Thank you, Mama B

Mama B, you saved the day. We were successful (well, DH was) in putting the old hard drive in the new computer and transferring files.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing that idea!

I'm so funny, aren't I? This was a picture taken at cross over. Five of my six boys. I don't have their parents' permission to post their photo on the blog, so I made them all happy faces. I did something else to the photo, can anyone figure it out?

Cross over was Thursday night. It was a wonderful experience. Yes, I cried. I was so proud of the boys, and they just seemed so grown up.

Thomas is on the mend. He really shouldn't have gone to the cross over. I broke my rule of not taking him out and about less than 24 hours after a fever has broken. He'd been on antibiotics for 48 hours, though, so I hoped he wasn't contagious. It was, after all, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Another boy in our den missed the event because he had exactly what Thomas had, only he had not started antibiotics until the day before. Sadly, he stayed home.

We did not do school all week. Thomas is much better this evening, and I think after the weekend, he'll be ready to do school. Our plans were to take Monday and Tuesday of next week off to coincide with the public school's vacation days, but I've decided to just forge ahead and do school anyway.

Our project for the weekend is to figure out how to transfer files to the new computer. Neither the CD or DVD drive is working on the old computer, and the USB port will only recognize the printer so we can't plug the external hard drive in. Ugh! I'm also having a bear of a time figuring out the new Outlook Express in XP. I am such a creature of habit and behind the times. I'm hoping my dear, sweet husband will wave his magic wand and make something work. He is an engineer, he loves a challenge, so hopefully he'll be up to the task.

Monday -- Not without school after all

While I was feeling like garbage Monday, we still managed to get some form of education in. In the afternoon Thomas and I made a milk-jug bird feeder. Bob hung it when he got home from work.

Monday night Bob and Thomas built the new computer. It's up, it's running, but Bob still has to install Office. It's still sitting on my kitchen table.

Bob was going to install that tonight, but Thomas had other plans. Thomas woke up very grumpy and not feeling well at all this morning. His throat hurt and it was bright red. He laid down in bed and read a book this morning. He ate a good lunch and requested we do school in the afternoon. We did math and geography. We also watched birds out our window.

Then Thomas did the unspeakable. He went into my bedroom, climbed into the bed and took a nap. Ding, ding, ding...I knew he was not well. He slept for quite awhile. I woke him for dinner. He had a temp of 103. He was moaning, hurting, and miserable. (He's just like his mom, he's a whiner when he's sick.)

I made the decision to take him to the after-hours clinic. My husband wasn't happy about that, but I didn't want to wait until tomorrow. Part of my reason is that he had a temperature, and I have learned that when you take your child to the doctor, you can't give them Motrin beforehand because then their true fever won't show. Sad but true.

So we went to the clinic and I, Dr. Mom, learned that I was wrong with my diagnosis. I was sure he had the flu. The doc said he had strep. The doc told us that because he did not have a runny nose, he was sure it was not the flu. If he is wrong, we'd know in 24 hours. If Thomas isn't feeling better in 24 hours, he told Bob and I to get in for a flu shot pronto.

I never knew you had to have a runny nose to have the flu. Learn something new every day. Or not. We'll know in 24 hours, I guess.

So Thomas took his antibiotics and Motrin and promptly fell asleep.

The doctor ordered him not to go to school until 24 hours had passed from the time his fever broke. I started laughing and said he had to go to school, as he lived in his school. We just won't make him do any work. Such a lame attempt at homeschool humor.

I had completely forgotten that tomorrow was Valentine's Day. I didn't have anything prepared. Bob reminded me as I was getting out of the car. While I filled the prescription, with Thomas and his dad waiting in the car, I bought him a bouquet of balloons. That will be a sure hit with him. The kind clerk got a garbage bag to stuff them in so I could sneak the goods into the car in front of him. Whew.

What a week. I just hope he's feeling better tomorrow and it really isn't the flu. Next week we had planned on taking two days off because the public school does. I think we'll have a full week of school instead.

Manic Monday

Frankie is not feeling well today. I got up at 7, went back to bed at 7:30, woke up at 10:45. Thomas was reading a book in my bed, but I felt awful I let him down. I'm glad he let me sleep, though. My husband came home for lunch and I told him I just don't feel well enough to do school and he said to make this a Fun Monday and do school on our typical Fun Friday. Perfect solution!

Thomas is working on art, I'm sipping coffee and on the net wishing I had a drip IV of Motrin -- or something stronger.

Speaking of Thomas and art, he had an artistic weekend. He prepared his cake for his last Scouts Blue and Gold banquet. He worked on it Saturday night and Sunday morning. I am a little upset with myself because I didn't take a final picture. What you cannot see is the jello lake. Thomas scooped a portion of the cake out, and we made blue jello and poured it in. Stuck the entire cake in the fridge so it could gel, and he had his beautiful blue lake.

The banquet was yesterday afternoon and it was quite fun. Thomas got lots of blue ribbons for his cake. We're about done with scouts, we have our cross over and an ice skating event left. Counting the days...

I think I shall now go back to bed.