Happy Halloween!

Murder at the Deadwood Saloon

Minnie Money...East Coast debutante

Kevin's character was a cheatin' poker player

A clone trooper and hunter

I wonder who would win this battle?

Happy Halloween to you all! All 4 of us got dressed up for the occasion, although not on the same day. Last night Kevin and I attended a murder mystery party, something our friends host every year. It was 'Murder at the Deadwood Saloon' and you can see all of the shady characters in attendance. Tonight the boys got dressed up and went trick-or-treating, however I will say I do believe this may be our last year...we only went to 4 houses!! I would imagine soon they'll want to be attending Halloween dances instead.

Could it be...H1N1?

Yes, you read that correctly...we believe H1N1 has struck the Miley household. There are so many widespread cases here that they aren't even testing anymore. Most of those tested thus far have been positive for Influenza A. After confirming it's the 'A' strain it goes on to be tested for H1N1 and the majority of those have come back as H1N1...hence the assumption that we have it too. It hit Ryan last weekend and Alex last night. I didn't dare tell Ry he had it or he would've completely freaked out. The good news is that it isn't too bad (from a parent/healthcare perspective...now ask me how I feel about that statement after I have it..haha). It lasts about 3 days and brings a high temp, headache, nasty cough, fatigue, etc. Our neck of the woods also has a shortage of Tamiflu so unless you're in a high risk category you'll just have to tough it out. Alex has asthma but until he was positive for symptoms he didn't get the med (and that in itself is another story. Let's just say that for $100 it had better work!). At least we're getting this out of the way prior to the holiday season. Kevin made the comment last weekend that if we're going to get this let's just get it over with...lol. I did get my H1N1 vaccine yesterday due to the population of patients I work with, but it isn't available to the general public in our area yet.

So...we stocked up on Gatorade and Children's Tylenol/Advil, dusted off the nebulizer and made a nice bleach/water solution and wiped down EVERYTHING. With any luck we should be good to go by Monday. I think that's true for the general public as well. As long as you can stay well hydrated and aren't short of breath you should be good at home. Besides, when you go to the clinic it's just filled with a bunch of sick people and who knows what else you could pick up. :)

Winter is here

Alex's 'crest'...he calls it a shield

Whatever he wants to call it I say it's impressive! An arrow and fishing rod adorn the upper portion and that's a fish on the bottom.

Ryan braved the cold and did a little shooting this afternoon.

The boys had some friends over on Friday. They all got together and made a pile of leaves and then jumped in them.

I do believe winter has arrived. It snowed on Thursday evening and then again Saturday night with a small amount of accumulation. It was warm enough today (all 37 degrees) to melt it so there wasn't any shoveling to be done but I'm sure that's in the very near future. The boys had a long weekend due to Native American Day (Columbus Day to the rest of the US) so on Friday they had some friends over and today we did our homework early so we could enjoy the day. As you can see Ryan braved the cold and did a little practice shooting with his bow and arrows. We borrowed some arrows that have sharp tips so they penetrate the target much better...you can see how pleased he is with the result. Alex had to make a shield for art class and I think he did a wonderful job! He came up with that all by himself and I think it suits him perfectly.

We've started the furnace and pulled out the flannel sheets. Seems like I just put those away. Hope everyone is staying warm and have a great week!