Week in Review - Jan 7, 2012

We made it through the first week of the year - but man, what a week.  Full of drama.  Where to begin . . . .

The Battle of the Fleas
I've hesitated posting about this, hoping that if I didn't talk about it or write about it, it would go away.  Not so.  We have been battling a flea problem in our house since the week before Christmas.  I have a feeling that my sister's dog Stanley brought the fleas to our house, but I'm not going to play the blame game since we just took our dog to their house and may have reinfested their house at the same time.  Let's hope not.  Anyway - fleas are not fun.  First we tried the DIY method of bombing the house - when we told the kids we were bombing the house they freaked out because they actually thought we were going to bomb the house.  Like a real bomb that explodes and destroys everything - I keep forgetting how literal kids can be.  The bombs did not work.  So this week we called in a pest control company and dropped another $300 on killing fleas and de-fleaing our animals at the vet.  I told my husband that once these animals croak we are going to be pet-free for a LONG time.  I am writing this down so that 10 years from now when they are all dead I can remind myself of this very trying time in our lives. (and yes, I love my animals - just really annoyed right now)

The Stomach Virus (or not)
So after a long 10 day break from school the kids were due to go back and start learning again.  Lo and behold Monday night Ella started throwing up and woke up several times during the night to repeat the barf routine.  Poor thing - I really felt badly for her.  It was obviously a stomach virus so John stayed home with her so that I could go out and actually get paid for once.  When I don't work, I don't get paid - so having me stay home with a sick child is not a good financial decision for us.  By that evening she was feeling much better and we thought we could all go about our regular business on Wednesday.  Well, Wednesday morning came and all of a sudden Ella said she wasn't hungry, her stomach hurt, kept saying "I'm going to throw up!", etc. etc.  Ugh.  We drove Jack to school and I called all of my patients and rescheduled as best I could, mentally recalculating the lost pay this was going to cost me.  As the day went on I came to realize that this was no stomach virus - today's malady was a basic case of nerves.  Ella just simply did not want to go to school and her anxiety over returning to class was causing her to feel sick.  Oh well - so I missed a day of work (and getting paid) due to nerves.  We did have a nice time playing LIFE and she told me repeatedly what a great mom I am, so all in all, it was not a bad day.  I decided to chalk this up to my New Year's resolution to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy those little moments in life, like staying home with your child who is faking being sick.  Next time I need to remember that these stomach viruses are usually done within 24 hours.

New Year's Resolutions - how did I do??
Ok - so first week after making resolutions - let's see how well I did.  Well, my first resolution was to keep writing this blog.  Since I've written three times this week I'd say I did well on that one.  My resolution to play the guitar - not so good.  Haven't touched it.  Thought about it, but haven't touched it.  My defense is the awful ordeal of preparing the house for the flea killing - really had very little time to do anything else.  Ditto on the resolution to keep running.  Miles that I ran this week - ZERO.  Oh well, at least I uploaded my results from the new Garmin Forerunner from my run on Dec. 31st so that's a start.  Next resolution - call one friend a week.  Hmmm - dropped the ball on that one too.  However - I did make plans (via text - wimp!) with a good friend to go out for beers on Tuesday night and I've been in contact with three college friends (via email - lame!) regarding a weekend at the beach next week, so I have been making some connections - just not by phone like I'd resolved.  Painting the cabinets?  Using the flea defense on that one, although my plan is to prime the rest of the cabinets tonight and pick up paint tomorrow at Home Depot, so I'm trying here, people!!!!  I am proud to announce that I DID work on Jack's blanket this week and I completed two whole rows of the color blue so that is one resolution I did follow through on.   My other three resolutions were to eat better, have secret date night once a month, and to stop and smell the roses.  Can't say I ate better - John and I scarfed down a delicious apple pecan crumble pie this week that was left over from the food donations made by all our wonderful friends when my dad passed away.  (Thanks Margo!)  Secret date night will have to wait until the second half of the month when our finances look a little better.  I did stop to smell the roses when I stayed home with Ella on Wednesday - but really, the flea issue threw a huge wrench into the whole resolution thing - so I'd say I did fairly well considering the circumstances.

We did end the week on a very nice note - celebrating Christmas (again!) today by going to Ukrainian church with my mom and then having a nice lunch of borscht and pierogies at her house.  Sometimes it's nice to have two Christmases.

Quite a start to 2012, right?  I'm looking forward to next week - hopefully full of guitar playing, running, catching up with friends, cabinet painting and NOT de-fleaing.  Knock on wood.