Beep, beep, beep. The line is busy. Please hang up and try again.

My mom asked if I have been really busy lately since I haven't updated my blog lately. I knew I hadn't really posted much lately, but I didn't realize how little I've posted! Only one post this whole month! Preposterous.

Kid's bathroom before

Kid's bathroom after

I guess the answer is, yes. I've been quite busy. I've caught the painting bug again. I've painted two bathrooms SW Breezy and have started prep on our kitchen recently (SW Independent Gold). So that's kind of eaten up some nights.

Master Bathroom, not quite put together

another from the master.

I also started reading again. I haven't been real great about it recently. I was reading a long Revolutionary war series and got stuck half way through the third book. I loved the first two books and read them quickly, but the third felt more text bookish and was harder for me to get into. I didn't pick it up for a couple of months and then about a week ago I felt like reading it again and finished it in a few days. Then I started book 4 and am about half way in. When I read, I read. It kind of consumes me. That's why I go in spurts.

Matt traveled again this week, and that often leaves me too tired in the evening to blog. He's becoming known as a "travel guy", much to his dismay.  The trip he went on this week wasn't even remotely related to what he does at work, but they needed a software guy they trusted with a new potential client and a 100 million dollar contract that was on the line. Yeah, no pressure.



Oh, and I guess I never really blogged about the horrible month and a half of sickness around here that kind of sucked the life out of me. Starting in early December Dean got the flu, then Walt, then Matt. I had it but never threw up. It lasted about 2 weeks total (more if you count the diarrhea). Then about 3 days after we were over that, Dean started complaining his tummy hurt. I thought it was just Christmas candy, but after a week of him saying that every day, we took him to the doctor to get it checked out. He had strep. Oh, and that same visit Walter was diagnosed with pink eye, a cold, and an ear infection.

Walt's already been "diagnosed" with a penicillin allergy, so she put him  on some other type of antibiotic. Dean was given augmentin. He got the cold from Walt while on his meds, and on day 8 or 9 of his treatment, he broke out in a horrible rash. Matt and I totally thought it was chicken pox because it started with rosy cheeks, then spots on his belly, then it spread across his whole body by morning. We took him into the doctor, and she originally said it was one of the worst allergic reactions she'd ever seen to penicillin. He was basically one big hive. She put him on an oral steroid thinking that would clear things up within a day. While it helped some, his body and legs were still totally covered the next day. At least his face wasn't still swollen. We took him back in, and they said he had erythema multiforme minor. Which seemed to stand for "we don't really know, but it's something more than an allergic reaction. More like an immune system malfunction that was most likely triggered by the penicillin and strep and cold." He had the rash about a week. We racked up a good $200+ in co-pays this past month between all of this. At least we have insurance. It could have been worse.

You can't tell that well, but his lips, cheeks, and ears are all very swollen.

This was after 2 doses of steroids and 2 doses of Benadryl.

On a positive note, after all this, I was able to get a new pair of glasses, a new hair cut, went to the temple, and redeemed my Christmas pedicure. So, it wasn't just all hardships that kept me from blogging...