Post New Years

Our post new years life wasn't really nice and lazy like we had hoped.

We did a really late Christmas with Jonathan's family and found out all too late that his niece was sick.  They later found out it was croup and "highly" contagious.  Georgia never had it so I didn't know what to expect.  It's a virus so you can't do much for it besides wait it out. We all had scratchy throats soon after celebrating with his family. I started feeling poorly first but not too bad.  Only about a day but I can take decongestants and be on my way. Then J and G weren't feeling so well.  Then, M got full on croup.  Barky cough and all.  And Georgia rounded out the fun with a low grade fever. (I'm guessing the bigger three in the family handled it better because well, we're bigger)  The virus on her caused really bad nausea where it didn't on the rest of us but she was less congested than we were.  At one point she kept saying her "stomach hurt" and J was convinced she had appendicitis.  She didn't...we had her checked out.  Of course she was super chipper at the urgent care office. And yes, her and I just had food poisoning before Christmas break.  And yes, G had the flu the week before thanksgiving.  This cold and flu season has treated us well...I know food poisoning doesn't really count besides that it kicked us while we were already down :( I HATE when my family is sick.  HATE it.  Aside from feeling bad for them I am overwhelmed with guilt that I could have done something better.  On the plus side with fever reducers both of my kids were just as chipper as could be so that's good!  But seriously the greater Houston area has been hit hard with sickness this season.  Yuck!

By Friday we were all feeling better.

On Saturday I worked ALL DAY.  It is a hard balance.  I want my photography business to grow and be successful.  I want to learn new skills and develop a unique style BUT this is a part time gig.  I don't want to work full time hours so on days where I work all day and am not able to take my family with me my heart aches a bit.  When my kids are older and in school full time it would be different but Milam will only be one once and Georgia will only be six once so I don't want to miss ANYTHING!  I had a wedding consult (I don't do many weddings) in downtown Houston.  I drove straight from there back to Conroe for a newborn shoot and then from there to a birthday shoot.  And FINALLY back to my family.  I love what I do but I love my family more. 

We celebrated the good day at our favorite Mexican food place. Then, I had an unexpected hit with a really unhappy customer.  It really took me by surprise but hopefully it is resolved.  Jonathan and Georgia brought me flowers and yogurt to help ease the pain.

Monday we ended up in urgent care with Georgia AGAIN (I was literally about to lose my ever loving mind!) because of really bad stomach pain.  She wouldn't get out of bed and when she did she couldn't even stand up straight.  The pain was on her far left side (intestines not appendix) and she had no fever and no other symptoms.  I had to try to talk to her about pain, nausea, and hurt and how they are all kind of different.  This was PAIN.  Tender to the touch.  Everything I looked up said gas or constipation (not surprising after all her body had been through).  I got her some Pepto and probiotics and in about an hour she was perking up but the pain was super localized to one spot and she still couldn't stand up all the way.  Urgent care did an Xray of her torso and it showed really bad constipation and small pockets of gas. (I was able to relive some of that because of the Pepto and a stomach massage) They gave her two RXs to get her "going" and all has been better. Photoshop on my computer crashed in the midst of all this and I had to find the time to uninstall and reinstall all that jazz so I could keep my business up and running.  I kind of had a melt down and then had a moment of, "put my big girl panties on and deal with it" and just started checking things off of my list in order to get back to our normal.  At one point I literally did a drive by drop off of Milam at my mom's house because I couldn't keep checking on G's pain situation with him clinging to my legs and bawling.  The insanity.  This was G at her second Urgent Care visit.  She was pretending she was in a photo booth.

Tuesday (today) Georgia was supposed to start back to school but she had to be on medication all day to get her to go to the bathroom more.  She took all the doses but didn't go anymore on Tuesday...just on Monday.  It has been a week of a lot of highs and lows and it's only Tuesday night!  We had a pretty laid back day today.  Bitty boy is really enjoying the bitty table that used to be in Georgia's room.

I'm not sure when we made some furniture switches but we did.  I moved Georgia's desk from the play room to her bedroom.  The table and chairs that used to be in her room to the breakfast area, the vanity in her room I moved and made Jonathan's night stand for now, and I moved a painting from the hall way to the dining room.  Nothing too exciting but just tying to make some spaces flow better.  I really hope 2018 can put a "finished" status on some of the rooms in our house.

Our bedroom is long and narrow so it's hard to photograph.

I'm hoping the tone of the first 9 days of 2018 are behind us and we will be on to newer and better and healthier things.  Here's to 2018!