I'm Sick and Typing and Watching the BYU Game On TV

I am not at the BYU game. I'm home, in my warm house, achy with a flu thing. It's the same thing all the kids had off-and-on all week, but luckily for me, I have a very strong stomach. Also luckily for me, it seems to pass quickly.

Feeling achy is not fun, though. I'm weak, exhausted, and alone with the kids. I did have some help from a friend for a few hours (thanks, Jess!), but now I'm alone again. #4 is especially whiny today, #5 is into everything (as usual), and the older three keep eating downstairs and watching too much TV. But I'm in survival mode, so some things must go.

I have, however, printed off the family Christmas newsletter. Except I just heard from the kids that the printer downstairs (I'm upstairs on Brandon's laptop) is jammed. Sigh. Next will be stuffing and addressing. Huzzah! This year's newsletter is not the novel I've done in year's past, nor it is a photo montage. I went for simple this year, thanks to Costco.

We picked out new hardware for the kitchen. I have photos of the new wall! I forgot to take before pictures, but that's okay because it was white. It's not hard to picture white. The new hardware is iron. Leafy iron. As in, shaped like leaves, sort of. I like 'em. Did you know that changing the hardware costs as little as 150 bucks, and yet changes everything!? Next on my list:

1. Painting an accent wall in the living room

2. New lock for the front door

3. Painting front door

4. Ripping off the green astro-turf that has plagued our porch for too long

5. Crown molding in kitchen and/or living room

6. Maybe washing the cupboards

Obviously, my brain is going all over the place, but I just realized that I forgot to change the laundry again. Which reminds me, the other day Brandon arrived home to my exclamations of "The washer is broken!" It was locked, stuck, nothing turning on or off (I have a front-loader), and I was perplexed. Brandon went to the back and plugged it back in. Yeah, the plug had fallen out. I didn't feel too stupid, though, because I painted a wall! Yeah...

Glimpse of Day Five of China. Since it's obviously never going to come. If you can't tell, that windy snake-like thing behind us is the Great Wall. Of CHINA!