A Quarantined Christmas and a brand New Year

The last month and a half has been pretty crazy around here. Seriously. Like we have called "TRUCE" and "TIME OUT" several times but life just keeps dishing it out to us. Here are just a few of the things that have happened around here:

Hosted Thanksgiving - 26 of our favorite peps. We were so excited to have everyone for Thanksgiving. It was a bit overwhelming to me to plan and organize and make sure I had everything covered. Thank goodness for great helpers! We had a blast with all our family!

Evan was baptized & we hosted a luncheon - just a small, little luncheon for 36! I didn't think I could pull off 2 HUGE meals within 2 days of each other so we catered the luncheon with Panda Express. This was a great idea except for the fact that I ordered enough food for 60! (Not everyone RSVP'd and I wanted to make sure I had enough incase everyone showed up and when you are planning for this many, you tend to over order because it would be awful to under order!). We wouldn't let people leave unless they took a lot of food with them. And even then we ate Panda for a very. long. time.

Cody's illness and passing - we don't need to reopen that wound.

Flu Bug Invasion - a week after Cody passed, we were infected with a flu bug. T started us off with it and freaked us out because one of the signs of the leptospirosis disease is vomiting. I was talking to his doctor regularly, either me calling him or him calling me to check on T. I was very grateful for his concern and checking in with us. I was constantly checking the whites of T's eyes to make sure they weren't turning yellow. It was a scary time. Kurt was even watching him like a hawk. It turned out just to be a flu bug that lasted 2 WEEKS in this house; the week before Christmas and the week of Christmas, hence the quarantined Christmas. Every time we thought we were safe to go out again, the next person would come down with it. No fun. We missed all the fun parties we were invited to. We had a very lazy, relaxed Christmas day.

Rodent Invasion - we also had a rodent decide to take up residence in our attic. Kurt got poison and threw it up there. He reassured me that the rodent would get thirsty and go for water and die outside the attic. Except, apparently, our rodent didn't read the directions on the bag of poison and decided to die in our attic. The smell was horrid. Kurt tried and tried to find it in the attic but we think it may have fallen in a wall because he couldn't find it. And it smelled bad. Really bad. We wanted to move. But we didn't.

Cody's final hospital bill arrived - you know you are in trouble when the bill is 4 pages long.

Our office helper moved - we are so sad. Barbara was a wonderful employee and we will miss her terribly. Her husband was accepted to a school in Utah so they moved away. And now I am running the office all by myself again. Boo.

T decided "No more naps!"  - Yes, T decided he didn't WANT to nap anymore even though he (and his mom) desperately NEEP nap time . You all know this phase. It isn't pretty. My other kids were like 4 when they did this. Not 2 1/2. We went about a week without him taking naps. Not good times. I now have him taking a nap *most* of the time. It is a battle and sometimes I lose BUT sometimes I win!

T also learned how to climb out of his crib - hence the nap time (and bedtime) becoming more challenging. Joy, oh joy! He is so sneaky too. Today I went to check on him because I had heard his door close and he had apparently been sneaking out a lot because he had a lot more stuffed animals in his crib than when I had put him down. Little turkey.

T flooded the bathroom - he went into the upstairs kids bathroom, pulled the stopper up, turned on both faucets and then came downstairs to where I was. I was in the office working and he was sitting so quietly playing on the floor. I could hear the water running upstairs but I thought one of the girls was in the shower. I didn't even worry about it. By the time Evan found it, the sink had overflowed running into all the drawers and cupboards and onto the floor. The whole bathroom floor was full of water and it was overflowing into the carpet in the hallway. I couldn't believe it. I just stood there looking at it and trying to figure out how in the world I was going to clean up all that water. We haven't noticed any water damage down stairs but I have noticed the baseboards and the floor in the bathroom are starting to show damage. I wasn't planning on a bathroom remodel and hope this doesn't turn into one.

Evan's allergy testing - we took Evan to get his allergies tested and it turns out he is allergic to everything! Poor kid reacted to everything they put on him except 2 things - dogs and one group of trees. He had the biggest reaction to cats, which was interesting, but at least it wasn't dogs. (We are now free and clear to get another dog if, and when, we are ready. We were worried he was allergic to dogs and we wouldn't get another one if he had been). He is super allergic to dust and molds so I came home and had to complete dissect his room and clean it like crazy. I am not a good duster but I guess I will become one now. We have always thought that he was possibly allergic to Christmas trees but couldn't figure it out because some years he would react to them being in the house and some years he wouldn't. Well, we learned that it isn't the actual tree, necessarily, that he is allergic to but the molds that can grow on the trees. That's why it would fluctuate every year - it depended on how long the tree had been cut and how much mold was growing on it. Needless to say, we bought an artificial tree this year so no more moldy trees for us! Plus, no more putting lights on the tree! Yippee!

All that within a 5 week period. Sheesh. Seriously, TRUCE already! Plus all the Christmas shopping, cabin fever for being trapped in the house for so long, a home show that Kurt was a vender at, and all the other "normal" family of 6 stuff. And I wonder why I am so tired all the time?

And now I discovered last night that we have another tenant living upstairs (aka: our attic). Man, oh man. How do we get rid of it without it dying in the attic and making that horrible smell again? Maybe we should get a cat, except Evan is allergic to cats. Nuts.

But it is a new year now so everything should settle down, right? It is like a "reset" button and now life can just be boring and normal again, right?

Right?