Technical Difficulties

**Updated to add that I did get a new dvd player and NO tv. I did look at the tvs but seriously the price tags, even the cheap ones, made me run the other way. I did, however, end up buying a dvd recorder that I can hook up our camcorder to and record onto dvd - supposedly. I will probably use our camcorder a lot more if that is the case.

Frustration is trying to watch a movie on a dvd player that is almost as old as a decade and have it breakdown in the middle of movie. I guess that is what me and the kids are going to be doing today while Jim is sleeping - buying a new dvd player. Of course this comes hours after Jim and I had THE talk about tightening up our purse strings a bit to save for something big. Alright one more purchase this year. I am just going to try to control myself so that I don't come home with a new plasma tv that I have been eyeing for the past few months. Our tv, which is as old as the dvd player, is also on the fritz. We get to watch tv with these big purple balls at the bottom of the screen. I know you are jealous.

I need to be chanting to myself - No New Tv, No New Tv, No New Tv, Just a dvd player!

Bye Bye Christmas

We did the deed today. We packed up the Christmas tree, ornaments, stockings, and all the other various decorations that were around the house. My house has been de-Christmased and it feels good to have it all back to normal again.

Jack, on the other hand is not taking this whole saying bye bye to Christmas very well. As we were packing up the ornaments and the tree was laying down on its side on the floor, he kept screaming "It IS Christmas". I kept telling him that it was over until next year, which was followed by him screaming a big fat "NOOOO". He kept trying to convince me that Santa was coming soon, but I told him that Santa was taking a vacation right now. And so round and round it went. Of course hearing Jack in his little Jack voice say "bye bye choo choo" as Daddy packed up the Christmas choo choo was pretty sad. Even I, who was silently rejoicing putting the stuff away, had to admit that was sad.

Bye Bye Christmas. You were a great one this year. See ya in about 11 months, or so.

That Time of Year Again

It is family picture time again! We usually do this sometime in November, but this year with the move and everything, it just did not get done until today. So here they are. This year's color, as you can see, was black. So that means we have done red, white, and black. Next year Laura says we are doing blue. We shall see.

The "official" Clayton family 2006 picture.

Is it just me or does she look about 18 here instead of 11? Ugh. She is growing up way too fast. I shudder everytime I think of all the boys that Jim is going to have to scare away using his cop tactics.

Okay, all at once "AWWWWWWW".

If I say so myself, we have two extremely good looking children. Yes I am proud.

Yes, they are good looking, but they also can be very mischievous. Can you see it?

Ugh Nights

I hate Jim's schedule. Hate it. It was hard enough trying to keep it all straight when he was on days, but now it is downright impossible. He works two days on two days off three days on and three days off. So basically every other week he has a three day weekend. Everytime I try to plan something, I have to sit and think for about 10 minutes to see where it falls in his work rotation. When he was on days, I actually liked the schedule because it meant more family time, or I should say more relief time for me.

But now he is on nights. And it changes every single thing. Like just now, I tried to schedule to have the pest control people come and spray for the nasty critters we have running rampant in our house. Yuck. And I knew that Jim has Wednesday and Thursday off, so I said that Thursday would be good day. I thought today was Tuesday because in my brain he worked today, as in just got home from work, and it couldn't be Wednesday because he doesn't work on Wednesday. When the lady told me that she had me down for TOMORROW, I actually started to argue with her because I KNEW today was Tuesday. It was only after telling her that I would call back to schedule another time, that it dawned on me that yes indeed it is Wednesday. UGH. My head hurts.

So now I need to find a time when I can get me, Jack, dogs, AND cats out of the house for hours and have it NOT interfere with Jim's sleep time. I need ALOT more coffee before I can figure that major puzzle out!!

Christmas Pictures

Jack and Daddy watching the Christmas choo choo

Wow a big Truck WITH a Dump truck! What more could ya want?

A Tonka Fire Truck with ALL the bells and whistles. Yay!

