Surviving the flu

           I was just thinking, that saying "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is utterly untrue when it comes to "the flu". Unlike most other viral infections (chicken pox, mononucleosis, rubella) you don't get life long immunity after getting the flu once. The vaccine is so laughable un efficient, it makes one wonder what kind of retards keep giving millions each year to create one more vaccine that does nothing (except in some cases actually giving you the flu). So no, after having the flu, you are not stronger, but in fact you are weak for days and maybe weeks.

       Last weekend it was out turn to meet Mrs. Flu. I was the official greeter, so I was hit the worst. I mean that feeling the you melt and your brain explodes in a million sparks that burn your skin from the inside out. And then the chills, chest pain, muscle pain. After two days of switching between real life and dreamland, I finally committed to the harsh conscious reality. One where all my body hurt, I was coughing almost continuously till the last molecule of air escaped my lungs (scientifically this is untrue, as even a freshly dead body has around half a liter of air in its lungs). Luckily, Catalina was not hit as horribly as I was. I remember vaguely her crying in the middle of the night because of congestion and asking me repeatedly "mommy help me, please". And I remember desperately wanting to help her, but no idea was coming to my mind, so I was just hugging her and telling her she needs to be patient, things will get better. I now give myself the award for the "worst mom of the year" for this. Come on, who wants to hear when they are miserably sick they just need to wait? How long? Is it going to get worse?
      Anyway, we saw the light in the end. A week later we are all fever free, Catalina is slowing regaining her appetite and I have hope that sometime in the near future I will have a voice again. And maybe I will stop coughing, but that seems a little too greedy.
      So, here are some fragments on how we enjoyed our sick time at home. We had an appointment with Catalina for a first gym class. Since we were all so sick, we made a "make believe gym" at home. Here is our balance beam made out of mommy's scarf, and the cutest gymnast showing off her talents!

 Once I got better it was time to clean all those nasty germs. Catalina was more than happy to clean. I asked her " can you please bring mommy the Lysol?", She came back with the Lysol and the Windex and she told me "You clean with Lysaol. I'll use this one, I have so much work to do!" And work she did!

 When all was done, we had some time to be silly. And so so cute!

A decade of lawfully being a wife :)

10 years back I convinced a very wild boy to sign a piece of paper that made him my legal husband.
Did we have good years that we screwed up, just because we were stupid and young and we thought we have an infinite life? Yes we did...
Did we have bad years that we made good, just because we knew it can be much worse? Yes we did...

Overall, if one asks me, I think this counts for a happy balanced married life.
We don't have many memories in pictures from Jan 10, 2003, but this is how we looked almost 10 years back:

And this is how we look nowadays:

 Yes, we are happy. Happy decade, Marius, and let's try to make the next one at least as good as this one.

Happy 2013!

I truly truly hope that 2013 will be the most amazing year. That we won't have hurricanes, that we won't have any shootings and for once, we can all live together happily. I hope that everybody is as happy as I am, and they feel as fulfilled as I do.

The year started merrily for us. For New Year's Eve we went to a romanian party and had a blast. Catalina loves music and she loved dancing with mommy and daddy.  After a long time, I was also able to dance with my husband, as Catalina decided that Barney is equally interesting in the middle of a dance party also (even if there was no way she could hear a word from her video). We stayed up until 3am, and had lots and lots of fun. Then it came eating, and sleeping, and well, one day later , back to work.

Catalina, mommy and daddy made "colacei" for New Year. And they were yummy!!

So a new year is here. I have few wishes for this one, as I already have everything I want. As long as I get the warm hugs from Catalina, not much matters.

And to go back to our little gorgeous bean. She discovers new wonders every day. She is completely obsessed these days with the ear lobe. Not because she wants earrings, and her ears don't hurt. She just thinks that's the cutest thing around. She keeps pulling at her ear lobe and tells me: "look mommy, that's  an ear lobe". She keeps pulling at mine and Marius's (ouch...) and she gets equally excited. As silly as this sounds, it makes me giggle every time she does it.

     Catalina has way too much love to spread around. We get a million kisses every night. Once in a while she tells me: "mommy, I am so happy to have you". And yes, my heart melts and I want to rip it off my chest to give it to her, just in case she wants it. One morning she tells me: "mommy, I like you so much, you are so beautiful".  And truth be told, I gained a lot of weight, and my face shows I'm not 20 (or 30 for that matter...) anymore. But if my daughter thinks I'm pretty, who am I to say no? She's the smartest of all! And somehow, my cute little one has nice things to say about a lot of things and a lot of people. One day she would say her teacher is nice, one day she would say a friend is beautiful. And she continuously asks me if I am happy. Out of the blue. We are playing, or watching TV, or eating. And she stops and asks me: "are you happy, mommy?". And this, coming from a cute little goddess who's not even three years old! The other day she decided she finally wants to wear a sweater I knitted for her when she was just born. Being the great knitter that I am, I completely misjudged her size and knitted a sweater , well 10 sizes larger :). It fits her just right now, and I kept asking her to wear it and she kept saying no. Until one morning, when she said yes. And then, she looks at me and asks me: "are you happy mommy?" And boy, was happy to see this:

Happy New Year to us all!