The Last Man Standing

Paul is the only one in the family who wasn't touched by the stomach flu (well, not yet). We celebrated his 2 year "Gotcha Day" with frosted brownies...yum, yum. Yes...I'm a little late with Halloween pictures but I still had to share my cute kids.

Audrey was an absolute wreck, with the flu and a broken collar bone she could still give mom a smile though.

Rita loved decorating the tree. Remember it's her first Christmas with our family. Things were going great until the tree fell over while she was putting an ornament on. I save you from all of the horrible details.

Natalie had a great 8th birthday. Wasn't she just my little baby?

Good grief...it has been almost 2 months since my last post. What can I say, I am quickly becoming the world's worst blogger. It's not that life hasn't been interesting around here I just haven't taken the time to sit down and post. Enough things happened this last week itself has been enough to write a book. Monday morning Andrew woke up saying that it felt like somebody had kicked him in the stomach. About 15 minutes later he was barfing all over the place (he has yet to master graceful barfing :o( The babysitter had called this same morning saying that her kids had been puking all weekend, so I still went to work to see my first patient and then quickly headed back home after they got somebody to replace me. The rest of the day was fairly peaceful. Ted had to go into work early, even though he's pretty sure he'll be laid-off in the near future. Not 15 minutes after he left I hear Audrey screaming. Here, Rita was trying to give her a piggy-back ride. Audrey must have slipped off of Rita's little arm side and they both went crashing to the floor. Audrey couldn't move her left arm at all (yes...she's left handed). So, we left Andrew passed out on the couch and headed to Coldwater's hospital. I dropped of Natalie, Rita and Paul at our friend's house. By the time we got to the hospital Audrey was all smiles and moving her left arm up and down and all around (I had given her Tylenol before we left the house). I could tell the doctor thought I was crazy!! Four x-rays later though he confirmed a broken clavicle...collar bone. So we headed back home not realizing the real storm was still coming. Within the next 12 hours EVERYONE except Paul had come down with the stomach flu. So 6 out of the 7 of us we're down...I have never seen so much barf in all of my life!!! Poor Audrey couldn't take any pain medicine because of the stomach bug so we had to have her Tylenol3 made into suppositories.....need I say more. Try to put a suppository into to squirming 4 yr. old while trying not to barf because your sick too!!! NOT FUN!! The best thing about this bug is that it didn't last for long. Everyone was back to work and school by Wed. Then I get home from work last night and I ask Ted "Don't you think it's chilly in here?" He looks at the thermostat and it says 63. YES...the furnace was dead. Oh common!!! So, I called my mom and got her extra space heaters. Paul and Audrey slept with me and the other kids slept together upstairs so we didn't freeze to death last night. Thankfully, Ted has a brother who is an electrician and he helped Ted diagnose the problem so Ted should be able to fix it today. I'm almost afraid to see what today brings...oh, I forgot I had a flat tire during all of this too.

Okay enough depressing news..on to some good news. Last week we celebrated our 2 year anniversary with Paul. My brother and his family also celebrated their 1 year anniversary with their daughter, Rachel, from China too. Natalie turned 8 also. She had friends over after school last Friday and then had the grandparents over on Saturday. All in all she had a great birthday. This week she is the 'star student' so today Ted, Paul, Audrey and myself will go eat lunch with her. Rita is so excited that we'll be at school....she promises to wave at us!! Rita is still amazing us with all of her abilities. She has mastered tying her shoes and zipping her coat..she'll show anyone who will watch. She got glasses this week and is most definitely the cutest kid in glasses I have ever seen. She had went to the opthamologist two weeks ago. He felt that her muscles were still too tight, not bad enough to do surgery again. These glasses are just supposed to 'relax' her muscles. She is learning to read and is just as proud of herself as we are.

During all of this I have started back at my favorite hobby....reading!! (maybe that's why I haven't had time to blog). The last 3 books that I have read have all been fantastic.. "The Things I Want My Daughters to Know" by Elizabeth Noble... "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven" by Fannie Flagg (anything by Fannie Flagg is sweet and funny)..."The Last Promise" by Richard Paul Evans (I love anything that takes place in Italy) I'm always looking for a good book....so any suggestions are welcome.

You know, I'm sure many other great things have happened around here since October but I need to run. Even after a crazy week like this, I still thank God everyday for my beautiful family. I am so blessed and I don't want to ever forget.