Friday, July 31, 2009

Ugh. What a stupid week. Martin has worked late (though thankfully not as late as we'd expected!) almost every night. Wednesday was his birthday and we are celebrating with both families this weekend so I just gave him his gift from the girls (a Hank Williams CD) and a card from me. I don't remember if I posted that I gave him a membership to the Linden Conservation Club, but I gave it to him early.

Greta had Roseola this week (what is it with my family and that virus?!) and was super grumpy while she had the fever. We didn't even think of Roseola as a possiblity when she turned up with a fever of 103 in the middle of the night on Tuesday, so we (of course) freaked out and took her to the ER. Luckily for us (har har har) Anja was awake too! So we all went! A family adveture to spend three hours in the emergency room in the middle of the night. Nothing like it. They checked everything out and finally said it must be a virus. I still didn't think of Roseola until this morning when I noticed a nice rash all over her. Of course!

I have a dentist appointment on Monday, yikes.

There was a possum in our yard tonight. I begged Martin to let me invite him in for a piece of pie and ice cream and then convince him to spend the night... and then to stay forever as my pet... but Martin wouldn't let me. He's so mean sometimes. He's got all these stupid theories about "fleas" and "diseases" and "aggression" and whatever other silly things he thinks possums have. Ugh. Can't he see how beautiful and wonderful they are?!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Sleeping Like Kings

Our beloved neighbors, The Cooks, are in their last few weeks here on this street... in this town... in this State... and I guess they're in their last year of living in this country! Because they are going to New York in a few weeks to live in a furnished apartment, and then to Abu Dhabi, they are getting rid of all their stuff. I mean, ALL THEIR STUFF. Including their ginormous bed, which they generously gave to us! It's a platform bed that comes apart into tiny pieces, so they put in our living room one day while we were gone, then we (Martin) moved it upstairs and reassembled it. (but I fixed the zipper and put the sheets on!) This is how we have come to having no bed at all to having a King Sized bed in our tiny upstairs bedroom, which now is tinier than ever. I'm not at all joking when I say that this bed takes up half the room. This thing is HUGE. It's so big that we kind of don't know what to do with all the space. Last night when we crawled in, we both said we felt like we were sleeping in a hotel! Martin slept on King Sized beds when he would travel for Wabash, but this is just the second time I've slept in one, the first time being our honeymoon. It's quite a step up from a Queen! I am kind of amazed. I don't remember it being so big over at Tara's house.... Tara's house, which, by the way, is absolutely adorable. We are so sad to see them go.



And while we're on the subject of sleep, I was amazed last night that Anja slept the entire night through for the second time ever! Go Anja!! Sadly, our "good sleeper" was up half the night, so I still didn't get any sleep. Ironically, the night before it was Greta who slept twelve hours straight and Anja who was restless all night long. They are working together, plotting against us! Still... I am hopeful for tonight.



Tomorrow I'm hanging out with Anne and Laura in the morning and I really can't wait. When I was young and slim and hip and single (and almost never covered in spit-up), I'd go hang out at Vienna and a little group of moms would often be there in the mornings with their babies and toddlers. I always thought that looked like the perfect life! Hanging out with your friends and all your cute, well-dressed, well-behaved children. Well, that's the West Side for you. Painting a glamorous and somewhat unrealistic picture of motherhood for all the 21-year-olds working on their English assignments. This paragraph sounds bitter. It's not meant to be. I'm just saying that I almost never leave the house, and none of my closest friends live in this town anymore (don't suggest sisters and sisters-in-law, they don't count as friends because they are family) so to be going out for coffee with a couple of mom friends and our kidders is kind of a big deal! Funnily, I don't even know if we're going out for coffee. I invited them to my house... I guess I'm just hoping that I'll be able to successfully drag them down to K.Dee's. Ha!



Oh my gosh! So I think the old location of River City Depot might now be a Great Harvest Bread store! How cool would that be? I still get a terrific craving for a Chicago Dog every time I walk past the corner of 4th and Main.... but bread is a good enough substitute. I love bread, and I can see a bread store located that close to my house being a very bad thing. A veerrrryyy bad thing.



