Sweet November

Much to my amazement and delight, we've had an almost completely snow-free (and therefore Sweet) November. There is still no snow on the ground though apparently it's on its way to us this week. I can wait. Really. If it stayed like this 'til Christmas, gave us a little fluffy flurry then warmed up, I'd be fine with that!

As usual, time has escaped me. It's been an insanely busy month at the office with the onslaught of H1N1 clinics. Clinics are wrapping up just in time for us to switch to the seasonal flu immunization so I'm expecting an equally busy December. Sure makes the days go by quickly!

Last week Dad started his chemo treatments. The tumor was removed intact but the doctor wanted to ensure there was no residual cancer so Dad will have bi-weekly four-day treatments for the next six months. He tolerated his first treatment swimmingly, much like he did with his recovery from surgery. I'm looking forward to next spring when he's sprung from treatments and the installation of his PICC.

I had a bit of fun with a couple of my girlfriends this past weekend. On Friday night Kelly and I went to a quarter auction with Phyllis. We all won prizes and were in good spirits (from drinking spirits!) and had a blast. Mom, Dad, Auntie Lurdes and Uncle Cliff showed up after their dinner date and in the few minutes they were there, Mom won a prize too. After the auction we took a quick stroll at the shops downtown for their 'midnight madness.' We didn't get too far since it was already getting close to midnight. We topped off the evening with a nightcap at the bar (where I ignored the fact that I was quite likely old enough to be a mother to all the young'n's there!)

On Saturday I went to a festival luncheon with Kelly and Sheila. We met up with Diane and Silvia and a couple of their friends. The proceeds go to a local charity and our table's hostess set up our table beautifully. The place was quite enchanting with the variety of pretty table decorations. We had a lovely lunch then I went to my second date of the day. Unfortunately I hadn't realized this was the weekend for the luncheon that I had bought a ticket for, and I had also committed to having lunch with my friend Leeanne who was in town. I still met up with Leeanne, however late but we still had a good visit and I hung out with her while she had lunch since I had already had mine. We did a quick Wal-Mart and M&M Meat Shop run before I dropped her back off at her vehicle and headed home.

I rented a few movies on Saturday night: Transformers 2, Imagine That, and Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. First we watched Transformers. I think I was the only one who stayed awake to the end. We watched the other two movies on Sunday. I baked a chicken/veggie/Stove Top casserole for supper on Sunday.

In lieu of keeping up with my blog, I've been finding myself quite addicted to Bejeweled on Facebook. I actually even broke down and purchased the Bejeweled app. for my iPod. Yikes. My main online presence consists of updating my Facebook status and rearranging sparkly jewels in hopes of reaching the top of the scoring ladder. Sad, but true.

I do have a few new pictures to post...oh and these go back to Halloween...I vaguely recall mentioning or thinking about mentioning posting these pics! (I realize the pictures look kind of screwy and are not fitting the column but I'm not sure what the problem is yet...)


Carter with crazy-after-bath hair! :)


My three boys at the school's familyHalloween dance


Carter as Iron Man


Cooper being a wallflower, hanging with Auntie Cindy


Iron Man and the Vampire :)


Iron Man and his Dog-Ma


Cooper and Auntie Cindy dancing


Liked this cool robot costume complete with working lights


My freaky vampire man :)


Carter was having big laughs watching ''America's Funniest Home Videos''. I actually took a video of his laughing at the show.


Cooper with the drawing he and Daddy worked on together.


Pardon the 'see-food'


Coooooooooool dude. (Complete with faux-hawk, cool shades and remnants of breakfast on face.)


Carter sometimes lets me gel his hair.


Kelly & Phyllis at the quarter auction.


Our table at the luncheon.


Me, Kelly, Sheila


My sweet friend Diane and me.


My dear friend Silvia :) (The one who usually likes to hide on the other side of the camera!)



Mom and her lunching ladies at the festival luncheon

It's a Different Flu Season

Last week was another NUTTY one at the office. Nuts as in soooooo busy. In all my eleven years I have never been this busy and on the phone so non-stop. With the beginning of the H1N1 immunization clinics, the phones have been wild. I actually have a headset now and I truly believe it has saved my neck! Don't get me wrong; I LOVE being this busy but my regular work gets left in the dust. I even got to make a couple trips to a couple of our other offices to deliver vaccines these past couple weeks. Those were much-loved trips away from the madness! I just tune into the iPod and drive. :)

The weather went for a crap again and it snowed like crazy last week; of course that was on one of my travel days. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Jeep? I guess I haven't mentioned ANYTHING lately. I'll still try to work on that. It's been a beautiful weekend and all our snow melted again.

