"I thought this was going to be the best Halloween ever...."

It all began with a little book. Two months ago my Grandma Jean gave Ashton a "Taste of Home" Halloween cookbook. Ashton wore the cover off the book. It really got her imagination going and she has been planning her Halloween party every waking moment since. We invited 50 people and every single one of them was planning on attending. Ash had all kinds of games and activities planned. We have slowly bought every possible thing we could think of for the party and have been so excited.........Well, on Wednesday after school we were planning on going to get our H1N1 shot. Kye came home complaining of a headache and coughing. This soon escalated in to a fever of 104. I think you can see where this going. Needless to say, it was too late for us to get the shot. Thursday night was our ward Trunk or Treat and we had decided that we would go and Kye could stay in the car and watch. That way he would still be able too feel like he was participating but he wouldn't be infecting anyone. While we were getting the kids dressed we heard a loud thud and a scream. Lola had pulled the piano bench over and crushed her big toe. We rushed her to the ER. The Dr could not believe she hadn't broken it. She severed the nailbed and had several severe cuts that they stitched and glued. When I left the ER the Dr said he was worried about infection and if she came down with a fever I should bring her back in. I told him she had a brother with H1N1 and that a fever could be related to the flu but he said we couldn't chance it and would have to bring her back. I came home and we told Ash that we would have to cancel her party. She said "I thought this was going to be the best Halloween ever!" And then she cried herself to sleep. The next day I told my sister things could not get any worse. She told me not to say that because then they might. And they did! At 2 am Lola came down with a fever and back to the ER we went. We were there the rest of the night. The Dr finally diagnosed the fever as part of the flu and she and I returned home at 7:30 am, after spending a night with all the drunks and other crazy people.

This is how Lola spent Halloween. Drugged up on Antibiotics, Antivirals, Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She has a beautiful little Angel dress that she has yet to wear. We felt so bad for Ashton and Kye that we let them put on their costumes and Trick-or-Treat at a few of our neighbors doors. By the end of the weekend our entire family had caught the dreaded "swine" flu. We had many kind friends and neighbors drop treats off at our door. The kids good friends Courtney and Conner brought over big bags of their own treats.
The consolation I gave the kids was that it was just as fun to stay home and give out treats as it was to go out trick-or-treating. We did our best to decorate our porch and even played scary music to invite trick-or-treaters. We waited and waited. We had 3 knocks and only 5 kids come by. This is our full bowl of treats at the end of the night.
Things can only get better from here, right?