Sick.

We've been sick.

Really, really sick.

And this time, it hit Mom the hardest.  Normally I may get a  mild fever and a small cough, which slows me down but does not stop me.  But not this time.  I was fighting a major fever for about five days with a killer cough and a non-stop headache. All while still trying to do the mom-thing and take care of a my sick boys and getting the girls to school and picking them up.  And attempting homework.

I am willing to admit that we ate a lot of cereal, pizza, and McDonald's.

It was pure awesomeness, let me tell you.

I am now fully functioning again (with the slightest bit of a cough), and am now considering posting on the blog again.

Although I really don't have a lot of things to post about.  I was dying there for a little while, people.  It did not inspire a lot of fun around the Merrill home (and yes, I have a tendency toward the dramatic when I am sick).

They're gone

That's right.

Adi's tonsils and adenoids are gone.

I even had to sign a paper before they'd operate saying I wouldn't bring them home with me.

Seriously.



Awesome picture taken with my awesome phone camera right after they woke her up from the anesthesia .

Apparently she was a champ and didn't even cry when they woke her up and she started drinking apple juice right away.

I don't know why, but that makes me proud. :)

She's spent the last week laying on the couch, watching a lot of Netflix and being waited on hand and foot.



It's a hard recovery for her.

She has also been doing a lot of this:



Writing out messages to the fam.

And please ignore the mountain of laundry in the background of the picture. Rest assured those have been folded and put away and there is currently a new mountain of laundry that has taken up residence in my home.

Adi is doing terrific. Wanna know how I can tell? She is really enjoying bossing her mom around and is really milking her two-week resting period so she can watch what shows she wants and by doing absolutely no chores.

But it's all good. She'll get all caught up in a week!

This little boy gave us a scare last night

Mr. Porter Pot has a little bit of asthma.

Usually we have no problems with it.

But when P.G. gets a cold (like he has now) and goes to sleep (like he did last night) it tends to flare up.

Last night about 1 am (why does everything happen at that time?), Porter came barking in our room, gasping for breath.

OP (who is asthmatic as well) was out of bed in a flash and ran him into the bathroom. He turned on the shower as hot as it can go and held Porter while urging him to take deep breaths.

I, on the other hand, ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

Oh yeah, I am way awesome under pressure.

Slowly (after a blessing) Porter started taking deeper, longer breaths, Orrin stopped shaking, and I stopped running into walls. I held my baby boy and fought to keep him calm and not start crying (me, not him).

This morning he is back to terrorizing his sisters and I am back to thanking my lucky stars that he is doing better and that my hubby can keep a cool head in scary situations.

That way, I can loose my head as I see fit.

I thought I was so strong...

Apparantly, I am not SuperWoman. The hospital doctor told OP and I before we left that it would be perfectly fine to take a 12 hour road trip in a couple of days. Sure, she should be feeling like her old self by the end of the week.

Ha. Ha.

I did pretty good the first two days, but by the third, I was pretty sure that I was going to have to go back to the hospital. *Sigh*

Luckily I was staying with my own little nurses, Whitney and Chris, and they saved my from myself. Apparantly a 101 degree fever, a heart rate of 128 and 35 resperations per minute is a bad thing... who knew? I went to see my favoritest doctor in the whole world, Dr. Lamb, and he gave me an antibiotic shot, and then some strong antibiotics to take at home.

My own team of helpers (Whitney, OP and Chris) helped me get back to almost-better soon, and they watched the kids, brought me fresh water constantly, were there for my every beck and call....

Well, hey, maybe the vacation to Arizona didn't turn out all bad!

I'll be posting some pics of the kiddos having a completely-obliviously good time in AZ soon, but for now I must go and lay down!

A Change of Plans....

We are supposed to be driving to Arizona right now to spend a nice, warm Easter with some long-lost family. Instead I am waiting *rather impatiently* for my husband to get home with some magical pain meds for me.

What happened? Well, I ended up going to the hospital on Thursday (maybe... my days are all flipped-turned around) and just checked out. Thank goodness I am home with my babies again!

Apparantly I have Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the sack that surrounds the heart. It really isn't as serious as it may sound.

It does hurt worse than it sounds however, but I'm on a couple of good drugs, and the pain has already decreased a TON. There was a few scary hours when the docs were pretty convinced that it was a blood clot in my lungs. I think that the moment the doc said that, OP nearly passed out. I however, had morphine pumping merrily through my body and just really wanted to go to sleep and stop breathing (which Orrin had to keep waking me up and reminding me to do).

Thanks to everyone who visited and called and everyone who kept us in your prayers, I truly felt them!

Now I'm off to plan a new (cold and wet) Easter for the fam (or lay down and take a nap... probably the latter).