Happy 2009: Sneezing, coughing, and a broken microwave

Well, unfortunately we're not off to a great start to 2009. Nothing earth-shattering here, but the last few days have passed by incredibly slow.

It's not a whole lot of fun (at least for me) on New Year's Eve to sit cooped up inside the house, but that's where we found ourselves the other night. It all started when I thought my allergies were acting up about a week ago with the sudden onset of sneezing and subsequent stuffy nose. I'm now better, but unfortunately Jack then developed the sneezing a few days later, which then progressed to one of those nasty wet coughs that make you wince to listen to when other children have them...you just KNOW lots of nasty germs are getting spread around with each cough. Yeah, Jack is now that child. Never before has the phrase "Cover your mouth!" been so paramount to my sanity, and of course it doesn't work on a two-year-old...which should clue you in to my mental state at this point.

Unfortunately, it (cold, virus??) didn't stop there, and baby Anna decided she would like to join the fun a few days ago as well. She's mainly had the sneezing and congestion, but then started in with the wet cough too. Never before have I been sneezed and coughed upon so much in my life. I did comfort myself though with the thought that I would take sneezing and coughing over vomiting and the other stuff...Anyway, our night was topped off by listening to our neighbors set off an obnoxious amount of fireworks right over our backyard. Now I'm all for some fun with fireworks, but this really was bordering on ridiculous, and with two sick kids, I was not in the mood to listen to them, nor have Jack and Anna woken up by them.

Our microwave then randomly decided it wanted to stop working New Year's Day afternoon as I reheated some food. You take for granted how much you use a microwave until it doesn't work anymore! So the bad news was that our bank account took a minor hit, but at least it happened on the best day of the year for appliance sales. We ended up getting a pretty good deal on a new microwave! What a romantic gift to start the new year, don't you think?

Hope you all had a better start to the New Year!