with Mason's paperwork. Anna went "Hey, how do you know that song?" I explained that it was from Mason's school and she said "We sang that song today!" How ironic is that? My Kindergartener and my 2 year old are using the same curriculum!

This week Anna's class started a new rotation of taking home the Bearcat. Apparently her class has a stuff bear (bearcat) and each week the teacher draws a name from the class list. The name drawn gets to take the Bearcat home for the night. Anna said the Bearcat brings home a favorite book for you to read to it, a journal to write down what the Bearcat did with you and that the Bearcat is "allergic to smoke". She is so excited and anxious for her name to be drawn!

Tuesday afternoon Anna had her first 4-wheeler incident. Kevin was outside fencing, and Anna was riding her 4-wheeler. I looked out the kitchen window to see Anna standing off her 4-wheeler crying. Common sense told me that it wasn't too bad since Kevin was getting on her 4-wheeler and taking it into the shop. (If she was really hurt he wouldn't have bothered with the 4-wheeler.) But I still ran outside to see what was wrong. Here's what happened. Kevin had a string running along the fence line so he would get the poles in a straight line. Anna knew the string was there and had been avoiding it. Apparently with her 5 year old attention span she eventually forgot about it and went flying into it and cut and burned her neck. I'm so thankful it wasn't anything worse! That 4-wheeler really scares me when a 5 year old is driving it. I gave Anna (and Kevin) a "talking to" about her riding habits and grounded Anna from the 4-wheeler for a week. I'm also going to make her watch the safety video that came with it again.

Wednesday evening while I was cooking supper I noticed Mason playing with buttons on our deep freeze. I looked and he had turned the temperature setting down to 1! I'm so thankful that I noticed and all our food didn't thaw out and ruin.

Thursday night while doing laundry I went to turn the dryer on and it wouldn't work. Kevin tried to work on it but couldn't get it going. It went to the repairman on Friday, and I had to hang wet sheets on clothes hangers in the kids bathroom. Thankfully it was repaired and came home Friday afternoon. Oh how I'm spoiled to our modern appliances!

Friday was a wild day with both kids home and not feeling well. (Actually Mason acted like he felt okay but Anna wasn't quite her normal self.) Mason was a mischievous little guy that day. That morning he spilt milk on the living room carpet (on purpose) and threw his Fishies (snack) in the floor on purpose (and I had vacuumed earlier). Later in the day while I was on the phone he went to his room to play. I realized it was too quite and went to check on him. He had shut his door (with him in his room), taken the door stop out of the wall, unplugged his monitor, half-way unplugged his fan, and gotten his Bible down off his chest. Obviously he was taking advantage of my being on the phone. By the end of the day I felt like a horrible mother for all the spanking, yelling and discipline I bestowed on him that day. Being a parent is a difficult job!

Today Kevin left early and went Dove hunting with a friend. Mason got up around 6:00 a.m. and Anna was up around 6:30. With all the sickness I intend to keep the kids at home this weekend. (Although I'm already feeling a little cabin fever. I haven't been out much this week other than doctor appointments.) I don't want to take any chances of sharing this with others. I seriously doubt Mason is still contagious but I'm not so certain about Anna. Anna is going to miss a friend's birthday party this afternoon. She is upset about it, but I don't want to give Ethan and his baby brother HFM Disease for Ethan's birthday!

The reality of this week is that I know it could be worse! It has been worse before and could be worse again! (My saying when things are not going well is "We could be in Little Rock!", referring to Arkansas Children's Hospital.) But still, I'm praying that next week is a little better!