Category: Health

The Birds are Singing! The Sun is Shining; the Bunny’s are Hopping and the Unicorn….Well, He just Farted!

The kids have gone back to school today – GLORY HALLELUJAH!

I mean, I love ’em and all, but I also like to have at least one moment when no one is asking me for “something”….”anything”.

Mind you, Siah is still not 100% and he is still whining and whining and whining and whining.

I hate that whole….. “I’m sorta sick, but not really and actually, I’m just practising for when I’m all grown up and have a “man cold“. Yah, he’s starting young, this one is…..

I would probably be a bit more sympathetic had I been able to sleep a bit more over the past 3 nights, but sleep….sleep is for wimps. Who needs sleep when you can stay up all night cuddling a sick, coughing, crying baby who only taunts you with the possibility of sleep? Who? Not me, I tell you.

Anyway, I have this impossible notion that I’m going to accomplish all sorts of things today. Would you like to hear my list….I guess technically you’d read my list, but that is splitting hairs and the fact that I’m even coherent enough to be making any sort of a list……..delusional or otherwise – is pretty amazing as far as I’m concerned.

So, in a perfect an okay a decent world, I will:

– take a shower and get dressed (these two go hand in hand because if I only take a shower and don’t manage to get dressed, well…..that’s almost a step backward as far as I’m concerned because even though right now I’m in my pyjamas and I stink…I could at least answer the door. Right???)

Showered, dressed and even did my hair…no makeup though….oh, but I did wax the ol’stach off….was getting a bit manly for my liking….just keeping it real…..

– tidy the house (I’m not even talking about deep cleaning – just scraping the mountains of toys and clothes back into each childs room)

Not as much done here as I’d like….I still have time left in the day, though…..right?

– plan AND make dinner (we need to eat and I’m not thinking that the kids will be happy with a handful of vitamins)

Starting dinner in 20 mins…..chicken stirfry…mmmmmmmmm!

– Wash AND dry some laundry (Those darn kids think that “clean your room” means throw everything on the floor down to the laundry room…then it’s clean, eh?)

Only one load washed and dried (I still have time….) and 4 loads folded but not yet put away.

The pipe dream list includes Siah actually laying down and going to sleep for an afternoon nap for even just one hour…..but seeing as he’s woken up the moment that I’ve so much as breathed the thought of putting him in his bed….I’m not really holding out too much hope for that one.

He slept for 35 mins…..not an hour, but about 30 mins longer than he has in the past few days……beggar’s can’t e choosers, eh?

Now, the little monkey is on top of my work table trying out my new necklaces….so, I gotta go and rescue them him.

And it’s ON again….

The power has just come back on and thank goodnes….

I mean, I had the Internet to surf and forums to browse and blogs to read and a post to come up with and no music and nothing to do…..it was horrid.

Normally I would welcome the break that a power outage brought, but today I just wanted some time and space.

Siah’s not feeling well and he’s been a giant clinging bawl of whining, miserable, feverish mess and well, I feel like I’ve been nursing him ALL FREAKING DAY.

Which, normally, I love “our” time, but then again, I don’t have to deal with “our” time for hours and hours on end per day.

Now, it is 8:40pm! The kids are a bit wired because, HEY! Power Outage means that life is so cool what with all the candles and no electrical things to occupy our time and soooooooo……when the power does come back on….then we have to get all stressed and run around and flick on every light and play with every electrical machine at super loud volume because……seriously….we cannot even handle the peace and quiet and not being plugged into something.

I think it’s bedtime, right???? I mean, we gotta get back on that school schedule sometime before school starts………on Monday!!!!

Oh Yah! There it is. It is totally happening. They are all going back to school on Monday and I get to try and put some order back to this thing I call my home. Only 2 more days and just three more sleeps. WoooooooooooHooooooooooo!

Alright – apparently when I ask if the husband cantake the baby and play with him for a few minutes – that some how translates into picking him up carrying him into the next room, putting him down and playing on the computer…..so I now have a whiney baby once again attached to me. It’s AWESOME – you should get yourself one.

