I've been so busy this past week, I don't know whether I'm coming or going.  It's been a crazy start to the New Year, and I hope it's not an omen of what the entire year will be like.  Please indulge me in a recap.

Monday: New Year's Eve. This was actually a fairly nice and normal day.  We relaxed at home, had a wonderful dinner with the in-laws, and went to hang out with the cousins.  The only downside was we stayed out too late and Mia had an exhausted meltdown on the drive home.  

Tuesday: New Year's Day.  Woke up to howling winds outside.  Had momentary power outages (basically flickers, but long enough to reset all the clocks in the house - grr) about 4 different times before the power finally went out for good at about 11am.  Power was out for almost 4 hours.  During power outage, hubby and I got in giant fight about something ridiculously stupid.  So stupid that I don't even remember what it was anymore.  By Tuesday evening, hubby had a 102 fever.  And, no, it wasn't caused by our fight.

Wednesday: Back to work.  Relatively normal day.  Get home at 6:30 to message from our animal hospital.  I was given incorrect information and, rather than dropping Ally off at 7:30 tomorrow morning for her surgery, I need to bring her in by 8pm tonight.  She's a senior cat, so needs bloodwork done the night before. So, poor cat is alone all day and then gets thrown in her carrier and taken to the vet.  I felt so bad.

Thursday: Busy day at work; lots of meetings gearing up for spring interview program and fall interview program and students' return for spring semester.  Hubby stays home from work sick. Fever has only dropped to 100.  My low fuel light comes on in my car on my drive home from work.  Ally has to be picked up from the vet by 6pm.  Hubby is supposed to be going to get her but, as I'm driving home, I get a call from him that Mia is really sick.  She's burning up and isn't doing anything except laying against my mother-in-law's chest and whimpering.  So, rather than getting the cat, he's going to his parents' house to find out what's up with Mia.  Which leaves me to go to the vet, while worrying frantically about my daughter.  So, poor Ally leaves the vet only to spend another hour in her carrier at my mother-in-law's house while we're calling the pediatrician and trying to figure out what's wrong with Mia.  Finally get home about 8pm.  Mia's fever is registering at 103.6.  :(  Pediatrician puts us on rotating cycle of Tylenol and Motrin every four hours.  Tylenol helps (brings fever down to 101); Motrin doesn't really help.  I ended up giving Mia a tepid bath at 12:30 in the morning because her fever was still 102.5.  I stayed up on the couch until 1:30 in the morning with Mia sleeping against my chest in just a diaper.  I felt so badly for her - she was burning up, but then she'd get the chills and start shivering.  So she was stripped down to her diaper and I just kept adjusting a blanket around her to try and regulate her body temp.  Her fever finally broke down to 99.6 at about 1:30, so I put her in her crib so she and I both could get some better sleep.  

Friday: Hubby's still home sick from work.  Mia's fever is hovering right around 100-101 but thankfully not going any higher.  I take Mia to the doctor and am kept waiting in the exam room for almost an hour.  Ugh.  At least 25 minutes of my wait caused by a girl in the next exam room who had to have been at least 13 screaming and kicking up a fit about getting a shot.  I mean, I could literally hear her screaming and yowling and kicking the furniture and yelling at her mom and the doctor.  I found myself almost hoping that she was a child with some sort of emotional or developmental disability that could possbily excuse such horrible behavior.  And I had to stop myself from taking my sick child in the room and asking her to kindly act her age so my extremely sick child could see the doctor before her fever spiked back up.  Ugh.  So, finally get to see the doctor and discover and Mia has a double ear infection and a sinus infection.  Poor little girl.  None of the infections is particularly bad, but all three together knocked her system around the block a few times.  Finally got out of the doctor's office around noon.  Took Mia to my mother-in-law's, went to the pharmacy and filled her antibiotic prescription, and went to work.  My boss was shocked that I came in but, after my past 18 hours, work was actually a break for me.  A much needed break.

Saturday: Had 4-and-a-half hours of rehearsal for the Chorus concerts this week.  Learned that I'm being tested as part of an octet before our rehearsal on Monday night.  Yippee.  Hubby feeling better, but still not 100%.  Mia's fever is basically gone, but she's still crabby from the discomfort in her sinuses and ears.

Sunday: Spent two hours moving everything out of our basement in preparation for the contractors to come in on Tuesday to start framing our walls for getting our basement finished.

Which brings me to today.  I'm exhausted!  :)  Fortunately, I've so far managed to avoid the illnesses that have been going around my family.  Not only were Al and Mia sick, but my father-in-law is now sick and my sister-in-law and her boyfriend were also sick.  I'm drinking lots and lots of water and taking my vitamins.  I can't afford to get sick.

So, there are my reasons for not being around much lately.  Hopefully life is now getting back on track.  Have I missed anything important or exciting with any of you??  Please comment and let me know if I have!  I'm trying to catch up on my flist, but want to hear from you all!

*hugs flist*