a ROUGH week and more snow days

The Sparacino house has had it rough this week. 

I started getting sick last Friday and went to the ER super early Monday morning with incredible ear pain. I can't even describe how bad the pain felt. I got antibiotics and pain meds and nothing improved. 

I have had constant pain and drainage from that ear. I saw my PCP on Tuesday and he referred me to an ENT. The ENT examined me and ordered a CT scan (!!!) to make sure I did not have mastoiditis or other worse infection. I have a ruptured eardrum and very bad infection. I have new antibiotics and better pain meds. 

Tim got a terrible stomach bug Wednesday night and has missed so much work this week. He's been sick but taking such good care of me. I married up and I thank God for him continuously. He loves me selflessly. We have some good kiddos that have been troopers at all of these dr/hospital visits.

I was really worried about the infection because Humira can cause you to get infections easier and make it harder to get better after getting one. I was literally pretty close to having to be admitted to the hospital and be on antibiotics intravenously. 

I have not eaten much at all in a week and I'm still having lots of pain and drainage from that ear. I do think that I am getting a tiny bit better everyday.

The first few days, I did not get out of bed at all except to go to a doctor appointment.

The last few days I have been able to camp out on the couch. However, I have not felt like reading or blogging or anything. Today, I seem to be doing a bit better.

Yesterday, we got some unexpected snow. Tim left work early but he still had trouble getting home. He had to run and get us some groceries and a normal 6 minute trip home took 35 minutes. The roads got bad very quickly! Thankfully, it was a teacher work day, so all kids were home.

It has been snowing the entire day here. We probably have around 4 inches of snow. The kids went outside and played in it earlier. I snapped a few pictures from the back door. Those pictures are below, along with a few from the last week and a half.

A beautiful cardinal visiting our bird feeders during the snow we had a week and a half ago. I believe this was from February 18th.

I cleaned and organized by "office."

My sweet kitty bear has been keeping me company.

A beautiful sunset on my way to a baby shower.

A baby shower for our friend, Jen who is having a baby girl very soon!

Beautiful cookies made for the shower by my friend, Robin!

I have been a pitiful sight!

 Having fun playing in the falling snow!

 Tim enjoying playing some Solitaire

 I love how much fun they have together and what sweet childhood memories they will have!

a cold Sunday at home

Today was a cold, rainy day that started off with church. I was very glad to see one of my "online" friends was visiting our church and Sunday school class today!

We finished boxing all of the Christmas stuff and hauled it up to the attic.

I made black bean and corn enchiladas for dinner. We watched both NFL games and then the Golden Globes (I can't believe it is the last year for Tina and Amy to host!) I'm now about to watch Downton Abbey from tonight.

B Boy had a fever today and was not feeling well so I am going to keep him home from school tomorrow. I'm praying that it is not the flu! I hate to see him not feeling well!

the weekly recap

We had church on Sunday and went to Dixie Cafe for lunch. C Girl started back to choir and GA's and B Boy decided to go to RA's this year! Tim and I went to night service and we always enjoy that.

This was the state of the kiddos' rooms on Monday. I was SO not cleaning those messes!

I had Bible study Tuesday morning and Tuesday folders for B Boy's class in the afternoon.

The kiddos had Awana on Wednesday evening. Tim and I had a mini-date to Crystal Bridges museum. There was an art exhibit on early American art that was ending soon. The painting below is one that is on loan from the Louvre in Paris, France. I still find things that we get to experience like that so amazing!

Yesterday, I had a district PTO meeting and I wore boots for the first time this fall because our weather as cooled down a ton for the time being!

 Tim asking me to make pumpkin cream cheese muffins that I made years ago. I couldn't find my recipe, but found another one online. These were amazing!

The kiddos came home with these ribbons that they made. I love it. I'm so glad they are learning about this every year.

 Yesterday was also piano lessons and soccer practice.

I got a call this morning a couple of hours in to school that poor C Girl had gotten sick. She has been so sick and pitiful today. I'm praying that this passes soon!

It has been a rainy, cool day and we are eating pizza and laying low tonight.

A not-so normal week

Well, it has been a weird week here in the Sparacino home. 

Monday, I cleaned around the house and Tuesday, I had Bible study. 

Tuesday evening, I started having a pretty serious allergy attack and I took 2 Benadryl at bedtime. It did not help and I was up most of the night. I had to miss meeting some sweet friends for breakfast Wednesday morning :-( After the kids left for school on Wednesday, I went back to sleep until noon. That is something that has never happened. I still felt so awful when I woke up. My throat and ears hurt terribly and I was severely worn out. 

