Weekend's here!

What a week! Honey stayed home today and was a lot calmer once all the voiding was done. She had a good night's sleep and had a small appetite today so it looks like the worst is behind her.  Murray crashed early last night and didn't resurface at his usual time this morning so I got Lovey & Sweetie on the bus and when I came back in, Honey was awake.

An hour later, there was still no sign of Murray so I phoned his office to let them know he might not make it in. One of his coworkers answered the phone and asked me to make sure to keep him home. I explained that he didn't always listen. He has to be totally incapacitated to actually take a sick day. The guy again said he thought I should keep him home so I suggested that if Murray stumbled in there looking all bleary and gross to kick him out!

Sure enough, Murray woke up and thought he should still work because he wasn't THAT sick. I told him I'd already called and they didn't want him there. He decided to compromise. He drove in to the office, set his computer up so he could work on it from his laptop at home and came home to work instead. Whoever taught that boy about dedication may have gone a little overboard! He did break down and have a nap this afternoon. I'm sure he timed it, documented it and sent an email to the boss so his pay could be properly docked. :)))

This week while Sweetie was off we still practiced her adding and subtracting drills with PopMath, a cool app on the iPad that they enjoy. She worked on it every day and got up to level 27 without many mistakes.

Payday for me!!!! Five dollars came in the mailbox so Murray's not the only one working from home around here. I'm earning my keep, one survey at a time!

 and I finally got around to hanging some pictures! I put up our family photo in the living room a few days ago and then tackled this beast yesterday. I do love my Murray's 20x40 canvas but it was a challenge to work with!!! I had to get our precarious antique step ladder from the garage and work out some brutal calculations to get the &^@#$ thing centred & levelled properly over the doorway. Seven holes and 2 sheets of paper later, it looks pretty decent and Murray was pleasantly surprised when he got home. Not sure if it was because I didn't kill myself on the ladder in my spectacularly klutzy way or because he wasn't expecting me to get that task done that day!

(as you can see below, I could do with more time on the Pop Math app myself)

Since Murray was working from home today, I decided to vacate the premises for the first time since Monday afternoon. I went to the gym but didn't feel up to doing any step or Zumba action. I started on the eliptical machine but that was too much standing and my legs didn't like that! I moved on to the spin bike and that went much better! It felt good to be out and get the blood moving!

I spent the rest of the day watching an online photography workshop on Glamour shooting. The presenter is amazing and so inspiring. She shot the women students in the live audience and showed their before and afters today. They were all blown away and so was I . What an amazing ability this photographer has, to make anyone look and feel like a supermodel/covergirl!!! I'd love to try this and think I have a lead on a volunteer!

Creative Writing

I swear, the stuff they write is just as adorable and sometimes funny as the stuff they say sometimes, or even better! Some works are unsigned and some are more obvious. Clearly the first example is from Lovey and while it's a bit sad, the way she expresses herself just cracks me up sometimes.

and then there are the mystery notes. I still have no idea who this was but they were pretty darn pleased with their spelling practice! This wasn't from school, just something they worked on themselves, here at home and apparently quite well!

Before the Flu Invasion

Ahhhhhh  Monday! Only a few short days ago, life was normal. Hectic and busy as all get out, but at least I could leave the house!!

I had my usual grocery run, went to the gym for a couple classes, came home put things away, had some lunch, picked the kids up, went to violin and then dance class, nice supper at home. Who knew I was living it up???

Since then someone's been sick and so have I! Tonight I'm feeling better, Sweetie's pretty sure she's going to school tomorrow (art day after all!) and Honey barfed in the hall around 7pm. So unless she has a miraculous recovery in the night, it looks like she's getting her wish of a day off from school. 

She's the worst one when she gets sick though. Most people get sick and they're lethargic, don't want to talk much or make a fuss. Not her. Nope. This one gets mad. AND makes sure everyone knows it! "UGHHHHHH I HATE THIS!!!!!!!!! I WANT IT TO GO AWAY OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IT FEELS AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FEEL TERRIBLE!!! WHY DID GOD MAKE GERMS!?!?!??!? WHY CAN'T HE FIX THIS???? MY STOMACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S HARD TO GET COMFORTABLE WHEN YOUR STOMACH IS TRYING TO KILL YOU YA KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

When I reminded her that she'd gotten lucky to get sick before the weekend and would get a day off after all she just glared at me and then yelled "YOU'RE NOT HELPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I took my cue and made my exit!

and if that wasn't enough excitement, Murray went for his run tonight and came home with his stomach all messed up and went straight to bed. Quite an introduction to March huh? On the upside, I've dropped a few pounds this week and have absolutely no interest in chips or chocolate. This is practically unheard of and no doubt very temporary but at least I can enjoy weighing myself. Sad source of entertainment, but there ya have it!

Here's the sick little princess getting tucked in early, once she finally got all the yelling out of her system!

and then there was life back on Monday when things were a little easier!

Superstar!

Almost forgot to highlight the awesomeness of Lovey. She was Star of the week, for being wonderful "as usual" according to her teacher. It's so nice for them to get these little bits of recognition and reinforcement. It really makes their day and ours when they come home so pumped, proud & pleased!

