"Count your blessings, Daughter!"

I'm warning you: this post may seem a little whiny. All I have to say to ANYONE who wants to tease me about it is that you would probably be a little whiny too if all of this was happening to you!

I have not left my property since LAST Tuesday. Today is Tuesday. That means it has been a week! No makeup, no contacts, no shoes, no "real" clothes......for a week! Now sure, I could put on "real" clothes and shoes and makeup to hang around the house, but seriously, what's the point when I don't feel well anyway? I have been on the porch and in the driveway and yard, but that's it.

I considered going to church Sunday because I was feeling better, but I just wasn't sure. I still wasn't feeling 100% and there are people I really didn't want to risk exposing myself to. Not that I'd want to make anyone sick, but especially not certain people like baby Caroline or sweet Miss Suzanne who has cancer and is I think on chemo again. I feel like I was probably not contagious at that point, but I just wasn't sure.

Saturday, Gracie played with a friend and seemed fine. However, late that afternoon she complained of a headache. It hasn't really gone away since then, poor thing. I guess you could say it comes & goes. Since I was staying home Sunday, she stayed home with me which caused her to miss seeing Colt which greatly saddened me! He would have even been in the Bible Class I teach so I missed seeing him too!

Gracie just feels icky and lays around and has had *ahem* "potty issues" stacked on top of her headache. Chris is taking her to the doctor tomorrow morning. It just seems too long for her to have a headache and now at least 2 days of the other. I don't want to take her since I'm still not feeling well-I don't want to sit in the sick waiting room-either for my sake or the other kids' sake. I also don't want to have to take Katie to sit in the sick room, so Chris will take Gracie.

That being said, Katie hasn't been doing too great either. She had a high fever yesterday and her "potty times" haven't been completely normal today either. She seems to feel fine today and if she has any fever, just barely.

How are my shingles? They're better. I don't look too bad as far as the actual sores go. I have had quite a mild case compared to some of the pictures I've seen online. *shudder* Some people have had horrible cases of it! My grandmother was on morphine for 3 weeks when she had it! I have had pain, I have had itching, I have felt "off," I have been very uncomfortable, but I haven't needed morphine.

I will say that my headache has been one of the worst parts of this. Last night it hurt really bad! It was like a pulsing pain-like the light coming on in a lightbulb-then it would go away only to come back in a little while. It hurt so bad and if it had continued I would have asked for stronger pain meds. Touching the right side of my face-shingles only affects one side of the body-brought much more sensitivity than usual too. Running my fingers through my hair really hurt which in turn seemed to make my head hurt too. I'm not sure why it was so bad because just that morning I was saying that I was feeling better and really felt like I was on the mend. I did take a nap and I think I must have slept really hard and on that side of my face and it must have really irritated it. My right eye is still bothering me too. It feels dry & irritated & itchy & just weird.

I'm feeling a little "down in the dumps" because I feel like I'm not giving the girls a very good summer full of fun things. It's been great for other people to pitch in and take them out for awhile, but I feel like I should be doing things with them. We do stuff here at home, but it's not the same. Of course, both of them haven't felt 100% the last couple of days either.

One of my good friends is moving soon, and I had planned to have them over this week for a little "see you later" get together, but we're "postponing" that and will probably have to alter the plans completely since their move date is so quickly approaching. *sniff sniff*

One of my other friends has also ended up having shingles! LA's mom, the one who took my girls to playgroup Thursday. I point blank asked her if the doctor (my same one!) thought she could have gotten them from me. She said no, that she "just got them" same as I did. Who knows!?!? Strange though, huh?!?

THAT BEING SAID, let me count my blessings. "Count your blessings, Daughter" is my dad's motto to me so here goes:

*I have a great husband who has taken care of me and been there for the girls. He's always there for the girls so it's not even like he's faltering for what to do. He's just the kind of daddy who does as much for this family as I do. Of course, when it came to doing Katie's hair Sunday morning, I did have to help!

*Mr. Ben & Miss Arva-a sweet older couple from church-brought us dinner Friday night!

*My friend, M, brought us dinner last night! It was really good last night and also for lunch today!

*Someone else from church is bringing dinner tonight. Chris talked to them yesterday and said I really was doing better so they said they would just do 1 night since they knew M was bringing it last night. It's so sweet to be thought of, especially after having such a bad headache last night, it's great not to have to think about what to cook.

*Once the girls are better, I plan to try to get out a little so I'm grateful that I feel like doing that.

*I'm thankful for Mary Beth who picked up some folders for Gracie at Wal Mart. Her school supply list specifies 4 specific plastic folders and MB had mentioned that she was afraid they would run out b/c she knew they had last year. MB got them for me yesterday so I wouldn't have to be running around right before school starts!

*We might get to see Mrs. Stauffer this week. She was "Teacher of the Year" at Gracie's school for this last year and I guess she has a lot of paperwork to fill out for the district now. She needs some letters of recommendation and has asked me to write one for her. She said she would come by the house to pick it up and would love to see the girls, so I know that will brighten up Gracie's week. Of course, depending on how Gracie's feeling, she may not spend much time with us, but at least we can see her for a minute.

*Gracie & Katie have both been such great troopers through all of this! They played well together last week and haven't been too whiny being cooped up in the house. Between some friends & Chris, they were able to get out last week.

*I'm thankful that I'm really a homebody so staying home isn't the worst thing in the world for me!

I know I don't need to be whiny; I'm just not going to pretend that I'm not a little down. However, I think about people like sweet baby Caroline who is facing open heart surgery. I think about Miss Suzanne at church who is facing cancer again for probably the 5th or 6th time but I promise you'll get more encouragement from her than just about anyone at church. I think about Job in the Bible. I think about Miss Jane at church who recently lost her husband. She teaches Katie's class on Wednesday nights and just loves those children with her whole heart-which warms my heart to see! I want to take encouragement from them. They smile through it all. Sure, they get upset, but they still smile & encourage.

So, there's my whiny post. I tried to end it on a positive note!
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Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, to my father-in-law Howard.....waaaaay out there in New Mexico!