I had 11 somewhat okay hours of sleep…but I didn’t feel great in the morning—no vomiting or anything else, just all over achy and a big headache). I spent most of the day on the couch resting.
Tom now feels crappy, too (he said had been up since 3) so he went in and got his computer this morning (before I got up) and worked from home. He had gastrointestinal issues, nausea, chills…all the good stuff.
Owen had to stay home today regardless but he feels mostly okay.
Katie is perfectly fine.
Nothing like being woken at 3:30am by a sick kid (“Mom…Mom…I threw up in my bed”) and having to change the sheets twice in 20 minutes. (Which was especially difficult because a teen boy does not take care of his laundry or keep sheet sets together. So he might or might not have one sheet and a dog blanket on his bed.) And try not to get sick myself because that smell was the most vile thing I’ve smelled in my life. (It was half a day before the smell finally left my nose.)
The first load of laundry went in at 4am with more loads to come (sheets, comforter, mattress pad—oh yeah, we learned that his mattress pad wasn’t really waterproof so his mattress got a quick spot cleaning).
I’ve forgotten how awful this is — no one has been sick like this in years.
Thankfully he slept most of the day. Even took a shower and went back to bed.
I had been worried about having to get him tested for Covid — even though we knew it was a stomach bug, everything is a symptom of Covid so it’s mandatory — but the nurse said she knew the stomach bug was going around, so as long as he followed the normal return-to-school-after-sickness protocol (minimum 24 hours with no vomit or diarrhea) then he could come in to the nurse’s office before school and get tested. Excellent!
He was doing pretty well by that night (he was able to eat a little bit) but still tired. And I started to feel a little off so we all went to bed early (plus I was exhausted since I had been up since 3:30am and only had a short nap).
UGH. Kids.
I never nap. Like legit almost never. But this morning was one of those rare times. So what happens?
Let’s just say this is the look of someone who had probably only been asleep for five %#@$ minutes when an unnamed 9yo decided to wake me up to ask where her dad was. Because obviously I’d know since I WAS SLEEPING.
I told her I didn’t know. And guess where he was? About 10’ away in the kitchen. AYFKM?
WHYYYYYYY?!?!!!
Please tell me mine aren’t the only ones that do this? Come home, kick off shoes, and leave door open? I did give Owen major props for bringing in the packages but c’mon boy — it’s winter. Close the damn door! (Katie does this, too. Today was just Owen!)
Katie helped me get the Blessing Bags started! Now I’m just waiting for a last shipment to arrive so we can finish the last 15 bags!
Edited to add: I just realized I never posted about this. I’ve been wanting to do an event like this for years but I just never could get it going. So this year I just decided to do it! And it was a great success!
So I let her pick the color and apply it herself and she did a great job! But then she didn’t want her picture taken…
There are days, y’all.
With both the not-even-really-a-preteen-yet girl and the newly-minted teen boy.
Thankfully today isn’t one of them (yet?) but I thought this was too good not to post—it’s funny because it’s true.
Also… He earned honor roll again! Soooo proud of this kid!
As long as he keeps his grades up, he gets a TV in his room for his birthday!
He didn’t get it at first and I had to explain it to him. Then he loved it.
I screwed it up when I did a shirt like this for his 11th birthday, too. I managed to fix that one but this one I’m just leaving.
I asked and turns out I did design it correctly but I forgot to “weld” the design to print as one solid piece… so the Cricut assumed it knew better than me and rearranged the design to use less vinyl. Lesson learned.
Now that the basement is picked up, we have room for this gymnastics bar and she’s in heaven!
This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder forever because I was always going to go through an old bin of schoolwork. But if got hidden in the move and I haven’t found it yet. So I just decided to post it anyway.
The kids had been bringing home awards and I was totally slacking on posting them, so here they are!
How many water glasses did I find in Owen’s room tonight?
I’m not upset since they were just water glasses and I’m often guilty of the same thing… I just thought it was funny.