All three of my boys had their immunizations on Wednesday. Earlier in the day Mom and Dad had called to see if I could meet them for lunch. I managed to get there and order with plenty of time to have an enjoyable lunch with them. Chris picked the boys up from school and brought them in for their shots. After work I did a quick run to McDonald's for supper. By the time I got home Cooper was already asleep. I ate quickly and took Carter with me to the blood donor clinic. When the nurse was poking my finger to check my hemoglobin, Carter told me he wasn't feeling well. The nurses assumed he was squeamish from seeing my finger getting poked. They grabbed a stretcher and he lied down. They put a cold cloth on his head and he told them he was fine. I assured them he isn't squeamish; he has no problem seeing blood. I advised he had his shot just a couple hours before. We carried on through the procession and he felt a little icky again. One of the nurses put a garbage can in front of him just in case. He was fine.

After I was done we hung out at the refreshment area for a bit. Carter had a donut while I sipped a sweet drink. We came home and I suddenly felt nauseous. I held back the urge to vomit. Carter fell asleep after we did some homework, but woke up feeling sick again. This time he needed to throw up. We made it to the bathroom but he reeeeeeeeally didn't want to throw up. Finally he relaxed and let it out. I gave him some gripe water afterward hoping to settle his stomach. Poor guy. Oh poor me too...it took every ounce of strength for me to not throw up right along with him. Whew!

I camped out with the boys to keep an eye on them and I felt horrible the rest of the evening. I slept for short periods of time feeling waves of nausea, but trying to avoid an emesis emission. By three in the morning I couldn't hold it back. I thought I was never going to stop. Lunch included. Ew. But I did feel much better and went back to bed.

Thursday I managed to get up and ready and to work. I had an okay morning though I did feel a little tired. I had a lunch date that I kept though I didn't eat much, which is highly unlike me, especially when we go for the Indian buffet. After lunch my fatigue caught up with me. I went back to work for a bit then decided to pull the pin and go home. I headed straight for bed and fell asleep. Unfortunately I didn't realize how many times the phone rings when I'm not at home. I had two telemarketers and two other people who called me to find out why I was at home. I did however enjoy the rest I had. Chris picked up the boys after work.

Friday was a much better day. I ran errands at lunch and picked up the boys after work. Saturday Carter had a birthday party to go to. I dropped Cooper off at Mom and Dad's and took Carter to the party. After work Chris picked up Cooper, who just slept the whole time he was there. After the party I picked up my friend Leeanne who was in town to have work done on her car. We dropped Carter off at home and discovered Cooper was a little warm. Chris gave him some medicine while Leeanne and I went for lunch. We had lunch at the Indian restaurant. This time my appetite had improved a bit. After lunch we did a Wal-Mart run. We saw Dominic and Noah and from a distance my sister Cindy. Then we saw Dad, who invited us over for supper.

I dropped off Leeanne and came home for awhile before we went to Mom and Dad's house. Cooper was still not himself and has been feverish since. Chris and I were goofing around with our new cell phones since we found a great site to download ringtones. We came home and I camped out with Cooper to keep an eye on him. Usually we go to Mom and Dad's on Sundays, so it was nice to be reminded that we had one more day of weekend left.

Today was a reeeeally lazy day. Chris and I did some housework (admittedly he did more than I did). He went out to get us coffee too. In the afternoon Chris took Carter for a ride to his friend's place to help him with some errands. Cooper and I played for awhile and started watching a movie but ended up sleeping most of the afternoon.

Chris and Carter came home and I started getting supper ready. Carter has been taking an interest in helping out with supper lately so I let him don some gloves and do the shaking and baking of the pork chops while I got the rice ready. As we were sitting down to eat Carter exclaimed that he wanted stuffing. Thanks to good ol' Stove Top, his wish was my command within just a couple minutes.

Cooper ate half a pork chop and a little rice. Carter ate a mound of stuffing and was being a real rebel against the very pork chops he helped to prepare. It feels like we're living with a teenager with him already! After supper Carter and I sat down to start some homework and he passed out. Cooper fell asleep shortly after. I managed to watch Desperate Housewives without any interruptions. I actually started this post over four hours ago so I'm off to bed now too. I'm hoping to post more pictures so I hope I can get to doing this again real soon!

Ain't That a Shame

Well this time I let a month go by. We can chalk it up to a few things, including laziness, busy-ness (I guess technically that's business), and a side dish of stressfulness. I've managed to get ahold of a few things and have actually even enjoyed a little scrapbooking this past week.

We seem to be settled into the school routine fairly well. Dad is doing great since his surgery. He says they took out all the bad stuff, so everything that's left is good. :) Great words that took the edge off my worry.

We had a pretty good (snowy though!) Halloween this past weekend. Everything else has been day-to-day stuff that I used to thrive on blogging about. I'd really like to get back to that. The more I don't blog the more I don't have a clue what happens to all the empty spaces in between posts!

I'm going to let a few pictures do the rest of the talking:


Events of this slideshow include a mid-September swim at Mom and Dad's, enjoying the summery September weather, Mom's 65th Birthday, Fire Safety Night, a breakfast out after church, our first snow, and playing in the leaves after the first snow melted.