Good morning.

Rob is headed back to work today wether he's better or not.  He "says" he's feeling better, but having heard that from him before I don't believe it.

And amazingly I still haven't got whatever *it* was.

Strange.

But I'm not complainin'

Our broom broke.  I mean really broke.  We have all laminate floors, and a family of 8.  Brooms are vital.  We've been sweeping with the broken piece of crap since Thursday.  And it broke some more.  So its too short for even Jeremiah.  And the nearest broom is 35 minutes one way.  Thats a lot of gas for a frickin' broom.

I've seriously contemplated going to the community hall and "borrowing a broom" for a week.  

I don't need anything else, I don't want to drive an hour and ten minutes for a BROOM.

And trust me when I say that's the closest broom.  *sigh*  I can't come up with a single way of keeping this house even remotely clean without it.  Humms a lot.

Someone want to email me a broom?  Right now I'll just stare longingly at Jeremiah's old friend from when he was a baby and dream of brooms.  How truely pathetic is that??

I btw miss his baby curls. 

Spring is coming.

Its not really here yet, but its coming.

Yesterday was gorgeous.  I think it was all of 55 degrees Farenheit, but blue sky and sunshine.  And we stayed out in it as much as possible.

Rob is sick.  SICK.  He's slept Friday, Saturday, and Sunday away, and he just called in today, and is headed back to bed.  I can't believe how tired his sick is making me.

He does so much more in this house due to my chronic fatigue, and oh my word am I dragging due to attempting to remotely pick up his slack.  He fought through the sick to go sit outside at the river with us last night.  He knew that it could be two months before we see the sun again, and was determined not to miss it.  It was so nice. 

Nobody took an unplanned nap yesterday, so I believe the kids are mended.  *yeah*

Now to get the hubby mended.

And dream of spring.

I keep forgetting Rob had to call the fire department at work the other day....

And it made national news.

Toilet sausage chef causes prison unit evacuation Thu Mar 26, 8:27 pm ET

We're mending, but not mended.  Kaylin still slept great portions of the day, and Jamari and Jeremiah took voluntary naps.  And Rob has a nasty cold.  I've coughed through all of it, but no other symptoms, other then tired, and I think that's due to taking care of everyone else.

Anyhow baton competition from last weekend.  LOL  The above picture is the presentation of the teams.  A few kids missed it, I think there were 59 kids at the competition total.  And a few out sick.  My kids are at the far end nin mostly blue, next to the pale pink. 

My mom actually came out for this competition, and watched 90% of it.  She missed the kids trio, as she didn't get there at 10.  And missed the trick meet, because it wasn't on the schedule, and she'd snuck out for a nap asking Britanny to call her when the solos were on.

Jamari was still feeling good in that picture.  He pulled off two first places, and has advanced to the level of beginner.

I like the way they do it.  Everyone starts off at novice.  And if you get a first place, you have to advance to a different level of competition, giving others a chance.    You also compete in your own age group.  That can be a wee bit wonky though as its the age you are as of December 2009.  So Sam though he's 10, competes as an 11 year old.  But 4-H did something similar, so its all good.

This is Samuel with his first place in the trick-meet.  You don't advance in it.  Its based one who can do what skill.  He had so much fun, and was so psyched he got a first.  I was glad, as he was very frustrated in the morning with his placings.

Here's the kids with there first place plaque for there trio that they did.  I wish I had a picture of them in there trio costumes, but I was running so crazy that I didn't get one. 

I have learned the absolute best way of keeping track of whose in what lane.  And the kids are listening better about which lane instead of having to ask me three times which lane.  *snicker* 

I've even figured out how/where to store all of the ribbons/medals for each child so they don't get mixed up or lost.  So the next meet should run much smoother.  And is also apparently usually a smaller meet. 

Its very crazy at the meets.  I basically didn't visit with my mom as I was too busy directing traffic, she also sat at the very top of the bleachers, and I needed to sit on the floor, so I could get the kids to there varying competitions.

They compete in basic march, military march, a short presentation solo (30 seconds long) and a longer solo (one and a half minutes)  And they get the opportunity to enter each of these in two different levels.  So if you do the math that's 8 events for each child, and I have 5 children.   Just wait til Jeremiah starts!  LOL 

Zeria and Rainee had fevers WEdnesday-Friday.  They broke around noon on Fri, and seemed weak but okay.  We chose to go to the baton competition as they've been practicing for *this* meet for 9 months.

Rainee did fine all day.  Zeria did great in the morning, and just wilted about noon time, she placed fourth and fifth in her afternoon events.  Which is hardly suprising considering she now has her fever back, and a nasty cough.

Jamari started complaining of a BAD headache about noon.  And sobbed his way through his last routine--his choice.  He cuddled with Rob on the bleachers while waiting for awards and suddenly bolted straight up and raced for the bathrooms.  He didn't quite make it...he too has a high fever.

Samuel woke up sick this morning.  He was FINE yesterday.  He actually placed first in the trick meet, and got a second in his solo.  Which was super cool--partially of course cause he was competing against Zeria who bombed due to the re-visit of sick.

Zeria and Jamari slept all the way home yesterday, crawled into the house and have basically not moved since.  High fevers, and not moving at all.

Kaylin was feeling fine this morning, and about 9:30 she started feeling icky.  She's now crying because of the bad headache.  And has a lovely fever in the low 100's like the rest.

Jeremiah started complaining of sick about 10:15.   He lay down on a foot stool at 10:45 and didn't move for several hours.  He hasn't done the crying due to the headache, but we tylenoled him up very quickly, so we might have beat it.

