I LEAVE FOR A WEEK AND EVERYTHING FALLS APART

Brian and I just returned from a fabulous vacation in Key West yesterday at 3pm. While relaxing on the plane on the way home, I spent a lot of time mentally preparing myself to jump back into the "daily grind".

After getting off the plane, we made our way to baggage claim, gathered our luggage and headed out to the street where my mom and the kids were waiting anxiously for our arrival. When I entered the car, I found Anthony looking terribly sick, complaining of a sore throat and running a very high fever, Olivia looking at me as if she did not know who the heck I was, and Ava and Lucas simply shouting "what did you get us?!?"

I had a feeling it was going to be a long rest of the day. Unpacking, dealing with a sick child, one who did not know who I was anymore, and 2 that could not stop asking to see their gifts.

I called urgent care en route to our house and was lucky enough to get Anthony an appointment that evening. I managed to get home (where it looked like a tornado hit) unpack, throw 1 load of laundry in (out of 10 that I had), give the kids their gifts, and feed them all before I had to run to the Doctor to get Anthony a throat culture. There was no time to get to the messy house.

Did I mention I had not had a shower all day? Ugh.

After waiting for a surprisingly short period of time at the Dr's office, we found out that Anthony had strep throat. To make matters worse, the Dr. mentioned that he most likely got it from one of his siblings. Wonderful. I arrived home and immediately checked everyone's throats. Ava looked good, Livi looked good (from what I could see), Lucas looked -- not so good. He had it too, and of course I had to bring him into the Dr. after I was just there so he could get a prescription as well.

Whew. Talk about diving right in after getting home - looks like there was not going to be any down time at the Shelton house.

Finally we were all home. Everyone got their medicine, a much needed bath, teeth brushed, and tucked into bed at 7:30pm. I even managed to get a bit of quality time with Olivia Grace where she actually looked at me as if she knew I was her Mom.

I then managed to take a shower myself, got into bed, and pretty much fell asleep once my head hit the pillow. Seriously.

So two sick kids, 10 loads of laundry, a house in serious need of a deep clean, and one missing hermit crab later(not sure what happened there) - we are home, settling in, trying to get back into the groove of things...