Gearing Up For Another (Long?) Week

So, it turns out that I did indeed have strep. Let me qualify this by saying that I have not had strep since the 7th grade when I had it so bad that I am pretty sure it left me immune. Well, the antibodies must have worn off or my kids have introduced me to the much fiestier, Colombian version of strep because according to the nurse I "had a different strain". It is never good when all the doctor has to say is "Yeah, that looks bad." I went to work on Thursday anyway (because I was so anxious to go back) where I promptly caught this weird-upper-respiratory-virus-thing that is going around. I have been coughing ever since. Needless to say, I am tired of being sick.

Last week was all around hard for us as we dealt with my sickness and adjusted to Samuel's new schedule. All of the boys were just plain exhausted by Friday afternoon which resulted in the following: Samuel had a note sent home from the teacher letting us know that he kept making noises and touching his classmates. This means that he got put on the "thinking trail" at school that day. When I saw the note and talked to him about it, he burst into tears. Needless to say, I just held him on my lap and let him cry it out. It was so obvious he was exhausted. Luis Angel was stacking things that won't stack which resulted in more than just his usual whimpering. He had a full out meltdown, so I just held him on my lap and let him cry it out. Daniel wouldn't go to sleep at bedtime - he gets the opposite of tired when he is tired. He wasn't making noise, but I did hear him run across the floor around 11:00 PM. When I went to see who was up, I found him laying on the floor staring at the night light. He just wanted to look at it. So, I held him on my lap and rocked him until he was still enough to go to bed for good. Hopefully this week will put us on more of a schedule and be a little less hard for all of the boys.

Fortunately, once they were asleep, they slept well and were ready to meet Nana and Pappy Shoenfelt and Tia Becca. Troy's family came to visit this weekend, and though I spent the majority of it in bed, I know that he was so glad to see them. And the boys took to them very quickly. Baxter and Sylvia also enjoyed spending time with Pappy out on the screen porch.

Here are a few pics from the weekend:

Tia Becca (with yet to be born and named girl cousin - Yay! We need the balance!), Nana S. holding Daniel, Luis, Samuel, and Pappy S. What a great family visit!!! And I HAVE to give a BIG, BIG, BIG shout out to Hospice of Central PA who have taken great care of us in the most amazing way. They donated four large tubs of clothing, plus various other items such as books and toys to our boys, in addition to a very substantial gift card to my favorite store in the whole world - Target. Their generosity is simply amazing and we are at a loss for words.

We have started playing this game called "Get It All Out" which is meant to do just that - get out all that last minute, excess, pre-bedtime energy. You have to see it to appreciate it, but basically, we lead the boys in a minute or two of shear crazy movement then we STOP and count "uno, dos, tres, go!" We do this as many times as it takes before they start falling over. But it is so fun and they really get into it. Luis' face really says it all in this pic. Yes, Daniel has his shirt on backwards, but this is what happens when four year olds dress themselves. We just go with it. Luis wore his shorts backwards all day the other day, mostly because I was too sick to fight with him about it.

After the boys went to bed, we somehow conned the fam into playing one of our favorite board games, Ticket To Ride. Oh the simple pleasures!