Accountability

Hey! I’m jumping on the eleptical right now. I just need to put that out there so that I actually stick to it. I’ve fallen off the exercise bandwagon for the past 3 weeks and am desperate to get back at it. Well, my body says that i’m desperate to get bck at it, but my brain says, “Are you KIDDING me?”

Here it goes!

Beware the Vampires

A few weeks ago, it was my niece’s birthday and she had a sleep over.

My two girls went for the party and everything was all fairies and roses and was going along fabulously.

We had some plans that got all re-arranged and we ended up asking my mother-in-law to pick up the girls and she (being the amazing person that she is) agreed. We talked to my sister and all was set up and organized in the exact way that I like it to be. You know, wrapped up with a big red bow and seeming all perfect.

My mother-in-law was actually on her way and had just connected with my sister and mentioned that she’d be there in just a few minutes. That sounded great to everyone and somehow…….someway……in the few minutes between when they chatted on the phone and my mother-inlaw showed up…..everything turned crazily upside down.

Apparently the girls were out in the yard bouncing on the trampoline when my niece went all vampire on Xandra and tried to bite a chunk out of her head.

It, being a good head wound, bled ALL OVER THE FREAKING PLACE and scared the crap outta all the girls. They came running to the house screaming and crying. Xani was holding her head and Bri was holding her chin and…..well….it was not a happy situation.

Chelle got the situation sorted out and Xani was laying on the couch bleeding nicely when Mum arrived…..and after some discussion it was determined that the wound was gaping entirely too much and she should probably have a few stitches.

They got to spend 4 hours in the Maple Ridge ER and came out with this…….

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Pretty, Isn’t it?

Apparently, according to Mum, the ER Doctor was AMAZING. He was so gentle and careful that Xandra didn’t end up with a giant hack mark in her hair. He didn’t have to cut any of the hair around the wound, he just took extra time and stitched carefully and for that I am so grateful.

She was allowed to take a shower that first night to wash all the blood out of her hair, but then she wans’t allowed to wash her hair for the next 4 days – as they were dissolving stiches. Nice!!! And wouldn’t you know that week was the week that she was doing swimming for PE at school. We solved that problem by getting her a swim cap, and by the end of the week, the stitches had dissolved and her head is all better.

She only has the giant nasty scar, but fortunately it is in the scalp and not on her face.

She is such a brave little girl. She didn’t flip out or cry while they were doing the stitches or anything. She told me later that she was just trying to be as calm as she could. What a little cutie.

This evens up the score for the girls. Now both of my girls have had stitches on their heads. I’m hoping that the boys don’t try and even things up on their end.

Still Holding My Breath

It had been so long since we’d had any “major issues” with allergies that I was beginning to wonder if we had totally made it all up or, if at the very least, that we had blown it out of proportion or if Siah was just growing out of it all – because I’d heard that it was possible for some “intolerances” to be grown out of.

It turns out that we are just amazing at being very careful and not letting Siah get “into” any of the things that he’s not supposed to have.

Not an issue with dairy as we are just typically a dairy free home. Soy doesn’t seem to have wicked reations with him. We’ve stopped buying cashews or ANYTHING that would have cashews in it and I didn’t really think that there was too much else.

BOY WAS I WRONG!

We made some crepes the other day and we made a batch with eggs and another one with egg replacer so that Siah could have some with us. I cracked the eggs into the bowl and then asked one of the kids to throw the shells away.

This didn’t happen, and the shells were left on the table. Somehow Siah manages to get up to the table and grabbed the shells. We saw him do it and quickly took them away from and then I asked one of the girls to wash his hands off as he had some of the raw egg white on his fingers. Again, this didn’t happen and I’m guessing that he rubbed his face and within………..5 minutes, he was scratching and clawing at his face. I started to wonder what was up and was panicing trying to figure out what could have happened and within 10 minutes he looked like this……

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I’m not sure if you can see the full extent of the mess, but it felt like within seconds he had gone from fine to brutal. His face was swollen and puffy and red and the hives were turning into blisters and it was horrible.

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We dosed him up with Benadryl and washed his face off and decided to throw him in the bath to see if it would help with washing the stuff off and possibly soothing the irritated skin.

Here he is about 15 minutes after we gave him the Benadryl.