Thanks Grammy and Papa!

Santa was here!

This is Fun!

Laura playing her "Design World" game. Future designer in the works.

Playing Trucks

The Aftermath

Merry Christmas Night!

It was a good Christmas in the Jackaroo household. I really believed that my in-laws liked us until I saw what they gave Jack for Christmas. Every. Single. Gift. was bigger than he is! Among the list of toys were a Tonka firetruck that stands almost as tall as he is, a Tonka big rig with trailer with dump truck that yes stands as tall as the fire truck, and a Thomas tent that takes up an entire room that he loves to crawl through.

And the "Big Gift" onslaught didn't just come from Jim's side of the family, oh no, my very own parents had to buy the biggest gift of all - a Fire Truck pedal car complete with hose, bell, and ladders!! Now the question of the day is where is all this stuff going to go?

It was a fun day starting off with having to wake up Laura to wake up her brother to get him to go see that Santa had been here. Jim and I laid in bed until 6:30 and couldn't wait any longer and had to enlist the help of big Sissy Laura. We heard them go out to the tree and heard him scream "Toys!". So much fun. Of course, Jim and I had to stumble out and act all surprised and everything. To say that the boy was overwhelmed would be an understatement. He did not know what to play with first and kept going from one to another. This year was definitely a truck theme for him. Santa brought the boy a dump truck and a crane and we bought him a bulldozer. The kid will be the best equipped kid on the beach. He will be able to move major sand all over the place!

Laura made out really well this year also. She got tons of jewelry, pjs, REALLY cute boots (wish they fit me), a fun fashion designer game, a purse, 2 watches, and stuff I can't remember now. I think she is happy.

Jim and I also did quite well. Jim bought me a sapphire and diamond ring that is absolutely beautiful. Not sure I want to hug and kiss him or hit him for spending that much money, but I love it. I am afraid he only got a pair of shoes, shirts, and some small stuff. I am the sensible person of the family hehe.

We had a really lazy day today where we all stayed in our pjs all day long. The kids played with their toys and games while Jim and I watched tv and napped. To be honest, I was so worried about the Christmas Eve dinner we had up with my in-laws yesterday that I really didn't think about Christmas dinner or anything at our own house today. I can chalk it up to being sick the last few days, but I didn't have anything planned special for this morning or anything. And we didn't have a whole lot to eat and/or I didn't feel like cooking at all. At one point I actually tried to call out for pizza, but I guess they let their drivers off for Christmas - go figure. But we survived hehe.

Jim is working nights now and probably will be from now on. I hate him on nights because his schedule is 7 am to 7pm, which means he is home trying to sleep during the day and I have to either get Jack out of the house to keep it quiet or keep the boy quiet (ha!) while we are at home. And I also feel like I can't get anything done because I don't want to disturb Jim by vacuuming or going in and out of the bedroom doing laundry or whatever. But we will just have to come up with some routine and thank goodness he doesn't work more than 2 or 3 days at time before getting 2 or 3 days off.

I will post the Christmas pictures tomorrow when I feel like actually downloading them off the camera.

I hope everybody out there had a very special Christmas with their families and friends.

Merry Christmas Eve!

It was bake day yesterday in the Jackaroo World. Cookies galore and a Choo Choo train cake!

We are heading up to my SIL for Christmas Eve with the entire C clan today. I am very afraid of the entire van load of toys that we will be transporting back down here afterwards.

Merry Christmas

Yuckies

Somehow somewhere, I got the bad puke/fever/diahrea/migraine bug. Yesterday after coming home from spending half the day shopping with my SIL and MIL, I started to feel a bit feverish. By 5pm, I was downright sick with a 102.7 fever and throwing up and the tylenol I took was NOT helping at all because my fever rose from 101.2 to 102.7 in a matter of an hour.

