The week with a series of unfortunate events...

No, the title is not overly dramatic, it's fairly accurate. This week sucked and it sucked big time.

Scott left for a conference in Clearwater on Sunday night. Before he was even out the door I knew something would go wrong. How did I know? Well, let's just say anytime one of us goes out of town all hell breaks loose. That time I went to DC? Jillian had strep within hours of my departure. That time Scott went to Tallahassee? Aaron wound up in the emergency room. I knew this time would be no different.

On Monday I had just sat down at my desk, ready to dive in to my leftover homemade pizza and my cell phone started to ring. I knew the number. I knew who would be on the other end. The school nurse told me Aaron had broken out in hives and needed to be picked up. Awesome.

So I make it to the school in record time and here comes Aaron with...a rash? Definitely not hives. I mentioned this and then remembered that this is the same nurse that argued with me that my children are epileptic (they had febrile seizures) and just left it at that.

I called the pediatrician and they literally told me tough luck, go to urgent care. The one urgent care we normally go to did not have any availability, so we had to go to another one. They told me he had fifths disease. I gave them my "oh, mmmhmmm" face and went on my merry way. I had fifths disease as a child and I knew this wasn't it, but okay.

Tuesday came along and Aaron was off to stay with Mimi for the day, Jill went to school and I went to our staff breakfast. Have I ever mentioned on here that I have an almond intolerance? Well, I do and it's not fun. Unlike an allergy, symptoms don't start to show until a few hours later. So again I am sitting at my desk for lunch and I'm not feeling that great. I walked over by my boss and asked if anything besides the almond croissants had almond in it. She didn't think so and told me to go home (apparently I didn't look so good). Then it hit me...all the croissants were cut with the same knife. I went home, threw up, slept for an hour and was back to my old self.

Thank you, Ryan Seacrest, for making me feel better about myself.

I should also mention that during this time Centurylink was digging up our front yard and we lost internet. We wouldn't get that back until Saturday (hence no Thanksgiving Thursday this week).

Scott finally made it home on Tuesday night and all was right in the world, until I woke up the next morning. My eye had that familiar crusty feeling. I had pink eye...again. I had pink eye and no internet, which meant no Netflix, which also meant no Breaking Bad. Sigh...

I could not stay home another day, so Thursday I made my way into work early to make up some time. I wasn't even in the office a half hour and the phone rang. It was the nurse, Jill had a fever and needed to be picked up. PawPaw came to the rescue and then Scott took her to the doctor. I knew the diagnosis before she even went in. She had strep. Scott then made an appointment for Aaron because I was fairly certain he had it too. Of course he did.

As if having two kids with strep wasn't enough, Jill woke up on Friday with pink eye...in both eyes. Oh.My.God. I wanted to just burst into tears. The poor girl was miserable all night and was still spiking fevers, Aaron wasn't eating because his throat was so sore and I was hanging on by a thread.

Thank God Michelle wanted to run with me on Saturday morning. Those five miles were exactly what I needed. I even ran up the hill by her house (by hill, I mean mini mountain) because I knew I needed to boost myself somehow.

Saturday was a better day. Our internet was back, fevers broke and children slept for more than twelve hours each.

I'm hoping we are over whatever this is and I'm hoping I have used enough Lysol to kill the pink eye beast. I know for a fact I've done enough laundry.

Here's hoping the week of Christmas is a better one.

Do Not Sit By Me...No, Really.

Jillian has strep...again...Seriously, I feel like I write this post as least once a month. Anyway, she's on antibiotics, again, and I'm going to talk to her pediatrician about yanking her tonsils.

But, I had to tell you this to tell you about what happened in the pharmacy while we were waiting for her antibiotics. Jillian and I were just sitting there, minding our own business and here comes this woman with a medical mask on. My eyes get huge because I instantly know she has the flu. I shoot her my "if you sit next to me I will cover you in Purell" look and Jillian asks why she has a mask on. I told her that it's to keep her from spreading germs. This is around the time the woman lost her shiz.

So, her husband is in line to drop off her prescription and she starts talking on her phone. "I have the FLU! I have a fever of 102.4, I have to miss 4-5 days of work." Okay, here's where I give the "you gotta be kidding me" look. I don't want to hear you complain about a 102.4 fever. Until you have a child with a fever of 105 that is seizing, and the only way to reduce her fever is to give her a shot, I don't want to hear you complain about a "high fever." Furthermore, I don't want to hear you calling at least four different people to tell them that you have the flu, we get it and trust me, the pharmacists heard you and are working a whole lot faster on yours to get you and your flu germs out of here.

