Snow Day Play

Nostalgia

It's February in North Texas and we have snow!  When I say snow, I am not referring to our annual dusting that barely covers the blades of grass ... I mean an unheard of amount of snow for this region in general, let alone two weeks into February.  It's been snowing since 3 a.m., it's showing no signs of letting up, and the temp is continuing to drop.  We have about eight inches so far.  Forget the roads that are tough to navigate, the bad visibility, etc. ... it's so, so beautiful and I'm thrilled.  The natives are saying they haven't seen snow like this in years, if ever.  Even Steve said it's more than he's ever seen in 20 years of living in Texas. 

All day, the students were just itching to get outside and run around in it, and who could blame them?  Are you wondering whether I participated in the inevitable middle school snow ball fight that ensued at dismissal today?  That would be a YES.  I hadn't intended to do so, but nobody could resist the temptation.  It was so fun to act like a kid with the kids who were soaking up the rare Texas snowfall.  The VIPs have already canceled school for tomorrow, we're equipped here with sweats, fire logs, food, and drink, and we have no place to go.  I say, let it snow!

Got a Case of the Mondays?

Here's a cure: spend six minutes in Sara's world. 
I can't say it is super exciting, but it is probably better than whatever you're doing at work today!

So Long, Hoover

One of the first puchases we made after we got married was a vacuum cleaner, and our beloved red Hoover did right by us for a good six years.  But for the last six months or so, it's been going downhill quickly.  Even as it sucked up dirt, hair, crumbs, and a variety of other things, it spit out a dust all its own.  Additionally, it smelled bad.  We'd finally gotten to a point where our house was cleaner and smelled better if we didn't vacuum.  That is saying something.  After using more than our fair share of Swiffer wet and dry cloths over the past few weeks, today has officially been dubbed New Vacuum Day in our home.  We headed to Target and, thanks to G. G. Lou, we came home with this new Bissell.  It's so new and shiny, and it was even on sale.  You know how a sale just speaks to my heart!  I guess the only downside to today's purchase is that now we actually have to vacuum again.  It's been so long, though, that the chore can surely wait one more day.  I'll definitely get to it tomorrow. 

Sick Day

I was home from work yesterday with my first sick day in at least a couple of years.  I hate taking sick days; they make me feel so guilty (which is ridiculous, I know).  About midnight Friday, something hit me hard.  I don't know if I ate something bad or if I caught a stomach bug, but whatever it was, for 24 hours, I was in b-a-d-BAD shape.  After just a couple of hours of sleep, I did get up and get ready to go to work Friday morning, but quickly realized there was just no way it was going to happen.  So I succumbed, called in sick, and went back to bed.  By about noon, I felt like I might be able to stomach a saltine and a sip of water, but that proved to be a bad decision.  I was feeling a little better, though, by the time Steve and Sara got home, and Sara had fun playing with me on the bed.  She would stand up tall with her hands up in the air, scream, and then belly flop onto the blankets ... much needed entertainment after my long day!  This morning I feel SO MUCH better, thank goodness.  My total-body-purge encounter lasted almost exactly 24 hours, and they were miserable ones.   No signs of my symptoms affecting anyone else here, thankfully, so hopefully we can enjoy the rest of our weekend!

Something to Talk About

I know I don't necessarily have an obligation to blog, but I start to feel neglectful when I go for a period of time without writing something.  No pressure from you, just from myself.  Problem is, I don't have much to share in the way of news tonight ... life has generally just been life (with a couple highs and lows) around here this past week.  Nothing wrong with "just life," though, right?  So out of obligation, guilt, the desire to sit and write something -- anything, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, I'll indulge you tonight with a recap of recent events in the Casa de Brittain.

