It's been a while...

But, I have good reason to be away from the blog scene. First, I was away for Thanksgiving. I'll give updates and pictures to that later.

Immediately, we have illness in our house.

Here is the story...

We got home from my sister's house around 6pm after nearly a 9 hour drive. So we went to bed in our own beds, got up...went to church in the afternoon.

My youngest son slept through the service. Then he didn't want to go to Primary, so I allowed him to sit on my lap during the adult Sunday School class. And I could feel him warming up and getting hotter. By the beginning of the 3rd hour, he was moaning, "I want to go home. I want to go to sleep in my bed. I want to go home." I could tell that it wasn't going to stop. So, after a few minutes in the hallway, I grabbed my other kids and husband and we left. E* couldn't think of anything that he wanted to eat so he went to bed and slept for hours. He got up for maybe 6 minutes, played on Webkinz.com and announced he was going to take "another little nap for a while." Slept for several more hours. Got up just before midnight...vomitted and went back to bed.

The next morning, he stayed home from preschool...and slept pretty much ALL DAY. When he was awake, he looked deathly. His face was ash white with redness around his eyes, nose and mouth. I tried to get him up just before getting M* at the bus stop b/c I had to then drive to the school to pick up C* from his club activity. But E* didn't want to budge. Meanwhile, it's snowing...thick, snowglobe flakes and the bus is late. We rush in, I rush E into boots and warm outer wear and we get into the van to get C*.

Well, the roads, although they had little snow, where a MESS. I was going up a hill near my house and had to break and just kept sliding. I was praying to stop. Luckily, we were by a turn lane so I veered toward that lane...and slid, slid, slid to a stop...not hitting another car. Whew. The road was backed up b/c in front of me were several cars and buses. In front of them was a SUV who couldn't get up the hill or it had stalled...someone was trying to push it.

After a wait, I was able to turn around and head back in another direction. I thought I could take some back roads and that didn't pan out since there were cars off the road and police all over. I turned around again and went down a 3rd direction, finally getting onto the main road. But even then, traffic was heavy b/c of rushhour and it was hindered by the slippery streets. The trip to the elementary school 4 miles away took very close to an hour. Needless to say I was 45 minutes late picking up DS. So, we get him, get in the car and drive home.

Since we were in the car for a good 90 minutes, all bundled up in warm outerwear, E* was really burning up. So, before starting dinner, I started a bath for him. As I was taking off his clothes, I saw that his torso was just red and rashy and had what looked to be hives...on his legs, arms. And then I got VERY CONCERNED.

To shorten the story, I couldn't get into the doctor's office b/c by now, it was 5:30. So unhappily, I waited it out...worried and concerned. The next morning, C* complained of a sore throat so I kept him home. I called right away at 9am for an appointment...and was directed to come at 1:30pm. So the wait contintued. I continued to ladle Motrin every 8 hours. C* didn't seem sick. Kept asking me to drop him off at school. At lunch time I canceled his appointment. I figured I was worked up about E* and made a quicky decision.

So we go to the doctor's office. And get checked out. The nurse asked E*, "Does your throat hurt when you swallow?" C* pipes up, "Mine does!" Again, in the interest of time...

C* had strep throat.
E* had strep throat AND scarlet fever. (Which I had said to Ken and he mearly laughed at me the night before.)

So, both boys stayed home from school on Wednesday and were administered antibiotic twice a day. C* is very glad to be going to school today. E* is still a bit pale and tired. But we'll see how he is in the morning. I might just keep him home one more day to be on the safe side!