Almost didn't make it

So it's the very end of the month, and I almost went without posting. This month has been a little too eventful for my taste. It started out with our annual empanada new years party. The empanadas this year were definitely the best that we've had, and the company was great. We had mostly neighborhood friends over for a change, which meant that Alice had a party of her own with all her friends upstairs. It was loud and crazy, but fun. While the party ended early so most people could get their kids in bed, Alice stayed up until midnight with us and watched the fireworks.

A few days later, the kids and I flew to CO to stay the night before catching an early plane the next morning to Orlando. Aidan decided to make the trip to Disney as well as a last minute add on, which sounded like fun, but ended up being very difficult. I'm not sure how Alice would do if she were in the same situation, but Aidan was very sad and ended up going home as soon as Michael could make it out to Florida to bring him back.

We had a great time in Florida, going to the beach, Disney World, and hanging out at Mom and Dad's new condo. Erik came down a few days after we got there, then left a few days before we did. Someone had to be home to earn the money for us to spend, after all! :)

Since we were flying stand by, we planned to stay a few days in CO visiting family and friends before going back home. Unfortunately, the flights were oversold after the first couple of days, so we waited it out. By the time the flights opened up enough for us to fly, though, Jack and I were both getting sick. Him with a fever of 102.5, and me with the normal congestion, runny nose, and a sore throat that radiated through my ears. I ended up at the doctor's office with a sinus infection, and after a couple days of Jack's fever not breaking, we took him in to the ER and found that he had 2 ear infections, which would limit how comfortably he would be able to travel. We decided to wait it out again. By the time he seemed to be doing better, Alice started with her fever and coughing. After a few days of trying to wait it out again, we instead decided that our best bet would be to drive, meeting Erik in Grand Junction so that no one was driving 16 hours in one day.  Driving meant renting a car for the day since we can't all fit in a smart car. And my Dad very graciously did that and took the day off of work to get us home.

Of course, getting stuck at Mom and Dad's house is far from the worst place to get stuck. After a week, though, I was starting to feel as homesick as Aidan did on that first night in Florida (though I wasn't *quite* as emotional... barely...)

As we drove into our neighborhood, 2 and a half weeks after we left, I kept looking at the townhouses and it almost felt surreal that we were actually home, like the entire world had a slightly different color than I remembered it. It felt good to be in my own little house and see my neighbors and friends. I regret not being able to spend more time with my family and friends while I was in CO, but I really didn't want to pass that plague on any further.

The fun unfortunately didn't stop just because we were home, though. On our first day back, we took Jack and Alice in to the Dr. to recheck his ears and have him listen to Alice's cough. Jack's ear was not doing any better, so it is probably a good thing we didn't try to fly. Alice also had to get an x-ray to rule out pneumonia (again), which she thankfully doesn't have (again). She does have asthma, though, which seems to get irritated whenever she gets sick, thus making her cough non-stop. She is on a steroid and now has an inhaler to use as needed, which she hasn't actually needed more than a couple of times. I'm hoping that she will outgrow the asthma, or that it will at least not be bad enough to limit her.

Other than that, our month has been pretty chill. Relaxing, even.  I was cleaning up the house a couple days ago, and Alice said, "Mom, who's coming over?" I told her no one, so she asked, "Then why are you cleaning up?" If only it weren't true.

The last piece of news from January is that I got a call from the HR department at jetBlue. They officially gave me a job offer! I am seriously excited. I'll be working full time for the training, then part time from home after that. It's not a very glamorous job (call center/reservation/customer service type stuff), doesn't pay very well, and the flight benefits aren't the greatest out of SLC, but if I view it as a long term investment, I'm really just building seniority so that when the kids are older (and we possibly live elsewhere), we will be able to fly. And in the meantime, it's a paycheck and it gives me some purpose besides being "Mommy"