And speaking of bread, yesterday I made Beer Bread, this morning I made Zucchini Bread, then I made a quiche with the leftover pie crust I had in the fridge from the weekend, and right now I've got Berry Pudding Cake in the oven! It's been a productive day in the kitchen, that's for sure.



I also took a walk this morning with the girls and we got Martin a birthday gift from Anja and Greta. I hope he likes it. His birthday isn't till Wednesday. I'll make a pie. Oh, how I do love pie.



Neither of the girls has found sleep very easily tonight. That's unfortunate.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

So Long, Old Friend

Well, our visting friend, Vacation, has left us. It was really good to have him around for a whole week, and it's really sad to see him go. *sigh* Oh well... at least he left a lot of fun memories and at least a few good pictures. We did a lot of fun things this week. We spent a lot of time up at the river, a lot of time eating watermelon, and we took many visits to K.Dee's coffee shop. There's something about walking down to the coffee shop early in the morning that makes me look forward to retirement. Maybe I should focus more on next summer's vacation though. Anyway, it was loads of fun.

Last Saturday I "drove the girls to sleep" (that was the lie I told to get out of the house) and picked up Martin's birthday present: a year membership to the Linden Conservation Club. So far it's been a very successful present! I gave it to him early (his birthday is this Wednesday) because our friends Clare and Nick came to visit on Sunday and I knew he would want to take Nick shooting. While the boys went out to play with guns Clare and I and all of our baby girls took a walk around town and just kind of hung out. We love them! It was a really fun day and a perfect way to start out our vacation. Sadly, I got no pictures.

We visited the Columbian Park petting zoo (no pictures) and followed it up with a trip to the Frozen Custard.
Martin's sister and nephew came down for a visit on Tuesday and we brought a watermelon to that little gathering. Much like with Anja and PeterXavier, it's funny to see the close-in-age cousins interacting. Anja and Aurelio colored pictures together and pretended to be "wild beasts." (Aurelio suggests we all pretend to be "wild beasts" and then I ask him what wild beast he is pretending to be and he says, "I'm a COW!!") Anja ate a slice of watermelon, and I thought there might be nothing cuter. ...except for maybe two toddlers with a slice each. Letsee, what else did we do? My mom watched the girls one chilly, rainy day while Martin and I took a lunch date at The Black Sparrow, a cute little downtown pub where we'd never been. I had a very interesting sandwich and we each had a beer, and it was a perfect day for a cozy pub date. (If it had been sunny, we would've gone to Olive House and sat outside.)

Our friend Joel happened to be on vacation this week as well, so he was in town and we visited with him a few times. Martin even took him shooting!
Friday was a very fun day--we went to coffee at K.Dee's in the morning, then spontaneously decided to go shoot guns at the Conservation Club. We dropped the girls off at my mom's and went out there. I shot Martin's pistol! That thing is a monster. Martin killed a Bad Guyand we both did a number on this poor, skinny Squirrel. We were going to have a picnic lunch out at the Hort Park, but that kind of didn't happen. However, Uncle Kim did drop off half a watermelon to us and it was SO DELICIOUS, and kind of picnicky. We ate a little lunch at home then went to my uncle's house to swim with my sister's family! It was very fun, even though Anja never got in the water and Greta slept the whole time. From there we went to have dinner at Budge's and it was delicious. Then we went home, changed clothes, and walked to Vienna for an art opening. Joel came and brought his mom and it's always fun to talk to her.
On Saturday we walked to the Farmers Market and saw lots of friends. It was my mother-in-law's birthday so I made a cherry pie (which I promptly spilled all over myself as soon as I got into the car) and we had a little family get-together. One thing that I do love about living downtown is that I bought a pint of cherries for my pie at the Farmers Market, but it wasn't really enough... so I just called out the door to Martin, who was at the grill making venison burgers for our lunch, that I needed more and would he run down and get me some please? And he was able to leave the grill and hurry the few blocks back to the Farmers Market and pick me up another pint of cherries. The 5th Street Farmers Market is as good as a convenience store!
And now it's another Sunday and Martin goes back to work tomorrow and that's a little bit poopy. However, it's a little less poopy-seeming today since BOTH GIRLS ARE NAPPING AT THE SAME TIME RIGHT NOW. This is practically a miracle, considering Anja went pretty much the entire week with zero naps. Her going down easily today gives me hope for getting back to our old routine starting tomorrow.
Thanks for voting on my poll, everyone!!!!! I was interested to see how other people care for their cast iron.
My parents just brought us a ton of food. Deer brats, homemade strawberry jelly, a giant zucchini, buns, chips, and a twelve pack of coke. What a nice way to close up our vacay! Happy lunching!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

