Welcome to 2011

Well, I can't believe it is 2011! Time has flown by so fast! We had a pretty good New Year's celebration. I was supposed to work on New Year's Day so we went on New Year's Eves Eve to J's families house. We went up after we got off of work. J's brother and his family came too. It was pretty fun. The first night we just ate dinner, watched movies, and hung out. On New Year's Eve we pretty much just spent time together and played all day. J's mom, my sis-in-law, and I took a little trip to the grocery store to gather up the goodies for dinner and snacks. Is it sad that that was the highlight of my day? Yeah, kind of. Anyway, the major highlight of the evening was playing charades with the adults. J's Dad even participated! Now, if you know him at all you will know that he does not like to play games. We were amazed he joined in and ended up having a blast. It is so fun to spend time with family and make a fool of yourself! ;-)

We were planning on driving home on New Year's Eve but felt that the roads probably wouldn't be safe. Possibly slick with ice but more worrisome -- drunks. So we spent an extra night. We went home bright and early the next morning. This is where the fun weekend ends ...

Around 2 in the afternoon, J started to feel a little icky. Pretty soon he was sick and throwing up. I followed suit a couple hours later. It was a pretty miserable bug. Both of us started to improve around midnight and managed to go to sleep. Around 4 in the morning, P yells from his room. We race in to find barf all over his bed. Lovely. So, J gave him a bath (whilst gagging) and I gathered his bedding to put in the wash (whilst gagging too). Luckily, by morning we were all doing better but stayed home from church to be on the safe side.

On Monday, it was back to work for us. I went to work and did just fine for a while. About 2 hours into it, I started to get a little woozy. I got a drink and walked around for a bit. It wasn't getting better. I managed to take my pricing cart to the pricing office. I worked my way up the stairs all the way feeling as though I was on the verge of fainting or passing out. I thought I was gonna barf all over the freshly mopped floors as I passed the janitor. Luckily, I didn't! I made it to the employee bathroom and had to flop on the floor in a stall. I ended up laying there for around 20 minutes before I was able to get up without passing out. I worked my way to the employee break room and found a fellow coworker. I asked him to call my boss. My boss got me a drink and asked who he should call. I ended up having him call my Mom because I knew J was really busy at work that day. My sweet mama came and rescued me. She took me home and ordered me to get hydrated. Which I followed by the way, Mom! I think that is why everything happened. I was dehydrate from the flu. So, I rested and took in a lot of fluids. 

On another note, our van has been acting funny for about a month. The steering has been really hard and not nearly as easy as it should be with power steering. I went back to the Jiffy Lube thinking maybe they had forgotten to connect the fluid line or something. No such luck. Plenty of power steering fluid. Hmmm....  So, after I started feeling better on the day that I nearly passed out, we took the car to a mechanic. I told him I thought maybe the power steering pump was going out or something. He called me back and said Nope, not the pump. Argh! What is it? So, he delved a little deeper and found that the gear box in the steering column is going bad. He told me that with parts and labor they'd be able to fix it for just $1,375. YIKES! Yeah, we've just got that kind of cash lying around just waiting to be used. (Note the sarcasm.)  Anyway, as I mentioned a couple of posts back, we have been struggling financially and are living paycheck to paycheck. So, the possibility of fixing the car right now is not possible. CRAP! So, we parked it at the house and ended up borrowing one of my mom and dad's cars. We're hoping to be able to use our tax returns to fix the car. Lets keep our finger's crossed!

Now, I share this because this blog is my journal of sorts. I'm not trying to seek pity or anything. I just wanted to share and vent a little. Let's hope the rest of 2011 improves!