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At Least the Week Started Out Fun

This last week started out fun with Halloween. The kids got to dress up for school (I didn’t think to take a picture, but Joseph dressed up as a Gryffindor student and Abigail was Sonic), paint pumpkins after school, and go trick-or-treating. Abigail had been battling a little bit of a cold with a lingering cough, but she was quite a bit better by Halloween. She continued to improve but still was battling a cough and some congestion. Then on Friday night, she threw up twice and popped a slightly higher fever. She said that her ears hurt in the middle of the night on Friday, but on Saturday morning she said they were fine. She still had a fever and then this morning the fever popped up over 101 and she complained again about her ears. I carted her off to urgent care and they confirmed my suspicion that she had an ear infection (and a double one at that). Hopefully the antibiotics will start kicking in soon. If she’s still feeling poorly tomorrow, I already have a note from the doctor for her to take the day off…and then the kids have Tuesday off (with it being election day and with the school being a polling place, I think they thought it best to just not have school)…so we have options for her to rest. Everyone else is struggling a bit, too. Joseph is dealing with crazy allergies, Paul’s got some sinus issues, and my back has been acting up (I think it’s from spending the night on the couch so I could be closer to Abigail should she need me). Hopefully things are going to improve soon.

Even the sunrise was a bit spooky on Halloween.
I decided to go a little dramatic for Halloween…complete with bat earrings.
Painting pumpkins.
Joseph did little Minecraft characters all around his pumpkin.
I think this is called a creeper.
Another Minecraft character.
Paul’s (the green jack-o’-lantern), Abigail’s pumpkin, and Joseph’s pumpkin.
My pumpkin.
Getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Paul stayed back to hand out candy.
It was fun to see these two walking around our neighborhood.
This is one of our favorite houses.
It’s kind of our tradition to take a picture in front of it. I’m friends with the people who live here and they are super-nice.
A spooky moon ended the night perfectly.
I traded out the jack-o’-lantern for one of the signs I got from our neighborhood event last month. I think it looks great with the checkered stuff I already have up there.
Joseph got Pokemon cards in his pumpkin bucket and he was beyond excited.
Wearing kitty ears that she got from the prize cart at school.
She asked if she could play dress-up for a bit.
Joseph painted this in art class. It’s a lighthouse (with a beam of light) on a cliff with the ocean and some rocks. He was so happy to show it to me (he knows I really like lighthouses). He also painted the moon and night sky.
The art teacher cut out a cat for Abigail. She glued it to a paper and then cut out some fall leaves to also glue onto the paper. She says she drew eyes on the cat but it was hard to see because she used a black pen. You can see it if you look close enough, though.
She got another pair of kitty ears from the prize cart and said she wanted me to wear them so we could match. 5/6 is a fun age.
Last Christmas we went back to California to visit my mom and we were going through some things and found my most favorite teddy bear in the world. I didn’t even realize it was still around. I almost cried when I saw it. When I give it a hug, all of a sudden I’m five years old, sitting at our brown (was it Formica?) kitchen table, eating Cream of Wheat for breakfast with my daddy sitting next to me. I had to bring it home to be with Eeyore (who was a present from my daddy when I was a teenager). I was telling Abigail about my memories and she asked me (with the lack of inhibition that only a 5YO possesses) if I was sad that he died. I told her that I was, but that I was so, so happy that I would get to see him again. She then said, “Yeah! That’s so good!” Oh baby-girl. It IS so good. ♥️
This was last night. She hadn’t thrown up at all that day, but we kept the bowl there just in case. I’m hoping the antibiotics kick in quickly.