We're On Vacay!

Martin's vacation officially started yesterday at 5:00! A whole week with him home! And a vacation for Martin is a vacation for me as well--it means I can go places! In our car! And I won't have to hold both babies at once!

This morning something happened that made our less-than-ideal Anja Sleep Habits totally worth it: We were waking up to our alarm and she woke up too, but without really saying anything, she got up, picked up her bottle bag (the little insulated bag that we keep her bottles in at night so we don've have to run downstairs to the fridge) and came crawling into our bed. She basically handed me the bag and laid down, waiting for the bottle. Something tells me we might be getting close to her putting herself back to sleep! She's such a funny girl.

So I've been experimenting with cloth diapers for the past couple of days. Luckily, we'd gotten some cloth diapers the night before I left Anja's entire box of disposable diapers in the back of the car! I walked to my sister's house and borrowed two covers, and traded three brand-new diapers for three well-washed ones and started what I thought would be my conversion experience. I've wanted to do cloth diapers since Anja was born and the only thing really stopping me was the large upfront cost. $15 a box doesn't seem so bad when you compare it to $100+, no matter how much you tell yourself it'll pay off quickly and that you'll never have to buy diapers again. So anyway, I was glad for the opportunity and the excuse to start using cloth, and more glad that my sister started before me thus enabling me to borrow supplies from her. In other words, I'm REALLY GLAD I didn't spend the money. While I thought I'd be hooked (Save the pocketbook! Save the environment!) I'm beginning to think that I'll be spending just as much on my water bill with all the extra laundry I'm doing as I would on disposable diapers. All it's been so far is leak, leak, leak. And I don't mean leaks after a few hours... I mean leaks within about thirty minutes. And I am full of questions: Am I doing it wrong? Are the diapers too small? Are the covers too small? Does my daughter pee more than normal children? Seriously, I've had to change Anja's entire outfit with every diaper change. I started the day with an empty laundry basket and by the end of the day had enough baby clothes for a medium sized load. So if any of you cloth-diapering mothers want to give me some advice, please feel free. The other thing that turns me off is that, while I thought Anja would be more comfortable in cloth diapers (cotton vs. paper--Hello? The answer seemed obvious to me, but I guess I was wrong!,) when I put her in a cloth diaper this morning she walked around like a chimpanzee, was all frowny and tugging at it until I changed her into a disposable. So I guess she gave me her honest opinion. (Although the first few days she didn't seem to even notice she was wearing something different. AND, she never asked to be changed... I'd just check for wet and see that she was soaked all over her front.)

So anyway, that's the news around the homestead. I will not judge anyone who leaves advice comments on the diapering! Also, check out my new poll, also something that comes to you judgement free! And it's anonymous, so BE HONEST.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Onions, Anyone?

Up until tonight, Anja HATED onions. If you gave her a bite of food that accidentally included a the tiniest piece of onion, she'd eat everything, then reach her entire hand into her mouth to remove that one bit of onion. And then suddenly tonight, it was all she wanted to eat! I made chicken parm that turned out being rubbery, over-cooked, underbreaded chicken with some cold tomatoey sauce over linguine. It was a little bit disgusting, but Anja LOVED IT. She cleaned her plate... then cleaned mine.... then moved on to Martin's.

