Not again!

Everyone,

We seem to be infected with Ed's little sister, Edwina. It's not as bad as Ed, but still bad. I am hacking up another lung and Butterfly is investing in some serious snot. She also has a fever this morning.

But yesterday...oh yesterday. She would not go to sleep for her nap. Normally I just let her cry it out since she goes to sleep a few minutes after crying. Not so yesterday. And she sounded funny. So I got her out of bed, took her downstairs with me and snuggled for a second on the couch. She is still sobbing a little and hiccoughing. She put her head on my shoulder, coughed really hard, and puked all down the front of my shirt. Which made her cry harder, and then cough harder, and then puke harder. Again all down the front of me. Great. All I'm thinking is it's a good thing she didn't puke on the couch or on the mail I have spread all over the couch. So as I'm trying to stand up without dropping the puke, she starts gaging again and coughed up a huge wad of phlegm. That seemed to be the turning point, and she only puked 2 more times (yes, both on me...what is with toddlers and puking on their parent?!) and started to feel a little better. After I cleaned myself up, her up, and snuggled her a little to make her feel better, Daddy came home and all was forgotten. On her part. I had had it. I went to bed at 5:30pm.

Of course, that meant I woke up at around 11pm when Juice came to bed and we sat up all night talking about the first time we met and deciding to get married, etc. But that's a post that's brewing for later. I will say that the end of this month will mark 13 years of knowing Juice for me, half my life.

Butterfly of course woke up super early today, refuses to eat anything, and I am feeling really groggy. We may have a day of movies ahead of us.

Safire

Juice and the Doctor

Everyone,

Juice went to the doctor yesterday for Ed, the cough. He was gone a long time...I was almost convinced that the doctor had sent him for chest x-rays to confirm pneumonia. When he got home, I asked him what happened.

He shrugged his shoulders, said the doctor listened to his chest and gave him some antibiotics. "So I was right! You are sick!" I said.

"No, the doctor didn't want me to give it back to you and Butterfly. She couldn't hear anything wrong."

Ohhh..."What took so long then?"

"I went to change the oil in the car."

Nice of him to do that. The oil did need changing. And he is feeling lots better and actually slept last night. I just hope the cough goes away soon.

ED MUST DIE!

Safire

Ed Must Die.

Everyone,

I am so sick and tired of Ed (aka the cough that would not die). Ed decided to make a trip to my parents' house with them, and well, Ed seems to have taken up house. They both have the beginning signs of pneumonia and are on major antibiotics. I am slightly happy Ed has decided to really start decorating at my parents' because it has been the only way I could convince Juice to go to the doctor. He will be making his appointment on Monday. Stupid Ed. Go away!

Running out of things to say this year so anyone have any questions for me? Anything?

Safire

Things actually got done today!

Everyone,

The Cough That Won't Die (CTWD or Ed for short) really did a number on us. And I come to find out that my parents who were here while I was in the throws of it, took it home with them. Sorry, again. And sorry to whoever was on the airplane with them. And sorry to my mom's work. This is the worst cough ever and I had no wish to infect the west coast with it's ravaging croakiness. My dad's doctor seems to think his strain of Ed turned into pocket pneumonia. Yucky.

In any case, Juice went to work today only to come home and say he was not going tomorrow. Butterfly is still coughing but seems to be less and less. Ed is hopefully loosing it's grip on her and she will be better shortly. Me, I still have a small lingering cough in the morning, but nothing to stop me.

I've been trying to catch up on all the housework that went astray when Ed first joined us. I finally cleaned out the last of the shorts in Butterfly's drawers (left the short sleeve shirts because it's still fairly nice here). And this week I have been doing load after load of laundry. I finally am all caught up with it. I can take it out of the kitchen! Yay! I hate having our washer and dryer in the kitchen because there is no counter space to put things on while you're doing wash. I never thought I'd miss it but I did.

I also was able to get ink out of Butterfly's brand new winter dress. Juice let her play with one of his pens at church and she came away with a huge streak of ink down the front of her cranberry velor dress with a big cranberry bow in front. I was sad but resigned. I mean, what can you do with ink? Thankfully, the Master of Laundry (my Mom) was visiting us that day and she told me to put hairspray on it. Oookaay...I'd have to try that one out. And man, it worked! First I tested the dress for color fastness (wouldn't do to have the dress bleached out). I poured hairspray right from the bottle onto the stain and used cotton balls to dab up the ink. Came right out in a snap. The first dab took out most of the biggest stain, and 2 more dabs you couldn't even see it. I feel empowered by new found knowledge. Thanks Mom!

