ace and megan: playing catch up

you know how you need a vacation after a vacation? or a sick day? or a visit with friends and family? yeah, we're there... all of the above. the past two weeks have been crazy packed with cleaning for family, family fun visits, and yes, sickness.

nathan's parents came up for a long weekend right in time for halloween. so the last week of october was spent cleaning, reorganizing... .you know... the usual. :) connor sleeps on a mattress/box spring just plopped on his bedroom floor, so it's pretty easy to move him around when we need his bedroom for momma and poppa jo-g. i'm not sure what he was more excited about.... his grandparents coming or getting to sleep upstairs in mom and dad's bedroom. kids are crazy. i moved half a billion toys out of connor's room and set up the illustrious guest bed (read: air mattress on stilts). just about everything was set.

then nathan got sick. really sick. he was knocked out for two solid days. saturday he had a vball tourney, and then he braved it through trick-or-treating, but after that he was sleeping upstairs or zonked on the couch. i spent saturday cooking our "thanksgiving". a while back... months ago.... someone from church dropped off a turkey for us. it was probably almost a year ago. i have been waiting and waiting for the best time to cook that puppy. and here was my chance. i have never done a turkey dinner before. i'm just gonna say this for anyone that eats mom/gramma's thanksgiving meal and has never helped with the prep. go hug her. now. i called my gramma's probably 15 times. i kept thinking of questions. i was baking pies, making stuffing, prepping everything i thought would make a delightful thanksgiving. i started cooking at about 6am on saturday and i didn't leave the kitchen until 4pm. seriously. i would do something for the big dinner and then it would be time for a regular meal. clean up. repeat. clean up. repeat. then--genius me-- decided to carve pumpkins that night before trick-or-treat while we waited for dinner to finish cooking. i'm totally glad i did it. it was super yummy.... with only minor exceptions to my delicate palate. sunday was a day of rest. nathan was too sick to go to church and i had to go early for teaching 3s. since i didn't know if i'd be able to come back to pick up the fam in time for the regular church service i just gave connor the option to stay with his grandparents or come to s.s. -- he had a minor cough, but i figured either way he'd be fine. he yelled, "STAY!" ok, no problemo. monday we decided to go check out the lego exhibit at the henry ford. fabulous! we loved it. ok, i loved it. there was so much fun stuff to play, dress up, and do. connor enjoyed it, and even meg got totally into it. next was a special shopping trip for connor with momma and poppa jo-g. aunt dawn had given him some cashola to hit target. he loves shopping up and down the toy aisles. i think it took him and hour and a half to decide on JUST the right toy. a guitar. it's too cute. he picked out a pony for meg.

tuesday night brought on the beginning of the sickness for the rest of us. meg started with a little fever. poor baby just couldn't fall asleep. every time i'd rock her to sleep, she would just wake up and cry and cry. so i thought i would just sit with her in the rocker until..... who knew.... about 11pm or so, nathan helped me set up a bed on the couch. i just hugged her all night and we slept there are best we could. nathan came down at one point to trade me, but she was having none of him. so i ended up coming back downstairs and just plopping with my girl. she's weird like that. sometimes i'll be down with her and she will NOT stop crying until nathan comes down. about 2am i could feel my fever coming on and my chest instantly got congested. it was that fast. the weird thing was my fever kept coming and going. meg was sick most of wed/thurs. connor had it the worst wed-sat. i thought i was getting better on thursday night. not so much. but then on friday, nathan wanted to go up north to hunt. i was SURE i was better. i could not have been more wrong. i kept getting fevers and my cough was brutal. poor connor was the same. i was a little worried for both of us at that point, just b/c things like this usually get through our systems a bit faster. when i started wheezing i thought maybe i should head to an urgent care just to be on the safe side. poor connor was so lethargic. TOTALLY not himself. so i called gramma to come stay with meg (who was almost back to normal by saturday). connor and i headed out to the urgent care in our neighborhood. not my first choice, but what are ya gonna do? they were really very nice there. connor got a balloon, and we only had to wait about 45 minutes-- close to an hour if you count paperwork and all that jazz. i was pleased to hear that his lungs were ok, as were mine. i'm always concerned about pneumonia b/c i've had problems with that. the doc kept asking me if i was SURE i've never had asthma. yep. pretty sure, bud. he gave us some meds and we have been resting since. i'm definitely thankful for the nice warm weather we've had. i was able to open up all the windows and connor even played outside for a bit yesterday. it's so good to see him getting back to himself.

but then came sunday. oh, we were all getting better by then. but gramma..... she called to check on us and tell me that papa would be by to take lunch orders for the kids (that's the other thing.... we hadn't exactly eaten real meals or much of anything since wednesday... very weird). when i heard gramma she sounded like death. i was convinced that i had given her this horrible bug and put her on her deathbed. i was so distraught all day. i just kept praying for her, and i had the kids color a picture and wrote her a funny note to try and lift her spirits. basically i told her i was sorry if i had given her the bug that would kill her, but in the unfortunate event that she should die could i please have dibs on her coke kitchen decorations. :) i was so thrilled when i called her monday. she sounded WAY better. a true answer to prayer. but i am still hoping to have her initial the note i wrote. that way there will be no awkward moments when we are divvying up her goods. :) kidding, gramma. maybe. :)

we did have a fun time with the 'rents. the kids loved reading books, playing pretend, just hanging out and taking pictures. connor took pictures with momma j0-g's camera... constantly. tons and tons of pictures. self photos, pics of the couch, pics of the tv, pics of books, pics of me, meg, everyone, anything. it was a grand old time. and now, things are starting to get back to normal. i actually cooked dinner last night. there are only a few more things that are out of place. pretty much, it's time for me to get my booty back in action. slowly but surely.

here are some highlights.

i am aware that these are out of order.... i don't feel like organizing them.