It All Started With The Chicken Pox...

...And then ended up with me not writing on here for like... EVER.

So much has happened since I last posted, I don't even know where to begin!

Okay, so rather than starting at the beginning like a normal person (Because, since when have I ever claimed to be normal anyway?), I'm going to bounce around and give the highlights. Yay for highlights!

Okay, so beginning at the beginning, and a little backstory:

First off, you should know that in 30-odd years of living on this planet, I have never had chicken pox. I've been exposed to it FOUR TIMES. Never had it. Until the end of last April. *Sigh*

I got a cold. Mangy cold. Felt mangy for a week. Ugh. I hate colds.

Then, like four days into it, I start feeling better. Yay! Feeling better rocks!

Then two days after that... Life sucks. Sick again. But now, with rash. So now I have this weird (BUT NOT ITCHY) rash all over - but mainly on my face and torso. Crap. What gives?

Google.

Holy $%$#!!!

Doctor.

Seriously, I have CHICKEN POX? Who gets chicken pox as an adult???? Apparently, it's SO FREAKING RARE that I have to have like 3 doctors look at me to confirm. Rawr. The pox sucks.

*Sigh* Okay, whatever. I'm resigned. But now the HAZMAT suits have come out at home... See, the Daddy has never had the pox, either. And neither have the girls.

So, of course, the Daddy goes on Mommy strike. He wouldn't come near me in any fashion and I was relegated to the couch for almost a week. The children were quarantined and not to be touched by either of us, too (the Daddy wouldn't touch THEM because they had touched ME before we knew it was the plague).

The children decided to formulate their own version of the strike, namely by making signs: 

Their sign reads: "Do No Touch!! (Chicken Pock layed on it.)"

Note the fact that the exclamation points all have skulls and crossbones on them. I am now affectionately referred to as "Chicken Pock," among our family and friends, although fortunately the name seems to have started to fade. I'm sure righting about it will spark a revival, but whatever. I'm cool.

The pox, however, is NOT cool.

It was, though, overall, a very mild case of chicken pox, especially given the fact that I'd heard my whole life about how awful it is to have it as an adult. There was little fever or anything else, and mostly it was just the misery of being itchy and covered in blisters. Benedryl was my friend, let me tell you!

But in the midst of dealing with chicken pox, I was completely stressed out because the girls and I were leaving for Florida in just a couple of weeks and I wasn't sure if I'd be well enough to travel AND the fact that the girls had never had the pox, either and I was worried they'd get it... AND BESIDES all of that - I was going to a once-a-year conference that I had been committed to assisting with for months.

Whoa. Stress city.

But as it turned out, it was fine (well, mostly).

We left on a plane for Miami about two-and-a-half weeks after I first got sick, and I still had a few spots on my face (thank goodness for makeup!), but had been cleared by my doctor of being infectious. Yay!

So off we go, only allowed carry-on bags, for the first leg of what I like to call, Our Whirlwind Tour of the U.S. And it seriously was.

We were in Miami for a week before the conference, then the week of the conference - the girls were in a local summer camp program while I went to help out, and supposed to be there another week after the conference before heading off to the West Coast.

But then... Dum-dum-DUM... The last day of the conference, KayKay woke up with the pox. SERIOUSLY?!?!? According to everything I'd read and my doctor, there's only a 21-day incubation period, and that had been WELL over before the conference even started! But oh-no. She got it too, poor kid. So our last days in Miami were spent with a miserable kid and me apologizing a hundred times to everybody (Especially the summer camp with the 150-bajillion other kids that were exposed to her!!) because I honestly thought we were in the clear. Ugh.

But away we flew anyway, there was a wedding waiting and 30 hours in San Francisco wedged in there, too.

So, now back to highlights:

May, June and July were spent on the Whirlwind Tour with three-ish weeks in Miami, 30-ish hours in San Francisco, a week on the central Oregon coast, and five weeks along the California-Oregon coast. And two cases of chicken pox thrown in for good measure. Yes, the Ladybug got chicken pox, too. *Sigh*

Then back home for three weeks of August, just to head out again, this time to our lovely in-laws in central Florida and then back down to Miami again for the rest of September.

Whew! Are you exhausted yet?

Yeah. I was, too. It was great, but exhausting! We had a busy, busy, busy, BUSY year.

Fortunately, the chicken pox which started it all was pretty mild for all three of us, and the Daddy didn't get it at all (How unfair is that?!?!), and at least now we don't have to worry about getting it again.

But now I'm back! Let's get the party started back up! So much to tell... So little typing time.