End of rant. Thankfully, Jillian's prescription was ready and we were able to leave. I definitely scrubbed my hands and followed that with some Purell.

The Never Ending Weekend....

Scott went to Tallahassee this weekend for his fraternity's 45th anniversary reunion, so it was just me and the dynamic duo. 

Thursday night they went to dinner with Mimi and PawPaw and then came home. I was getting them bathed and ready for bed and Aaron was going to the bathroom. Then I saw it...blood in his urine. Immediate 'f' bomb under my breath and phone call to the after hours line for the pediatrician. They said to take him in immediately. Awesomesauce.

Mimi and PawPaw met me at the ER and took Jilly back to their house. The little man and I went back immediately and went through a bunch of tests. They took blood and did an ultrasound. He was such a champ the entire time and didn't cry once. That boy earned every inch of the double Popsicle they gave him.

We finally made it home sometime after midnight and he requested a movie and snuggle time. Wish granted kid. 

When he woke up in the morning (around 9, mind you) the first thing he asked was when his sister would be coming home. Apparently Jillian was up at 5:24 asking the same thing. They were reunited around 10 a.m. and there were tons of hugs and kisses.

Since we were home on Friday because of our "emergency" as Jill referred to it, we headed out for some cupcakes and then stopped by my office. Those two took the place over. They met one of the professors, my bosses and a few of the people in the admin suite. Jill took over Leann's desk and Aaron was our construction worker. Somehow they managed to leave the office with more than they came in with. I don't know how that works, maybe they're just that cute?

Funniest part of that visit though had to be when the big boss tried to have a philosophical conversation with Aaron. His face pretty much looked like this:

It was pretty amazing.

When we finally came home and had dinner all hell broke lose again. Jill emptied her entire stomach from what I believe was too many sweets. My reaction?

I was counting down the minutes until Scott's return at this point. I may or may not have also poured myself a gigantic glass of wine after they went to bed. May or may not.

Saturday was a much better day. We went with Mimi for lunch and did some shopping. The kiddos each picked out new sunglasses.

Then we came home and had some yummy homemade pizza. It was a far better day than the other two.

All I know is that I am looking forward to Scott pulling in the driveway. I think I've earned a giant bottle of wine and a bubble bath, or five.

How Taking Care of a Sick Kid is Like Taking Care of a Drunk Person

Poor Jill woke up with some crazy stomach bug this morning. She took one look at me and said, "My tummy does not feel good" then ran for the bathroom. I'm hoping her looking at me had nothing to do with it.

Within an hour the poor girl was running to the bathroom every few minutes and there I was like the good mommy I am, holding her hair back, putting a wet cloth on her neck and telling her it would be okay. Poor girly was a mess.

At one point she couldn't tell which direction she was going to be sick from and had her pants around her ankles, that dazed look in her eyes and then threw up. It was just like college, except this time I was sober while it was happening, so it was not nearly as funny.

I was a bartender in college, so I saw my fair share of drunk people. I saw the loud drunks, the emotional drunks, the a-hole drunks, the sad drunks (not emotionally sad, just sad) and everyone in between. I served as a counselor, joke teller, and the bitch that just cut you off because you've had one too many. I feel like this was the perfect job to prepare me for motherhood.

As poor Jilly stumbled back to the couch all disheveled and not with it, I filled up her cup with some Pedialyte, toweled her off and put on her favorite cartoons. We did this from 5:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.  It was a long morning.

She has seemed to bounce back this afternoon and it's like nothing ever happened. To keep with the drunk person theme, she also mentioned that she never wanted to be sick again. Me too pumpkin, me too.

Mommy Guilt

There's nothing like two kids with the flu to give you a case of the Mommy guilt. Where does Mommy guilt even come from and why is it just Mommy's? I highly doubt Scott feels guilty when he leaves me home with the kids when they are sick so he can go to work, but when I do it I feel extreme guilt.

Here's an example...

Today, Aaron threw up shortly after he woke up and both Scott and I were slammed this morning at work. The decision was made that Scott would take Aaron into the office with him and then I would pick him up as soon as my last meeting was over (which I bumped up).

On my ride in I felt that overwhelming sense of Mommy guilt, similar to yesterday when Jillian went to M & P's since the same thing happened to her. My guilt only intensified when Scott sent me this photo of Aaron sleeping on a mat in his office:

Heart.Breaking.

