Tornado, Rats and Christmas flu

Although 2019 started off okay with a fun spring break and great summer vacation, it ended in a total shit show and we are ready for 2020. It all started with Fabi, our au pair, making some real poor life decisions that resulted in him being fired from the au pair program at the beginning of October. This was right after I got promoted and was working some pretty insane hours. Then on October 20, a tornado hit our neighborhood and caused massive damages to, among other things, David’s school. The school was closed for many days and our whole way of life was disrupted. Matt bore the brunt of this because I was working on a large corporate bankruptcy, something that has been challenging and very time consuming. Just when things started to settle, the rats invaded. It started with one the weekend before the tornado, but there were lots more. So Matt has to deal with that.. and critter removal is nasty and expensive. There was a very quick trip to OKC for thanksgiving, which will forever be described as the most dysfunctional one where Matt and Jake almost got into a fiat fight, and finally .. it was Christmas. Christmas is my favorite holiday and despite promising Matt I won’t, I go overboard every year. And this year- at the last minute- I did the same thing. I spent all day Tuesday running around Dallas to get the latest and greatest for the boys. A last minute Xbox for David and the elusive Beyblades for Henry. The later required a trip to Walmart which is where I think I caught the plague. But I can’t prove it. On Tuesday night, for Christmas Eve, the Waterman’s headed for it to a fancy dinner at Nobu to kick off the festivities. It was disaster. Service was horrific, dinner took 3 hours and the food was bad. Everyone started bickering out of frustration and hunger and we all just wanted to go home. At home, the boys went to bed and Matt and I wrapped and set up from Santa. I felt tired but nothing like what happened at 3am when I woke up with high fever and aches. From that point on, I just remember sleeping. The boys woke me up.. nothing. I literally just slept through Christmas. With high fever and achy muscles. I got up in the afternoon to open gifts but went right back to bed. The whole thing sucked. On the bright side, kids really loved their gifts and enjoyed having the entire day to just play.