We took a walk this morning, and it was so gorgeous! Very cool and sunny. When we left the house I didn't really feel like going all the way over the bridge and pulling the stroller up and down the stairs, but once we were out I thought it was too nice a day for just a short walk, so over we went, across the bridge, around the levee and back again. We saw our friend Matt Scherger and he says he'll drop some CDs by our place soon and I can't wait because we are in desperate need of some fresh music around here. Over the weekend I found James Taylor's "Mud Slide Slim" album and had forgotten how good it it. I had a lovely morning on Saturday while Martin was helping my dad set up for Riverfest; Anja and Greta and I rocked out to James Taylor while we ate our breakfast. Tonight's 'World Cafe' was boring so we turned on the CD again and Anja couldn't stop dancing! I'm glad she has such good taste in music, hee hee.

And speaking of music, I got out my banjo today and the girls sat on a quilt and listened to me play. And it. was. awesome. Then Anja started rolling all over Greta and she wouldn't stop so I had to put the banjo away.

Anja and I played in the backyard today during one of Greta's naps. That's something we don't do often enough.

Martin's job has gotten soooooo busy! He still comes home for lunch every day though, which is awesome.

Have I mentioned that Martin's grown his beard back? He hasn't had his beard since 2005 when he shaved it off for job interviews. I love his beard.

Greta fell asleep during dinner so we weren't able to go hear the Dulcimers. I'm sure next summer we'll be able to have more fun and active evenings. At least I am hoping that's the case.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Housebound

Sometimes I get this terrible idea in my head that I'd like to have the car for a day. So Martin and I get up extra early (or at our usual time and rush to get ready) and Martin catches the bus so that I can have the car all day long. And then, EVERY TIME, I regret it. Because if I have the car I'm tempted to go places. And when I go places--ANYPLACE--then someone is missing a nap, and a missed nap around this place makes for a VERY unhappy baby, no matter who it is. I know that some kids do fine without daily naps and routines, and I know that some kids can fall asleep wherever they are in any situation; unfortunately, my girls are not like that. Anja is extreme, but even Greta has her little naptime routine (which is still a pretty frequent nececssity) and it's rough when we get away from it. When I go a long stretch of time without having the car, the girls start napping at the same time; they become predictable and good sleepers. But when I have the car and am all go, go, go, for a day, they don't get naps at all. The problem is, when I have the car I get to do fun stuff like go swimming with my sister and her crazy monkeys. I can do things I need to do like run to the grocery for milk. And even if I don't run all over town in the car, it's sometimes a comfort just to be able to see it sitting there in the driveway and know that the keys are right there on the table, should I ever desire to go somewhere. So. I'm deciding whether or not Annie Car Days should come to a complete end for awhile, just until Greta is a little older and not napping so much.

Speaking of Greta, have I mentioned she's a total roller-overer now? She started rolling over a week or so ago and now if I put her down on her back she MUST be on her stomach. It is an immediate action. Pretty funny. She suddenly seems huge to me too and is in 3-6 month clothes. I've already packed away the newborn stuff. *sigh* Newborn stage isn't even my favorite, but I still get a little sad when the tiniest clothes go into their box and are shoved under the bed. Who knows when we'll see them again!

When Anja was a baby I thought she was in the best stage and I kind of worried about toddlerhood and was afraid it'd be too much, too scary. Ha! Toddlers are awesome. She does the weirdest stuff, and she KNOWS things now. We can give her any instruction and she does it. We can ask her questions and she answers us by showing. Who cares that she doesn't talk? She is SUCH a good communicator! And she does have words, they are just complete nonsense. For instance, she's started saying "ghee" for snaps and buckles. If she wants to buckle something (the carseat straps, or the swing straps, or snap up a onesie or her baby doll's clothes) she says "ghee! ghee!" while she's trying to do it. She still calls horses "jews" and cows "goos" and inhales long and hard for "cat," although she's not meowing... a meow is when she closes her eyes and squeaks. "Shoe" is a short throatal sound, "stroller" is a long throatal sound. The only real things she says are "Mama" and "Dada" and I consider "Rah-Rah" for Bella to be pretty real too. Although I'm not quite sure that "Rah-Rah" is just for Bella.... I think it might be the word for any and all of her cousins.

