Ruff Week

It's been a long week around here. I had a head cold while treating and array of symptoms among most of my children. None of it was serious, just draining. I had originally posted about Greg's rough week on Valentine's Day but quickly discovered those details could not be made public as they are part of an on-going investigation. He dealt with the sudden death of an employee. It hit him hard. We celebrated Valentines with a nice dinner as a family to remind ourselves about what really matters in life. Well, the food and decorations were nice. Our younger two children were less than pleasant to the point that we had to laugh at our attempt. We will try again without high expectations. Food wasn't thrown so I think we could start with that standard and work our way into table manners.
Ty has been running 103 and 104 temperatures since Wednesday morning. He woke up this morning looking like this.....

The virus that causes his cold sores hit him hard this time. This is a very similar outbreak to the one he had in February 2010 that was initially diagnosed as impetigo. He is back on acyclovir in hopes of getting this reigned in. He is miserable. The blisters are painful and the fever remains. He is breaking my heart.

We found out last night a lady in our area rescued a severely malnourished boxer who had just given birth to seven puppies. Miracle was chosen for her name as she has already come a long way in her recovery; however, her needs are constant and her babies all need around the clock bottle feedings because they can't feed off their infected mother. Lauren has always had a heart for suffering animals and I thought this would be a great way for her to contribute. We are fostering two of the 17 day old babies. She has named them Mia and Woody. I suggested Foster and Temporary but was quickly out-voted. They are rather adorable; much more than that nasty bird she nursed back to health two years ago!

Brutus is quite protective and they love being close to him. They need to be bottle fed every two hours. The surprise for me was learning that they have to be stimulated to use the restroom. (Not pretty but necessary) However, Mia had a surprise of her own for us this evening as she pooped and peed on my carpet. Sigh.