Flu season is in full swing. Three weeks ago, I was the first to contract a 24 hour stomach bug which I passed to each of my children. This past weekend, Kris and Cass were lounging around with fevers, aches, pains and gastrointestinal distress all day on Sunday. Great! I thought, right in time to give it to me before my scan tomorrow. As predicted, they returned the favor and my stomach is starting to complain and I've have had little bouts of nausea and a few unanticipated trips to the bathroom. Tomorrow, if my industrious white blood cells can't contain it, I expect I'll have to drink that awful tasting yucky stuff and really irritate matters. It tastes so awful going down, I just don't want to deal with the prospect of having it come up again. Moving on.....

Here are some hazzards that come when your children/son takes over laundry duty.

1) I put items in the laundry after our trip to Wisconsin in JULY!!! My son just delivered a few of them back to my room. Trust me, he doesn't discriminate. Emily's summer clothes have just been found as well. Where they were hiding? I have no idea. I know where they weren't.

2) Most of my pastels have a nice bluish tint. Why? Because everything gets washed together in cold water. Whites, pastels, jeans...doesn't matter in my son's world. All get equal treatment. Socialism for clothing!!!

3) At least 4 of my black items, a pair of socks, and two shirts, were bleached. As only one of my black socks was bleached, I now have one brownish sock and one black sock. One of my favorite tank tops that had black stripes, is now a grayish tank top with brown stripes. Thanks KRIS!

4) I haven't been able to find a matching pair of socks in WEEKS. My son hates to do socks and though they get washed with dark clothes, they don't get put away. They are shoved in a laundry basket which is eventually used for new dirty clothes. The dirties are mixed with the cleans and VOILA! Washed again and again and again, sometimes in bleach water, sometimes in with the jeans. I have bought 12 new pairs of socks since. I have yet to see one exit the laundry process.

5) I had to have a long talk with the boy on the importance of cleaning the lint trap. It apparently was too much trouble to remove the lint and throw it away. Until I explained to him the FIRE DANGER, my son was oblivious. So now he is better about the lint trap but the lint is tossed on top of the dryer instead of in the trash. It gets mixed with the piles of wash he puts there and not only do I have bleached clothes, I have mighty clean lint.

6) Throwing away empty detergent containers never happens. The recycling bin is 10 feet away. Doesn't matter. I have empty detergent containers everywhere.

So today, I decided to help out a bit and remove some of the wash from the system. In one day, I have put away more clothes than my son or daughter have put away in 6 months. I am just excited that out of this deal, I may get one pair of sparkling white socks.

Wish me luck and prayers on that scan tomorrow. I hate them! I hate them! I hate them! My Doctor actually asked me why I hated them so much and why others do as well. Don't we want to know? NO!! Not always! Especially when we are conditioned for bad news. Also, please if you can, add this couple to your prayers:

Prayer request for Gary and Cindy Hogman:
Gary is serving in Iraq while his young wife is fighting cancer here.
Prayer is a powerful thing and this couple needs our prayers. It must be
terribly difficult to be in Iraq with a sick wife at home. . .

I received this from a contact who works for the American Cancer Society.