alive...kinda...with a summer cold

"Sickness comes on horseback, but goes away on foot."

I'm a mere day away from heading back to work after a wonderful, yet fast paced, summer vacation. I thought this week would be full of work and accomplishment in getting ready for a new school year. I thought I'd finally get caught up in creating the rest of my Media Productions curriculum two years in the making. I thought I'd have one last week to play and think positive thoughts for the year to come. I was semi-successful in these endeavors.

Then I got sick.

Here's a rundown of the last, uh, week.

A week ago Friday--8-8-08--was Ben's cousin's wedding. The wedding was outdoors and Utah weather last Friday was iffy, but everything turned out wonderfully. The wedding was beautiful. They had a brunch after the wedding and then the reception later in the evening. Ben and his brothers (minus J-dawg!) did their traditional Hubert family Jester singing show at the reception. Here's their video.

Saturday I worked feverishly on school and primary stuff. I got a lot accomplished and felt like I had a good pace of things.

Sunday we went to the parent's Huberts for homemade apricot ice cream--SO YUMMY! Then we visited my mom for a bit.

Monday I got up early, drove into school to start "The Move." All I could do was simply move the boxes of stuff from my old room into my new room and put the stuff on desks and tables. The teacher's whose room I am moving into hadn't yet moved any of her stuff out. I felt like I got a good deal accomplished in just making a transfer of stuff. I had to leave earlier than expected because they were getting ready to wax the floors.

Tuesday I headed back into the school to help with registration. What a fun experience! (not really!) It lasted for a few hours and was just pure craziness trying to keep track of the computer program, money exchanges, students on fee-waivers, and directing everyone where to go. I saw several former students and several students came to tell me that I will be their teacher this year!

Tuesday night I attended my book club, where we reviewed a fun, entertaining book, Prisoner of Tribekistan. (Review of the book on my book blog). We had a great time chatting about the book and all things Jeopardy. I went home feeling that all-to-familiar tickle in my throat.

Ben was able to take Wednesday and Thursday off, so we decided to pack our camping gear and the boat and head to Strawberry Reservoir. After a slow start, we finally got the campsite around 8. We had sausage, potato salad, and watermelon for dinner. Ben made a killer fire. I was really starting to feel awful, but tried to enjoy the little trip. Thursday morning we ate breakfast, packed up camp, and drove to the reservoir for some fishing. I "caught" two sizable fish within the first 10 minutes, but we had to throw them back because they were too small. Since I wouldn't dream of touching the icky fish, Ben did the dirty work for me; here's my first fish (oh, and I'll also have you know that Ben didn't catch any fish during the day!)

Even Zeus-Man got in on the action wearing his new doggy-life jacket. He tested the waters only once, when he accidentally fell in and the proceeded to freak out! He swam under the boat a few times before finally heading Ben's commands to come back. He was shivering for a while after that, but then we warmed each other up!

This is pretty much how I was the rest of the day. I was miserable. My throat hurt, my nose was running, I was sneezing every 10 minutes, and my body was throbby.

And then, at 4 or so, we got off the lake and my face was FRIED!! The boat even has a canopy--that was up--but my spot up front was so comfortable, I fell asleep in the sun. We drove home and I was in tears just about the whole way because I felt so icky. When we pulled up, Ben unlocked the door, I went in and got in a freezing cold shower, took some medicine, grabbed a big glass of water and an ice pack and got into bed to cool off and rest. I slept soundly that night!!!

Friday was just a nasty, nasty carry over of the nasty, nasty summer cold. I got up only to use the restroom and let the dog in and out. I slept the majority of the day, getting absolutely nothing accomplished! Luckily, I had a good motivating reason to get up, showered, and dress. My brother, Eric, came into town for a funeral and my mom took that opportunity to have a family BBQ. Even though I felt horrible (Cassidy has the same cold as me!), it was still fun to be with family and eat my mom's yummy, yummy food. I heart my family so much! Heather, we missed you!!!

Today's been marginally better. I had to literally force myself to get up to work on homework that I've put off 'till today. Oh, and don't forget Sharing Time. Yup. I had to do that, too. After getting both of those accomplished by noon, I rested the rest of the day and just made a pretty decent chicken noodle casserole. I feel loads better and even my raccoon-looking sunburned face looks a lot better.

So, as the proverb at the top of this posting says, the summer cold came quite quickly, but like usual when I get sick, it's gonna take a while to leave.