Halloween Scare

Our plan was to wake up on Saturday morning and leave the house by 9am for our 3 and a half hour trek down to Chesapeake to spend the holiday with Paul's brother and his family. The plan was that Eva and Izzy would be able to trick-or-treat with their cousins and celebrate their Uncle's birthday with him and we'd be able to take adorable pictures of all of the kiddos decked out in their Halloween attire. That was the plan. I was comfortable with that. It was a good plan.

And then this happened...

Yep, Izzy woke up at 5am with a fever of 102?!? My neighbors had Swine Flu last week. I feared the worst and called the triage nurse at our local Johns Hopkins satellite clinic. She asked me a bazillion questions and eventually discerned that Izzy just had regular old influenza. I was relieved. BUT, she was still sick and in no condition to handle a long car ride. And we, of course, didn't want to share our sickies with all of our family down in Chesapeake, so at 6:45am, Paul and I made the final decision...we weren't going.

Even though this was an agreed upon change of plans, it was still a change of plans and I don't do well with those. at all. I believe that there should be legal documentation and approval committees (of which I'm the Chair person) before plans of any kind are changed. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way and so I've had to develop several methods of coping.

First...cleaning. It was the perfect storm of restless energy and germaphobia. My house was spotless within hours and completely sanitized!

Second...more planning. I know, I know it sounds crazy but I've noticed that if my plans get changed, I just plan for something new. Seeing as it was Halloween day, I was acutely aware that in less than 24 hours, it would be November 1st and the official beginning (in my book) of the Holidays. So what did I do, I plotted out Thanksgiving dinner and then inspected all of my current decor only to decide that it was insufficient.

Third...Shopping. I went to Michaels. I spent a little too much money but I justified it by calculating how much gas money we would've spent had we made our trip down to Chesapeake and allowed myself to spend exactly that much in Michaels. Paul hasn't heard this justification yet. He'll go for it though...right?

Fourth...crafting. Once I came home with all of my booty, I got to work. I'm more than happy with the finished products...oh and there will be more.

And finally, more planning. After all, Christmas is right around the corner!