We headed out to my mom's place on Friday. The weather was icky out - rain to snow - but not as bad as predicted (there wasn't any ice). When we got there we unpacked and headed out to Gabriel's favorite restaurant (Dirty Gurtz) for dinner. When we got back later that night we watched Final Destination 5. I take great pride in getting my mom into that series.

On Saturday I had a trip to Gary's. I got a new tattoo on the inside of my right wrist. It's a puzzle piece and I had it done in purple. It's super cool looking and a pic will be posted to facebook when it's healed. I also decided to get my ear pierced. Holy crap, that hurt worse than any of the tattoos that I have ever gotten! I almost backed out when I saw the twelve gauge needle they were going to stab through my ear, but I went through with it. There's now a professional surgical steel loop in my left ear. It'll take awhile for it to heal, but when it does I should be able to wear any earring I want in it. Yay! Here's to hoping it works this time around. When I was 12, I got my ears pierced by a piercing gun in a mall store - had a bad allergic/infected reaction and had to get the earrings removed in the emergency room because my ears swelled so badly that the earrings disappeared. Supposedly there's a huge difference between getting pierced with a gun, using studs, in a mall and getting pierced with a needle, using a hoop, from a professional piercer.

That night we headed into Dubuque and went to House of China for dinner (super yum!) and then drove through the light show. When we were back at my mom's place, we watched the original Fright Night.

Sunday we just chilled out around the house and let Gabriel pick where to go for dinner. He wanted Dirty Gurtz again, and we all like it, so he was super happy that we ate there again. That night we watched the Fright Night remake.

Monday we drove home and today Gabriel was back in school. Rob took today off of work just to have an extra day before he had to head back. It's a good thing he did because I now have what Gabriel had a few weeks back. Super bad sore throat, stuffed sinuses, mucus in the throat, and a horrible headache. I'm going to hold off on seeing a doctor. New year, new deductible and paying a few hundred bucks while knowing there's not much they can do doesn't seem like a good idea. So, I'm going to try and fight this myself and only head in if I know I need antibiotics.

This morning was amusing. Gabriel did not want to go back to school and so he kept faking sick. At one point, we got a super cute quote: "I can't go to school, I am sick. I am so very, very sick. I might be dead." He is such a drama king sometimes.