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Despite the trauma of it all, I think that I was more upset about it all, than he was. After the initial attempts at clawing his face off, he seemed to calm down fairly quickly and returned to the happy, easy-going baby that we all know and love.

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Despite how we seemed to “sail” through this allergy attack, it sends me back to a state of feeling like I’m holding my breath. I know that I’ve still got to be careful of what he eats (or rubs on himself). It’s so frustrating and slightly scary. I’m thankful that it was a skin reaction and SOOOOO THANKFUL that we’ve not had to deal with anything more serious than that.

I can’t fathom how awful it must be for someone who sends their baby or child off to school or daycare or with friends or relatives and is unsure of what might or might not happen while their child is not with them. This whole “food allergy” thing is not a joke nor is it something to take or treat lightly.

If you’ve not had a food allergy touch your llife or your child than count yourself blessed and please, PLEASE support those who do have this issue as a part of thier lives. We know first hand how difficult altering your lifestyle is, and we are eternally grateful to all who support us by making the world around our children a safer place for them.

I Felt Like My Head Was Going To Explode.

I almost asked Jon to pull over onto the side of the road so that I could get out of the car and lie down on the pavement.

I hurt so bad, and all I could think was, “If I could just not move then the pain might go away.” All the while, the van was jerking violently over every crack and bump in the road and swerving wildly around every hairpin corner. The continual lurching to a stop, combined with the lights pulsing from shadow to glare 10 times per second just about sent me over the edge. I wanted to throw up and was desperatly trying to keep myself from throwing up and the tension of those two acts countering each other was about more than I could take.

I finally did make Jon pull over at a gas station to pick me up some Tylenol and Advil and I pounded the combination down faster than a drowning man gasps for air. I wished I could just cut my head off – not to die, but just to be rid of the pain…..it was absolutely overwhelming and we still had 15-20 minutes left until we made it home, but it felt like it was a billion days. I couldn’t even fathom continuing on like I was. (In reality he was driving normally – this is what it felt like to me)

About 2 minutes after we pulled back onto the road, I made Jon pull over and I unloaded onto the side of the road…..which totally sucked because I watched some of the medication that I was so desperately craving now sitting on the side of the highway…….and then I don’t remember anything more until we pulled into our driveway and I somehow made it out of the car, up the stairs and face first onto my bed in the darkness.

My mom asked how what wrong and I’m not even sure what I said to her. I layed on the bed and hurt so bad that I started crying, but that made it all hurt even worse and so as bad as I was feeling, I forced myself to stop. I must have fallen asleep then.

Jon said that I slept for about 45 minutes and in that time, the combination of the Tylenol and Advil kicked in and when I woke up, I was still in pain, but it had eased up so that the pain wasn’t the ONLY thing that I could focus on.

I can’t believe how horrid it felt or how quickly it seemed to come on. I had a bit of a headache when we left work, and by the time we made it to Surrey, it was bad enough that I probably would have taken a few Tylenol when I got home. Somewhere between Surrey and Langley, it had morphed into the kind of monster that took over my life.

I took something stronger last night and slept peacefully – albiet drugged – from 11:30pm until 4am. Then I had a hard time sleeping until about 6am, but slept from 6am-8am. I still hurt today, but no where near like what I felt yesterday.

I’m not loving this.

It hurts. I hope that it doesn’t happen again sanytime soon. This was seriously the Mother of All Headaches. I used to get headaches ALL THE TIME, and then I didn’t have any for FOREVER. This one kicked any ol’ migraine that I’ve ever had. I’ve felt like throwing up before, but never actually threw up. Now I can check that one off my list of things to do. I’ve seen the spots and done the whole fuzzy thing, but to feel like I just blanked out because of the pain……WOW! I’m hoping that this was a fluke one off thing.

Do any of you suffer from migraines on a regular basis? Do they wreck you for a day or so? What do you do?

Oh the Awesomeness!

Seriously Amazing.