Anyway. We spent Sunday working in the yard. Martin did some heavy duty brush clearing and I tried to raise my garden from its weedy grave. We got a lot done and it feels good to have done it. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my garden now. Hopefully it'll give me some vegetables.

Martin is taking a week of vacation next week and we've been planning out our days so nothing is wasted. We have a few dates in mind, and a number of things we've been meaning to do but have never found time for, but mostly we just plan to laze around at the river eating watermelon.

My newest idea is to move to Hawaii and live in a grass hut. So far, Martin is not on board. Meanwhile, my neighbor Tara has been talking us into various Utah areas...

I love summer.

I think if I had to look back over my life and pick out the best gift my parents have ever given me, it wouldn't EVEN be my old golden retriever, Micky. It would be the porch swing we have now. Boy. We spend so much time out on that porch swing!

I'm supposed to meet my sister at the swimming pool at 3, but nobody is awake yet. Hmmmmmm..... Anja definitely won't mind being woken up if it means swimming! But Greta might be kind of annoyed with me. Last time we went to the pool Greta stayed with her Ooma and it was great. This time I tried to talk my mom into coming to the pool with us, but she said she'd rather stay home and keep Greta. Suit yourself, Ooma, but you're missing out on seeing Anja's new swimsuit!

On Saturday (RIVERFEST DAY, that was loads of fun until Anja decided not to take a nap at all and it rained really hard for awhile) the Cooks had a yard sale. After awhile they put it up on Freecycle so I went over and helped myself to some cute clothes and stuff. One of the things there was a very cute swimsuit for Anja. I'm glad we are getting so much of their stuff because we will miss them and they have to get rid of all their stuff because they are moving so far away, and I like the idea of certain things coming to me instead of to strangers.

Okay, time to get ready for the pool!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Friendliest of Flies

Without trying to gross anybody out... remember the Cluster Flies of a two summers ago? Well, they're back. Just as they did last time, they have just appeared in our house. And they will randomly disappear too.... only to come back in greater numbers. It's really gross. And as far as I can tell, there's nothing we can do to get rid of them.

However, I had a visitor today who cheered me up about the flies. Her name is Wilomina, although I'm not sure that's at all how her name is spelled! She and her husband came through our house on the Unseen City tour and she and I hit it off while in the next room, without my knowing it, Martin and her husband were doing the same thing! They stayed for so long that night just talking with us. That night she told me she would bring me some Sweet Annie to plant, and today she did! I invited her in before I remembered the flies, but when I apologized about them, she shrugged it off and said they have them too, but they call them Attic Flies! Martin and her husband are both into guns and squirrel hunting, while she and I talk about gardens and homemade soap. When I told her Anja's birthday is in November, she told me that hers is too, and she'll be 77 this year. I'm SO GLAD she stopped by today!

They live in the country, as do the parents of my friends Anne and Laura. The girls and I were invited out there yesterday and we had a very fabulous time. I didn't see as much of Monica and Mary Grace as I would've liked, though, so I guess we'll all just have to get together again next time Anne comes to town! It was the most wonderful thing to sit in the shade while our toddlers ran around half naked and our babies laid lazily on a blanket in the grass. I kind of can't imagine a better way to have spent my afternoon! They have goats and chickens and Anja LOVES animals. I thought she'd be more into the goats, and she liked them, but she was more obsessed with the neighbors little dog who kept wandering over to visit. When I came home and told Martin about their parents' place, he said it's a good thing he wasn't with us or we'd have a For Sale sign in our yard already! We love living downtown but we've been itching lately for a little more space and a little more nature. I know that if/when we ever live in the country we will miss the conveniences and the social side of living right downtown, but gosh... especially with our neighbors leaving us this summer, a nice secluded place in the country where we can have an organic garden and shoot squirrels for dinner sounds really great.

