Monday, January 26, 2009

Officially jinxed

I know, I know. What in the WORLD came over me when I wrote those words..."seemingly alright...rockin' immune system...probably jinxed myself..." PROBABLY is an understatement. Last Wednesday morning Dan and the kids woke up happy and healthy, and I woke up with an ominous ache in my throat. Dan had told me part of his sickness involved a sore throat, so that's the last time I'm sleeping next to him when he's sick, I thought indignantly. Tangent--do you think I should write all my blogs like I'm in a novel? A novella perhaps? Get back to the story before you lose people, I decided hastily.

Long story short: Thursday was worse, my glands were now swollen enough to resemble a small goiter. At this point I couldn't swallow my saliva so I was spitting in a cup and I decided that if it was not better in the morning I might A. shoot myself in the head, or B. go to the doctor. The doctor was "surprised" I tested positive for strep, and I was "surprised" I didn't shoot HIM in the head for being "surprised," but instead joyfully accepted his prescription for Amoxicillin.

After taking only 3 of the 30 pills I must finish, I felt like a human being again. It took less than 24 hours before I could swallow without distorting my face like I was in a low budget horror movie. I feel sooooo much better.

Die streptococcal pharyngitis. DIE.

On that happy note...here's some incredibly random pictures for your viewing pleasure. I realized I haven't been posting pictures lately, and that I never showed off the boys bunk beds. Or the cute hand painted letters Auntie Becca gave them for Christmas. Only 8 months in the house before the boys room was finished. Not bad.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Not-so-funny funny story

My not-so-funny funny story begins with the fact that my children (and now husband) have been sick for the last few days. Fever, vomiting, higher fever, body aches, cough, sore throat, headache. Pretty much you name it, they've got it. And the mommy who's been coughed/vomited/heavily breathed upon? Exhausted, but seemingly alright. God bless my rockin' immune system...there are benefits to years of working in a disease infested ER. I realize I could be jinxing myself with that statement, but let's move on.

The health of my family should give you a better insight into my state of mind as I finally made it to Winco to buy much needed groceries yesterday. The kids were still feverish, but we needed crackers and chicken noodle soup and children's ibuprofen, so I bundled them up and prayed the checkout lines wouldn't be 7 miles long. After pulling out of our driveway, I realized I should get the mail that's been piling up in our mailbox. (Our mailbox, along with 16 of our neighbors', is down the street half a block, which makes parking on the street very convenient and getting our mail every day...not so convenient.) ANYWAY, our mailbox was stuffed with 98% junk mail and 2% bills and at the red lights on the way to the grocery store I was sorting through what should be dumped in the recycling bin and what I needed to keep.

We finally made it through Winco and home with a typical amount of grocery store drama, I proceeded to dump a ridiculous stack of worthless mail into the recycling can. It took me 3 trips to haul in all the groceries as the kids fought over which color cup they wanted their chocolate milk (grocery store bribe) to be poured into at lunch time.

I'll get to the point of the story, which was the not-funny part. This morning Jake got to go to preschool which he missed yesterday. He didn't have a fever, and frankly I needed Sir Whiny Pants out of the house for a few hours. After the drama of getting the two kids ready to leave the house, I grabbed my purse and went down the stairs in the garage to buckle them in their carseats. Hmm, I thought as I looked through my purse. Where are my keys? I went back into the house and turned everything upside down. No keys. And I'm seriously hearing ear-piercing screams from the garage, which is wide open to the neighbors who are probably seconds from calling 911. The screams were related to which kid got to hold the balloon we got at a birthday party the other day. I searched the car. No keys. Perfect. I've lost my keys and my mind. I did have a key to our other car, and miracle of miracles...Dan got a ride to work this morning. So even though we were already late, I switched out 2 carseats and 2 whiny children, and drove recklessly to preschool.

I dreaded going home after dropping Jake off. I knew I'd searched EVERYwhere for my keys, and both kids were swearing they'd never touched them. I was going to have to tear the house apart. Then Ty and I pulled in to the driveway and I saw it...the big blue recycling can. Thank you God that it had just been emptied, because that thing is a monstrosity. I picked through the milk carton and flattened cereal boxes I had dropped in there last night, and got to the pile of junk mail. Underneath that...TAH DAH! My keys.

Just one more reason to despise junk mail.

Friday, January 09, 2009

WHAT??

We have major news here at the Stump house. We're talking serious business. Ground breaking. Earth shattering. Potentially life-changing information you all should be aware of. Are you ready?

Ty has ended an addiction. He has said "no" to ketchup 3 days in a row. Those of you who have been over for dinner (or any meal including breakfast), have had us over for a meal, or have read virtually any one of our blog posts know that ketchup has been a monumental part of Ty's existence since before he could say the word. In fact, I looked back on an old blog that refers to Ty's favorite new sentence, "no teh-tup head, daddy pank a bah-bahm." Which, translated means "No rubbing ketchup on my head, or daddy will spank my bottom." He was 1 1/2. We've had to lay the law down multiple times that ketchup is not for putting on pancakes, in soup, or by itself for a pre-dinner snack.

I was surprised that he didn't ask for ketchup a few days ago when I gave him some Mexican casserole for dinner. I was in shock when he asked for Ranch dressing instead of ketchup for his Dino chicken nuggets 2 nights ago. And last night I just about fainted when he scraped off the ketchup on his hot dog and insisted on dipping it in Ranch.

Does anyone know if Costco will exchange industrial sized bottles of ketchup for cases of Ranch dressing? I'm thinking I may need that information ASAP.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

A year in review

Two thousand and eight, wasn't it great? I know this is late, but it could just be fate. Some things I really just have to state. I might write them on slate. Or in ketchup left on Ty's plate.

Ok, so I'm no Dr. Seuss. The rhymes are getting ridiculous. Like Ty would leave any trace of ketchup on his plate...or any plate within 2 miles for that matter.

I did this last year for 2007, so I guess I have to do it again. I mean GET to do it again. Here's the highlights, lowlights...and any other light that was mildly interesting to the Stump family in 2008:

Cleanest moment of 2008: Wood Village house on the market
Worst spring break of all time: vomit-fest '08
Biggest change of 2008: moving in to our awesome new house
Worst (surprisingly) Ty injury of 2008: the king of goose eggs
Best list of kid quotes: summer one-liners (or 2 paragraphers)
The blog I'm most proud of: 7 years with my dude
Favorite extended Stump family moment: Rebekah Jane Lillie makes her appearance
Jake's biggest change of 2008: starting preschool
Biggest life changing weekend for this wife and mommy: a heart revived
Worst near death experience for Ang: sinusitis vs. spontaneous head explosion
Most accurate portrayal of our every day life: a post about nothing

There you have it. 2008. The laughs, the tears, the hurts and the joys. A window into our world. Hope you've enjoyed my stories as much as I've enjoyed telling them. And living them.

I'm confident 2009 is going to be another great year. Oops, can't use the word great because that's clearly supposed to be used with 2008. Hmm, anybody have a word that rhymes with 9? I guess I have a year to think about it. Stay tuned.