This week's infirmary report

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Whooped Current mood: tired

Here is most of an email that I just sent my brother:
Today was crazy busy for me. I slept off and on after Daughter being up last night. Eddie took care of her mostly, but I was so stressed out it took me a while to go back to sleep. And, as soon as I did, I heard Son rocking in his bed.
Me: "Do you need to go to the bathroom?"
Him: "No."
Me: "Well, stop that rocking. You're driving me insane." I am not really tactful at 4 am.
He eventually got up, went ,and blew his nose. No more rocking.
I spent from 10:30 am-3 pm at the fundraiser in tbe monsoon-like weather.
Eddie's mom mercifully kept Son afterward, so Ed, Daughter, and I both got a nap.
This evening it was big shopping at Walmart. It is 10 pm and I have not had dinner yet.
Daughter was fine this morning, ran 100.8 temp after naptime, and then seemed fine this evening. Eddie is going back to work tomorrow night.
Whooped.
10:05 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

And now it's the girl
It's 2:55 a.m. and she's up with fever and vomiting. I have a fundraiser to work at the boy's school tomorrow. Eddie had considered going on in to work tomorrow night; he felt lots better after dinner last night. Now he needs to stay home with the girl while I work. And now I wonder.... am I next? And who will help me after he goes back to work? He really can't miss anymore.
This series of illnesses is one for the record books. Let's recap. Since end of January we've had: Ed regular influenza, Ed stomach flu, boy stomach flu twice, Ed sinus infection, Girl stomach flu looks like.
2:54 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Friday, March 30, 2007

We're still kickin' but not very high....
as Eddie's Paw Paw would say.
Sickness has once again descended upon our house. Eddie has been in bed for four days with fever, coughing/hacking up lungs, nausea. Yesterday the doc said allergies are kicking his ass and leaving him open to everything. So he got new allergy medicine and antibiotic. Last night I even had to do something that I just do no do.... mow the yard. EEEeeeeekkkk.
Ed was up part of this morning doing a little housework like folding laundry, but is back in the sack again. I am sort of irritated at being the only functioning adult in the house so much lately. But I am also worried about him of course. He has so had enough of being sick.

Good Neighbors

Good neighbors Current mood: amused

Yesterday, the kids and I were out front in the driveway. Son was happily drawing with chalk and sometimes riding his Batman scooter. He has never been really interested in riding toys, so I was pleased to see him do it. Daughter was determined that I take her around the block on her trike. Knowing Son would have no interest in this, I just sat in the lawnchair and hoped her screaming would stop. It didn't. Twenty minutes later, "Mrs. C" pulled up in her snazzy golf cart. She has occasionally taken Son for short rides, and offered us all a ride this time.
Daughter was eager to go, which surprised me since she is not keen on going anywhere with strangers.

Mrs. C took us all over the neighborhood, over sidewalks, up and down curbs, you name it. She raced through turns and zipped over bumps. The kids loved it. She scared the crap out of me, and at one point I just braced my arm across Daughter and closed my eyes. It was fun but a little scary too.

I told her, "you're a force to be reckoned with on this thing." She proudly said she'd even scared her husband with her driving.
But we all had a good laugh and Daughter was happy when we got back.

Beware of old ladies on golf carts.

The Plague

The fun continues.... Current mood: drained
Dear husband came down with the bug. He lost 15 pounds in the course of a day and a half. I have spent today bleaching everything, airing the house, and trying to exorcise the germs. The boy also had a recurrence of the gut troubles overnight. It is never a good thing when your 6 y.o. wakes you in the middle of the night asking for underwear. It has been over a week since this
started for him. I am sooooo ready for this to end. Stay tuned to see who's next.


Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Why, why, why????? Current mood: pissed off Category: Life
Why am I stuck at home on Spring Break with a kid who a) puked for 10 straight hours overnight and b) now has explosive trots!!!! Isn't it enough that his dad and I missed our 10-year wedding anniversary trip due to sick kids?
OK, now that I have calmed down, I will remind myself that this means everyone will be well for our first big family vacation in August... to a dude ranch in Bandera, TX. Surely the leisure gods would wouldn't frown upon me a third time?????

