Nose juice and bulb syringes

Sounds yummy, doesn't it? At least it sounds a little more refined than what we usually call it. Brace yourselves, snot suckers. Ian and Erin both absolutely hate it when the Blue Beast comes out. Ian has learned how to blow his nose with a tissue, finally, though he will get air on it and then need a new one. Erin just starts crying and thrashing, hoping that if she squirms enough, I'll quit trying to stick the end in her tiny nostril and give up. Sometimes I do, because it seems like I am just sucking all the breath from her nose and missing the goo completely, which is kind of ridiculous when her entire nose is blocked. Anyway we have another round of winter colds, the last being in November. We went to a birthday party last Saturday at Fun City (a chuck e cheese type place), so it's pretty logical as to where we picked said colds up. So the humidifiers get turned up, the Vick's BabyRub comes out, as does the saline nose gel, tissues and the Blue Beast. Ian is still delirious with his good fortune with the tissues. See? There are some very positive things about growing up. Number one in this category being "too big for rectal thermometers." There's a real shuckster now. eek.

The highlight of my weekend, besides torturing my offspring with the Blue Beast, was Guys Night. Of course it was on Monday, which isn't the weekend, but who's counting? There were an assortment of guys, all but one from the police department (he's the mayor), 2 Xbox 360s, 2 tv's, an army game and Guitar Hero. This is where the sadness begins. Having heard about and seen the pictures from Rachel's foray into RockStar-ness, I was excited about seeing this. This is also the only game that Brian (the mayor) is good at, since he is hopeless (and I mean it) with video games in general, but for the sake of testosterone will suffer through it. Out it comes, the little plastic guitar with the multicolored tabs. I watch, fascinated as the teenage boy (he is a police Explorer and his dad is the asst. chief) starts a song (Of course I didn't recognize any of them, I am not a rock star) and amazes the room as he does not one but two songs on Hard. Once you get the rhythm down and the key placement, you can see how to figure it out. One problem, the cutting edge graphics on this new game system are so advanced that my poor beleaguered system cannot handle it. I have grown up on the water and have spent countless hours on boats. I have survived quite a few storms in the British Virgin Islands and the Gulf on sailboats and a catamaran. I have NEVER gotten sick or seasick or even queasy. Watching the video game graphics made me positively green. I haven't felt like such a wuss since...uh, I'm not going there. So ends my career as a video game player, at least if it's not the original Nintendo with Mario Brothers (cue theme music: duh dut dup, de doot DUP doop). I couldn't handle it and I apologize to the world. I have heard that it takes time to get used to. I almost feel like that guy on Survivor that couldn't keep down the seal guts or whatever that was they had to eat in that competition.

And the 360 is on loan until Brad remembers that it's here and picks it up. The Guitar Hero went home with Brandon, the expert teenager. And that was guy's night. I just kept my contribution with keeping Ian from standing right in front of the screen and I made cookies and Rice Krispy treats (which must have been good).

After that, the colds just multiplied. I made some hot tea this morning, spearmint. Ian was curious and wanted a taste, so I got him a straw and he tried it (if you're wondering about the straw, just let him take a drink our of your cup without one...ew). He said it tasted like gum and didn't want anymore. Finally! A drink of my very own! That and the cappucino I drink sometimes that Ian says needs chocolate. He is just hinting for his own hot chocolate with marshmallows. I sometimes think that is the only reason he plays outside on cold days. Since I don't have any pictures of people playing xbox or sneezing, I will post a picture that Chris took while he was feeding Erin some cereal (he did not get sneezed on during a mouthful; truly the world is not fair). At least with this cold, her appetite is not affected. Kind of like me. It kind of has to be the plague for my appetite to be affected.

I would write more on our exciting weekend, but someone just sneezed and it's tissue time again!