I spent the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday on the couch. 

It always feels so strange when I have been sick for a few days. The house just gets out of whack and I feel like I have lost time!

By yesterday evening, I had started to feel a little better.

We were supposed to have terrible weather and I had been trying to prepare for the worst.

Thankfully, we only had a little rain, wind and hail and it was over fairly quickly.

We also had an unexpected visit from Aunt Karen and Uncle Kevin George! The kids were thrilled to see them!!!

They are in the area to watch the Razorback Diamond Hogs play for the next few days.

Hopefully, they will get to see B Boy have baseball practice this weekend.

We have our first practice tonight. It's a big year because he is starting machine pitch baseball!!! He is so excited to start playing! Go Royals!

My poor, sweet C Girlie woke up early this morning and was sick. The yucky, pukey kind of sick. It is so sad seeing her that way. We are just hanging out and right now she is asleep. 

I was holding off on giving them the movie Frozen until Easter, but I decided that I would watch it with her today. 

She was supposed to have a party at school today celebrating the end of their standardized testing that they had this week. She is SO sad that she is missing it.

I have a women's event at church tonight and I am so ready to be out of the house!

We are having a wonderful fellowship and hearing from our own Susan Goss and from Erin Smalley. It's going to be a great night!

C Girl before church this past Sunday. I love how she loves to take purses to church.

The beautiful rainbow after the storm yesterday. It was so strange to see lightning streak across the sky with a rainbow, dark sky, and bright sunshine from the west.

I love mammatus clouds!

The slow days of summer

After 8 days of being sick, I finally called for a doctor's appointment this morning.  The doctor really thinks that I just had a bad allergy reaction to something in the air.  He said I did everything right short of using a neti pot. Have any of you ever used one???

I ended up getting an ouchy steroid shot to get me to feeling better sooner.  I actually already feel GREAT! Praise be for modern medicine!

These first 2 weeks of summer break have been everything that I hoped they would be.

Slow.


Easy.


Not busy.


Relaxing.

I have worked on projects that I have wanted to get finished.  

I have been deep cleaning the house. 
-Seriously, how should I have to deep clean a house that I have only lived in for 3 1/2 months??!!

I started reading an actual book.  
Oh glory!  I have been reading one on the Kindle since January, but to me, there is just something about having a real book in my hand.

Today I worked on my recipe collection.  
I find recipes online and then forward them to my email to keep in a recipes folder in my email.  
I also have a Word document that I am creating to store all of our favorite recipes.  I'm then going to print them all to keep in a binder in the kitchen.

I updated most of the recipes and even picked some to try out that have just been sitting in the folder.  I'm so happy that I have more time to cook and try new recipes!

The kids have been loving all the free time.  
They have played outside, read tons of books, drew pictures, colored pictures, did puzzles, watched movies, eaten popsicles, and even helped me with cleaning the house!

And can we talk about this amazing weather we have been having?!!
Well, minus the storms and rain.

I have had the windows open every single day!

In June!

Hotter temps are coming soon and we will have to find lots of ways to keep cool!

We are happy to start having Tim home soon.  He has been working like a madman to get the schedule done for the junior high so that he can finally take some much needed vacation time.

We have fun things lined up for when his is finally off.

We are also looking forward to a visit from Jessica and Parker and then our summer vacation trips at the end of the month!

What fun things do you have planned for summer?

Why I haven't blogged in a week

Do you ever feel like you have came out of a sick fog?  I do every time I get sick.  Mainly because NOTHING gets done around the house.

Monday, we had a great Memorial Day. It was relaxing and we grilled burgers for dinner.
At dusk, we were fortunate to get to view the conjunction of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. It was neat and the kids loved it.

Tuesday I noticed that my throat was a little sore but didn't think much of it.

I took the kiddos to the library to get their own library cards and check out books!

Wednesday, we were invited by friends to join them at Silver Dollar City.

The kids had an absolute blast.

I had a lot of fun too, but my sinuses and allergies killed my throat and by the end of the day, I could barely talk.

Thursday and Friday and most of Saturday were spent dealing with pharyngitis and laryngitis.

I could half way talk by Saturday night, but still sounded hoarse.

Saturday night was B Boy's end of the year tee ball party at the Natural's game.

We were treated to free tee shirts, a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium and the boys on the team got to go out on the field and stand with the players during the National Anthem.

We had cupcakes and cake and stayed and watched the game.

I felt somewhat better yesterday and we ran a bunch of errands, checked out Lake Atalanta, visited some junk vintage stores, and cleaned up around the house.  
I feel a LOT better today and looking forward to the week!