I’m sitting here with a towl wrapped around me – red faced, sweating, stinking to high-heaven….I just did 30 minutes on the eliptical machine. It started out with me chanting, “I hate exercise. I hate exercise. I hate exercise.” It’s been kind of my mantra. And somewhere along the line I figured that particular phrase was probably not really motivating me to continue on and so I switched to saying all the positive phrases about why I liked exercising…..which was difficult to to at first without lying…..and then once I figured out that I am happy with what exercise is doing for my body, and what it’s doing for my heart and what it’s doing for my weight….that kind of stuff – then if got marginally easier to figure out positive things to say.

I mamanged to make it all the way through without stopping and then got ready to really enjoy my shower……except that there is no hot water. NONE! and weve not done anything today to use it all up. So, I got to check the water heater aaaaaaaaaaaaand…it was off. Somehow, last night it must have gone out and so now I’m sitting here in my own funk just stewing for the next 20 minutes until I can deal with my bad self.

We have a Professioanl Day today – You should be so lucky. The best part of the day is that the kids have signed onto this card system for chores and it’s working so fabulously. Mind you, they are definately my children and have gotten carried away this morning with the “details” of setting the system up. So far this morning, they’ve spent a ton of time getting ready to do the chores and are only just now starting to get the actual chores done.

BUT….last weekend….the kids cleaned the house and all it’s going to cost me is tickets to a movie for the family. That’s some seriously sweet and cheap maid service for ya.

Question for you – How do YOU motivate your kids to pitch in and help around the house?

I’m Still Here

I can’t even fathom the fact that it’s been almost 2 weeks since I last posted.

The thing is…..I want to be on here recording more of what’s going on in our lives and yet…..i just haven’t.

Our lives are busy. Good busy! But busy, nonetheless, and I’m typically exhausted and I like to bring funny stuff here. As I type this, it makes no sense to me because who cares if it’s funny. I just love to go and read about other people’s lives. And even the boring stuff is interesting to me because it’s more insight into who they are and what they are doing and why they do things the way they do.

I know that it’s only a “part” of their lives, but I still find it fun and interesting.

So, here I am.

I think the biggest thing that I’m frustrated is the fact that I am currently spending 8 hours a week in the car travelling and that SUCKS! That’s an entire day of my week gone. I’m trying to figure out how to use that time….on the phone or when Jon’s with me we can be planning and discussing things, but more often than not it’s just wasted time. DOUBLE SUCKS!!

AND….on top of that, I’ve started to exercise and I’m up to 40 minutes on my eliptical machine which if you throw in a shower at the end – which is totally necessary – that’s an hour each time, and I’ve scheduled in 3 times for sure and if I can, I try to do more. This whole exercise thing is funny. I hate it. Even after almost a month, I still hate it, and yet I think about getting on that machine way more than I ought to – so there is something that is happening that my body is craving…..and I seem to hit my stride at about 12 minutes in and then I LOVE IT for the next 20 minutes and then I HATE IT for the next 8 minutes. They usually go something like this…..imagine me trucking along on the machine and as the cycle of information (minutes done, speed, distance, calories and heart rate) pases by I count down in 30 second intervals (that’s how long it takes to cycle through) 8 minutes…….7 and a half minutes……..7 minutes…..6 and a half minutes……Jon, come and distract me……Siah, come and dance for mommy…….I wonder how long I’ve got left to go now…..AAAAAAAAAK! Are you kidding me still 5 and a half minutes…..okay, 5 minutes, now….

And it goes like that all the way until the 40 minutes is up….LOVELY, eh?

I know that I’m feeling better and that I have more energy, and there are times that I “WANT” to get moving, but somehow it’s not my most favorite thing to do. Any of you, out there, exercise freaks? Will I start LOVIN’ this at some point? Or is it always just going to be a decision to make it happen?

Another thing that’s frustrating me about this is that instead of losing weight……I actually put on weight? I’m watching what I’m eating and I gained about 4 pounds. When you are trying to “LOSE” weight – well, the gain just really threw me. I’m sticking with it, and I’m now at 183, but still…..what’s up with that?

I wish I had taken my measurements at the beginning to see if I’m losing inches. I think I am because the “muffin top” that hung ever so elegantly over the waistband of my jeans is almost non-existant and I have room in my belt when I put it at my normal “comfy” belt hole. So, both of those things would lead me think that I’m changing shape, even if the number hasn’t done what I’d like it to. Oh, and there’s the loving way that Jon mentioned that where my butt had pretty much slid down into my thighs, now it’s retaining a more shelf like appearance. Thanks for putting that so eloquently, honey! You’re have such a way with words – eloquence like a poet…..seriously.