So, Jim took me to the ER. He told Laura that she was in charge of Jack and off we went. One of the perks of having a cop as a husband, he can call one of his buddies to check on the kids while he is at the hospital with his sick wife. The cops here are really great group of people.

Anyway, while waiting in the waiting room for hours (not sure how many cause I lost count), I seemed to have formed a migraine that was THE worst I have ever had. The bright lights all over the hospital did not help one bit either. Finally after 3 hours and getting checked over twice by Triage and deciding that I wasn't needing a bed before anybody else, I was finally brought into a room. The doctor was very nice and decided to do a CT scan on my head to see what was going on. And before she did that, she gave me something for my nausea/migraine pain/fever that was unbelievable. I have no idea what she put into my system with that shot, but it took a whole 3 seconds before I felt the effects and another 3 seconds before I was out cold. They woke me up to take me to do the CT and the only thing I remember was getting into the wheelchair and then very faintly hearing the CT machine and then I was out again until the doctor came back into the room to tell me that they found nothing except for a case of sinus infection (duh, I have one of those almost constantly it seems). But I don't remember how I got home or anything until I woke up this morning around 7:30.

I am feeling better, sorta. I did throw up another three times today and the fever is still persistant with the lowest being around 100.5 or so. I am awake right now because the fever spiked up again to almost 102 and I have slept almost all day long.

But I did get out of having to wrap gifts today and shoved that chore off onto Jim and Laura. I just pointed and told Jim which gifts were for which people and he wrapped and Laura put the ribbons and bows on them. Ha! Being sick does have its rewards...kinda.

Does NOT Dance with Bears

I can maybe chalk it all up to him being tired. After all we were on the go a lot yesterday when we went up to see Grammy and three Aunties who spoiled a boy to no end. There was a lot of cookie making at Aunt Ann's house, lots of entertaining to be done, lots of kisses to be given out, and even some Christmas presents to open. Yes, it was a full day yesterday and we were all pooped when we got home last night.

However, not sure if that is the reason why my child woke up as the devil incarnate this morning. We TRIED to go to the playland Bear Cub Club where there is always fun times to be had ... except today. It all started out relatively good by doing a craft. Last week Jack had his picture taken and this week we made pretty Christmas frames to go around the pictures. All was sorta fun. Until I told him that we were going to do the program where we sing and dance and listen to a story and NOT go play with the humungous new train table they just setup. I told him that we would play with the trains AFTER the program, but he had to go play with the other kids right then.

Of course, this was followed by screams and tears. I really tried to get him to do the Reindeer Hokey Pokey (you put your right hoof in hehe) but he would barely even turn himself around. And when it came time to go get a teddy bear to dance with our bears, that is when I threw in the towel. He shoved another little boy out of the way, he told Miss Kathy (the director) a big fat "NO" when she asked him to pick up the mess he created, and then he hit me when I told him to stop what he was doing. So we left. We did not play with the trains. We did not get to climb on the cool climbing structure. And then in the car, there was NO Dora playing on the dvd ... The Horror!

Anybody do excorism on toddlers? We seriously need to get that devil out of the one that lives in our house.

Christmas Programs Galore!

Jack has been in two Christmas programs in the past week. The first was at his school program. Below you can see pics and a short video of the very important proceeding.

Jack all dressed up in his choo choo sweater vest AND a tie. Very handsome.

Jack on stage. Notice the little boy sitting two steps below him. That is Kyle, his best friend and when I mean best friend, I mean he talks about Kyle all the time, everyday. Anyway, Kyle it seems was having a major case of stage fright. His parents were sitting next to us and his Mom asked me if he wasn't the most pathetic thing. And yes he was. In the video below, you will see Jack trying to comfort Kyle. It is the cutest thing.

And here is where all the kids surrounded the manger and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. The cuteness factor was at an all-time high.

