Thawing Out

No, we weren't eaten by polar bears. Nor did we have to resort to eating each other. We're fine. Just cold.

To recap the last week or so, the weather started getting bad last Thursday, and Beeb's school sent the kids home at noon. An inch or so of sleet and freezing rain coated the streets, trees and power lines.





Then on Friday came the snow.

We didn't get as much as they got in other parts of the state, just about 4 or 5 inches. Enough for the kids to get a Snow Day and bug me until I'd let them go out to play in it at 8am. It wouldn't have been so bad, I was hoping I'd have some sleep-in time, but they kept coming in - slamming doors, screaming and dripping snow on the floor - to tattle on each other.






Oh, and I couldn't find their mittens. Beebie and Pie didn't care, but Tito flipped out when the snow made his hands hurt. So I put socks on his hands. It was ghetto, but it was the best I could do. He must have gone through 12 pairs of socks. After a while I stopped caring if they matched or not.

Meanwhile, R had braved the bad weather and gone in to work only to be told that the office had no power and he could go home. Miraculously, we were not among the 500,000 people in the STL area who lost power. Not sure I would have survived that. But the roads were clear by the early afternoon, so we were able to get out of the house.

We went to Target to get the kids mittens for $9.99 a pair (I need to learn how to make mittens!), and then on the way home I thought, let's just stop by Goodwill and see if they have mittens there. So we did, and sure enough, we found three pairs of mittens for .99 each. And then we returned the others to Target and saved $27.00.

We drove to Belleville, IL to see the lights at Our Lady Of The Snows and on the way home we stopped at Ted Drewes for the Pumpkin Pie Concrete. Dude, it is NEVER too cold for ice cream. NEVER.

Even better, R was told to call in to work on Friday evening to see if he needed to go in on Saturday. He was told to stay home again, so we thought we'd celebrate a little bit. We put up the Christmas tree that we got for $10 last year and decided we'd go on a little road trip. We drove to Lambert's in Sikeston for some throwed rolls and drove West to Poplar Bluff, then North through the Mark Twain National Forest. It was really pretty to see the sunlight shining on the silvery treetops. I love that part of Missouri.

Then R was off again on Sunday, so we took the kids to Cici's for pizza and to see Open Season, and then by that time everyone was pretty sick of each other and I wanted to kill them all.

So then yesterday was Monday and I got to spend my 3 hours of me-time waiting for my car to get a new wiper fluid pump put in.

(I don't know if I mentioned this, but while the kids and I were in San Antonio, R took his car to get inspected and discovered that the car needed $400 worth of work just to pass inspection. Then two days later he got a speeding ticket on the way home from his parents' house after Thanksgiving.

So we've had some unforseen expenses right before Christmas. Gotta love that. But it had to be done. The windshield was pretty nasty.)

And last night I was sleeping somewhat soundly when I heard the sound of a dry heave followed by,

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH - MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

No, they never cry out for DADDY when they're puking their guts out in their bed in the middle of the night. Nor does Daddy volunteer to help, but anyway...

Tito threw up every hour on the hour from midnight to 6am. And he SCREAMED the entire time. He didn't have a fever, he hadn't eaten anything that didn't agree with him (in fact, he had passed on dinner, which is not unlike him), he just couldn't stop barfing. It was awful. I think I got about 35 minutes of sleep the whole night.

Beeb gets off school at noon today, so maybe I can take a nap then.

Just wanted to let you know I'm alive.


AFTERNOON UPDATE (or should I say, UPCHUCK-DATE):

I had to go to Target to get some Pedialyte and some flushable wipes for Tito(diarrhea has kicked in, as the nurse said it would), and while there, Tito fell asleep in the cart and Pie barfed in the Home Office aisle. And all over himself.

And I feel like my tummy is gurgling too.