Not to mention we're kind of outgrowing our house already. I like having us all in one room, but it does make bedtime complicated. It didn't used to matter when all Greta did was sleep, but now she is getting her own routine that doesn't quite match Anja's, so our evenings have gotten difficult again. (Again. As if they were ever easy.) It'd be awesome if our house was set up as our neighbors house is--their half story is two bedrooms and their second bathroom is at the bottom of their stairs, whereas our half story is a bedroom and a bathroom. If only we could just kind of trade houses...

But we are trading beds instead! I think Martin will be very happy to finally have a real bed. I just hope babies don't roll off during naptime! I could go on sleeping on our mattress on the floor for the rest of our lives, but apparently Martin has this crooked idea that civilized adults sleep on real beds instead of just mattresses flopped on the floor. It actually is perfect timing though, as this bed is coming with sheets included and just today when I was doing the towel laundry I found our sheets at the bottom of the laundry basket covered in mildew!!! EEEWW!!! Oh well, we won't need them anymore because now we will have a KING SIZED BED!! And I thought we were fancy for having a Queen Sized!

If you look at the playdate pictures that Anne posted on her blog, you can sorta-kinda see the shirt I'm wearing. Well, you can't really see the shirt and in one picture I look pregnant (I'm not, btw) but you can at least see that the shirt is orange. Anyway, that shirt was a dress earlier that day, but I cut it off and sewed the bottom back on and had myself a new shirt to wear. When Greta was born Martin gave me a Gap giftcard and we went there the other day to try and spend some of it, but I didn't find anything I loved. It was disappointing because I'm finally back in my regular clothes and I was feeling like I could use a cute new something in my old size. I'm actually really happy to have dropped my babyweight so fast.... thanks, summertime!

Our bathtub drain was mysteriously clogged this morning and the water was really scummy so I didn't take a shower. Martin just fixed it though, so I'm looking forward to my morning shower tomorrow! Anja didn't nap today, which is always frustrating, but she was in such a good mood by the end of the day it was almost sad to put her to bed. It's funny, the days she doesn't nap always seem to be when she is in the WORST mood in the morning. I give her three tries at naptime, but I don't like to put her down any later than about 1:00. By that time she seems to have caught her second wind and is often a delight for most of the afternoon! Today it took her awhile to catch her second wind... but still! We ate chocolate pudding together! She is such a good little girl.

Okay, and now that I'm sitting here chuckling to myself about her, I just have to share some of her cuteness. Today I was folding laundry in the kitchen and she really wanted to help, so I put all of the bloomers in one laundry basket and told her where they went. She was SO HAPPY to help me!! She took all the bloomers, one pair at a time, and put them in their spot. And she was so proud of herself! She seriously LOVES to help. Today she was taking Cheerios from her mug and lining them up on the floor. I told her she needed a diaper change, and she put all the Cheerios back in her mug, then stood up and came to the bedroom for a clean diaper. It was great! She is so cooperative!

And Greta is all cheeks and thighs and wonderfulness.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Who Wears the Pants?

Yesterday I was cleaning up the house while Martin was mowing the lawn and the girls were napping. Along the trail of destruction I go, when I come across Martin's pants (belt still attached) on the dining room table. My first question to myself was, "Ugh! Why does he have to leave his pants lying around?!" and my second question to myself was, "Why was Martin in the dining room without his pants?" Judging by the evidence though, he had once been wearing pants in the dining room, and then for some reason decided not to be. What a weirdo!

I just ate a tomato-basil omlette. YUM. The basil came from my garden, as did the cutest little tiny red cherry tomatoes I've ever seen in my life! Unfortunately, my garden still isn't doing very well. I have had many a blossom, but not much in the way of actual vegetables. I do have one thumbnail-sized green pepper coming in, but overall I think the Japenese Beetles are getting the best of my produce.

HOWEVER, I did figure out that the sprawling viney squash plant at the edge of the driveway must be PUMPKIN!!! This is a MOST exciting discovery, considering that it must've come from the old rotten pumpkin we threw out there last winter! I will laugh so hard if my entire garden dies but my rot pile produces a happy fall harvest. Trashiness really should not get rewarded that way, but hey, I do loves a pumpkin! Ever since I figured out what it was, I have been tending to it with much love and care.

