Just when you thought it was safe...

The girls and I felt so much better this morning; I was back to my energetic self and India and Kate were so much more pleasant to be around. Then, without warning, the Virus That Just Won't Die Part II. Headaches, vomiting, and other unspeakables are plaguing us again. All three of us are just miserable, feverish, and grumpy...welcome home, Tracy!

Yes, "the boys" survived Merle Fest with no arrests and, more importantly, all my cooking utensils arrived home unscathed. I will say that Tracy MUST have a shower or he's sleeping on the dogs' bed; evidentally the shower facilities were reminescent of MASH and 3 days of campfire and outdoors have left a Pig Pen-like cloud around my husband. We are sampling some of the music right now and I am impressed. My favorite musical story of the weekend: "The Mammals" and "The Ducks" joined each other on stage for the "Platypus Jam".

To keep the girls occupied today we made a run to Wal Mart (this was before the recurrance of illness). No big deal, right? Except the closest Wal Mart is 45 minutes away. We are really in the boonies...we drive 1.5 hours and a $20 toll just to get our car serviced, visit a Target or mall, etc. There are lots of things we just can't purchase on the Shore, making the occasional trip to Wal Mart a necessary evil. I am probably the only female in the free world who loathes shopping so I had mixed feelings about going ("I'm getting out of the house" versus "Wal Mart is Hell"), but I bribed the girls to behave by promising them a small toy. Kate selected some princess doll with molded hair that comes off. The hair is roughly the size of a chick pea and she keeps losing it. I know this because whenever she is looking for something she "calls" it, and right now she's walking around yelling "haaayaw" (hair) like I might yell "Daaaiissy" out the back door for one of our dogs. It's cracking me up! There she goes again. I should probably help her find the hair but right now I am enjoying her calling it too much.

Another Kate funny...she loathes being laughed at (it usually makes her cry) and today when someone would make eye contact with her and smile she would put her head down, look at me and say "I sad". When asked why, she said "People" in a tone I would reserve for saying "chicken guts". India, on the other hand, had no qualms about talking to everyone in the store and showing them the contents of our cart. Thank goodness I wasn't buying feminine hygiene products!

Postscript: Cliff and Rebecca - the vague yellow thing India is holding in her picture is the stuffed giraffe you sent when she was born. That is "Frinkles" and she is her "best lovey" (All you "Olivia" readers should get the reference). I had to search the world wide web to find a back-up...now we have a spare in case of emergencies! India tells me that Frinkles is afraid of the dark and often wakes her to ask for reassurance and to ask India to break out some "Monster Spray" - but that's a whole other blog topic.