It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

The last two days have been completely wild. All was well and full of smiles on Tuesday and Tuesday night - in fact, Abby even helped me cook!

All smiles on Tuesday.

My "help" in the kitchen.

(Please ignore the carrot spill on the foot of her high chair.)

Then, Abigail woke up on Wednesday morning at 4 am with a low grade fever. We started her on Tylenol, and it has been up and down since. The highest it has gotten is 100.7 and with the Tylenol it goes back down to normal. I called the doctor today and they said it is probably just a cold, which is what I suspected, to continue the Tylenol or Motrin (if I choose) and to keep an eye on it. If it goes above 102, then I am to call back. All day Wednesday it was obvious that she wasn't feeling well. She had a snot faucet and kept coughing and sneezing, plus her eyes were really watery. There was a period of time when she couldn't/wouldn't sleep and kept going, "Mummmmummmuuuummh" for about 20 minutes or so and it broke my heart that I couldn't help her feel better. The only thing I could do was sing to her and rock her and get a warm washcloth and wash off her face every so often. My mom always did it to me when I felt ill, and it seemed to have a calming effect on Abby, too, so that made me feel better.

My poor baby!

As if my sick baby wasn't enough, here comes a tornado! Ack. I was home alone and all of a sudden it started raining hard and I heard the warning sirens. I grabbed Abigail's carseat, a flashlight, a bottle, Chance, my cell phone and headed to the nearest bathroom. I buckled in sick Abigail, wedged her underneath the pedestal sink and found out pretty quickly that there is no cell phone signal during a tornado. I had no idea where Robby was and I was pretty frightened because the storm outside was very, very LOUD. I was in the bathroom and the lights went out, Abby was crying, Chance was whining and scratching at the floor and all I could do to keep from going crazy was to start singing lullabies. Sure enough, it worked! Chance calmed down, Abby calmed down and started cooing (I think she was singing with me) and eventually the lights came back on. I was in there about 45 minutes total. Then I contacted my parents and FINALLY Robby, who had to evacuate to the bathroom at his work (eww). He was on his way home. Yay!

The following pics are not of our house - just around town as I drove home from work today around 4pm - after a full day of cleanup. I wasn't able to get pics of the houses with no roofs, but there were some.

This morning I woke up and it was still storming terribly bad, but I had to go to a staff development. Boo hiss. (It actually turned out worthwhile and I learned a lot of valuable info!) After that, I was fortunate enough to cash in on my Mother's Day gift at a spa and I got a facial. So relaxing and nice! Now my face is aglow and looks at least one year younger! I know Robby may eventually read this -- thanks, Honey, for my gift! I loved it!

Abigail, although still under the weather, felt a lot better today and was chatty and happy. Hopefully she'll kick this little bug in the next few days.