The Parable of the Strep Throat

If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all, right?

If that were the case, I am afraid I might not blog again until spring.

So, let's tell a story. It's not really a parable, but I will still make parallels to my life and liken this story unto myself.

I have a friend, Sue, who moved from a big city in California to my little street in Orem. (This was last year.) She has two children, one in school, the other in daycare. After living in Orem for a couple of months, she and her children started getting one cold after another. They couldn't seem to shake them. She thought they might be getting the sicknesses from the daycare. Then, one day, she came down with a major fever, chills, really REALLY sick and couldn't even get out of bed. I took one of her children for a few hours while the other one was in school, another friend lent her a tv so her kids could have something to do while she was sick and we brought her in meals. Turns out she had strep throat, and so did the child I watched for a few hours (luckily, we didn't catch it). Once the amoxicillin came through, and she finally thought she might actually live, we had a talk. She asked me if it was always like this in Utah, and would she get sick like this every winter she lived here? Because if that was the case, she was going back to California RIGHT NOW. I told her no, absolutely not...I had gotten strep throat a few months before that but it was the first time in my entire life to have been that sick. I told her that the first year of living somewhere you get introduced to all of the "local" strains of sickness that you have never seen where you are from, but I'm sure after the first year, you will be accustomed to all of these virus strains and it will get better.

Now, I guess, I have to take my own advice. I got sick on December 8, three weeks ago. I was mostly better for three days around Christmas, still with a small cough and a little congestion, and then I came down with a full blown cold again. I don't have strep, knock on wood. But I have had a fever and chills for two days along with a cold. And Christian has been to the doctor twice this week and finally got diagnosed with a massive ear infection, and if I'm not feeling better by Monday, I'm definitely going in. Can I move back to Utah yet? I really like Iowa, but am I going to be sick and miserable for the next three months? I'm a bad mom when I'm sick too! My kids watch way too much tv when I'm sick. And I guess the biggest hurdle to think about is that we will most likely move somewhere completely different next August, and have to endure this again next winter! Just shoot me now.

Here I go complaining again. So, if it's true, that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, you may not be hearing from me again for a while on the blog.

Here's a picture of my kids playing Chutes and Ladders, to offset my crankiness.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année! (Et si mon français n'est pas trés bien, ne me dis pas Deneal! Je ne me souviens pas si "dis" est le mot propre. Zut!)