Misery in the House

Today I am miserable! I have been up since 11:00 p.m. last night. Not by myself. Poor Max joined me in the misery. It seems that Maxwell and I picked up a nasty little case of food poisoning. We were comforting each other in our miseries all through the night. Now that the sun has come up...noone is throwing up still...so that's good. But we are both pretty miserable still. My stomach still hurts so much and waves of nausea continue to wash over me from time to time. And we both still have horrible headaches. Actually, after last night, my whole entire body is just hurting today. I just managed a piece of toast and yet another hit of ibuprofen, hoping to settle the grumblies and groans that are still happening and to curb the unrelenting head and body aches. I haven't seen Max for a couple of hours now, so I am thinking he's dropped back off to sleep. Sigh...NOT how I was looking to spend my Wednesday. I had to miss this morning's combat class and I HATE missing that class.

In other Roberts news...Max continues on medication for his ADD. He is still pretty uncooperative in the process and insists that there is NO problem whatsoever. Each Dr.s visit is quite stressful with him as he is SO set in his opinion. Yesterday we argued ENDLESSLY about a certain assignment that is "missing" in one of his classes. He insists that he turned it in, but his grade report is still showing a zero. He's unbelievably okay with just taking a zero...whereas, I am not so much. That has been a HUGE part of his problem this school year...all the zeroes. Our hopes with the medication he was put on is that it will help him to be able to focus more and follow through on the grades he is missing and help him tune in more to what needs to be taken care of. I wish I could say it's working...but thus far...not so much. The arrangement that we have is that as long as he is showing any outstanding missing assignments, he is "unplugged", as in no video games. That's the place where it really gets him. Video games are his LIFE link! That worked well...until I had to enforce it yesterday. You would have thought it was the end of the world. Tempers were flaring and he argued his irresponsible point to the death. I kept explaining the whole point of all of this is to develop sense of responsibility and an ability to see the details through. HE says "who cares about a zero if you still have a B in the class?!". Lovely. Again...I went back to the point that it isn't really the grades...but the details involved in the grades and that's where things are falling through the cracks. He argued back...it was endless. I love raising the pre-teen and all of his crazy irrational hormones! Big fun!

In addition to arguing with Max all day yesterday, we had another dinner time disaster! It's no real secret that I don't love to cook. I really pretty much hate it. But I recognize that it is often times a necessary evil. And I try to do some things that Chris will enjoy eating. If I do something entirely not kid friendly, then I try to make sure I make something else for the kids. Yesterday, despite the first uncomfortable rumblings of this horrific food poisoning starting to crank up, I cooked dinner for my family. I chose a recipe from the new Cooking Light issue that had sounded yummy. On the menu last night...lemon pepper shrimp scampi, sauteed asparagus and orzo. It cooked up nicely and the presentation was lovely. I placed a bright and beautiful plate in front of each of my family members. They all proceeded to sit and stare at it like I had just placed a plate of radioactive poo in front of them. Lovely. I could see the kids being a bit skeptical...but I expected more from
Chris. His lack of enthusiasm did NOT go unnoticed. When I questioned as to whether or not he liked it he said it was fine. Good. Yet he didn't eat it like it was. That's when he told me he had just happened to have fish, asparagus and rice for lunch. Hmmm. Lovely. Wrong answer. By this point, my stomach was really churning, I was tired and miserable and with all of the arguing with Max, added onto the whole radioactive poop reaction. Dinner was a lovely affair! Just underscores how much I totally hate cooking!

What else is going on? Business is good. Much better than I expected with this current economy for sure! It's keeping me plenty busy these days and I suppose that is a really good thing. The school year is rocking right along. We are already at Rodeo Days tomorrow...So there are only about 3 months of school left. I am ready for summer! Not so much because I look forward to having the kids here 24/7...but I AM looking forward to not having the constant homework grind and schedules and activities going on. I'm more than ready for a break from the projects and reports and homework packets. We are scheduled to spend a month at the beach this summer and I am really looking forward to that!

Guess that is about all the news for now. Tummy is hurting so I am getting off of here and try to escape the pain!