Club Strep

The DFW area is under attack.  The battle is raging and the residents of the greater metroplex area are losing.  Falling by the scores.  The attacker?  Group A Streptococcus Bacteria.  Strep throat is taking OVER the big D!  It's claimed two victims in our house.  So far.  Clara was out of school on Friday and at the doctor...diagnosis...Strep.  Her second round with it in a month.  The school has been handing it around like wildfire.  Some of her classmates have been out two and three times with it already.  I was SO hoping that Thanksgiving break was going to get here and we were going to be able to miss it without being affected.  Stay  home.  Get some much needed rest.  A nice break from the germ pool and all that.  But it was not meant to be.  Clara was miserable by Thursday afternoon when she came home from school and I just knew it was not good news.  Her pediatrician confirmed that for us Friday morning.  Almost immediately, I started feeling not so great.  But decided it was all in my head.  Something about sitting in the germy waiting room at the doctor, knowing hundreds of sick kids have moved through those halls and sat in those chairs and touched everything in there...well.  I think it messes with my brain.  And I automatically feel like I've contracted every disease those kids came in the door with.  So I blew it off as psychosomatic and got on with the business of life.  Saturday I stayed busy.  Chris and I went to the gym.  Ben needed some clothing for a school project.  The Constitutional Convention is coming up again and somewhere between Max's 8th grade year and now...the long coat that we got for this exact project has disappeared.  And so I needed to round up another one.  So off to Goodwill I went in search of something that might work.  I had great success and found exactly ONE long, black coat.  It's a trifle big.  Like a 3X size...but I'm sure we will figure out how to shrink it up a bit.  I think so long as he has something....it doesn't so much matter how well it fits.  Anyway...I also have a couple of family photo shoots coming up and had some new, fun ideas I wanted to get things for, so I made a stop by Hobby Lobby as well.  THAT place was a total mad house!  But I found what I needed and made it out of there.  By the time I made it home I was NOT feeling so groovy and was pretty sure it was NOT just in my head.  Still, I figured a good night's sleep would fix it and set me on the way to feeling MUCH better.  But when I woke up this morning, my tummy was upset in such a way that told me that my sleep had had little to no effect on my creeping illness.  The headache and burning throat kind of confirmed it.  I spent the first part of the day just laying around, trying to convince myself that I really WAS feeling okay.  But by 2:00 gave up on that and decided to just get the inevitable over with.  So I took myself on down to the minute clinic and had myself swabbed.  It only took a few minutes for the doc in the box to confirm that that were, indeed, two lines on the test strip.  A positive reading.  And now, I too, am a member of the DFW Strep Throat Club.  I came home, antibiotics in hand, and put myself back to bed, feeling slightly less guilty about feeling like crap with a bonafide diagnosis on the books.  I am, though, starting to feel stir crazy.  I have, after all, been laying around ALL DAY.  I finished the fifth Outlander book.  I finished editing my pictures for the dance studio.  I answered all of my e-mail.  And am now updating the blog world.  But I am itching to do something.  But feeling like not so much.  It's all making for a lovely state of mental restlessness.  I will not be surprised if, tomorrow, I do not have Max up at the clinic for his very own throat swab.  See, his head has been hurting and his tummy is upset too.  But he didn't want to go today.  Insisted he was feeling better.  Maybe he is.  Or maybe...tomorrow he will realize that he actually feels fairly yucky and that it ISN'T getting better like he thinks it is.  And he will agree to go and have his only little swab so he can get his own little bottle of magic antibiotics.  Only time will tell.  

What else has been happening around these parts?  Well...it's cooler today.  Not cold.  Just cooler.  But it's supposed to warm up again.  So we'll enjoy the brisk temperatures while they last.  We are SUPPOSED to get some rain over the next day or two.  But then...they always seem to say that here in Dallas and we NEVER get any.  We have seen about 10 drops so far today.  Big Whoop!  The cooler temps have had Cooper fired up and feeling frisky.  He's been into things.  Like...

the trash.  And being naughty....

stealing rolls of toilet paper and shredding them...and

 getting up on the kitchen table where I have freshly folded piles of clean laundry so he can steal socks.

Oh Cooper!!!!!  Such a naughty boy!

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving.  I am hosting this year.  And cooking.  Okay...I'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor and quit your laughing.  My inlaws are coming and our neighbor up the street.  And maybe her friend.  I think it will be a lovely day.  Providing we can get our disease state under control before Thursday!  I had thought of maybe going ahead and decorating for Christmas over the next couple of days here before Thanksgiving as the first days right after it are full of portrait appointments and will be so busy.  But I can't say, as I lay here tonight that THAT task holds any little bit of promise for tomorrow whatsoever.  And so...on that note.  I'm going to go put my aching head to bed.  And hope tomorrow comes quickly, bringing with it rapid recovery and a fresh outlook on the new day and this week of Thanksgiving celebration!  Night ya'll!

