congestion v. (kən′jeschən): to ruin innocent lives

This last week we've been dealing with the fun usual illness that accompanies this time of the year... The Cold. In some way, shape, or form, all 6 of the kids have at least one of the symptoms that go along with The Cold. This infamous, more-often-than-not, aggravating Cold usuallllllly causes little problems because who can't cope with a stuffed up face and runny nose?

Well, last week Austyn developed a fever with her cough, congestion, runny nose, and on and on and ON. From past experience when Peyton was hospitalized with pneumonia, I knew a fever with these symptoms and that kind of barky, hacking cough was not good news. Alas... Austyn had/has pneumonia. Fortunately, a course of amoxicillin is doing the trick and dodging a hospital stay! Unfortunately, Drew is extremely congested but the doctor assures me she "looks good" and "keep doing what you're doing." So no worries (too much) there either. Humidifier/vaporizers have been running nonstop the past couple days.

For the most part, we venture out of the house with minor symptoms that are not contagious (I promise) but this last weekend the 4 little gaffers and myself had to miss Peyton's basketball games on Saturday. Leaving the house in sub-zero temperatures with coughing, hacking children was not on my list of Things To Do that day. I love to watch him play so was disappointed but I know my Mom got some great photos of him, which are mostly the same from game to game seeing as they are at the learning stage of the game, but I enjoy seeing them anyway. My sister, Casey, caught Peyton's near-game-winning-shots on tape a couple weekends ago and it. was. Awesome! Casey also got a bunch of good ones that you can see HERE. So even though I missed this last weekends games on account of illness, I'm glad we stayed out of the cold to hopefully keep healthy, and I look forward to the next batch of photos. This week is proving to be healthier than last so far and I hope it continues.