Louisiana Trip Part Two

It was a short, easy flight to New Orleans. Brian and I met in the baggage claim area and headed out to get our rental car. I was tickled when the only one left to get was a PT Cruiser. I picked the pastel yellow one, just 'cause I could.

We drove down this long bridge that is about 30 miles long and goes over swamp. I vaguely remembered going over that bridge in a driving rain on my last trip there, at age 15.
The airplane peanuts had long worn off, so we hit a Wendy's for some lunch, then called our family to let them know we were in town. Turns out they had wanted to take us to lunch at their favorite seafood place. So, we decided to meet and then follow them to where they wanted to eat.

Babbi saw us the minute their car pulled into the parking lot. My excitement could not be contained. I clapped my hands, ran over to her side of the car, opened the door, and wrapped my arms around her. It was one of the very few times I have seen Babbi cry.

Babbi was just about determined to get out of that car and hop into ours. We convinced her to stay with her sitter in her car, and that we would meet up again at the seafood place. We got to the restaurant and were joined by my mother's cousin, Stephen, and his longtime girlfriend, Gwen. I could not get over how easy this all was. Here was this side of my family who were almost strangers, and yet the conversation flowed freely.

There was lots of catching up to do. Stephen talked about his near-fatal car accident that happened a few days before Hurricane Katrina hit. He was actually in a New Orleans hospital with a severe head injury and was evacuated from there. He woke up not even knowing why he was in the hospital, not a scratch on his body. He has some memory loss now, something he and Babbi feel they have in common.

Later that evening, after a rest at the hotel, we went to Beverly's house and hung out more. Babbi was eager to show me her room, and her sitter, Charlotte, took pictures of us. I was really happy to meet her sitters, who seem to be very nice ladies. It was getting close to Babbi's bedtime and we were getting hungry, so Stephen and Gwen took us out to eat. We had probably the best Chinese food I have EVER eaten.

On Saturday morning we hit the road to explore, and ended up at Destrehan, a 200-year-old plantation right on the Mississippi. I tried to imagine the men who turned all that cypress wood into a grand house, and the women who had baby beds in their rooms just like modern moms. The furniture there was small, and the guide pointed out that the average height for a man was 5'4, and for women it was 4'11.

That afternoon we were supposed to meet the family at Gwen's house for a crawfish boil. We arrived and I noticed the biggest pot of crawfish I had ever seen. And these people throw some of everything in there.... sausage, the usual potatoes and corn, pearl onions, whole pods of garlic. It was delicious, but so hot! My lips were on fire, but strangely, not my tongue. I commented on the heat, and Stephen joked that I couldn't be from Texas.

It was a cold, windy day and we had been outside for a few hours. Babbi did her best to keep up with everybody, digging into the feast along with her sitter and everyone else. But at one point she looked tired, and cold. So I just wrapped myself around her tiny little body and she whispered in my ear how happy we'd made her.

After the feast we returned to the hotel for some rest. Later we ventured out to town for coffee and dinner for me. We found this odd little place that sold: coffee, chips (but no sandwhiches) and daquiris. So Brian had his coffee fix. After almost winding up on the long bridge again, we got back in time for me to go see a movie. Later I learned that my crazy brother had hit the Tex Mex restaurant to stuff in some chile rellenos on top of the fiery crawfish. His gut did surprisingly well after all that.

The next day was our last, we were due to have the rental car back at 3 pm. We spent several hours sitting in Beverly's front yard, soaking up the sun and visiting. Babbi and Beverly relayed stories from their girlhood and of their sister Marian's death some years back. Babbi also said she remembered the day Beverly was born, and that there had been four new baby goats born that day too.

When it was time to go, Babbi's eyes welled up with tears again, even though she had said she wouldn't cry. We said our goodbyes and promised not to let another three years go by again.