Middle of the Night Catchup

  I'm up and can't go back to sleep, so I might as well do a little catching up.  Eler Beth has the flu.  I took her to the doctor yesterday because I was afraid she might have Strep.  The rapid test came back negative, but they sent one off as well.  She's had such a high fever with sneezing, coughing, and achyness (achiness??) that her doctor said it's probably the flu.  She's been having chills, too.   She was so miserable and it took forever, of course.  After the doctor saw her and left the room she turned to me and burst into tears.  She held her arms out to me and I went to her and she said, "Thank you for bringing me here!"  Poor baby.  Then later at home I sat down beside her and she snuggled up against me and said, "I just feel better when you're here."

   Of course I had to go back out to the store after I got her home and gave her her decongestant and ibuprofen and got her settled.  I had to go get "feel better" things.  We all need those, right?        

   She's very difficult to keep quiet when she's sick, so for her sake as well as mine I picked up a few goodies for her:  a very LARGE coloring book and new crayons, a lot of stickers, an American Girl book called THE CARE AND KEEPING OF YOU -- THE BODY BOOK FOR GIRLS (of which I will speak more later), which she calls "my girl guide-book", a new box of tissues in her favorite color, her favorite cough drops, new nail polish, craft beads, a book about horses and a pretty wicker basket with a handle, so she can carry some, if not all, of her things from one room to another. 

I have something, either a bad cold or a fever-less version of what she has. 

We had snow, sleet and ice Monday night and most of the day Tuesday, so the kids actually had a ........... .......................................................    on the first full day of Spring!!  That was the day Eler Beth started the fever, so she has only been to school one day this week.  And I've missed work Wed, yesterday, and I'll miss today as well.  I don't like to leave her with someone else when she's got a high fever.  I hate to say it, but I'm not going to miss going in for a few days.  The bad thing (for them) is that next week I had already taken off Mon., Tues. and Wed. to do stuff with the kids on their Spring Break.  So I'm actually getting 8 straight days off of work.  Of course the first several have been, and will be, spent nursing myself and a sick child, so big whoo hoo, huh?