This Just In...FALL Is Making an Appearance in Texas!

I am happy to report that it is rather chilly in Texas this morning.  After enduring what has been a summer equal only to Hell,  I am SO pleased to wake up shivering under my blankets (the window was open) and feeling cold air sweep into my lungs!  Fall seems to have long since descended on other parts of the world. But Texas, as usual, has been marching to the beat of it's own weather drum.  Surprise, surprise, right?  I was starting to think we were going to be running our air conditioner well into Christmas.  But the weather is finally cutting us a little break and we have officially had to break out with our jackets this morning!  Woo Hoo!!!!  LOVE it!

I should be at the gym right about now.  But this morning, Cooper seems particularly intent on ignoring all his "allowed" toys and planning instead, to dismantle my lovely home.  He's been into mischief since the moment his little feet hit the floor.  He's been stealing rubber bands from backpacks for Max's teeth, socks for Clara's feet, absconding with my Zumba dance weights and trying to raid the trash.  I decided to stick around for a bit until he's a bit more ready for a nap.  Should be soon here!  Right now he's sitting in the front window barking repeatedly at the lady who walks down one side of the street and then runs back up the other.  She's done it 5 or 6 times now and Cooper is still on full alert, guarding us against all the scary exercisers out there checking their workout off their list.  Like I should be doing.  Only am not.  Thanks Cooper!

It's been an exciting couple of weeks around here.  Crazy busy as always.  The football season FINALLY wrapped up Tuesday night.  So we are DONE with football and football practice and weeknight games.  Swim team is still in full swing and will be for a good long time.  They are a bit more intense than middle school sports.  Clara is still doing drama club and is heading into final weeks of rehearsal before her BIG night!  She is narrating for the Wizard of Oz production.  She has all of her lines memorized.  Now, if all the other kids will get theirs memorized, this whole thing MIGHT just come together!  She's getting very excited for her night on the stage!  I have been busier than normal with pictures.  It's like all of a sudden, stuff just starts coming out of the woodwork!  I just finished a beautiful boudoir session and a fun senior shoot.  Hot on the heels of that I am doing the dance academy again this Saturday, then have two more family sessions the week of Thanksgiving.  Busy, busy, busy!
Chris is staying busy at work.  There have been a lot of changes there and shake up over the past month or two and it's a bit crazy getting it all sorted and settled into it's new form.  It's made for some long days and headaches for him...but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

It seems like the whole world around us is decorated for Christmas.  Good grief!  We haven't had Thanksgiving yet.  Some of those decorations went up before we even had Halloween!!!!  It kinds of drives me crazy.  And definitely takes the excitement out of the season for me.  The one thing I always loved about Christmas growing up was that weekend AFTER Thanksgiving when you would see the FIRST twinkle of Christmas lights go up.  And then each weekend you'd see more and more and it was so fresh and fun.  Now, Christmas is trickling in a full two months before Christmas.  And stays up a month AFTER it.  It makes me crazy!  The specialness just isn't there.  Everyone here hires these companies to come and professionally decorate their yards and homes.  It's all so generic.  Listen to me getting all "bah humbug" about this.  Still....Grrrrr.  No decorations here until AFTER Thanksgiving!

On Monday I went to the zoo with Clara's class for her field trip.  It was such fun!  I'd never been to the Ft. Worth Zoo and I LOVE zoos...so it was an extra special treat for me!  It's a beautiful zoo too!  Here are some photo highlights for you!

Clara with her fourth grade best buddies...Marissa, Clara, Bailey, Cara and Kristen

I love the monkeys!

These two were engaged in a serious chat!

I swear, some days I feel like I look just like this old gal!

But her mate still seems to want to whisper sweet nothings and romance into her ear!

And ram his tongue down her throat.  We left at this point lest the show get X-rated!

Bailey, Clara and Marissa

Peek a boo!

Hello Mama Hippo!

Field trip, field trip, What do you see?  I see a Tiger looking at me!

Captain Cat is obviously feeling a little sleepy!  Nice teeth!

Nighty nite!

Sloth Bear (I think we are kindred spirits!)

Clara loved the bird aviary.  It was full of parakeets and cockatiels.  

She was very brave and excited!  

I hope she doesn't ask for one of these!

Be vewy, vewy quiet!  Shhhhh.

If I EVER come across a rattle snake this big I think I will die right there on the spot.

See...a couple of leaves are changing.  

A wonderful day at the zoo with friends!  Life doesn't get much better for a 4th grader!

That seems to be about it.  For now.  My furry friend seems to be getting sleepy and has just settled himself down into his little bed with a big yawn.  So I'm thinking it's safe to slip out and get on with my workout while he rests himself and recovers from this morning's mischief!


UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!

I was right about Cooper today.  THIS is what I found waiting for me when I got home from the gym!  BAD DOG!!!!!!!!