Hear Tom get up early to make sure the kids get off to school. Roll over and wake up a bit later and work my SeneGence biz from bed until Tom gives me crap about being a lazy butt. Get out of bed making old person grunting sounds. Text BFF off and on all day. Take a shower. Do my skincare and makeup and take photos for future posts. Take kid to appointment. Do random house things—pick up, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, water plants, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, feed Maggie, organize office, do laundry, let Maggie out/let Maggie in/let Maggie out/let Maggie in, give Maggie her meds, clean kitchen, wonder aloud who left six glasses on the kitchen table/who left candy wrappers on the couch/why there are dirty socks everywhere, walk by the kids’ bathroom and lament how disgusting kids are, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, pop into the office to work for a bit. Spend some cuddle time with Maggie on the couch while working my biz. Run errands. Get nails done. Jump in the hot tub with hubby. Watch a TV show with hubby. Try to make the kids do chores when they come home from school. Make dinner for/with friends. Watch a TV show with friends/Tom/kids. Remove my makeup, wash my face, apply nighttime skincare. Take more photos. Go to bed and work my biz from bed.
I kinda love it all and wouldn’t change a thing (minus the old person grunting sounds, the messy kids, and the geriatric dog that goes in and out 28x a day).
Did you know that all Great Wolf Lodge waterparks are not the same?! I didn’t until this week.
Anna got a steal of a deal on a weekday suite so we took the kids for an overnight surprise before school starts again.
As broken-bodied adults, we were excited about the hot tub (and, to a lesser extent, the lazy river).
Until.
We learned that this particular GWL does not have a hot tub!! WHAAAAAT?! I know, right? Fail. Big BIG fail. Ughhhh.
And then we learned that the lazy river (among other things) wasn’t open because they were short-staffed.
GAHHHHHHHH!!!!! 0 for 2 does not make for a happy mom.
But the kids didn’t care. And they ended up opening the lazy river later in the day so Anna and I got to be floating blobs for two hours.
But the water wasn’t warm enough for me and the air temp felt too cold, too. I think maybe I’m too old for this.
After checkout, Anna and I managed to find a somewhat secluded couch to relax while the kids are back in the waterpark. We can actually stay until close (!) but I’m thinking we’ll just stay until lunch!
And it’s still funny as hell!! (But the clothes and hair are… YIKES!) They were all great but Betty White was such a treasure.
Mom and I were watching Golden Girls while putting a puzzle together. Tom and I were telling Owen we were about his age when we watched it.
Owen, incredulous: Daaaad? You watched a — GIRLS SHOW?!
Then we caught him laughing at it.
Of course your have to brush out all her tight curls…
She conned Aunt Marie into putting her hair in a French Braid.
I love that they’re each snuggling with a cat pillow. Katie has Bella and Owen has Charlie.
Today we got our first significant snow of the season. Katie was at her friend Caden’s house and his mom sent pics!
Every so often I check the kid’s phones just to make sure nothing bad is going on. Tonight I found this on Katie’s phone, back from when Charlie died.
And Tom got some Owen cuddle time.
Friends, an amazing pizza (from leftover fish tacos that that boys gave me grief about but IT was freaking delicious!), and our first dip in the hot tub! Merry Christmas!
This pic makes the hot tub look soooo much bigger than it really is. It would be a stretch to have three adults in it at the same time—four would have everyone’s knees touching for sure!
And then we did the Saran wrap ball for the kids! We had about $60 worth of stuff in it!
And it was great fun…
Until two kids weren’t getting anything.
Don’t worry, they all ended up with stuff—and some trading was done. But it definitely wasn’t perfect.
And then I tried to get a Santa hat picture but Katie wasn’t really being cooperative. Oh well—it just makes memories!
And of course they loved it!
Do y’all know what this is?! I made it for Katie for Christmas!!
I honestly don’t know what the official name for it is, but I’ve been calling it a Saran ball. It’s just a bunch of tiny gifts all rolled up inside a crap ton of cling wrap. I figured she’d have more fun unwrapping this monstrosity than a few little packages of hair clips, mini nail polishes, fidget popits, and hair ties.
I was just going to make one for her…but I had so much fun doing it that I am now going to make one for Owen, too—though his might be heavier on the candy and lighter on the hair accessories!
And I think we’re going to do one for all four kids…make it into a game. Apparently people are supposed to unwrap with oven mitts while someone tries to roll doubles—and they get to keep everything they unwrap during that time! We shall see!