But it all comes back to why am I feeling guilty? Why do we, as mother's, feel this guilt? Why should I be put in a place where I have to choose between my career and being a mom? I don't understand why mom's can't have it both ways.

I know this debate opens a huge can of worms, but it's just something that has me thinking lately....

The Mysterious Case of the Yuckies

The kids went back to school/daycare last week when I went back to work and we had finally just gotten over the never-ending cold that has been with us since, I don't know, August. Well, it's now Monday morning and I'm sitting here with a sick Jilly. The poor girl had a rough night last night and was running a fever this morning when she woke up.

I'm really hoping this does not turn into anything serious and does not spread like wildfire between all of us. I'm 99% positive I just jinxed myself. 

Tales from the Sick Bay

The kids have this never ending cold and it finally hit the dreaded sinus infection point. Both kiddos have sinus infections and Aaron also has an ear infection. 

I remember talking with Lani after her kiddos went to school last year and she warned me of the perpetual runny nose and I was foolish enough to not believe her. I'm like 99% positive the kids have had a runny nose since day one. 

Even though we were sick this weekend we still managed to put up our Christmas tree  and the majority of our decorations. As is tradition (well at least since I received this ornament), this was the first ornament on the tree:

I loved this ornament growing up and was so excited when my Mom sent it down. My sister Cathy has the matching one.

Both of the kiddos helped me put up the decorations, but only Aaron wanted to pose with the tree.

Isn't he a handsome helper? 

Hopefully this cold/infection/plague is on its way out and does not return. 

Sick Days

I stayed home with Jill yesterday because she was not feeling well. She honestly wasn't. We've all been dealing with post nasal drip (sounds delicious, right?) and it just makes the poor girl sick to her stomach. So her and I cuddled on the couch and then a miracle happened...she felt better at like 9 a.m. See...

Yes, someone knows how to work Photobooth on the computer. 

I'm beginning to wonder if the "sick days" are already beginning. Preschool is kind of young for that, right? 

Because Sharing is Caring

Jill is seemingly over whatever this virus is that she had last week. Unfortunately, Aaron has it now. It's the strangest thing because he managed to first get sick at the same exact time as his sister. I was able to get him into the pediatrician's office right away yesterday so we could go ahead and start the antibiotics.

Ok, let me tell you about the pediatrician's office. It was crazy backed up, I have never in all of my visits been there when it was that backed up. There weren't any chairs left, it was crazy. This is the moment that separates parents based on their sanity. I managed to be sitting in the section with the clinically insane and it was amazing. Now, I should mention that I just had Aaron, so this was like the easiest waiting I've ever done. Anyway, Aaron got hit in the eye by another kid in the waiting room. Had I been this child's mother I would have been drinking already.  I get it, all of our kids have their days, but I got the vibe pretty early on that every day is one of those days with this kid. No harm, no foul though. In other words, Aaron didn't end up with a black eye or any permanent damage, so it's ok. After an hour and a half in the waiting room (for real) we finally made it back and had the quickest  visit ever. We were in and out in like 10 minutes. 

Aaron was doing pretty decent yesterday, only a few fevers, and once they broke it was like nothing was wrong with him. We had a rough night last night and are currently having a rough morning. I'm hoping the antibiotics start working their magic today. I hate seeing either of my kiddos sick like this. Plus, I miss not being able to sleep in my bed without a 4 year old in it. 

Finally, a quick update on Mimi, it's definitely food poisoning. She'll be in the ICU for another day, maybe two, and then she'll be in a regular room for a few days too. 

Mother's Intuition

I mentioned yesterday how poor Jilly is sick and I thought it was an ear infection, but the doctor thinks it's strep. It very well could be a combination, however, Mom M.D. was right about the ear infection after all.

Last night after the kids were in bed and Scott and I finally settled in to watch Army Wives, Jill woke up vomiting and spiked a fever of 103.1. I knew what was up and we made the debate of waiting until the morning or taking her to the ER. You see, 103 is the magic number in my mind. Anytime that Jill had a febrile seizure it was usually right after she hit 103 and then it spiked after that. The number makes me sweat, even though she hasn't had a seizure the past few times (knock on wood).  

Scott volunteered to take Jill to the ER because he wanted me to get some sleep since I would be home with the kiddos all day. Have I mentioned that I love that man? Truly, I do. 

They were at the ER pretty much all night, I think they finally got home around 5. Jill caught a quick snooze while she was there:

And after the doctor diagnosed her with an ear infection, she enjoyed a yummy popsicle:

So far this morning she has been doing much better. She's been holding down food and liquids (knock on wood!) and seems to be feeling better. She only had a slight fever first thing and I'm hoping once the antibiotics kick in we'll be over this.  We've been coloring all morning in our new coloring book, so I think we're heading in the right direction.

