Harrison just runs from the camera, so you'll have to "endure" more pictures of my Ella

I've totally decided that I could handle staying at home - ALL THE TIME. Chris, however, reminded me that if this happened I would probably spend too much money. He's right. With access to crowd-free weekday shopping, there's no telling what I could do. I don't like, though, staying home for not-so-wonderful reasons.

Last week I was off from school, and this week I went in on Monday but then Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed home with a sick girl. Chris stayed this morning and took her to the doctor. After a lovely procedure involving the longest Q-tip up her nose EVER, she has been diagnosed with (drumroll, please) the flu.

It started Saturday morning. Ella woke up. Asked for breakfast. Gulped it down and then projectile vomited into the kitchen sink. She seemed perfectly fine afterwards. No whining or tears. Just requests for more food. We thought it might have been a mild something that was gone. We tentatively packed her things for ski lessons and threw a bucket in the van as a last-minute precaution.

Thinking I was mom-of-the-year, I packed the kids' lunches for the ride to the resort (about 40 minutes) so that they would be fully nourished for their afternoon. Ella ate just fine, but started complaining about her neck. She ALWAYS complains about her neck in the car. We stopped worrying about this complaint about two years ago. We have no idea what the problem is, but she hasn't died or fallen over so it must not be too terrible. Anyway, the neck complaint was followed by stomach complaints. We were still in denial because the traffic up the canyon was terrible. We were focused on getting to the lessons on time. About five miles from the top, the traffic became gruesome. Cars were parked all along the side of the road and there were people walking with ski equipment everywhere. Apparently, large amounts of fresh snow, warm temps and sunshine attract everybody and their brother to the top of picturesque mountains to utilize fabulous ski resorts. For some reason we were surprised.

In stop and go traffic, she threw up lunch. It was a wonderful scene. I think my favorite part was the "YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!" spewing out of Harry. No sympathy, just disgust. We delivered him to his lesson and then drove back down. She seemed much better - we even ran to the furniture store to purchase a couch we'd been contemplating - but it keeps coming back. Not the stomach stuff. Now it's a runny nose, fever, sore throat and INTENSE, NON-STOP coughing. Tomorrow we'll be home again. I pray it's almost over - this is getting painful to watch. Nothing worse than helplessly watching your child in discomfort.