My sister-in-law got herself a new phone gadget conveniently on the day that Martin's old phone bit the dust by literally falling apart. He's been in need of a new phone for a long while now, but then finally the plastic part that holds the flippy pieces together just kind of disintegrated. So TusaRebecca offered Martin her old blackberry phone since she got her new fancy one. Martin, of course, insisted that I have the blackberry because I'd had my old phone for about five years and it is the most basic model in the universe. I've never minded basic--it makes it user-friendly! But he wouldn't take no for an answer, so now he has my el-cheapo phone and I have a cool new gadget to play with. I've never had a phone that takes pictures before!!!!

Last night we drove up to Wolcott for their postponed 4th of July celebration. It was fun! Kim was playing and we ate dinner there, but the best part was when Anja took her very first carousel ride. To say she was excited is a vast understatement. I'm not sure I've ever SEEN her so beside herself with joy.

And another cool thing about going up there was seeing the wind farms! Those are very amazing.

Anja and Theodore helped me wash the dishes one day.

And here's a good example of Attachment Parenting. (Ignore the stoner expression.)

Okay, I have wasted soooooo much naptime, and I have a to-do list that's five miles long. But isn't it great news that the girls have been consistently napping at the same time for DAYS now?

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The Creeping Virus of Death

Apologies to anyone who comes down with this whatever-it-is we've had and thinks your dying. Don't worry, you're not... or at least, we didn't.

The part about Fiddlers that I didn't write about was that I was feeling kind of sick. Big headache and a fever. Later that evening my fever hit 104 and Martin sent me to the Urgent Care where they told me I had an icky UTI. Weird, since I had no symptoms of that. I asked them if that's where my headache was coming from and they said "probably." In the night I thought I was dying, and the next day I still had a high fever and the same headache and THEN my neck started hurting. Martin made me call Dr. Watson and I got an appointment for 3:30. Oddly enough, at about 2:30 my fever disappeared! So I felt like an idiot going to the doctor with no symptoms. Well, I still had my headache and my neck ache, but even those weren't as bad. But of course a few hours after being to the doctor, everything came back and my fever went up to 103 again. Martin was afraid I'd die in the night. He looked up a flow-chart online and diagnosed me with Menangitis. To get a better opinion on whether or not to go to the ER, we actually called Dr. Watson AT HOME, which is something both Martin and I had previously sworn never to do with any doctor ever. He set our minds at ease and we didn't go to the ER and in the morning everything was completely gone and this time it stayed away.

Then on Tuesday Martin said he felt like he might be coming down with my Creeping Virus of Death. Like with mine, it came and went all day, then it got really bad at night and all day Wednesday. He stayed home from work both yesterday and today, but I think this evening he seems to have finally kicked all symptoms. I'm glad he didn't go to work though and spread it around.... nobody would want this, especially for the holiday weekend. The sad part is this was the week he'd originally asked for vacation, but it wasn't approved because too many people in the office had already asked for it off. That means he left them totally short-handed today!!!! Still though.... I think they were better off working a little harder and steering clear of the Creeping Virus of Death than they would otherwise be.

Here's something beyond weird: At the edge of our Jungle near they driveway, we have two HUGE zucchini plants growing. I have no idea why or how they got there. I certainly didn't plant them there. But these things have gotten absolutely enormous. They are so much bigger than the zucchini plants in my garden! And they are covered in blossoms but I can't see that any of the flowers are bringing zucchinis with them. It would be pretty funny if the zucchini plants in my garden die and this little squirrel gift in our Jungle produces enough zucchinis for the entire neighborhood, which it looks like it could, judging by the amount of flowers that are on there. I mean, this thing is HUGE! It kind of makes me want to move my garden to the Jungle!

And really the Creeping Virus of Death has been taking up most of our life as of late, so I don't have much news! Greta's still not rolling over, though she is still really good at trying. Anja has learned that it's funny to walk sideways and funnier to walk sideways while wearing a goofy expression. Tomorrow I think we're going on a lunch date with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, so that should be fun.