Rainee still had a nasty cold all weekend.  But until about noon was doing quite well.  Colds are a normal part of Rainee's life.  At noon she came to me saying she was cold.  Her cheeks were flushed, and yup she was at 101.9. 

We could take stock in tylenol.

I have *never* had all six sick at once.  In stages of sick...recovering, and coming down.  But not all at once.

This is what my house looks like.

You can't see Rainee's head, but she's in the pink blanket beside KK.  We blew up the air mattress so they could watch tv and lay down.  We don't have enough furniture for everyone to lay out. 

The colored stars in the foreground of the picture were KK's project this morning, before the plague hit her. 

Rob and I have both observed if we weren't worried about the kids it would be rather like a vacation.  No whining, no noise.  Just 6 kids sleeping the day away.

I've talked to several different moms today, and they have all said whatever this is, its tricky.  It looks like its gone away, you send your kids to school, and they relapse.  So I guess that's what happened to Zeria and Rainee. 

warning reading this blog may make you sick.

As of this moment I have SIX kids with fevers, or just getting over fevers.

Colds

Stomache Bugs

and please don't make me move cause I hurt all over.

There's not enough room in the living room for them to all lay down asking us to shoot them. 

I just created accidental greatness.  *snicker*

I wanted something different for lunch as food gets boring.  I had pulled out 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, and knew I was making pasta with them.   But wasn't sure what.   And this is what I did.

1 cube of butter in bottom of frying pan.  Melt

Add 3 chicken breasts

1 package of mushrooms

1/2 onion. 

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon, salt, and Johnny's seasoning salt. 

Add apprxomiately 2 T soy sauce.

Turn chicken when its browned on one side.   Cover and turn to low to finish cooking.

This took me about umm 10 minutes?

Remove lid.  Add 1 cup of milk, 3 cups of water.  And 1 bag of egg white noodles.  Bring to boil, on high, and then turn back to low.

Stir once or twice, but mostly I left it alone. 

When the noodles are done its ready.  It was very very good.  The cinnamon made it special.

If you hate mushrooms those are of course optional.   

I tried this once, and it went poof into cyber space.

Anyhow.  We're all healthy, with the exception of Rainee--who'se never healthy in the winter time..

It was a busy week with nothing accomplished.  *snort*

Yesterday was a Olympia baton day.  It was gorgeous.  With the time change we were able to stop and play at Kalaloch on the way home for a nice long time.

Unfortunately by the time we got there, the clouds had won the battle of the sun.  But it wasn't raining, so we still stayed.

It was so beautiful, and the kids were enjoying themselves so much, that Rob went and got Zeria's big blanket from the car, and he and I found a sheltered from the wind spot behind/beside some driftwood, and settled in for the long haul.

It was a loverly spot, and we even managed some romance.  Our kids caught us, "kissing" but immediately turned and walked away and went to play waiting for us to be done.

Our kids are *never* that discreet.  Usually they crowd around and shriek ewwww their kissing!  I think we shall kiss them for walking away.  LOL

It was very nice to have that couple time.

The view from our sheltered spot. 

Today the Clallam Bay team is doing their ice cream social and performing there four routines.  We have dwindled a lot in size over the last month.  But whose left is still having fun.   

We will do that tonight, and today I guess we putter in the house, as its soggy outside.  Blech!

So if I was to attempt to keep score.

Jeremiah has a cough and a stuffy nose.  He's had it for about two weeks, and is on the mend.  But still not healthy.

Jamari has a stuffy nose....my guess is the cough will start tomorrow.

I'm on the tell-end of the cough--just a few minutes in the morning.

Rainee's had it for 3 weeks, and came down with a fever yesterday.  It went away, so we went to baton.  But tonight yup she threw up. 

Zeria threw up about 2 hours ago.

Kaylin informed me at bed time she had an earache.

I guess that leaves umm Samuel and Rob healthy.

They btw are ALWAYS healthy.  I can't remember the last time they got sick.

It must be March.  March is always the month of sick.

What I had full intentions of doing tonight was taking my heavy-duty pain-killers, and deep-breathing myself through the pain of my back into sleep.

silly, silly me.

I suspect I'll be emptying buckets all night long instead as Rob is at work until 6 am. 

And dress number 2.  I let them pick out the material, with a very slight direction as to kind.  Rainee picked out a really pretty pink camo first, but it was flannel, and I didn't want a flannel dress.  *snicker*  Maybe at Christmas

Anyhow this one worked up much faster and is very cute as well.

In other news I pushed myself into my recliner chair last night rather quickly, and it went floosh and tipped over backwards.  My already iffy back is now rather sore.

Its a I hurt myself sore, rather then my always achey sore.  Which is different as I was telling Rob.  There's lot of kinds of sore.

Anyhow I have to drive to Olympia tomorrow, and I *need* a good night sleep tonight.  It would help if I could find my anti-inflammatory med.  I bought more on Friday.  We made a special stop for it.  And darn it I can't find it.  And I'm totally out of my old stuff. 

I take phenocane.  Its a herbal thing.  I know little about it--less then I usually do, just haven't researched it, but I do know it makes a huge difference in me relaxing enough to sleep.  So a miracle would be nice in finding it.

Yes!  I had the miracle.  My purse spilled this morning in a very hard to reach corner, and I meant to pick it up and never did.  Just as I typed the above I thought to look there, and God be thanked I have it.