It was a short week for the kids but a long one for Beth. Missy was running a fever and had a sore throat Monday and Tuesday, so she stayed home from school both days. Tuesday was Cub Scout night, and we did a rake & run. We left the school just after starting the meeting and went around the block nearby, asking people who were home if we could rake their leaves for free. I must say I was surprised by how many people refused us...at least 2 houses declined our services. I guess nobody trusts anybody these days, but if you can't trust the Cub Scouts, then who can you trust? So we raked someone else's houses. No school Wednesday through Friday, and no kids klub this week, due to parent-teacher conferences. Alex and Missy (doing better) both had conferences on Wednesday. Alex continues to amaze his teachers with his reading ability, which is on a 4th grade level, and he got absolutely glowing reviews. Missy is also doing very well in kindergarten and her teacher absolutely loves her. Then on Thursday Alex went to the dentist (still doing good there). It was a low-key weekend, mostly we kept at home. Today I stayed home from church because now I'm not feeling good. But I think it's just a cold.

This weekend has been all about the microorganisms. The kids (mostly Alex) had little colds early this week, so we kept them out of swimming lessons (only two more in the session anyway). Beth had a sore throat on Wednesday, which after Kids Klub got bad. By the time we went to bed I was planning on staying home Thursday and Beth slept downstairs. Thursday, I got the kids off to school while Beth had a fever most of the day and terrible aches and chills. And fatigue; she slept about all day. We knew it was the flu, but I don't know which flu. Probably the H1N1, it's all the rage. I did take the opportunity to get some work done at home; I got the trim in Missy's room about done and finished fixing the drawer glides on Alex's dresser. After I picked up Missy, Jake and Lily came over while Renee went to a funeral, so I had them all afternoon while Beth slept. Then we just tried to get out of the house and avoid contact with Beth. Friday was more of the same (only without the Boschain kids), but her fever dropped, even though she still felt terrible all day. Saturday I took the kids out to Alex's soccer game in the morning (it has been unseasonably cold lately!) but we stayed mostly in the rest of the day except running out for more medicine or something. Alex and I were supposed to go out to an all-day Cub Scout campout at a park in town, but Missy couldn't go, Beth couldn't take care of her, we don't have real sleeping bags...and it has been unseasonably cold lately! so we blew it off and I tried to keep Alex from remembering about it. Today, I had the kids out for church, lunch in Bourbon with the McCoys and their kids, and to a small birthday party for Grant (Alex broke the pinata!). Beth is feeling better, and I'm planning on going to work tomorrow. She still gets worn out really fast, so we'll see how it goes. So far, nobody else has been sick, at least not with the flu, and we're hoping it stays that way.

Alex had a soccer game yesterday. It was picture day, so we had to be there early. It has been colder than necessary lately, especially in the morning. After the game, Beth had a baby shower to help with so I had the kids until mid afternoon. We then had a Katie evening. Chinese food and a movie, this time "Surrogates," which we thought was good, but was missing a top tier director to make it really good. But not bad. Today, we took the kids to Fort Wayne to the big Tokens & Tickets, which has been their behavior chart reward they've been working for. I was a bit underwhelmed by the TNT in FW; I thought it wasn't much better than ours, but it had a pizzaria that we will NEVER eat at, after we saw the teenagers working the kitchen. Especially the one who had to hold up his pants with one (gloved) hand because he was wearing them so low. Idiot. We also hit the mall because I needed to get some new Dockers, but there were sales, so they were so picked over I couldn't find any in my size. As always.

We all spent the weekend up in Michigan (again) for Judy's wedding. We headed up after I got out of work on Friday (we might have left early again, but Alex went to Amish Acres with his school class today so we couldn't get him out early), ate in Goshen at one of the least inspiring CiCi's Pizza places I have ever been to, and got to a very nice hotel we'd gotten a good deal on with Hotwire, the Best Western at Stadium and 131 in Kalamazoo. We were going to let the kids swim before going to bed, but we thought we didn;t have time. We should have just done it because the kids would not go to sleep. It was at least 10:30 before they quit playing around. Saturday we got them to swim for a while before we had to head out. The wedding was in the afternoon, up near Yankee Springs at Judy's friend's house. It was supposed to be outside, but it was drizzling all weekend so it was just in the back room. The wedding was simple and quick, but the catering was exquisite. All the cousins were there for the kids to play with too. The good news about the rain was that Alex's soccer game on Saturday was cancelled, which means he didn't miss it like we did last week. Sunday we ate lunch with everyone at Red Robin and headed out, earlier than usual, but Beth hadn't been feeling well lately and we all needed some rest.