The second program was this morning at church. They were having their annual children's play acting out the nativity scene. Again, the cuteness factor way up there. Anyway, Jack was one of the sheep in the flock. However, Jack being Jack, he would NOT wear the little sheep hat with the sheep ears. No, he was the only two-year-old up there who did not look like a sheep. You just kinda had to imagine him being a sheep I guess. Jim could not go today because he was on duty and I seemed to have forgotten the camera, even my camera phone was left at home. So you will just have to trust me in that it was very cute.

Blog Tagging ... Favorite Things

I have been tagged by Stefanie for a MeMe (sorry Stefanie, I copied your pic. I like it. ) This is My Favorite Things:

1. Jack

2. Jim

3. My house

4. Coffee

5. Chocolate

6. Massages/Getting pampered at a spa

7. Diamonds

8. Books

9. Sunday morning coffee and paper (yes coffee is on here twice!)

10. Watching decorating/flipping/selling houses shows

For Jack's favorite things, that is easy. His list goes something like this:

1. Trains

2. Trucks

3. Cars

4. Tractors

5. Ice Cream

6. School

7. His friend Kyle at school

8. His teacher Ms Kelsey

9. His room

10. His Mama and Daddy :)

Okay now Jane, Carolyn and Liesl. Your turns!

School Pictures

We got Jack's school pictures today. For all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc out there wanting one, yes you will get one in your Christmas card. But for those not on our Christmas card list, here they are.

This picture shows his true personality - the mischievous, when-can-I-get-in-trouble Jack.

And this picture shows him plotting something very devious.

No Offers

Well my phone was not ringing off the hook with offers to babysit, so I had to improvise and use another babysitter. The TV. Yep that is right, I sat Jack down in front of The Polar Express movie. It seems however, our dvd of the movie is not working because it kept jumping back to the beginning, so I had to use the tv version that was on Tivo. This worked like a charm until a commercial would come on and the child would burst into tears and start screaming. I, of course, came running from whatever room to fast forward through the commercials. But hey it occupied the child for a couple of hours. Between that and Thomas shows, I was able to get my house cleaned, laundry done, bills paid, and Christmas cards addressed.

The only room that I did not tackle was Jack's room and well that is an all day project that MUST get done soon. I seriously need to go through all his toys and box up the ones he does not play with anymore. I also need to paint his room and hang some stuff up on his walls that have been sitting in his closet since we moved. Jim bought these really cute airplane and train shelves that Jack keeps wanting to play with because he can see them on the top shelf in his closet. The room will be really cute once it is done, or I should say once I get my butt in gear and actually work on it.

So because the rooms were cleaned, I thought I would show off my new window coverings that took TEN WEEKS to get to me. I ordered them the week after we moved in and they promised me that I would have them by Thanksgiving. They were good on their promise, however, they were delivered TWO days before turkey day and that was only because I begged on the phone with the installer. I am really pleased with how the shutters and valances came out, just not sure it was worth the small fortune (college education) that I paid.

Somebody Want to Babysit Today?

I really need a babysitter today. Anybody out there want a two-year-old for the day. He's not TOO much trouble. Well okay, yeah he is trouble, but it is a good kind of trouble. All you have to do is play choo choos with him all day long and he will be happy happy happy. My problem is that I do not have time to play choo choos with him. My house is incredibly dirty. The laundry pile is so high that my poor husband had to search for a clean pair of underwear today. The Christmas cards need to be done and sent out. The bills need to be paid. And the Christmas tree needs to be basically decorated again because the above-mentioned two-year-old has taken every single ornament off from the bottom half. Yeah that is the reason why there has been no picture taken of said tree. It is half naked. Oh yeah and I have a room full of presents that need to be wrapped.

So if you are not doing anything today, wanna come babysit?

Sunday Best

Grammy and Papa bought Jack a cute little suit outfit that he wore to church today. Here are some pictures of us in our Sunday Best.

Doodle Bopping

Today was the big Doodlebop concert day for Jack and I. Here he is posing in front of the ridiculously-priced merchandise ($25 for one of those stupid DeeDee, Rooney, or Moe hats in the background and no he did not get one) booth. It was SOOOOOO cold (yes it was in the 20s) this morning and I think he is still a frozen Jackaroo here.


