What can I say?

I'm a slacker. Or so it seems.

So, we made it through Spring Break with everyone alive and well (mostly). The boys left for their dad's on Thursday. Late Thursday night/early Friday morning the girls woke up throwing up. They weren't even holding water or medicine down, so we cut everything out of the diet and followed previous doctor's orders to start them out on a tablespoon of water 1-2 hours after the last vomit session. Wasn't working. We had to go run errands and left them here with Nick's parents. We came back and got our laundry (after having 5 kids home all week, there was a LOT), I didn't want to spend the next 3 days doing it in a single washer and dryer, so we went to the laundromat. Emma continued to puke up whatever it was Nick's mom gave her while we were doing errands while Allison seemed almost back to normal. Emma spent her time in the front seat of the suburban with the seat back sleeping. Elijah napped in his car seat while we sat on a bench next to the truck and waited for the laundry. The attendant/owner of the laundromat hoarded our new puppy while we were doing stuff. You know the kind who know so much more about everything than you do? Yeah, that was her. I mean, she was nice, just pushy. We finished the laundry and took the girls to their mom where they continued their vomiting sherade until Monday. They are doing much better now (as far as I am aware).

Elijah left for his dad's/the girl's mom's house (yes, my ex and Nick's ex are together) on Saturday. When Antonio picked up Eli, he mentioned he had a cold and I thought about keeping Eli home, knowing the girls were feeling yucky and now Antonio was. Eli was excited to see daddy, so I let him go knowing he would come back sick. Monday I picked him up and he was a little stuffed up but nothin too bad. Monday night he started coughing. Tuesday during nap, he woke up with a 102 fever. He refuses to take any kind of medicine for me, including tylenol. Nick's mom insisted I leave him home with her and Devin while Nick and I went grocery shopping and picked up Brandon. So, I did. I met Nick at Wal Mart and fought the crowds to get some food. 2 hours later, we came home and Nick gave Elijah tylenol, no problem. No fighting, no crying, no smacking at the syrienge, nothing. I was impressed and thought maybe he was over his argumentive stage. He gave him more before bed to cover at least most of the night, again, no problems. Elijah woke me up off and on all. night. long. I could hear him talking to himself and coughing through the baby monitor. He "woke" up when it was time to get kids up for school with yet another fever, I offered him medicine, he fought me tooth and nail. I gave up. If I try to force it down, he WILL puke it back up or spit it all over himself and me...trust me, I have tried. I let him be and he seemed to still be in a pretty good mood. I got him to let me take his temp at one point and it was about 102. I called the pediatrician at 8:30 when they opened and got him in. We went at 9:30 and he was up to 104.3. I expressed my concerns with the medication, they ran a rapid strep test (more on why next), that came back negative, they offered me an antibiotic through injection and I agreed it was probably the only way to go. I would have to go the pharmacy, pick it up, come back to the dr so they could administer it. We left and got a call from the dr. saying the pharmacy didn't have it in, but could have it by 6:30 or 7. I agreed. They called back, telling me I needed to go by said pharmacy and give them insurance card so they could start processing. I went to Nick's work in Merlin, had him give Eli tylenol (again, he took it perfectly), stopped by the pharmacy uptown, dropped off insurance, they called me a short time later and told me my copay for the injection was $30. I told them I couldn't afford it and called the dr. office back requesting they prescribe him zithromax, a once a day liquid. I figured Nick could give it to him when he gets home from work. The zithromax was only $7.50 for the copay and Nick gave it to him. Eli squirmed a little, but Nick talked him into taking all of it. He is still running a fever and was still up and down all night.

Devin and Brandon came home from their dad's on Sunday. I received them in clothes that were from their dad's house and a bag full of the clothes from my house. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until I got home, I didn't notice that the bag was full of DIRTY clothes. Ugh. For the years that we have been doing this, Tim has always made sure the clothes were washed before the kids came back and I return the favor. If they didn't happen to have time, they would keep said clothes until the next week, but nevertheless, they were clean when they came back. I made a comment along the lines of, "Huh, wonder why they sent them back dirty." and Brandon, who isn't someone you can always believe because of his exaggerations said, "That's because they said they don't care what you think or about you." Now, this time, I would almost believe that, but I'm still not sure. It's too bad we aren't on speaking terms anymore because I sure am curious as to why that happened. So, the kids went to school on Monday like planned and Nick picked them up on his way home. Devin went straight to his bed and laid down complaining of a bad headache. I figured he just had an extra hard day at the boys and girls club and got him some tylenol and water. Sometime later that night, he was running a fever. I kept him home on Tuesday and the headache was then accompanied by stomach pain. No vomiting or diarrhea, just hurting. So, that night I got it out of him that his throat might have hurt, just a little. I called the dr the next morning. He had a positive rapid strep test and was prescribed zithromax. He is feeling much better now.

So, as soon as we can get Eli over whatever he has and crossing my fingers that the girls don't come over with anything tonight, we should have a good weekend! We hope to take them swimming at the Y. The girls improved with their swim lessons over spring break, but they couldn't go on Friday due to the sick they had, I'm curious to see what all they learned.

And, as always, Nick and I are awesome. He had a great vacation and I wish we could afford for him to stay home more or find something we could do from home/together, but it's just not possible right now. I love having him home (most days lol). I am still struggling with my sinus issue, though the pain isn't too horrible lately. The worst part today is my back. It feels as if my whole lower right quadrant of my back is....seized? The slightest movement and I wince in pain or want to cry. I have one particular way I can be, so far, that doesn't hurt as bad. Unfortunately, it requires me to hunch my back.

And now it's just about time to get the kids up and going for school.