The Winter of '10-'11

Will this winter ever end? Here the beautiful Northwest winters aren't all that bad, in my opinion. I prefer the rain and 30-40 degree temps here than the snow and below zero winters I grew up with in Idaho. However, this winter feels likes its thrown me to the ground and then stomped on me again and again and again. It has nothing to do with the weather.

Its illness. Someone in my family has been sick since OCTOBER! This is not an exaggeration. Emma alone has been to the doctor with 4 ear infections in 2 months. She is now scheduled for surgery to have ear tubes put in again and her adnoids taken out. Coughs, colds, fevers, vomit, aches, pink eye, and one very strange case of ring worm (which isn't a worm by the way, its a fungus).

As the mother of three children I can handle the illness. What's killing me is the lack of sleep. Sick kids don't sleep well. Which means Jeremy and I aren't sleeping well which means, at least for me, I've had a terrible time staying well myself. And poor Madilyn has been coughing, the hard croupy cough, for three weeks. I'm heading into two myself.

I try to stay away from others when we're sick. I don't take the kids to the library or the play place at the mall so we don't spread our germs. But I'm apologizing now to anyone who may run into us from now until about June - I'm coming out. That's right we're leaving the house with our snotty noses and smokers coughs. We can't stay well but we can't stay house bound for 3 more months either.

I'm sorry. Germs are coming your way.