What a busy day I've had!

Wow, I came really close to over-doing it today. Let me tell you how my day went.

I got up around 8am because that's when the NyQuil wore off and I started hacking up a lung. I got out of bed and went downstairs right away so Jason could keep sleeping. I didn't want him to think there was an earthquake or something by the way the bed was shaking from all the coughing. So I got a drink of water, and then Lauren woke up right after that, so we decided to have some breakfast. After slaving over the cold cereal, we turned on some cartoons. At 9am, I decided to head back up to bed for a while. So I slept for a little while longer, until, oh, 1pm or so. I can't believe I slept that long! But with being sick and everything, I haven't had a decent night's sleep in over a week, so I deserved it, right? Right! At that point, I decided it was time for a shower. So I got all that out of the way, and then I laid around again for a while. Maybe the shower wore me out or something. By this time, it was 3pm-ish, and we had to run out to get a birthday present for a friend of Alex's who's having a party tomorrow. I also wanted to check into getting safety bed rails for Lauren, because she fell out of bed not once, but two times last night, contributing to my crappy night's sleep.

On the way home from Toys R Us, we stopped at JP's favorite place, Taco Bell. With the high activity level of the day, I just didn't feel like I had the energy to make the kids dinner. Either that, or there was no food at home, and the kitchen was such a pit that I couldn't have made dinner in there if I had wanted to. I'm not sure which it was. After dinner, the kids and I sat on the couch and stared at each other for a while. Then I decided it was probably time to try to get the safety rails installed on Lauren's bed, so we wouldn't have a repeat of last night.

These safety rails should not have been difficult to install, and really they weren't. But you know how, when you're doing something you've never done before and you're trying to make sense of the directions, you usually end up making things harder than they should be? Yeah, that's me. The rails expand in height and length from the way they're packed in the box, and I couldn't get them to lock into place. I wonder how many times I mumbled, "Piece of sh*#!" Probably too many, considering what a small project this was. Well, I got it all in place, and she was very excited to jump in when I was finished.

You may be wondering why there is a safety rail next to the wall. Won't the wall act as a safety rail? Yes, I suppose it would, if I planned to keep the bed there. But I would like to rearrange her room, hopefully tomorrow. Jason and Sharkey just set the bed up where the crib had been, so things are kind of packed in there. Maybe I should say that Jason set it up there--Sharkey suggested rearranging right then and there, but Jason opted for the easy way. On the left side of the picture, you can see that the door won't even open all the way, it bangs into the footboard. I plan to move the bed to where the dresser currently is, and then put the dresser on the wall where the bed is now. So you can see the need for the double safety rails. No more kids going "thud" in the night. Or "thud. thud" in Lauren's case. Everbody wins!

I hope tomorrow isn't as physically draining as today was!

A bunch of sickos

Wow, I'm bad with this blogging thing. I haven't posted anything in almost a month! It just seems that I'm not on the computer at home as much lately. I still find time to check everyone else's, but I just don't take the time to try to think of something worthwhile to post. Now don't get me wrong--I'm not saying that this post is going to be worthwhile, but I think you probably know what I mean.

Well, Sharkey & JP's visit to Minnesota has come and gone. It was great to see them again. The last time I saw them was when they were here for Christmas, so it's been a while. I feel bad that we've only been out to their house in Pennsylvania once since they moved out there in 2000, but 5 plane tickets ain't cheap! Anyway, it seems like every time they come here to visit, one of my kids is sick, and then Sharkey and/or JP inevitably ends up catching whatever bug the kids had. As the time drew near for them to arrive here, I began to wonder not if someone would be sick, but more, which kid would it be, and what would they be sick with? I hate that. I always feel so responsible, but what are you gonna do? Kids get sick and germs get passed on. That's life. This time, Lauren decided to step up to the plate by coming down with a case of pink eye. It wasn't pretty. Luckily, she had been on her medication for almost 24 hours before they got here, so she wasn't contagious anymore. To be completely honest, I was a little glad that Sharkey had a cold when she got here. Well, I'm not really glad that she had a cold, but just glad that my family was not responsible for giving it to her. As it turns out, I ended up getting a double whammy. I got Sharkey's cold Thursday-ish, and woke up in the middle of the night last night with my eye gooped shut. I know, it's a lovely visual. But not nearly as lovely as the real thing. My eyeball was completely red, any my eyelid was puffy and half swollen shut. I kind of lucked out a little bit though, because I didn't actually have to go in to the doctor's office. I just called the clinic and told them that I woke up this morning with pink eye, and that I knew for sure that's what it is, because my daughter just had it last week. They cut me some slack and just called in a prescription for me, saving me time and 20 bucks. My eye is still a little itchy, but I'm hoping that it'll mostly be healed by tomorrow morning so that my co-workers aren't afraid to look me in the eye.