We are finally emerging from the disaster we will call influenza B. Goodness, I don't think I've ever been so sick in my life, and that's keeping drama to a minimum. Rachael came down with it on the 1st - 5 days before her birthday. She was so sick over the weekend that we postponed making ladybug and butterfly cupcakes. Jacob got off the bus that Thursday, coughing and with a fever. Deren and I were sick a couple days later. Abby got sick later that week. Joshua miraculously made it through school that week when the rest of us were sick, only to bring home & pass around a stomach bug during the week of the 13th.

Meanwhile, the rest of us had several days of fever, nausea, fatigue, joint pains, bad coughing and chest congestion - it was so awlful. I tell you what - I was so ugly. My attitude was so bad that week. It was not uncommon to find me shaking my fists in the air, saying "God why are you doing this to us!"

Deren called his father and pleaded with him to come and help while we were all sick. David babysat, ran errands, kept us fed, and held barf buckets for the kids. He left us sick, though I'm hoping his flu shot protected him from the full-blown flu. Sorry, David! We gave him the stomach bug for New Year's, the flu bug for spring. I bet he's just itching to return for the next round the week before Easter! I wonder what the Easter Bunny will bring. Each time I think, 'well, this is the sickest I've ever seen the kids, it's got to get better from here on out.' Well, the scary thing is that the bugs are getting worse. I don't even want to think what is going to come along to top this influenza B.

During the week of sick I attended an ARD meeting with the school district for Rachael. She started a 3 hr/day PPCD class this past Monday (the 20th). On Sunday night I told her that she was going to school like bubbers (brothers) . She had Deren put on her shoes and socks, asked for her coat, and asked Mommy to take her bye bye in the car. She was ready to go to school! The next morning we woke her up about 6:20 and told her it was time to go to school. She bolted out of bed! Deren took her to school on Monday, and got to sit in the classroom and watch her. He said Rachael was very shy at first, but warmed up during circle time. She waved her hands and clapped and sang. When I picked her up at 11 the teacher said she did really well - she liked singing and played with the other kids. On Tuesday Rachael rode the bus to and from school for the first time. She was a real trooper. She is too small to climb up the steps on the bus on her own. Deren carries her. There is one other girl in Rachael's classroom. The driver said Rachael and the little girl laughed and chattered across the aisle at each other on Tuesday.

So.. so far so good. School is going well. They are sending a team into Rachael's classroom in a couple weeks to rule out autism. On her evaluation her skills were really scattered - she can count to 10, but can't tell you how old she is. She didn't make much eye contact - I attribute that to her being so shy. But I was pretty floored with her evaluation results in general - she scored really low on speech and cognitive. I need to look up the boys' evaluations. If Rachael scored in the 5th percentile, I'm thinking they weren't anywhere near the graph then. We see her do so much that the boys never did.

Abby update - she had "only" been sick for 1 1/2 weeks, so she is still having problems. I started to feel human again at 3 weeks, by comparison. She has lost 1/2 lb so far - I've been too skittish to way her again - it can't be that good. She's not able to eat or drink much. Pray for peanut, please.