And here he is with his "mom-approved" Doodlebop merchandise that I bought for him - a $4 kazoo and $12 binoculars. He was happy until he saw the $20 twirling lights that he just HAD to have, but the mean Mom that I am said no.


We saw a TON of little girls with pink hair dressed just like DeeDee, right down to the piano dress and boots.

Bus Driver Bob was there to warm up the crowd - sorta. He basically just introduced commercials for other shows on Playhouse Disney. Pretty lame if you ask me.

And of course there were the Doodlebops themselves. They did a lot of songs that I had never heard of so I was a bit disappointed there. I was trying to figure out if they were lip synching and I honestly couldn't tell. If they were, they were doing a good job. And DeeDee sure was breathing hard after dancing all around a few times. Good workout. I was quite disappointed in the 25-minute intermission. I mean really people, do you really think that trying to keep a packed house full of toddlers occupied for 25 minutes is fun??

I am not sure Jack enjoyed it to be honest. About 15 minutes into the show, he asked me if we could go bye bye now. So I guess that is a good indicator of what he thought. I think he was getting into it at the end when they were doing some of their regular songs. And the finale was Moe pulling the rope and a bunch of confetti dropped from the ceiling. Kinda cool. The mother next to me with her two-year-old was having a hard time of it because her toddler did NOT want to be there at all. He practically screamed all the way through it and they ended up leaving early.

The concert was in Baton Rouge so we drove over last night and stayed in a hotel nearby. Since Jim had today off, he went with us and stayed in the room while Jack and I went to the concert. Afterward, we walked along the Mississippi River a bit (very short since it was only about 30 degrees!). We went to see the USS Kidd museum. I can tell you that Jim and Jack enjoyed themselves A LOT more than I did on the ship. I truthfully did not care, but Jim was in heaven walking around it.

All in all a good day was had by all. We stopped at a mall near New Orleans on the way home and walked around a bit. We did not go to the Mall of Louisiana simply because it seemed too much work at the time. We can do that another non-holiday time!

Mommy and Me Day

Today was Mommy and Me Day at Jack's preschool. It was a day where all the mothers went from classroom to classroom and made christmas crafts with their little ones. It was all so organized too. We had exactly 20 minutes in each classroom to make the specified craft and then it was onto the next.


See what we (ME) made today. We (ME) also made a christmas tree out of painting our hands green and putting them on the paper with red glitter. That was kept at school to show off at the Christmas program next week.

And speaking of Christmas program, how is it that my child is old enough to be in a Christmas program? Rbelle asked the same question on her blog too and I just can not fathom where the time has gone. I was talking to the school director today and she told me that actually the two-year-olds are just going to be on stage for 3 songs and then they will get to come sit with their families. This is to not distract from the older kids, since we all know how well two-year-olds can sit still, especially on a stage in front of a hundred people.

We also had an "incident" today at school. While us mothers were doing the kid's crafts, the kids were playing with the various toys in all the classrooms. Well during the making of the sheep (cotton ball) ornament, Jack got into a fight with another little boy and ended up biting him on the thumb! At first, I could not believe it when the other mother told me (not so nice) that my son bit her son. I mean Jack has never ever ever done anything like that before. But she stuck her son's thumb in my face to prove it and sure enough there was a thumb with Jack teeth marks on it. By this time, Jack is screaming and I go to him quite mad that he would do such a thing and about ready to lay into him about it. But another mother whispered in my ear that the other boy provoked Jack by hitting Jack really hard with a toy and I guess Jack got fed up and reached down and bit. So here I am with this mother very obviously angry with ME about her son's thumb and not knowing how to handle my son biting her son simply because he was defending himself. So I kind of just told Jack that it wasn't nice and made him say sorry to the little boy, but inside I wanted to yell at the other mother that HER son should say sorry to Jack and ME for that matter for her very rude and uncalled for behavior!

