Christmas Tree Hunt

I feel like I have just rebounded from the brink of death. 

My husband is a recruit commander---the Navy's term for "drill instructor"---and the result of spending 18 hours a day in closed compartment spaces with 88 teenagers from all over the country is ,well, not difficult to understand.  Imagine being sneezed on simultaneously by an entire daycare full of snotty nosed toddlers. 

Needless to say I was not surprised to learn that I had contracted the H1N1 virus.  Despite my best efforts with a vat of hand sanitizer and isolation, the kids caught it too; and the three of us have spent the past week in bed.  My daughter and I recovered without much issue; but my son, who is an asthmatic, had to be rushed to the ER a couple of days ago due to this virus's ability to literally knock the wind out you. 

Fortunately, it was early enough for him to be prescribed Tamiflu--an antiviral that helps shorten the duration and severity of influenza. Thankfully and blissfully, the medication has helped and my son is feeling so much better.  He may even be able to go back to school in a couple of more days. 

It was a scary illness for sure. 

Sadly I don't have much else to report, probably because I'm still feeling pretty blah and blank after my swine adventure.  Today I am mentally making a grocery list of things I'm going to need for Thanksgiving dinner.  Greg will most likely be babysitting recruits that day (big fucking surprise); so I'm debating whether or not to go all out with a big dinner for the kids and myself.  

I also need to purchase a Christmas tree.  And soon.   I bought one last year, but it was such a cheap piece of shit that I threw it out before we moved.  This year I am on the hunt for one that at least looks like a tree rather than a couple of green pipecleaners being rammed into a wooden pole. 

Have you ever noticed how expensive artificial trees are though?  Holy shit, especially those pre-lit things---you know, the ones with the lights already attached.  The ones that you don't have to do anything but unfold like a friggin' beach umbrella and toss some ornaments on it.  I guess the convenience of it all is what makes them more expensive. 

I am more of an old fashioned type.  I like to wrestle with tangled lights, cuss at the kids and dogs for stepping over everything, and especially the part where you have to strategically place individual lights to "fill in" the spots of the tree where you can see the wall through the other side---hence, cheap piece of shit tree. 

I'm in a rush and out of time.  More on my Christmas Tree Hunt soon!