Thanks for all the kind words on here and Facebook! 

I have no idea how you do this....

Right before midnight last night Jill crawled into bed with us saying she felt sick. Scott informed me she had already thrown up before he came to bed. My poor Jilly Bean was also running a slight fever, so I snuggled her up with me and got her some Motrin. 

She kept running a fever on and off all night, which translates to very little sleep for Mommy. When we got up in the morning though she made it very well known to her brother that she was sick. The conversation went like this:

Aaron: Hey Jill! Jill let's play!

Jill: I don't feel good Aaron.

Jill: Mommy, where's Daddy?

Me: He's at the office honey.

Aaron: Jill's a big girl, not a honey!

Jill: AARON! I.Don't.Feel.Good!

Aaron: I KNOW you don't feel good!

She was feverish on and off all day and then this afternoon she told me her ear hurt. If you know us, ear infections are like second nature over here, so I called the pediatricians office so we could get her ears checked. I was able to get her in ASAP so I got the kids dressed and we were heading out the door. As I was grabbing my purse I heard "SPLAT!" and then "Oh Mommy". It was like the damn exorcist in my hallway. Jill had just had a cup of Bolthouse Farms Green Machine or whatever it is, and my floor was now green. Like a good area of my floor was green. Aaron, being Aaron says, "Mommy you need to clean that." He got the Mommy look and slowly backed away and sat down, in silence. 

After getting her cleaned up, changed, and grabbing a bucket for good measure, we headed to the pediatrician's. Thankfully, it was not a busy day and we got in pretty quick. The doctor didn't see anything wrong with either ear and then she looked at her throat and said it was pretty red. "It might be strep, we'll have to swab." Can you give her a shot, too? I mean really. 

I can't even begin to tell you how many times my poor throat has been swabbed for strep (never once coming back positive I might add), so I was not looking forward to the scene that was about to unfold. Me, two four year olds, a nurse that will probably be covered in some bodily fluid in mere moments, and the cotton swab. Bring it, there's Skinnygirl Margarita sitting in my fridge at home, I got this.

While giving Jill the pep talk before the swab the nurse walked in. She looked just as excited as I was, so we came up with our game plan. More work went into this play than the winning pass of the SuperBowl, I promise you. The swab happened and then Jill puked, in the handy bucket I brought with. She took it like a champ though and was just excited to get a cup of water and sticker after. 

After 10 minutes the doctor came in and told us it was negative, but we'll see what the other culture says. As she's going over all of this with me Aaron chimes in with "I have to POOP!", extra emphasis on the poop. The doctor looked at me, shook her head and said, "I honestly have no idea how you do this." Amen sister, amen.

Poor Jilly's fever finally broke when we got home, she's been sleeping since. 

I broke the possible strep news to Scott (who can catch strep just by saying the word, I swear) and he freaked. "I'm going to have to be on the other side of the house from her." Um, we've been in the same house all of this time, we've been exposed, the puss is probably forming on your tonsils as we speak. Sigh...

I'm hoping this isn't strep, but I want to know what's going on besides the blanket "viral infection" diagnosis. In the meantime, I think extra snuggles and lots of Lysol are in order.

The Phone Call

Scott and I got the dreaded phone call while we were out to dinner last night; Jill had a fever and we had to pick her up from Religious Education. She had been fine all day, minus the congestion she has, so we booked it. Thankfully, her fever wasn't that high and we were able to get it down almost immediately. Aaron saw us when we went to pick her up so he wanted to go home with us too.

I am so over this cold and flu season, and the weather so far. I feel like we have been sick more this year than any other year, I don't know if that's because they are in a class now or what. I know Jill's latest thing has to be because it was 60 degrees the other day and was 80 yesterday. The constant weather changes that have been going on are killing us over here. Hopefully this is just a quick little thing and won't require us to actually see someone to tell us it's just "viral".

Last night when we got home though Aaron sang "Jingle Bells" to us, except he sang it as "Kingle Bells". This is one of the songs they are singing in the pageant at church. I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Don't worry, I will be videoing the whole thing so you can see just how adorable my children are ;)

A Plague on Both Your Houses

Ok that was a little over dramatic for a title, but a plague on only your house just didn't sound right.

