The jury's still out

on how wonderful 2008 may prove to be for the Mellon family. So far, it has fallen short of spectacular. It all started a couple of days after Christmas when Chase was diagnosed with Strep throat. Now, this sounds worse than it actually was...overall he was pretty happy and easy going considering how bad he could have been. Now, he's back to his old self even though he has to continue taking his antibiotic until Monday.

But then, Andy woke up on New Year's Eve feeling a little something in his throat, so off we went to the CVS Minute Clinic to be swabbed for Strep. I was negative as I knew I would be since I felt fine. But Drew, well Drew was "inconclusive". The nurse said his throat looked like he was probably positive, but she'd have to send a sample out to the lab to be sure. Well, this was a big bummer because it meant we had to cancel our plans since no one with toddlers wants to be around a strep carrier. Nor, does anyone want to kiss a tainted mouth, so no stroke of midnight kisses for me this year. Thus, New Year's Eve was spent watching Jon and Kate plus 8 and HGTV. I was in bed by 11 and asleep just after I heard all of the neighborhood fireworks going off. Yes, I party hard.

On New Year's day, Drew was feeling worse and we were pretty sure that he had the strep. So he returned to CVS to get Noodle more antibiotic (I didn't realize I had to refrigerate it. Bad Mamma) and check on the results of his strep test. Well, the nurse the day before neglected to mention that even though the results would be ready the next day, the actual clinic wouldn't be open on New Year's Day to go ahead and pass those results on to us. So, off he went to Urgent Care where he spent 3 hours just to be told what we already knew: strep positive. He got drugs and dinner, and came home to a starving, grumpy Mellon. You see, when I'm hungry, there's only a brief amount of time before I go from reasonable to psychotic. So, when the hunger strikes, those near me either need to put something in my face right that second or they need to get far, far away from me. Unfortunately, Drew's arrival time had passed that reasonable threshold and I was in spitting fire mode. I quickly recover though after food has hit my tummy, so at least he was only miserable an extra 15 or so. :-)
So anyway, that's the story of our 2008 so far. I'm really hoping that I don't get this strep thing from Drew as the last time I had it I was so miserable for days. I was a senior in high school, and I distinctly remember lying on my dad's La-Z-Boy under a mountain of blankets watching Night of the Twisters and thinking that I would gladly trade places with Devon Sawa if it meant I could swallow without screaming out in pain. I think I might have to pull a Michael Jackson and start walking around with a mask over my face until the Drew is no longer contagious. Probably should carry some Lysol around with me too, and spray everything the man touches. Happy New Year.