Well, I’m sure that I could ramble some more, but i got a baby to feed and myself to get ready for the day and then I gotta kick it into high gear as today is an “at home” day and I gotta lot to do in a short amount of time.

Slowly but surely….

Well, I think that January has been fairly good to me.

I joined a biggest looser challenge because I really wanted to have someone to be accountable to. I know that if I really set my mind to it – I could just lose the weight that I want to. I just happen to find it so much easier when I’m in the mind set that I’m completing against others.

And so, while the first few weeks seemed a bit slow as far as weight loss – I think mostly because I was trying to wrap my head around what I should/could/needed to be doing – I think that I’ve settled into a fairly decent stride.

I knew going into this 3 month challenge that I would need to add some exercise into my life if I were really serious. I started the month off @ 189.8 pounds…..SUCKS! I had been down as low as 175lbs a year ago and then the weight started to slowly creep back on…..15 pounds in a a year! Not good!

I weighed myself this morning and am currently – 182.4 lbs. So, just under 7.5 pounds of weight loss in one month. And….I’m pretty happy with that.

We bought an eliptical machine and I’ve got a decent groove going on with that thing – now the trick will be to just keep going with it. I see it as so necessary, not just for weight loss, but also for my health in general.

I’m still in the “hurting” phase of my exercise journey……my legs and lower back are not happy right now, but soon….soon they will be loving me and my machine.

I’m loving that my clothes are not pinching me as much as they used to a the beginning of the year, and I’m looking forward to the day when I have to go and buy new ones because my current wardrobe doesn’t fit.

Until then, I will be watching what I eat and exercising….that’s my plan…no gimmicks, no pills, just common sense and hard work.

Do you have any weight loss or exercise or health goals this year?

Early Morning Rising

I know tht 7:40am is not technically early, but….I’ve been awake since 5:45am, and as far as I’m concerned….thats freaky early.

We had a meeting to attend yesterday and so when Siah fell asleep on the way into work yestrday morning – I decided to push him all day without a nap. I knew that it would most likely result in a bit of a cranky baby later in the afternoon, but that it would mean that he would go down at bedtime earlier than usual and that we’d be able to have our meeting without any distractions or meltdowns.

And….it worked perfectly as planned. Siah was a bear by 4:00pm, but promptly fell asleep at 6:50pm…..early, I know! The meeting was scheduled for 7pm, and I had no sitter for Siah. The other kids were out in Abbotsford with my grandparents, and we were in Vancouver.

So I figured that we’d have an early start to today, but I didn’t count on it being quite that early.

So, I’m sitting here snuggling with a very large cup of extra strong coffee…my mother-in-law uses espresso for her drip machine….WOW! But, I have to say that I am a little nervous about the drive home. Typically after two full days of work back to back, the hour’s drive home on Wednesday night usually takes some effort as I want to fall asleep – I think that I might even need to stop and get a Starbucks before I head out. Yuuummmmmmm!

We had a good weekend and I have some pics that I hoped to get up yesterday but I was CRAZEE busy and well, it just didn’t work out. Maybe today???

I think that Sunday was the back breaker as far as me feeling sick, and I’m definately on the upswing as far as feeling better goes. Not that I feel awesome, and the snot…..OH MY GOODNESS the snot is amazing……but I’m not still wondering if it’s turned into strep and if I’m starting to get an ear infection.

I do feel so bad for Xandra. She came into our room early Monday morning cryng about how bad her throat felt, and unfortunately I knew just how ad she was feeling.

This has been just so bizarre as we are almost never sick and I am SO READY for it to all be gone.

Well, I should probably at least start getting ready for the day, no?

Thanks to all for your thoughts and well wishes. We so appreciate everyone who thinks of us and remembers with us.

ps. I did 25 minutes on my Eliptical Machine on Monday night and now I can’t walk….it’s pretty funny. I’m thinking that it’s going to be even funnier when I try to get back on the sucker tonight.