So remember how last week Jill pretended to be Evel Kneivel? Well the next night she ran a fever and we were told if she ran a fever we had to bring her in because her joints make be infected. Well naturally by the time Scott and Jill got to the hospital her fever was non-existent and they sat there for well over 4 hours before a doctor even came in. It is at this point we think she "picked up" something.

Within a day or two she had the schlitz. I know this because Lani once told me if you question it, it's not the schlitz, you'll know it when you see it. I knew it... I figured I would give it a day and see how we were doing. The next day I called and was told if she didn't stop after...wait for it...10 days to bring her in. Doesn't 10 seem really long? I thought so. Thankfully the Pedialtye and Cultrelle did the trick and we are schlitz free. However....

The other day Aaron randomly threw up during the night. Then he threw up the next day after lunch and then yesterday after lunch. I took him to the doctor and she couldn't find anything and the more I thought about it I thought maybe we got some bad cantaloupe because he was throwing up after eating that, and Jill wasn't eating it. Well I was wrong, he started barfing again this morning. Scott did some research and apparently there is some bug going around where everyone either poops or vomits but no fever. The poor kiddo looks miserable and I smell like a combination of vomit and Lysol (they should bottle that scent, it's awesome). I'm really hoping this passes before Christmas.

Dealing with both of these has also made me realize I would rather deal with the schlitz than vomit any day. At least the schlitz is contained in a diaper....vomit....oh that's another story.

The day I lost my Mommy card

Now that we are in the terrible twos it doesn't take much for me to question my parenting abilities. Like when you're leaving an establishment and one, or both, of your children go completely limp and practically kick and scream the entire way out and you have to do that "oh ha ha ha" look of sheer panic, I immediately question it then (I'm a nervous laugh-er by the way, laughed through my entire wedding). Yesterday took the cake though.

So remember two weeks ago when Jill was running a fever and has some CLEAR snot coming out of her nose? Well the snot was still here two weeks later, still clear, still being wiped on my leg as I would walk by (yuck-o). Then the other day the boogers were green, not the snot running out, just the boogers. I decided to call my pediatrician and see if we should bring her in. My pediatrician was on vacation so I had to see one of the others in the practice.

I pretty much immediately became annoyed the minute we got there because the receptionist reminded me that there is a balance on the account from when we only had emergency insurance. Scott is trying to fight it because we paid all of those visits out of pocket the day of treatment, so why would there be extra money due? I politely told her next subject please. I seriously said it, and maybe rolled my eyes when I walked away which I should watch or I will have two new sets of eyes rolling back at me.

We finally get back to the room and Jill is like a raccoon, she's in and on everything. Sometimes I wonder if Aaron has to be there to chill her out. The doctor comes in and pretty much says "Well yeah she has an infection she's had a runny nose for 2 weeks, that's too long". What was that sound? Oh yeah the slap to my mommy card, it actually may have gone through the shredder. So I said, "Well it's been clear all of this time and I knew you were just going to tell me to use the cold air humidifier". "But two weeks is entirely too long you should have brought her in." I mean I get it, two weeks with snot is a little excessive, but so is paying $20 for you to tell me to turn on a cold air humidifier when her snot is clear.

Jill's on some antibiotics now that will hopefully clear it up and help me gain back my mommy card. The jury is still out on if I should just call for every little sniffle and/cough to prove a point.

We're good....I think?

So I think the snot is almost behind us, the rare vomit that occurred this morning, hmmmm well I'll keep you posted (nothing like the smell of milk coming up in the morning to get you going).

Between the heavy afternoon showers and the snot we've been pretty chill over here. Aaron did get to go with me to the pet store the other day to get our dog food. He loves the pet store. A trip that should have taken 30 seconds ended up taking 15 minutes because we had to look at ALL the fish. Thank God he didn't see the birds. We've been toying with the idea of getting a fish tank. Scott had a huge one before we started dating (it took up half the wall) and was really into it. He had a lion fish, puffer, two eels and some other ones. When he hears fish tank he thinks that's what we're going to do. I'm thinking goldfish. You got to love that about him, if he's going to do it he wants to do it the best way possible. Or at least the coolest way.

Since they felt so poorly the other day, on our way home from the pet store I got the kids smoothies from Starbucks (Aaron may or may not have gotten a package of Madeleine's). Both kids loved them, and I loved that they at least got something in their stomach. Besides, you need to start the Starbucks addiction early.

