I Hate the Flu

So, I have been sick for the two weeks since my last post. I have no idea if I really remember much of the last two weeks, but I’m hoping by looking at the few pictures that were taken and the calendar that I can remember some. As I mentioned in my last post, the kids ended up with a snow day a couple weeks ago on Monday. And I woke up sick. I seriously thought I was sick with the GI stuff and was going to throw up. I got my hair in a pony tail and moved over to the other side of the bed that was closer to the bedroom, but nothing ever happened. I felt so nauseous and then dealt with about every other symptom of the actual flu over the next couple of weeks-dizzy, weak, achiness, headaches, exhaustion, cough, runny nose, chills, and so on. You never knew what the new day was going to bring and I went through a lot of tissues. I had no energy and didn’t do a whole lot. I was in the middle of my purging and tried to do a little of that. Which included organizing all of our “guns”.

I didn’t work out at all, except for one day towards the beginning I tried to run on the treadmill and just got ¾ of a mile and had to stop because it felt like my lungs were constricting and I couldn’t breathe. I eventually found something I could do while lying in bed and that was going through all of our videos and digitizing them. I backed up our old videos every year onto a couple copies of DVDs and I wanted to make sure I had digital copies of those, so I had to get the videos off of the DVDs onto my computer and then transfer them to two external hard drives (got to have copies 😊) and also onto my Google Photos account. I also made sure I had all the pictures on had on my computer and external hard drives on Google Photos. It took several days, but was fun to look through the videos going back to when I got my first camcorder for Christmas the year before Andrew and I got married. We went to Hawaii that Christmas and I used it there, on our honeymoon and announcing our pregnancy with Jackson.  

Andrew was great about taking care of the kids and getting them where they needed to go when I just didn’t feel up to it and grabbing food when I didn’t feel like cooking. And, amazingly, he didn’t get sick. Miles and Lincoln both ended up sick though. Ellie and the younger boys went with my parents to Pella one weekend and had a great time, but Miles came home not feeling the best. And the next morning, he woke up with a head ache and was crying. He got in bed with me and fell asleep. He was sick for a couple days and stayed home from school a couple days. Poor guy did throw up a couple of times. One time was in the middle of the night and he said he made the toilet, but I didn’t notice until after I sat on the seat to go to the bathroom, that although he did hit the toilet, he didn’t miss the seat and I sat in it ☹. So, he was home from school on Monday and the next morning, I decided he wasn’t quite ready to go back but Lincoln also was complaining of his stomach hurting a bit. I wasn’t quite sure if he was telling the truth because sometimes he is whiny in the morning and he seemed good to go when it was time to leave. But then I got a call at about 8:15 that he had gotten sick. Thankfully, Andrew was able to pick him up and he and Miles were fine the rest of the day. I think they really enjoyed the day, especially since I wasn’t feeling well and let them watch TV and play the

Switch all day. So, they were both back at school the next day.

Some exciting news from when they were all in Pella was that Bennett lost his first tooth. He and Miles both have loose front teeth, but Bennett got a little help. They were playing basketball in the Taylor’s basement and Bennett fell into the wall and knocked his tooth out. My dad did Google Duo with us that evening so we could see his new cute smile.

The kids started getting busier with activities. Jackson now has football strength and conditioning on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 6:15-7:15 and track conditioning on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. He is handling it pretty well and I’m grateful Andrew takes him to football. Jackson also started hitting camp at Truman on Sunday afternoons along with small group and K-Life starting up again. Ellie started up math practice again and decided to give it up. It was two days after school and I think it just became too much with everything else she had going on. She also started up basketball practice on Mondays and Wednesday after school along with dance and swim team. She is having to start miss her Tuesday dance classes as she has games Tuesday nights. One of the few times I ventured out was for her first game at Schuyler. It was a back and forth close game and they ended up winning. Ellie scored the tying basket and they went into overtime. I love watching her play-she has some spunk, intensity and hustles.

Ellie got to have a swim practice at the Natatorium at Truman and had fun with that. They have a swim meet coming up in Columbia, so this let them practice starting off the blocks. I watched the last 15 minutes of the practice and was impressed with how well Ellie was doing. Lincoln had a few more basketball practices for his team and they have one more tournament coming up this weekend. And then he starts Y ball. And the twins get to have their first season of Y basketball too. It is always entertaining to watch that age. And Miles had a good week at school by winning a Caught Being Good Award for the week. It is an award that two girls and two boys from each grade get each week from a drawing of the Tiger tickets they have collected for the week.

We’ve had some cold weather, but also had some decent weather and Andrew took advantage of it and started biking outside again a little bit and he worked out at the shed. Jackson helped him some and they built some shelves, hung up some organizers to hang stuff and hung up the peg board and got that all organized. They also built a ramp for outside the shed.

Last Sunday, even though I still wasn’t feeling the best, Ellie and I went to the movies with my parents. We went to see The Greatest Showman and both really liked it. We downloaded the soundtrack when we got home and have been listening to it a lot. Lincoln loves it too and was upset we went to the movie without him.

And I’ll end the post with a few Buddy stories…One day Buddy just kept running around the house, looking out the doors and windows whining and pretty soon you see Daisy show up at the back door looking in for Buddy. They sure are going to miss each other when the LaBeths move.

One night as we were heading to bed, just turned the lights off and I hear the light saber go off and see a blue light glowing in the family room. I come around the couch to see Buddy with his paw over the light saber 😊.

And a not fun Buddy story. Lincoln went to his friend, Miguel’s, house to play last Sunday afternoon. They have such a good time together. Well, Andrew went to pick him up and took the twins and Buddy with him. Lincoln and Miguel went to the truck to see the twins and Andrew told him not to open the door because Buddy was in there. Well, one of the twins rolled down the window and Miguel stuck his hand in to pet Buddy and Buddy bit him. Andrew texted me at the movies to let me know and I guess I didn’t realize how bad it was until I got another text saying that his mom was taking him to the ER to have it looked at. Andrew talked to his mom a couple times throughout the night and they ultimately sent him to Columbia to have his hand looked at further to make sure there was no tendon or ligament damage. They had a late night, so they ended up just staying the night down there, but everything was okay. He didn’t have any broken bones, tendons or ligaments but did need stiches. He stayed home from school a couple days. Lincoln and I went to the store and picked up a fun toy from him and Lincoln and the twins made him cards. We took it all by to his house after school and he was so sweet, giving them hugs. Thankfully he is better and the pain has subsided. A cop did come by the house the night it happened (Miguel’s parents didn’t seem like they wanted it reported, but were told it was the law and they had to do it) and Buddy is supposed to be quarantined at our house for 10 days.