Safire

At A Loss

Everyone,

6 Days into this thing and I seriously have nothing to say. Today has been a very quiet and unassuming day. Mostly I spent the time trying to keep Butterfly away from Juice who is working upstairs. And trying to keep her entertained...lots of blocks and stuffed animals looking for their mommies.

In between play time, I read my book club book: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Every time I pick it up I worry that this is not the book I'm supposed to be reading. I'm getting a kick out of it...I love anything by James Herriot and this is one I haven't read before. It's very funny because doing some of this stuff in college, I can really relate.

Juice wants me to say that we had a soup milestone with Butterfly today. She had soup for dinner and got more on her face than on the table and floor around her. Good job Butterfly!

Safire

Pictures

Everyone,

My sister in law just sent me a slew of pictures of her and her 3 kids. And their new house (which looks fabulous!). It made me realize that I haven't put out my pictures for 2 whole months. Which means that everyone on my list is bound to get over 200 pictures to look at from Sept and Oct. I know my parents won't mind...but will everyone else? Oh well if they do! Now the trick is to write captions to aforementioned 200 pictures.

This morning, I did my weekly scrap booking with my friend Laura. Butterfly had a great time with her 2 youngest, and I actually finished my Hawaii pictures from over a year ago. There has got to be close to 30 pages of just Hawaii. I am going to have to re-think my yearly scrapbook, since I don't think I can put any more than 100 pages in it. I guess I'll just have to split it up or stop starting in August.

Juice has been home sick today again. He shut himself up in the office and worked all day. His cough is doing better. He is also feeling a little happier and is not so morose. And with him home, I got to go out while Butterfly was supposed to be sleeping for her nap and buy myself a new book. Oh, and get Juice's glasses fixed since they broke for the 5th time this year. Butterfly is hard on those things! Only 2 more months till he can go and pick out new, less fragile glasses.

Safire

Practicing Avoidance

Everyone,

Today starts the first day of National Blog Posting Month. Check the ticker on the left for more information but basically it means I will be posting every day through the month of November.

I meant to get right up and post this morning so I wouldn't have to worry about it all day long but I have been avoiding things lately. What things? Oh, everything. I don't know why. I just have no energy to do...anything. I have a to do list that has at least 10 things on it, and what do I do instead? Lay on the couch and read a book while Butterfly does a puzzle. I had my scrap booking buddy come over yesterday and one of her kids left a pencil at my house. You would think that Butterfly had found gold. She has been drawing all day with it and it has enabled me to once again, ignore my list. Considering it's 9pm, I now have the energy to call back all these people that are calling me, throw in a load of laundry, and maybe pick up some toys. Maybe. But first! My blog!

Let's see...I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to talk about, that I had been saving for this month to talk about. Most of the posts I have deal with pictures and I just haven't uploaded them from my hard drive yet. Hey, look! Avoidance again!

Juice and Butterfly are sick. They have that nasty cough I had. Butterfly has also sprouted 2 brand new molars on the bottom. It makes me think back to her very first tooth that appeared on Halloween 2 years ago. She has been cross (in the extreme) and refuses to nap. So of course, by 4pm, she is a tantrum throwing, horn sprouting, where-is-your-father-he-better-not-be-late-today kind of kid. And of course, since Juice is sick, all he wants to do is lie down. I'll admit, he does do some stuff but I think it's mostly because I look like I'm about to run away when he comes home some nights. I just want all of us to get better. I hate being sick but really, I hate Juice being sick worse.

Looks like it's time for me to go use some of this waining energy on something. See you tomorrow!

Safire

Hey, I do have readers!

Everyone,

I'm so happy that you guys all left comments on delurk day. Thanks!

Things have been busy here. Mostly, I have been busily planting my 'bee hiney' (as Butterfly says) on the couch. I am sick with a horrible cough and my chest is on fire. Butterfly luckily hasn't come down with it. She woke up with a fever this morning but is fine now. I hope she doesn't get it because man, this sucks!

Of course, my parents are coming to stay for a week on Saturday and I have to get sick. Mom, Dad, sorry but the house is going to be a wreck when you come. I'm sure you will understand. We (meaning Juice and his great arms and organizational skills) will at least have all the boxes from the attic out of the room you are staying in. Probably.

It's nice to have family visit. Especially when I don't get to see really anyone else. That's the danger of living 3000 miles away. I miss all the fun stuff. But I also miss most of the not so fun stuff as well. So it's okay.

It has been over 90 degrees all weekend long. Gah, where is fall?! The humidity has been awful. We had to turn our air conditioner back on. The leaves are just drooping and browning. I doubt we'll see any great color this year. They say a cold front is pushing it's way through and should be here by Friday. We will see. Until then, I am HOT!

