How much longer?

So, this past week, the kids were sick. First Joshua, with a fever, and complaining of a sore throat. His fever lasted about 36 hours. Just when his broke, Dustin came down with a fever, and wouldn't eat much, cried a lot, wouldn't nurse. Poor guy. His fever lasted about 24 hours, but he was still grumpy for another day.

Well, then it was my turn. Let me tell you, those kids are little troupers, if they had anything like what I'm going through. The fever, aches, headache, dizziness, and sore throat were quite the little 'sickness'! Everything has gone except my sore throat. Since Joshua and Dustin seem to have returned to normal, but mine is just getting worse, I decided to go see my doctor today.

Well, it's *just* a virus. An appetite-sucking, canker-inducing virus!! Now, I never NEVER get canker sores. I thought I was just getting little red bumps in the back of my throat. Then I started getting them in the sides of my cheeks. I have about 7 or 8 that I can actually see, but I can feel more irritation farther down the back of my throat. I can hardly swallow, eating is incredibly painful, and drinking something cool and soothing provides but a moment's relief.

I know I'm complaining. But I never get cankers. The ones in the sides of my cheeks, I could probably tolerate, but seriously, these ones in the back of my throat are just HORRID! It burns...

Anyway, yeah. Probably the second biggest annoyance (second to the irritation) is that this virus wiped the kids and I out for several days...meaning that I lost several days' worth of packing time. So, now I'm in crunch mode again. Good grief. *sigh*

I must head to bed. I'm exhausted. Busy day tomorrow. Good night!

Quick update

....it's hot. 32 yesterday, 32 today (both days, 36 with humidex)...and 34 tomorrow. i have a heat headache.

....dustin does not like the heat. poor guy does not do well with it. grumpy, grumpy, grumpy.

....joshua is loving running around half-naked. he couldn't quite understand why he and daddy and dustin could run around without shirts on, but mommy had to wear hers.

....packing, packing, packing...i'm currently working on the stuff in storage - purging, repacking, etc. "storage" is the crawl space. my back is killing me, but at least it's cool down there. :)

....we have a new phone number for the acreage. if ya want it, ya gotta ask, 'cuz i'm not posting it here!!

....our house had conditions removed on it on wednesday night - so it's officially, completely, and totally sold!! yay!

....dustin is waking up - gotta give him his milkies. the kid loves his milkies. sadly, i have to quit nursing...some meds i'm taking are messing with the nursing in a very big way. i'm sad. but i know that i have to...i just don't want to....

....i lost my first online scrabble game to sharon. :( i don't lose well when it comes to scrabble. i'm fixin' to whup her good next time, but it's not looking too promising right now. what are you supposed to do when you have 4 e's on your rack?

....we went to the lake with all our 'groupies' last weekend. here's a long exerpt from the e-mail i sent to some friends:

Arrived at "camp" in Mulhurst around 6:00 p.m. on Friday night. Burgers for dinner. Wonderful campfire at night. We'd set up the tent for Graeme and I, and had the kids sleep in a teeny 6 x 10 trailer. The kids finally fell asleep around 9:00 or so, and we had our bonfire after that. My allergies were going NUTS even before
the fire began. Having a bit of trouble breathing - again, even before the fire was started. We ended the campfire around 11:30 or midnight.

Fast forward to Saturday around 1:45 a.m. Woke to thunder and lightning. Suddenly, a downpour. After a few minutes, Graeme went to check on the kids. Yup, they were up. As Graeme is out of the tent, I feel a wonderfully refreshing drip, drip, drip on my head. Blast!! The tent was leaking. So, we ALL are suddenly
piled into this teeny tiny 6 x 10 trailer - Graeme and Josh on the double bed, me on the 2' wide single (praying desperately that the 'bunk' above me, suspended merely by non-permanent poles, wouldn't collapse under the weight of the suitcase and other such items). Dustin's playpen is now on the floor between the single and double-beds, barely fits there. Dustin now knows that Mommy's face is less than two feet away, even in the pitch-darkness. He continually sings and calls, jumps up, falls down, jumps up, falls down, jumps up, bellyflops down. Repeat for at least 2 hours. The rest of us are getting a little cranky. Children finally fall asleep again.
(It should bear mentioning that there was no room in the house for us, which is why we were outside.) Graeme also falls asleep. Just for variety in the night, Melissa starts in on an asthma attack (I can't even remember the last time I had a full-blown asthma attack). Finds her inhaler, takes two deep puffs, and waits for the medication to kick in. The medication kicks in, but also causes Melissa's heart to race and body to kind of get shaky. Melissa finally falls asleep around 5 a.m.,
just in time to grab a quick hour or so of sleep before Dustin wakes to nurse. Melissa is CRABBY!!!!! Graeme takes the kids out ('cuz by now Joshua is awake as well - or maybe he slept a little longer - I'm not sure). Melissa then sleeps till 12:30. Asthma attack combined with no sleep make for one very tired, groggy, confused, crabby, and therefore dangerous woman. Graeme was a smart man to let me sleep.

Melissa gets up in time for pre-lunch breakfast.
Graeme had lovingly saved me a plate.

Melissa goes back to bed for nap around 2:30. Woke around 4:45, feeling like a new woman. Just in time to help get dinner ready. :) Yes, we ate a lot.

The rest of the weekend was actually quite uneventful!! The kids slept great - last night we did SOOOO much better! No storm, which helped. Graeme tented with Joshua. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that we had to de-flood the tent on Saturday morning. Everything was SOAKED. Pools of water. I guess the tent has exceeded its lifespan for dealing with rain, even with the use of a fly and other such accessories. Anyway, Joshua went to sleep on his own in the tent, and Graeme followed around midnight. I slept with Dustin in the trailer. It was a much more successful night. I even got away without a nap today. :)

Don & Shari bought this huge Banzai racing waterslide thingy - yeah. Scared the life out of Joshua and Dustin. But Don and most of the adults loved it, and most of us took a few turns down it. The water was a little frigid, though. I was the only one
who didn't go down - this was Saturday when I was still not feeling human. The last thing I needed was ice-cold water to trigger another asthma attack.

We also did some sprinkler stuff, some hang-out stuff, played some croquet and some cards, a bit of frisbee...but mostly we ate. And ate. I can't believe how much we ate. But it was relaxing for the most part, and it was nice to be away even with the "kink" in the plans in the middle of the night the first night.

So, there you have it. The recent past, recapped. :)

Good day. My baby needs me. :)

Canada Day Festivities

Happy Canada Day! These are some pictures from the big day.














Joshua got to go on a pirate ship float for the parade - his Auntie Carly's dad built it and they put it into parades. And Sid/Carly/Jordan asked if Joshua would like to be on it! So he was - he was quite into yelling "Ahoy Matey!" at people. And his Daddy was yelling "Arrrrrgh!" at loads of people - many of which were his customers! It was fun. Joshua got to have a pirate sword and a hook, and Graeme had a hat and a sword. It was a good time!















We also went to the pancake breakfast, and the church service that was held at noon at the park. It was - umm - interesting. Let's just say that it's OK that it didn't work out for me to sing in the service after all.



















I'm a little crispy-fried from the sunshine, but I feel OK. I'm still sluggish and foggy and not sleeping well, though, which is NOT good. But overall it was a very good day, lots of fun, and the boys enjoyed themselves immensely!

Good night!