A Fun Time Was Had By All...Except Me.

We have been very busy this weekend. On Saturday, Lily had her friends Tyler and Emma Lau over for the afternoon. They had a lot of fun playing dress-up and making paper airplanes.

That evening, our friend (and Tyler and Emma's mom) Beth invited us to dinner and made homemade macaroni and cheese that was to die for. The kids played upstairs after dinner and the adults had a few beers and played "Apples to Apples," a hilarious party game. Once the kids went to sleep, we played "Scene It," a video game on the Xbox 360. Everyone got a handheld controller to buzz in their answers about various movies, actors, characters and famous lines. It was a lot of fun. We left around midnight with Jack, but Lily stayed over with Emma. Beth and her husband Alex live across the street, so we've had a few of these game nights and hope to do it more often.

The next morning, we picked up Lily and then headed into the city with the Laus for dim sum at the China Pearl in Chinatown. Jim and I love to get dim sum and were taking the kids into Chinatown once a month or so. We were happy to learn several months ago that the Laus do a regular dim sum there, too! This is the second time we've all gone to China Pearl together. Alex is part Chinese, so he always recommends something new and different for us to try, and the kids love it when our families go out together. This morning, Tyler was on a playdate with one of his school friends, so it was just Lily, Emma and Jack.

Unfortunately, my chest congestion had been getting worse. This morning, I noticed I was having some trouble breathing after going up and down the stairs. By the time we got to China Pearl, I was really having a lot of trouble breathing. We finished dim sum and then Beth and Alex offered to take the kids home while Jim took me to the hospital.

I don't like to go to the emergency room, and I didn't feel like my breathing issues were an emergency. On the other hand, I didn't feel like I could wait until tomorrow, when my doctor has office hours, because my difficulty breathing felt like it was getting worse. Once we got to the hospital, I was relieved to see that the walk-in medical clinic was open, so we went there instead of the ER.

After a chest x-ray and a nebulizer treatment, it turns out that I'm having an asthma flare up. Jim and I were both pretty surprised -- I had medication induced asthma when I was first on heart medication, but it cleared up almost immediately once they switched me to a new med. Neither of us thought I could get asthma from something else, but apparently this chest cold triggered an attack. Good to know. I'm breathing much better and was prescribed some prednisone and albuterol to keep everything clear until this cold goes away.

As a result of my side trip to the hospital, Lily and Jack got to have another afternoon of play time with their friends. When we got home from the hospital, Jim and I went over for a beer and some snacks while we watched the Pats game. I left after a little while to have a nap at home, but Jim and the kids stayed until the game was over. Jack was completely worn out when he got home!

So, everyone had a great weekend, except for me. My weekend was only *mostly* great. I do hope we continue the game nights, though. I haven't laughed so much in years!