Saturday, Jan 3

On Christmas Eve, Samuel started complaining off & on of a sore throat. He was coughing occasionally at night, but then again, so was Sarah. I put the humidifier in both of their bedrooms at night & dosed them up w/ cough medicine & Motrin when they needed it. And that was that.

Slowly, Sarah's cough tapered off & went away altogether, but Samuel continued to complain of a sore throat. On Wednesday, when Larry got up to go to work, Samuel was already up & in the living room watching TV (this is NOT out of the ordinary for our little man...he wakes up with the chickens!). Larry took one look at his limp-as-a-dishrag appearance & came to wake me up. He said that he felt like Samuel had gotten worse all the sudden. He had that "look" of a sick kid. I took him to the doctor that morning & sure enough, he had a ton of fluid on both ears. The doc said he was surprised that he could hear us at all with all the fluid in there. While his ears technically weren't infected, given his history of (TONS OF) infections, the doc went ahead & wrote me a Rx. Considering that the next day was a holiday ---and I think we all know that a kid who's "almost" sick will inevitably become very much sick on a holiday when all the doc's offices are closed & the only option is to visit the mucho expensive ER--- I went ahead & filled the Rx and began giving it to him. Since then, he has had ups & downs. He seems perfectly fine one minute, playing & running & being your average typical crazy boy....and then he falls apart the next. Tonight I was looking at his eardrums & his left one is bulging. Gosh I hope these antibiotics kick in & kill off the yuck quick. I'm giving him Motrin too (for the pain) & if his eardrum still looks yucky tomorrow, I'm adding an antihistimine to it, too....gotta get that fluid dried up! He goes back to school Monday morning. I don't want him to feel yucky then.

On New Year's Day, we went to Larry's hometown to have a traditional New Year's lunch with his family. Honestly, it was the first time I've ever done the whole black eyed peas & cabbage thing...and it wasn't too bad after all. I kinda expected it to be gross, but Mammaw passed the test again with her awesome country cookin'. We also had sweet potatoes & cornbread. yum!

Savannah went out of town to visit her girlfriends on Wednesday. We just picked her up today. It's always such sweet fun to see the way she & these girls interact as we leave after a visit. You see, they moved away the summer after they were all in 1st grade. Remember...she's in 7th grade now, so it's been a long time since they left. Beginning about a year after they moved, she began going for a visit in the summer. Over the years, those visits have stretched out to Spring Breaks, Christmas holidays, summer & just about any other extended school break that they can fit a visit into. It's hard to believe that these girls are still so close & love each other so much after all these years of living in different towns, but they are. Today when we left them, their mom told Savannah that they are hoping to book a month-long visit this summer. ha ha! They love having her there & she loves going...but they may have to start charging rent for her visits. :)

As the holiday break winds to an end, I'm sad. It's always this way after a break from work/school. I love my mornings of sleeping a little later, hanging out in my pajamas all morning, having time to cook breakfasts that are just too time-consuming during the school days. But alas, it is that time. Monday morning will mark our first morning back after nearly 3 weeks off! But I'm not TOO worried. I'll only be at work for 2 weeks til I get another long weekend....and Spring Break is right around the corner....