Sick of being sick!

Geez, I swear it feels like we are constantly sick. I attribute part of it to the weird weather. It gets warm, then cold, then warm, then cold...It's been in the 60's for the past few days. That was after several days of freezing temps and constant snow. All of a sudden the sun came out and melted the snow and bam!, it's like spring again. I think that keeps our noses running. Then the stomach bug hit us again. Katie woke up one night telling me her belly hurt. I didn't take it too seriously because she is one of those kids that has pretty chronic constipation so we deal with belly issues a lot. I gave her the usual suppository and that seemed to work. VERY WELL! After that she was up every 15 minutes going to the bathroom. She kept waking up Sam too so between the 2 of them I didn't get a bunch of sleep. Then about 4:30 she threw up. So, after getting her taken care of and back in a bed, I got to scrub vomit out of my carpet at dawn. Nothing like getting straight to work in the morning! The best part is that Vince had just gone out of town that afternoon. I think he's psychic or something. The next day she slept it off and felt better by that evening. Then Audrey started of course. She's feeling better now too. So far, Sam and I have not gotten it. *KNOCK ON WOOD* The other part has to be going to the YMCA daycare. We usually do not have this much sickness. Katie has always caught whatever was going around. It seems like she is the one who gets the colds. But this winter has been harder than normal. I definitely think that the Y has something to do with that. My friend Heidi's kids have had the stomach bug too, only worse. I just hope this is the end of it for this winter. I can't take much more. I guess I should just be thankful that it's nothing more serious.

Today after we finished our shift at the YMCA, we decided to go up to Dinosaur Park. The kids love it, but I don't really understand why they like to go there over and over. After you've seen it once it's boring. Anyway, it's up on Skyline Drive which is the hill that kinda divides Rapid City in half. Skyline Drive winds up this hill on the north side and then goes back down to the south side of town. We live on the West Side, which is the place to be! It's the older side of town and where all the nice parks and such are. Dinosaur Park is at the top of Skyline Drive and was built in the 1930's. All it is is about 5 giant stone dinosaurs. They are huge. They are painted and have little explanations about the name of the dino and where and when it lived. The kids climb on them and that's about it. No slides, swings, sandboxes. Just these statues. You can see the Brontosaurus sitting up on the hill from our house. The girls love it. They always want to go. It's been too cold, so today we went because it was warmer. We hiked up, up, up all the stairs to get there, spent about 15 minutes checking it all out when Audrey decided to throw a rock at one of the statues. Not a little pebble. A rock. Like the size of my fist. She chunked it. It bounced off the dinosaur, cracked me in the skull and narrowly missed Sam's head. It really rung my bell. I have a huge sore knot and a headache. Oh, she knew she was in for it. I know that she didn't mean to hit me, but I was still mad. It really hurt! And I was peeved that it could have clunked Sam in the noggin too. It would have injured him pretty badly I think. I told her we were leaving. Oh, the wailing! She stood there and screamed that she wasn't going. I just walked away and left her standing there. I was shaking I was so mad. She finally started following me when she realized I was serious about leaving. She screamed all the way back down the hill. People were just staring at us. It's so embarrassing when your kid acts that way. I didn't care though. I was hot. She's lucky I didn't beat her right there and then! Once I cooled off I talked to her about it. I think she knows better than to throw rocks anyway, even if she was only throwing at the dinosaur. She's duly repentant now.

Our neighbors Jim and Sherri came over for supper tonight. We ate and they played with the kids and then we showed them the Wii. They had a good time I think. I know we did. We enjoy having them around. The girls just love them, except it seems like my kids always act the fools whenever they are around them. For some reason, they start acting crazy. Not listening, jumping around, being loud. I don't know what it is, but it's irritating. Then after they left, I noticed that one of our fish had died. Now I know why my hubby always takes the deceased ones out under the cover of darkness. The girls went insane. They are probably still in their beds crying, "But I want Betta to come back." I gave them the old "he's in a better place in Fishy-Heaven with God" talk, but I think it fell on deaf ears. They couldn't hear me over the moaning. We said a prayer for him and hope to replace our beloved Betta with another beloved Betta very soon. Maybe tomorrow. Children (insert eye-roll here).

Tomorrow is my first parent-teacher conference. Wish me luck that Miss Holli doesn't have the authorities waiting to haul me away to the institution for horrible mommies.

Well, I think there is a cold Bud Light calling my name from the friggie. In the background, I think I hear my bed calling me too. It's nice to feel wanted! Goodnight.