Backlog!

We've had the flu here since Sunday when Lovey was sick. She was recouped and back at school Monday morning. Tuesday morning Sweetie wasn't feeling well and neither was I so we had a pj day until I remembered I was expecting a client order delivery and put on some real clothes!

She played her games, read books, relaxed, watched TV and didn't have any more trouble. Wednesday morning she came to breakfast, looking forward to going back to school but was very thirsty. I poured her a glass of water and she drank some. Then she got a funny look on her face and said "my tummy feels weird all of a ...." and her eyes bulged and then blam! All over the table. Bon Appetit! Luckily she was the only one there yet and no one else's appetite got ruined. I sent her back to bed and cleaned up & disinfected for the next wave of breakfasters who luckily did not regurgitate on the dining surface!

Honey woke up tired & cranky yesterday and said she didn't want to go to school. Then when she found out Sweetie got to stay home, she started chanting "No FAIR!" angrily as she was envious of all the "fun" stuff Sweetie would be doing while staying home. Then once she realized she was fighting a losing battle she grouchily muttered "hunh. I'll probably get sick on the weekend!!!" Poor thing is probably right unfortunately. Life's a big rip off, better learn now!

Wednesday was another pj day, Skyping with Grandad (and Bunny) and lots more playtime and laundry catch up! Sweetie showed no further signs of illness and didn't even need a single nap! School looked like a for sure thing until she barfed up all her supper in the middle of the night. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? I haven't had a steady stomach or a good sleep all week so was barely able to drag myself out of bed to go check on her. When I went in I could see a horrible bloody mess and was instantly awake and alarmed! Then I remembered the raspberries for fruit at supper. Whew! No internal bleeding after all! I stripped her bed and she followed me down the hall, apologizing  for missing the bucket I'd left for her but I was so relieved that she wasn't hemorrhaging that I didn't even mind cleaning up! She also asked "Can I still go to school tomorrow???? PLEASE?????"

This morning I decided it wouldn't be wise to send her if she's still contagious and infect other innocent people who stand a chance of escaping this for their weekend! So another day at home for us, still not much appetite and I had a 3 hour nap while she got to level 11 on her video game. Who's the sick girl here anyway???

So that's my sob story on lack of blog posts this week! Here are some pictures from Shrove Tuesday though! Mmmm pancakes!

Mr. Bojangles Visit!

We  had a visitor recently!!! Uncle Andrew brought Mr. Bojangles to hang out with us while he was off to a race. The girls were so excited to see him and hovered over him the whole time. He got skis for Christmas so we all went out after lunch to give it a try. He'd only been out once but was doing pretty well til we got to a ditch and had to go down into it to follow the trail. Once he saw a crack in the snow, he freaked out! He was sure the crack was going to swallow him whole. I managed to distract him a bit but he cried and laid down and insisted he wanted to go HOME!!!!  and he was not referring to our place! I didn't want to end it with him being so upset so I got him up and going and we caught up to the girls but then had to turn around and go back the same way. It didn't go over very well but we got past the gaping maw of earth & ice and raced Sweetie and passed her and that made him pretty happy. Sweetie on the other hand, was loudly insisting that she DIDN'T WANT to race. I sent Murray back to zip her lip so I could keep Mr B on track. I skied with him standing between my skis and braced him so he couldn't tip. On the way out he was scared of every little dip in the field. On the way back we flew down a long slope with him saying "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! FUN!!!!" That's how I  roll ;)))

They all played outdoors for quite awhile once they were in the yard. A little army of snowmen was created, a fort got started and then abandoned when the hot chocolate came out!

After supper it was movie night and we'd recorded The Princess Bride the night before but Mr. B kept saying "No, I hate that movie!" I tried to jazz it up, and told him there were pirates and sword fights..... "I hate sohdfights!" Well not ten minutes later, he runs into the kitchen with a Nerf sword, asking "Sweetie!!! want to have a sohdfight????" I said "hey! you hate sword fights remember???" He looks at me and then back at Sweetie. "Sweetie, you want to have a light sabre fight???"

I told them to go clean up the disaster they'd turned our living room into and all 3 girls trooped in and got to work. Mr. B trotted off downstairs so I went down and asked him to go give them a hand. He quickly explained "I didn't touch any of that stuff" with a complete deadpan expression. So much so that I had to scan back to them playing that afternoon to make sure I really had seen him playing up there! Oh yeah, he was! I sent him up but was laughing too hard to seem very authoritative about it! He helped them out anyway though.

Lovey had an altercation with Honey a week before. It was at bedtime and Lovey had been arranging her blankets "just so" when apparently Honey touched Lovey's bed, infuriating her and she lashed out and hit Honey. No blood just hurt feelings but Lovey had brought down both fists on Sweetie's head a few weeks before that for something else and had gotten her screen privileges revoked for a week that time. This time Murray upped it to 2 weeks so Lovey wasn't allowed to watch the movie. Instead she & Mr. B played upstairs while we were downstairs. She played with him and the stuffed animals. Then she took him to her room and they curled up in her bed while she read him stories. I think she'll be a good babysitter, as long as no one messes with her stuff!