Coughing

It's what we are doing around here this morning.  Clara and I picked up some nasty little virus on our way out of Arizona last week.  A little souvenir to remember it by I suppose.  And it's been not one bit of fun.  Started on  Tuesday night, Wednesday morning with a very sore throat.  Followed up on Thursday by an even worse sore throat.  Then on Friday, the fever and snotty stuff rolled in.  Clara and I stayed home from school together on Friday, absolutely miserable.  On Saturday, my throat felt so much better but for the first part of the day I felt like a truck hit me.  Then later in the day I started to find my feet and felt like I turned the corner.  And I turned a corner all right...the corner onto cough street.  Woke up at 2 a.m. coughing my fool head off and NOTHING I did seemed to relieve it.  I got up, had a drink, blew my nose, swallowed some honey, sucked on a cough lozenge, choked down some NASTY liquid Nyquil-ish stuff (BLECK-GAG-WRETCH-UGGH!), tried something warm to drink, googled home coughing remedies, decided I couldn't choke down raw garlic and onions at 3 a.m. (are those natural people CRAZY?) and swallowed MORE honey instead, walked around, surfed the net, elevated my head and finally got quiet enough to crash out again on up in the morning out on the couch in the family room.  At some point, Chris let Cooper out to go potty and then gifted him to me in my sleepy, dazed, coughing stupor.  I shoved his furry little butt into the crate where he slept beside me for a while longer until someone, Max maybe, came and busted him out of there.  Cooper is a mama's boy for sure.  As in...noone BUT mama will do.  And he's a sweet little monkey and all but sometimes that drives me NUTS!!!!!  There is nothing special about the way I stand out in the backyard with him to go poop.  I certainly don't stand there holding his furry little paws.  I don't whisper sweet words of encouragement or coddle him along.  And yet, often times he will only go for me.  Or at the very least, only AFTER he's had a snuggle with me.  It's enough to make you crazy.  Most times it isn't a problem, because like most other things in this house, Cooper's care does happen to fall to me.  BUT, when I am down sick and tired and exhausted, it would be nice if he would just roll with it and not pretend I hold some magic degree in Persuasive Puppy Pooping 101.  Apparently, I hold several lofty and important degrees in this household which render me the ONLY one certified to complete certain tasks.  For example...changing the empty toilet paper rolls.  Apparently that requires some major certification that only I possess because noone here EVER does that.  And it's NOT because they don't see the empty roll.  And they certainly are not going without paper.  They see said empty roll, leave it right there on the holder and proceed to start a new roll which they leave sitting on the sink beside the toilet.  Like I said, takes a special certification to remove empty roll from holder and install the new one in it's place.  Same with paper towels.  And also light bulbs.  The dishes into the dishwasher requires yet ANOTHER special certification.  Everyone seems to get them to the sink, or at least in the general area...but regardless of how empty the dishwasher is and ready to be loaded...noone in my family seems to be able to "go there".  Nope.  Another special mom certification required apparently.  Good grief!  Who knew I was so darned talented and advanced?!

But enough about me and my awesome collection of talents.  Here's an update on the rest of my household...Clara, still snotty but seems to look as though she feels much better today.  Chris, sitting working at the kitchen table AGAIN on a Sunday.  Gracious that man does put in the time for that company.  Ben, currently sleeping over at friends house, undoubtedly delighted to have found me so ill and sleeping when he checked in a bit ago because it means our family is not going to church today which means HE gets to go to breakfast with his friend for giant breakfast burritos which is his FAVORITE thing to do on a Sunday morning!  Oscar is tolerating Cooper more and more,  Cooper is harassing Oscar more and more.  Still working on the potty training, though he is definitely getting it.  He's using the "poochie bells" on the door like crazy.  He knows if he rings the bells with his nose then we will let him out.  If I had a buck for everty time I opened that door yesterday.  Grrrrr.  Trying not to discourage him and 9 out of 10 times he at least pees when he goes out..but SERIOUSLY.  That doggies needs a bigger bladder!  And then there is Max.  Still grounded.  Still very upset by it and still arguing about how unfair it is, ridiculous, uncalled for and reminding me constantly that I don't even know why I grounded him.  Oh brother.  But then...that's a post for another day, eh?

Okay, so that's what's happening here in Texas.  Oh...it's Sunday, for the record, and totally gray and overcast.  How DOES it do that nearly without fail every single Sunday????!!!!  I'm telling you, the sun does NOT shine in this state on Sundays.