Once again, so behind here...

I certainly intend to come to post here, but somehow I rarely do. Maybe it's because of my busy boy, who is single-handedly destroying my house. :-P

This evening I am sitting by my younger daughter's bedside. I suspect she has the H1N1 flu. Last week we (lucky us!!!) went to see Miley Cyrus in concert with her best friend and best friend's mom. They are also our next door neighbors. The girls had a great time. Later that night, BFF spikes a high fever and the next morning was diagnosed with H1N1. Sure enough, four days later, Anna starts having a sore throat and muscle pain, and by last night had a fever. A bit ago it was 103.9. I gave her another dose of ibuprofen and right now she is sort-of dozing. Poor kid. I know how miserable it feels to be so hot one second and freezing the next. She can't get comfortable because she's either burning up or freezing. I plan on taking her to the pediatrician tomorrow because I want to know for sure if she has H1N1. If she does, then that takes away my worry of whether to vaccinate her against it or not. I'm mostly worried about the little guy getting it, but there isn't much I can do now. I'm sure she's been contagious for a couple of days and the two of them are so close I know that germs have been transmitted between them, lol. I just hope and pray that we all come out of this okay. As far as I know, we don't have any secondary risk factors such as asthma, etc...I am halfway hoping our ped. will maybe put Ian on Tamiflu or something, if he's old enough to take it. Not sure about that. Hopefully that way he'd end up with a mild case of the flu instead of a big hairy scare one. Not sure if Abby will get it or not. She rarely gets sick. However, when she does, it's usually a doozy. She just doesn't put things in her mouth and she doesn't get too close to people, so it helps her to fend off the bugs that go around. I myself have had an aching throat and nausea the past 2 or 3 days, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse so may just be allergies. Mine are the worst in the fall.

I didn't end up blogging about it here, although I intended to the day I posted back in August. My dad died rather suddenly at the end of July. It ended up being a miserable, unhappy summer for me. Sometimes I feel as though I'm going through the motions of life, but I really do try to be happy and productive because I know my dad would want me to. I love him so much, no matter whether he's here on this earth or not. I hope he knows that. I did write about his death on another blog I started but also haven't written on for months: http://myfather-smallthingswithgreatlove.blogspot.com/ After being there for his death, and holding his hand long after his earthly soul was gone, I know I'll never be the same. I also saw him the next day at the funeral home before he was cremated. Seeing him that way, particularly, drives home the fact that he really is gone. Touching him when he'd been refrigerated for a night, knowing how cold he was, doesn't leave any room for hope or doubt. Even though it's been a couple of months, I am still just in a state of shock and disbelief that he's really gone. We went to pick apples yesterday (before Anna got sick) and I missed him the whole time. Last year he and my stepmom went with us. We had so much fun, and his photos from that day are ones I'll always treasure. We had a lot of fun yesterday, but it wasn't the same for me.

I've applied for graduate school. Now I am just waiting for all of the bits and pieces to get there so they can decide on my application. They still need two letters of recommendation to show up, then hopefully I'll hear soon after that. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I'll fill you in on the whole thing if I get accepted and most especially IF I can figure out the funding for it.

I hope I can come back and post again soon. Ian is amazing. He's really starting to try to talk more, finally. He's even doing some small phrases. He's also adorable, if I do say so myself, lol. He tries to help with all the chores around here, and what a hoot and a trip that is. So, that is all I have time for right now. I'm off to call Anna's school and leave a message calling her off for tomorrow so I don't have to get up and do it tomorrow morning. Prayers and positive thoughts for her, and all of us, please!