Les Miserables, La Crosse, and Swine Flu

This past weekend, Brent and I had the extreme pleasure of watching his daughter, M, perform in her school's production of Les Miserables. She was the only freshman involved (that's just how talented she is!) and was in the chorus. That means she was able to be in most scenes, as one of the singers/actors who didn't have a specific character part, but was one of the townspeople who added to everything that was going on. She even had a solo line in a song, and sounded terrific!

OH MY WORD!! This production was INCREDIBLE!

They did an amazing job, and the whole thing was wonderful. It never once felt like we were at a high school production, but definitely felt like a professional show that we should've paid big bucks for. The music was top-notch, there were numerous times the main characters singing brought tears to my eyes (Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, and Eponine specifically) and the acting was incredible. Like we told M afterwards, the facial expressions on everyone's faces were so believable, it seemed as though they were truly living their part! It really was so fun to be there! I just wish we had gotten some pictures, but photography wasn't allowed... bummer!

It was also really great just to get to spend some time with M over the weekend! We miss being closer, so any time we can spend with her is pretty precious. It was a short trip, because I had to work Friday overnights, so we left Saturday morning just after I got home and I slept in the car (on an air mattress in the back of the minivan, by the way, which was a great way to sleep!). We arrived mid-afternoon and hung out with M around town and had dinner together before she had to be at school for the musical.

Then on Sunday morning, we had brunch together before we had to leave and she needed to get ready for that day's show. Can you guess where we would've eaten? Why Perkins, of course! Living in Fergus Falls for 12 years of my life means that Perkins is an automatic choice for many a meal --brunch, late night appetizers, dessert... you name it, Perkins has it! :)

Here we are after a great omelet, and just before we took off.



It was hard saying goodbye, but we're looking forward to Christmas and M joining us for a while!

After we left, we decided to take a detour on our drive home, and went to La Crosse to see Brent's parents. They just moved into their new home so we wanted to see that, and also wanted to wish them a "Happy Anniversary" on their big day! Now, before any of my La Crosse friends wonder why I didn't call, we really were only there just a few hours --long enough to see their home and take them out to dinner to celebrate. It was a long detour and quick visit, but so completely worth every minute!

We got back late on Sunday night and fell right to sleep. On Monday morning Brent went to work, and when he came home, he said he hadn't been feeling very well. I took one look at him and knew he had a fever. The thermometer confirmed it so I gave him Tylenol and sent him to bed. On Tuesday morning I got home from work after he had already left so I didn't see him. On the phone he said he felt okay and I went to bed. When I woke up and called him he said he was coming home soon and heading to bed. It turns out he had a fever again by 9:30 in the morning and if I had known that, I would've ordered him home right away!!! So, he slept the rest of the day and night, stayed home from work on Wednesday and now today, and he's had a fever the entire time, just getting slightly better with Tylenol and Advil every four hours. I looked around at the CDC website quite a bit to make sure I didn't need to bring him in, but they really suggested people stay at home to stop spreading anything around, unless there are other medical conditions playing a part. We've seen at the hospital that they're not always even testing people because such a huge majority of people right now who have the symptoms come back with positive tests, they're just assuming it will be positive. (It's an overwhelming majority!)

We've had probably 40-50 kiddos at the hospital that have H1N1 so I got the vaccination a while ago. We wear gowns, gloves and masks in each of those rooms so as not to infect ourselves or our families, or any of our other patients. On the CDC website they suggested that patients can wear a mask at home to not infect their family, but Brent was pretty happy to hear I wouldn't make him do that!

I think he's liking that I'm a nurse and can know many ways to help him, but he's still been pretty miserable. Since hindsight is always best, as we look back we can see one or two signs that show he might have started with all this over the weekend, so we're sure hoping he hasn't gotten anyone else sick!

It's generally a pretty mild case of the flu, but is typically lasting about 10 days so it looks like I'll be taking good care of my sweetie for a few more days still!