The kids also went with me to the doctor yesterday. Thank you to the nurse who bribed them with lollipops (granted they were Tootsie Pops, and I have an issue with that part), it definitely made the appointment less stressful. Aaron being mommy's true defender even yelled at the nurse when she gave me my vaccine (FYI parents you should be vaccinated against whooping cough) and Jill just sat and cried. I wanted to cry too Jill because man oh man did that hurt. You have to love that when they give you the shot they tell you to relax and not tense up and then JAB you with a needle. Isn't it a natural instinct to tense up when that happens? Aaron also flirted with one of the nurses, I had her my entire pregnancy and I think he recognized her voice. He had some extra smiles for Nurse Shannon and even gave her a high five.

I cannot wait for tomorrow, it will be the kids first real trip to the beach. I know we went to Sarasota a few months ago, but they didn't swim. I'm hoping the weather stays nice, no giant tar balls float up and that our friend Shaun doesn't teach our kids how to say inappropriate things. I have a feeling maybe 1 of the 3 won't happen.

Have a great and safe weekend everyone! Don't forget, still a few more days to enter the Frito-Lay giveaway!

Thanksgiving Thursday

Been a long week over here, how about you? This week I am thankful for:

• Scott, most especially for him coming home on Tuesday to take care of all us sickies.
  

• Aaron and me time this week. We went to the pet store to get dog food and got to spend some one on one time. He's a big fan of watching the fish in the store and even said goodbye to them the entire walk to the car.

• Jill's cheesy smile. I pretty much have a photo everyday of her smiling, per her request. She'll love those when she's older.

• The illness being swift and not so bad. Now if we could just get rid of the leftover snot we'll be alright.

• All of our family and friends, you are the best!

• Dawn introducing me to Cupcake wines, so delish!

• The excitement my kids have when they hear we are going to the library (or house as they call it).

• My sister and niece getting the song Big Rock Candy Mountain permanently stuck in my head (sense the sarcasm). Oooooooh the buzzin' of the bees in the peppermint trees.....

• Scott's 15 year high school reunion coming up in a few weeks. I have my reasons for being excited, and his name is Joey Fatone.

• The stuffed cheetah surviving the illness that briefly plagued the house. It was touch and go for a while, but Jill was a terrific nurse.

• The awesome give away I'm hosting on my review blog (I have another coming tomorrow too!)

What are you thankful for this week? Link up or leave a comment letting me know!

Not feelin' hot hot hot

We're not feeling so hot over here today. Jilly came in at 2 or 3 am (really it's all the same at that hour) with a fever of 101.8 and a river of snot. I could hear Aaron starting to cough in his room too. This morning Aaron felt a little warm, nothing major, and he's at least eating something. Jill was still running about 101.6 but she's not letting that slow her down. We still posed for a photo (after bringing me the camera and saying "cheese"):

And we are apparently nursing a sick cheetah as well:


I've already called it, today is a pj day for all three of us. Hopefully it's just a 24 hour thing.

We bake to build

The bake sale this morning went really well, minus the fact that it was only 45ish degrees and it was outside. We pretty much sold everything and all of the money went to our Church's building fund. We are in a temporary building and have to raise a ton of money before we can get onto the property that we (well the Archdiocese) own. We're doing another bake sale next weekend and at least now I know what people are looking for(cakes, pies and breads) and that it is important to mark that you bake with Splenda so all the diabetics will buy the treats too. I have no idea how much money we made today at the three masses but I know last night we made at least $150 which is awesome.

Our priest also just returned from Haiti with his mother. For those of you that don't know our priest, Father Jean, is from Haiti and all of his family is still there. His immediate family was not harmed by the earthquake, however his nephew, cousins and some aunts and uncles are either deceased or still among the missing. His mother will be staying in the states for at least 2 months until everything calms down. She was at the masses last night and I was told she was somewhat overwhelmed by everyone, plus she doesn't speak English, so I'm sure that was a bit much too.

I have to share this story with you that he told us today, when Father Jean went to Haiti he spoke with some of the priests from the diocese, well what's left of it, and told us that two seminaries were destroyed with all of the priests and many of their nuns. They have nobody. Father and the other priests that travelled with him brought supplies for the remaining churches and priests. Our church alone raised $13,000 to send with him and the entire Archdiocese of Central Florida raised $3 million. I think that is amazing and extremely generous! So nice to see that caring people are still out there.

That's all from here, sorry for the lack of pictures, the kiddos have colds and the snot is everywhere. I'm going to try their cold air humidifier tonight to see if it will help. I really don't know what else to do at this point, I think they are still to young for a decongestant, right? I'm going to call our doctor in the morning and see if there is anything I can give them. Any tips?