leading up to v-day was a whirlwind this year. not unlike any other day in our household, but with a few extenuating circumstances that usually lend themselves to a recipe for disaster.
1. paul was out of town. only for 2 days, but i am big fat baby and need him here to help me take care of all his our kids.
2. we got sick.
but to start on a high note, i made these cute valentines for R. he is really into star wars so we went with a star wars theme. i found this cute idea on pinterest and inserted our own photos. i put them together in photoshop, printed them out & left the name space blank so that he could fill it in himself. he was so proud he didn't even notice or care that there wasn't a piece of candy, eraser or even a tattoo that came with it. oh and i also cut out brown card stock, glued the picture to the card & antique stain edged all the sides, what would the pre-schoolers of thought if i hadn't done that?
i could tell in these pics that his eyes didn't look quite right, but i'll get to that later...
by the end of the day, poor R looked like this. i'm thinking something was wrong with his eye?
it actually swelled up more than this & white stuff started coming out. yikes.
we finally all filed into the ped. office thurs. morn. & she took a deep breath. she started with the oldest & worked her way down.
big S had not told me that she was't feeling well, all i could see was her rash... and her general grumpiness. it's so hard with teenagers, you never know if they are grumpy just because of hormones, or mood swings, or something at school, or not eating enough that day, or not drinking enough water or... the list goes on and on. anyway, she had a double ear infection & a sinus infection. the doc put her on topical & oral steroids for her inflamed skin and an antibiotic. poor thing. she felt so much better after just one day of meds. the doc told her that she has to tell me when she doesn't feel good and not let things go this far. her mood improved too when she started feeling better. makes sense. i'm just so glad she's better. and her skin is all cleared up! yay!
R, sure enough, had a double ear infection and a sinus infection. he was so congested that the fluids in his sinuses couldn't drain, so they found their way into his eye tissue and started filling up the space all around his eye! and that is what was coming out of his eye. so gross! he felt much better after antibiotics and eye drops. he had to stay upright to drain and take lots of steam showers. here he was feeling much better by the end of the day.
and baby J checked out just fine. he got 2 shots and was super sad. but other than that was perfect.
and super cute if i don't say so myself.
after the doc. appointments and prescriptions i had to fill, i was a little stressed. we have a high deductible plan and pay out of pocket for meds, appointments etc.
so i called paul and told him this was going to be pricey and i felt bad. i didn't want to stress him out but i knew we needed to get the medicines. my doc told me to go to sam's club and that they have the best prices by far. so that's what i did. and if you get a membership, you get up to 40% off of generic brands. my total went from $441.07 to $138.25!
by the end of school pickups, i was feeling pretty terrible. i had the worst headache, body aches and my ear felt like it was going to explode. it was not a pretty sight. i ended up putting my 12 yr. old in charge while i drove myself to urgent care.
i had a sinus & ear infection just like the kids. AND they had an antibiotic there for $5. i really don't understand the varying prices of medications. it's so frustrating sometimes. when i got home i really thought i might die. i was using labor breathing to try to help with the body aches. i don't remember the last time i felt that bad. meanwhile the children were unattended and running wild. R had some energy back and had found L's recorder. he was running around the house blowing it as loud as he could. the baby was wandering around. D stepped up and tried her best to take care of R & J. i threw together a dinner for everyone, put in a kid movie in my room and tried to make it thru until P got home late that night.
not surprisingly, things started to turn around when Paul finally got home. he took over and i got to rest. kind of.
the next day was valentine's day! the big girls had big plans for v-day. L was invited to a party, which we helped chaperone and S had a school dance. the little kids left love notes on everyones' beds and i made them heart shaped sugar cookies. P got me some nice perfume and i made him a valentine.
here is L and some of her cute friends at her first jr. high party. they even had a dj, she was pumped.
and here is beautiful S & her cute friends at dinner before a high school, wait what?, dance. wearing one of my old bridesmaid dresses.