I tell ya preschool can get very tense these days!

School Time

Well we did it. Jim and I signed Jack up for a private school today. He will start their Pre-K program in August of 2008. I know that sounds like a long time from now, but when I thought about it, it is only a year and a half away!

This school is awesome. It is a small school where they limit the class size to 16 and in each class they have a teacher with a teacher's aide. The curriculum includes math, social studies, spanish, music, and they even learn latin! They also have band, swimming team, and other sports. All the kids wear uniforms with the school crest on the shirts, which are so cute. I tell ya, I was so impressed with this school, I almost wished that Jack was 4 already so he could go. But then I realized, that I really only have less than 2 years left with him at home until he is off to school in his own world and that got me a little bit sad. The time goes by way too fast. But I feel really good knowing that he will be going to the top-rated school in the state and one of the best in the country.

I was having quite the quandry knowing that the school district we are in is not very good. In fact, it is one of the worst in the city and in the state of Mississippi. It is way too overcrowded, because this is where all the population has moved since the hurricane and they have had nothing but problems. Every time I talked to somebody, they kept telling me that they would not put their kid in that school disctrict. We couldn't really move because Jim has to be in a certain area for his job as a police officer and after that last move, I am not going to do that again anytime soon. So this was our other option. Of course, by the time we get him through 8th grade, we will have paid for the equivalent of a college education at Harvard, but I feel it is worth the sacrifice. He is worth it.

My Turn and a Welcome

First of all, I want to extend a big Welcome to the Blogging World to my friend from High School - Stefanie! She is a brave brave soul who has 3 kids ages 12, 2 and 7 months old. She and her husband adopted their 2-year-old daughter, Sophia, from China and then proceeded to have another baby. I guess she loves to change diapers and chaos hehe. She is even pursuing another adoption again at this time. Jane, you might want to check her blog out also since you are getting closer and closer to getting your own little Chinese bundle of joy. Anyway, Welcome Steffie! It is great to see you and your family doing so well.

And onto other news, it was my turn in the Jackaroo house to get the crud. I woke up yesterday morning and went "uhoh". Of course, it also happened to be on a day when Jim had to work. Twelve very very long hours of just me and Jack and the wonderful joy of dry heaving. I tell ya, dry heaving sure is a workout because my abs right now sure are sore! Thankfully, I got the 24-hour version and not the 5-day version that Jim had. I actually was able to eat something and not have my stomach go into fits. Yay! But I have to say that Jack was soooo good yesterday. He played with his cars, trucks, and puzzles while watching movie after movie. I think he understand that I was not feeling well and at one point when I got up to get something, he told me "just lay down Mama, just lay down". What a sweetie he is! Yes, I know I have the best kid in the world.

I am glad that it hit me when it did because later this week, Jack and I are going to Baton Rouge to go to a Doodlebops concert. Yes, that is right, we are driving 2.5 hours to go see a toddler rock band. But, you see it isn't all for the toddler, because there just happens to be The Mall of Louisiana right nearby. What a coincidence huh?

Internet Shopping, MP3 Players, The Polar Express

My shopping is almost done. I only have a couple more gifts to buy and then I will be done. Love that. I woke up this morning and started shopping on the internet at 5 am while talking on yahoo messenger with a friend in California. Her son was not sleeping and thus she was up while he was watching tv. Sounded familiar because I was doing the same thing only a few nights ago. The things we mothers do huh?

Anyway, I got 6 gifts purchased. I heart Sharper Image. Since there are so many people to buy for this year, I had to get all organized about it. I wrote down everybody's name (12 in all) and then had to fill in the blanks with the gifts I bought. And now I only have 2 blanks! How exciting! Such Joy!

