A Nice Weekend

We had a very nice four-day weekend. Rob had a final on Friday (upon which he got a 90%) and then we were foot-loose and fancy free. Oh, wait, we have kids.....but we still had lots of fun.

Our original plans included possibly going to the zoo in Madison, possibly going to the Jelly Belly warehouse, possibly going to the Children's Museum, and possibly heading down to see my brother sing on Memorial Day. We did none of the above. We were all so shot and stressed out from this past school year that we just stayed home and rested. We played lots of Wii (and we love Mario Galaxy now...so sad it has to go back to Family Video tonight!), we got lots of naps, we took lots of family (and partial-family) walks, we hit Wal-Mart a few times, we cooked real meals, and we had a wonderful time.

Matthew did decide to come down with the local virus, so labeled by the doctor. He had the "funny poo-poos" for four days, so we took him in on Tuesday. For those of you into viruses, here's the lowdown on this one: It starts with vomiting (which no one in the family has had), then turns into diharrea. For ten days. There is a hormone that triggers the stomach, telling it that you are full when you start to eat, so the food moves through VERY quickly. The body doesn't have time to absorb the nutrients, so you lose lots of weight quickly. Just what Matthew needs. His symptoms lasted only five days and he already looks better. Oh, and the BRAT diet doesn't work with this one...it just makes it worse. You have to eat a normal diet, minus juice. I came down with it last night, Rob thinks he starved it out today (his self-cure for every virus is to stop eating until he feels better...works for him) and Ben may have already had it. That leaves Anna, and we'll pray she stays healthy. I would really, really, really like my family to stay healthy....I'm tired of this stuff. At least this one didn't involve a hospital stay. Matthew did ask if he'd have to stay at the doctor's this time....sad.

On Monday, we went to our Memorial Day parade. It was so neat to see a town actually remembering our fallen soldiers. I was moved to tears by the ceremony and the turnout. America needs more influence from the small towns who can remember what it means to be Americans rather than these liberal big cities who try to run the show. (And that's as much of an opinion as anyone is going to get out of me....I am trying not to be opinionated anymore...) They had a twenty-one gun salute, and Matthew asked me what they were shooting at. I told him they were honoring the soldiers who had died. He said, "What? Are they shooting the dead soldiers?" I told him no, they were firing into the air. He said, "They can't do that! They'll hit God!"

And today, Matthew was telling Anna a story. He ended the story by saying, "And the man died for the rest of his life." That's a painful, long way to go!