Let's see, all of my pictures are still on my camera. But just a mention that the PA renn faire was AWESOME. So much better and more family friendly than the MD one. We plan on returning next year and staying for 2 nights instead of one. We had a great time!

Butterfly is insisting I lay down on the couch because "you have a bad code!" So I'm off. More hopefully later!

Safire

2 Naps?

Everyone,

Butterfly has a cold. It's a small cold. There is not snot everywhere. She sounds a little stuffy but is pretty happy most of the time. She fell asleep in the car this morning and stayed there for over an hour while I tossed balls for my dog and Babysitting place's dog in the front yard to keep an eye on her. (I am dog sitting for a week. Can I just say that I never ever want a German Shepard? They are pretty, but I love being able to pick up Soot when she is being bad.)

We took a trip to the mall to scout out some clothes for her. The weather has dropped to the mid-70s and while that's not cold, it is when you've been having mid-90s for 3 or 4 weeks. I put her in a pair of pants from last year that were a little too big. The length is just right. The waist...not so much. I took her to a few different places in the mall and found that her length is right around a 2T but she would be more comfortable in a 3T. So I will buy 3Ts this time around and she can have some growing room.

After a jaunt at the kiddy play area and some lunch, we came home. She peed on the potty again (yay! And a purple jelly bean today!) and is now up in her bedroom. I don't know if she's sleeping yet but it's very quiet up there. Poor thing...she must be sick!

On a side note, does anyone know how to get purple berry stains out of clothes? Babysitting Place has a huge tree that drops these little purple berries all over and their dog has jumped on me twice with purple stained paws. I am highly annoyed. I have also tried numerous stain removers, soaking, not soaking, hot water, warm water, color safe bleach, etc. Help!

Safire

Still sick...

Everyone,

Sorry I have been MIA but Butterfly is still sick. She has finally stopped throwing up (Saturday at our friend's father's funeral was the last time) but she still has major diarrhea and is very lethargic. Doc says not to worry about her rash, it's probably just dry skin. Poor thing. And poor us! She wants to be held all day long. She is slowly starting to eat a few things, but doesn't want anything but milk to drink which I've banned her from since she's puked it up so much. She doesn't even want a Popsicle. I am drained.

So, since I have no energy, click HERE and read an article about my cousin and his business in the UK. Kind of cool to see a member of my family in print. The most I remember about him was that when he came to visit us he was so excited to eat pizza with his hands. And he loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which tells you how old we were. I am on much better terms with Ben's sister, Charlotte, because we pen pal-ed it when we were younger and saw her a few years ago when she came for a visit on her round the world trip. Still, fun to see where they are in their lives. If you don't read the article, look at the pictures at least. These are my relatives! :)

Safire

Snow and Ice

Everyone,

I started this entry to tell you about the snow and ice that we have been blessed with for the past two days (by started I mean I typed in the title). But, bigger news!

Butterfly is puking. I am feeling very queasy. Butterfly woke up early this morning after puking all over her bed and stuffed animals. While Juice held her, I cleaned that all up and bathed Butterfly so Juice could get ready for work. Now, it's been every 20 minutes of puking and crying and screaming because I'm sticking a bowl in her face to catch the puke. I think I've changed her clothes 4 times and it's almost 11am. Hopefully she'll go down for a nap soon and be okay.

I'm slightly annoyed at the people I babysit. Miss Long Hair was telling me on Monday that she had been sick, throwing up and diarrhea. Her mom said something as she was walking out the door that she wasn't sick anymore. Yeah, not sick but still contagious. I'm annoyed that she didn't tell me when I first walked in and could have taken Butterfly home. I refuse to go to any one's house that has been graced with an intestinal bug for 48 hours.

This of course has put a major damper in our weekend plans. Juice has tomorrow off, and we were going to go big girl bed shopping for Butterfly. We were going to go to the big Swedish store and have meatballs. We were actually going to go out on a date. Now, I don't think we can do any of it. Poor thing.

Okay, it has taken me all day to write this post. Butterfly is asleep for the night (hopefully) and is holding down 8 oz of pedia-juice and 8 oz of milk. We'll see how long that lasts. She has a fever off and on, and a rash all down both of her arms and on her cheeks. After googling it, I swear she has Fiths Disease. What got me was all the pictures of kids with this rash look just like Butterfly's rash. I will be calling the doctor in the morning, just to have her checked out. And it could just be the flu. But a rash on her arms and face plus the vomiting? Time to check it out.

In other news, I'm feeling better after drinking gallons of ginger ale and resting all day with Butterfly. Also, I got a belated Christmas present in the mail today! Pictures tomorrow.

Safire