And speaking of exciting, I bought Laura an MP3 player for her birthday when she was here over Thanksgiving. Now, I just have to preface this by saying, I am pretty much NOT hip as to the new and cool gadgets out there. And I know that MP3 players have been out for what 5 years or so? But after playing with hers and downloading songs for her, I just have to say they are cool! I never saw the need for them because I basically am not that music-crazed. I mean I like music in the car while driving and my xm satellite radio fills that need, but am not one of those people who HAS to have music all the time. I know those kind of people. I was married to one at one time and he had easily 1500 cds in his collection. I know excessive. And I believe 5 of them were mine.

But this little MP3 player that Laura got, is totally cool. And even I was getting into it and the possibilities of owning such a thing. Who knew that they were THAT cool? Yeah Yeah I know. I am so behind the times and people were saying they were THAT cool 5 years ago. But I am slow and very unhip!

I just have to mention Jack's latest love/obsession - The Polar Express movie. It was on tv last night, and even though we have it on dvd, we were watching it. The boy watched this movie with such intent and excitement than any other movie EVER. And that includes the movie Cars! He was so into the movie that when a commercial came on, he would get very angry and come to me and tell me to put the movie back on. Like I have control over the networks. When the Santa scene came on, I seriously thought the boy was going to explode with excitement. He was mesmerized! And for that I just have one thing to say to the makers of The Polar Express - Thank You! I now have something that will occupy the boy's attention for a couple of hours! I can internet shop, or read, or gasp clean my house! Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Happy Feet Not so Happy for a Toddler

I ventured out with the potential puke/diahrea bomb also known as Jack today. He seems fine, despite the doctor's warnings about the virus coming back at any time. We went to see the movie Happy Feet. It got great reviews saying it was a good movie for the kids and all. But my kid did not like it at all. There were some really scary places where some seals and whales were chasing the penguin all over the ocean that pretty much traumatized the boy. And if it wasn't a scary scene, it was a preachy message about the environment and how we should not be fishing in the waters where there are penguins. I honestly don't have too much opinion about that issue, but I do not like it in my kid's movie.

It was cute in some parts and the dancing penguins did make me smile a bit, but all in all, I would not recommend the movie for any of the toddlers out there. Jack did end up crawling into my lap during the scary whale scene and then soon fell asleep for the last 30 minutes of the movie. So that was Jack's opinion of it all - a snooze fest.

Rotovirus... Or Maybe Not

Well we took the boy to the doctor yesterday and he thinks that Jack has the rotovirus. Now when he first said that, I thought it was some deadly disease, but my fears were soon calmed when I found out that the disease I was thinking of was the hauntevirus (sp?).

So the doctor went on this big tangent of how I was exposed to the toxic sludge, otherwise known as Jack's puke and diarhea. Seriously people, he scared me! I guess one little drop of the stuff on you pretty much guarantees that you too will be able to enjoy the good times of puking up your lungs or having them come out the other end. Sounds like fun eh? He also told us to get Jack what is called "Rehydrolite". He said that Pedialyte is basically worthless. And went on about the schedule of eating and drinking for the next couple of days.

But, the thing is, the kid is doing great. He has not had any symptoms of the horrible virus since yesterday morning and the "diaper incident". He even snuck 2 cookies out of the pantry while I was not looking and ate those. And when I asked him if he had any cookies, all he said was "huh?" with this face full of crumbs and chocolate. And since he was able to down those with no problems, I am guessing we are over it for the time being. I just hope that I don't get to enjoy all the fun that Jack and Daddy have had in the last few days.

So today was our first day back to just Jack and I together. We had Grammy, Papa, and Laura visiting us and then Jim got sick and was off work for a week since Thanksgiving. He went back to work today, leaving Jack and I to come up with stuff to do together. Of course, I have a pile of laundry a mile high to do and there's always the toilets the clean, but who really wants to do that? I may take Jack to the movie Happy Feet later on if he is still feeling better.

And after trying about 12 times to get a picture of myself that I don't hate too much, I came up with this to show you all my new hairdo.