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Friday, April 18, 2008

All better now

I think I can officially say that we are all FINALLY germ free. FINALLY. I realized that by my previous posts - all four or five of them - a person could easily get the impression that my family is a bunch of sickos. Except that we're not - I promise! We are not a bunch of sniffling, pale little weaklings who catch every sickness that floats through the air. My kids are strong, active and bright - hell, my 1-year-old has never had an ear infection and my three year has had maybe three his entire life - which I think is pretty good. This last cold was my first cold in over a year for me which is also pretty good. The only person who probably gets sick in our house more than he should is HH. He's an OT in an assisted living center so he's around some pretty funky stuff on a regular basis. Ever heard of the NorWalk Virus? Yeah - he's had that twice - both times right around Easter. Nothing fun about having to pull the car over so he can crap and puke on the side of the interstate! And he has a bad back and some how manages to throw it out a couple of times a year. He chalks all of his health related misfortune up to the fact that he's getting older, but I know and you know it's really because men are just inferior to women. HA!

So anyway, the real reason I wanted to post is because I have a gripe that needs to be griped about. Or maybe it's a dilemma - I don't know. Basically - it boils down to this - we have no family around. Some of you are probably saying "so what?" and if you are it's because you probably DO have family around. If you don't, you understand exactly what I mean when I say "we have no family around" Not only do we not have family around - we don't even have any family nearby. My family is in Colorado and my HH's family is in Hawaii. How's that for making it easy to visit the grandparents on the weekend? My HH and I often debate about moving to Hawaii to be near family - we both want the boys to grow up with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in their lives -plus HH wants to teach them how to surf. But $8 for a gallon of milk? $450,000.00 for a two bedroom CONDO? 50 year mortgages? I just can't seem to wrap my mind around that, yet I can't shake the feeling that we're cheating our kids out of precious family memories by living so far away from family - not to mention how nice it would be to have the extra help. My HH and I haven't had a date night in....like.... EVER! So, the mental/emotional debate rages on - move to be with family or remain where we are and enjoy a comfortable yet extended family-free lifestyle. If anyone out there has ever made the choice to move to be near family - why did you do it and was it worth it? I would love to hear from you.

P.S. I guess I should add that I do have a sister who lives nearby. I figured I needed to throw that in since you're sure to hear more about her as time goes on. But anyway, even though she's my sister, in my opinion, she doesn't count as family because she acts more like a family friend than an aunt. She refuses to babysit the boys as she "doesn't do diapers" and she's "afraid that something will happen". My oldest is three and a half and quite good at feeding himself, going to the bathroom AND wiping his own butt. Still she won't even watch him. When she does come over, it's while we're there too and about a hour is all she can handle.

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