Where Do I Start?

I know every one is busy but this week has been almost to the point of ridiculous for me. Especially today. It all started last weekend when Vincent had that telltale "bark" of croup. This came right along with a major, cook your eggs on him fever. He spent that night in our bed (read: he's the only one who slept). He was down and out, in and out of sick to perfectly fine all weekend. Now his fever's gone, he just has the remaining cough and slightly runny nose.

Jade, on the other hand, is now taking her turn. Tuesday night she got that whiney, weepy way about her, and then came her fever. Anytime she gets a fever, she gacks. With no warning. Well, we gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed, hoping to avoid the gack but to no avail. She ended up crying and waking up around 10:30 that night. Brian went up to get her and bring her down. As soon as he hit the kitchen... gack. And then, yeah, gack again. She spent the night in our bed (read: she's the only one who slept). Enter Wednesday.

I worked like a horse all day at my real job, then took care of the kids that night when Brian went to work. Pretty much as soon as he left when I was trying to get dinner ready Jade gacked, again.

We had replaced the toilet upstairs that wouldn't flush with the one from the powder room, and put a new toilet in the powder room. Naturally, we couldn't find a water line that was the right length so we went round and round trying to get that working. After putting it together and it leaking exactly 104 times, I finally got the GD thing to work and not leak.

I had to post process the engagement pics I took on Sunday and get them posted. We were also qualifying the next day with our firearms at work, so I had to make dessert (we cook out at the range when we're done shooting). I usually make these really easy little cheesecakes for stuff like that so in my effort to make it a little healthier, I decided to use fat free cream cheese. I learned pretty quickly that you can't use fat free cream cheese for cheesecake, and had to start over when it wouldn't smooth out in the mixer. It was also one of those nights that the kids decided to stay up in their rooms partying instead of sleeping.

Well, we had to get up early and get to the sitters early so I could be at the range by 8:30. Naturally, when 7am rolled around, no one wanted to get up, and Jade was back to status fever. After tears and begging and pleading for cooperation, just once, most of the morning, we were out the door. No one ate, and we were barely dressed, but we were out the door. Everyone was medicined up. The only redeeming factor was there was no gack. I got the kids dropped off and was between Kouts and Wheatfield when I realized I had forgotten the plates and silverware for work. Rush rush rush. Try to find paper plates in Wheatfield at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Well, I finally got to the range to qualify and was settled down and ready to go. My gun, apparently, wasn't. About 1 in every 5 or so rounds was a misfeed/jam/or some other major malfunction. BIG BIG problems. The firearms guys wouldn't even sign off on it because it was such a piece of crap. It had problems at first, so I sent it off to the manufacturer. They said they went thorough it and made it all better. I shot about 100 rounds thru it after I got it back and it seemed ok. I don't know what happened between then and today, but whatever it was, it was all BAD. There was no way I could ever rely on this gun to maybe save my life, or someone else's life and it had to go. This had me all flustered and I shot the rest of the qualification like total shit. I went home for a few minutes at which time I learned there was a message from the horse barn that one of the horses was lying down and wouldn't get up. Great.

I figured if he was really ill, they would have done more to get a hold of me and/or called the vet, so I went to Cabelas and got a good deal on this gun. Sometimes you just have to take care of things when you can. After all that runaround, I got the kids from the sitter and we went out to the barn. Sam was still lying on his side but was able to get up. We diagnosed him with a hoof abscess, which is an infection inside of the foot under the hoof wall. The vet is coming out to check him out tomorrown AM. In the meantime, we soaked his foot in epsom salts and put this junk in his foot to draw out the infection. Finally the kids are in bed, the laundry is running, the dishes are done, and I am finally unwinding.

How was your week?