And then everything went crazy.

Man, what a week. What a couple of weeks. Life around here has been crazy with a capital C. It all started almost two weeks ago when the arctic tundra moved into town. Oh my goodness. I realize many places have had it much worse than we have - and even endure frigid temps on a regular basis - but we Texans just aren't built for such nonsense. Over on Beth Moore's blog, Texans were getting a pretty good razzing for our cold-weather aversion (from commenters, not from Beth). But, hello, there's a reason we live here.

Anyhow, school was canceled on Tuesday (week before last), then delayed on Wednesday and Thursday. Fun for the kids, but it totally wreaked havoc on my work schedule. On Thursday night I had a 5th grade graduation committee meeting. On Friday, I worked to make up some of the hours I'd lost during the week, then hurried up to school to attend the PTA fundraiser kickoff assemblies (since, you know, fundraising is my job and all).

On Saturday, I skipped Jacob's basketball game to take Kloe to her UIL spelling meet, then waited TWO HOURS to get the results. Seriously, how long can it take to grade spelling tests for seven kids? (Kloe got 6th place, yay!) As soon as the results were announced, we zoomed to the house so Kloe could throw on her basketball uniform, and then we zoomed to her game. Then we spent our evening making the rounds to pick up more donations for our upcoming Uganda garage sale.

On Sunday we woke up to this beautiful sight. Huge, beautiful, fluffy snowflakes. The kids threw their coats on right over their pj's and ran out to play.





Look what I spied as Kloe was posing for this picture. Crackin' me up. :)



Yep, he got her. And then the fight was on.



Reloading...



Wow, look at that whopper Kloe made!



Can you see that gigantic snowball whizzing right by Jacob's head? She just barely missed!



The snow didn't last long, but they made sure to enjoy every minute of if they could.

After a brief intermission for the snow and the Super Bowl, the insanity resumed in force. Monday night (of this past week) both kids had basketball practice. Then Tuesday morning I was awakened at 5-something a.m. by a sound. That sound. You know the one. Jacob in the bathroom. How he made it out of the top bunk and to the bathroom in time I have no idea. I'm just thankful he did. I confess I wasn't the good mommy who went to help him in his misery. Shamefully, since I heard him flush about the time I woke up, I was the bad mommy who turned over and closed my eyes....only to feel him crawling under the covers next to me about 30 seconds later. Our thermometer is broken but he felt hot, so I waited until a respectable hour and then called my mom. She came over and stayed with him so I didn't have to miss another day of work. So thankful mom lives close now!

Tuesday night was Family Reading Night at school - and also the arrival of Arctic Tundra Round 2. I had to go to Sam's to buy food for concessions, and when I came out the wind was blowing so hard it literally ripped the lid right off my cookie tray! I had forgotten my gloves, and I was trying to push the giant flat-bed cart with one hand while holding the cookies on the tray with the other hand, all in four hundred forty mile per hour winds. PRAISE GOD for the angel of an older man who literally drove his pickup over to where I was parked and got out to help me load everything in my car. I showed up at the school 10 minutes before the event was supposed to start and had to have the school janitors come help me unload my car because it was SO STINKIN' FRIGID outside and the wind was insane and the trunk of my car won't stay open by itself. Sheesh.

About half way through the night my mom (who was still at my house with Jacob) called. I didn't answer in time, so I called her right back and she didn't answer. I called her again and again and again, and when I couldn't get ahold of her I started to panic just a little bit. I went in search of Kloe and was right in the middle of telling her that I was leaving to run home and check on Grammy and Jacob, when my phone rang. It was Jacob. He was literally sobbing so hard that I couldn't understand what he was saying. Turns out he was devastated at missing Family Reading Night, and Would.I.At.Least.Buy.Him.A.Book?

By the time I got home, Jacob was fine, and he woke up Wednesday morning fine. No fever. No sickness. No nothing. So of course I sent him to school. By the time I picked him up from school he was miserable,burning up with fever, writhing in pain, and moaning, "My heeeaaad huuuurts." Fever and headache - nothing else. I took him home and put him to bed. Only by God's hand, The Mister came home early Wednesday night (meaning 6:00), so Kloe and I went to church while the boys stayed home. Thursday morning I took Jacob to the doctor, and guess what? Flu. Yay.

"Hello, Mom?"

She came again and stayed with Jacob Thursday while I went to work, then stayed with him while I went to school to assemble Valentine grams for 350 students (actually, it turned out I was the resident babysitter while the rest of the PTA ladies put the grams together), and then stayed with him while I went to the party store to buy more stuffed animals and suckers for Valentine grams because we ran out. And then she came and stayed with him on Friday so I could go to work AGAIN to make up for missed hours, and stayed with him while I went to school for Kloe's Valentines party and to pick up Jacob's Valentines from the party he was missing. sigh.

AND THEN...by the time Kloe and I got home from school yesterday afternoon, SHE was coughing and running fever. She ended up having to miss her good friend's birthday party last night, and she was so very sad. I had The Mister stop on his way home from work and pick her up some Tamiflu so we could avoid a repeat of last week, but then she woke up this morning feeling FINE. Good grief. I feel like I might need some medication of my own, if you know what I mean. I texted the basketball coach just in case, and told him we wouldn't be at either game today, and we all stayed in our pajamas, laying around on the couch ALL DAY.

That is until Mr. He Went to Jared called and left the CUTEST little message on my phone asking if he and his mom could take Kloe and her mom (that would be me) to the movies. How cute is that? I wish I could figure out a way to put his message on my blog. It was adorable. And so the four of us went on a double date to see Gnomeo and Juli*t. Precious. I highly recommend it (the movie, not double dating with your kids. Although that was pretty cute, too.)

Kloe let me take this picture on the condition that I wouldn't put it on my blog. I told her I couldn't make any promises.



And the craziness continues the next few weeks with Jacob's birthday party, planning a baby shower for a friend, processing the PTA fundraiser (which is ridiculous - have you ever done this?), basketball practices and games, gymnastics, a doctor's appointment (well check for Jacob), dentist appointments, the garage sale, and my first Uganda team conference call. If I make it to spring break with my sanity I'll be doing a happy dance. While lying on the couch.

And just as a side note, I had a really good hair day today and now I'm sad to go to bed and mess it up, because good hair days almost never happen around here.