Last Thursday morning, in my haste to leave the house on time, I hit my passenger-side mirror on the side of the garage.  I'll admit: it wasn't the first time I'd done this, so I did as I usually do and continued to pull out, assuming the entire mirror would just fold back and remain unharmed as it ususally does.  Well, the mirror (or the garage or my depth perception or fate or what-have-you) wasn't behaving as usual, and I cracked the heck out of the mirror.  All day long it was just one of those now-I-have-to-pay-a-bunch-of-money-to-the-dealership-because-I'm-an-idiot-and-my-husband-is-going-to-flip days.  But those don't last forever ... and Steve didn't flip.  In fact, after hanging out at the dealership to get my mirror fixed Saturday morning, he took me to Bob's on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday a few days early.  It was d-lish-us.  I polished off my entire filet, my glazed carrot, most of my potatoes, two glasses of Shiraz, and a fair amount of our free birthday dessert, and then I felt miserble for the rest of the night.  But the meal was totally worth it.

Monday morning we were back at the pediatrician for a re-check of Sara's ears.  Her right ear is, yet again, infected.  We go back again in two weeks, and then we'll probably be sent on to the ENT to look into tubes.  I'm ready to just move forward with the procedure so we can quit going to the doctor every two-to-three weeks with the same problem.  Sara's such a good sport about it all, though.  She continues to eat well, sleep well, and takes her meds without so much as a puckered lip.  On the other hand, Sara has decided that it would behoove her to throw a huge fit during diaper changes recently.  Almost as soon as we lay her down for a change, she says, "All done."  We say, "Not all done," and usually a tantrum ensues.  I've gotten really good at fastening her diaper when she's standing up, rolling over, sitting, etc. -- impressive, I know.  Last night I told her that if she is sick of the diaper business, she's free to learn to use the toilet, but I'm afraid my suggestion may have fallen on deaf ears.

As most of you know, I'm a year older as of yesterday (thanks for the e-mails, texts, calls, etc.).  In case you missed the official announcement, we're due to have six more weeks of winter.  I've never found the groundhog's predictions to be incredibly reliable, but seeing as how I was born on his big day, I'll support him regardless of how inaccurate his shadow test may be.  I did have a nice birthday, but I've decided that Tuesday birthdays are just ... well, on Tuesdays.  I really prefer Saturday birthdays, don't you agree?

My mom made us these matching aprons.  Aren't they so cute?  Sara just loves wearing hers (as you can see, it was all the clothing she needed when she was playing last night).  We'll be donning our aprons later next week when we make cookies for Friendship Day at Sara's school!

Like I wrote at the start of this post, it's been a relatively normal week around here, though not without its share of stressful and hectic moments.  To close this post, I'm going to steal an idea from Kelly's Korner and list a few of my simple pleasures (this is as much for my soul as it is for your reading enjoyment).  In no particular order, the simple pleasures in my life that make the short list at this very moment include (but are not limited to) the following:
-big, wet, open-mouthed kisses from Sara (even when accompanied by a cough)
-finishing a great book (Melissa, you'd love this one)
-kettle chips
-listening to Steve sing, "Jesus Loves Me," to Sara during bath time
-Skyping with my family
-a cold beer waiting for me in the fridge after a long day (hey, I'm not here to hide any truths)
-watching my girl slowly wake up in the mornings when I go into her room and sing, "Sara ... time to get up!"
-relaxing in my cozy bed (which is where I'm headed now)

Feeling Better

The past couple of mornings, Sara has hardly eaten any breakfast, so I knew it was a good sign today when she polished off her whole waffle.  When I picked her up from school this afternoon, Ms. Rekha said that Sara had a much better day today than she did yesterday (when she demanded to be held all day long), and was back to playing with her friends like usual.  I'm so relieved that this has been a short-lived RSV battle for us.  There's still some coughing and a little wheezing, but she's definitely on the mend.

Steve and I, on the other hand, are both feeling like crud.  A couple days ago I was attributing my scratchy throat to allergies because the weather had warmed up a bit and the pollen count was on the rise.  Today we're both blaming Sara (we've been trying to teach her to cover her mouth when coughing, but we haven't been very successful).  By Friday, though, we'll be able to blame the winter cold because freezing temps and snow are in our forecast yet again.  We've had more winter weather this year than we've had since moving to DFW, and I don't mind a bit!