Easter!

Easter morning found new footwear and chocolate galore! It was a quick hunt but yielded good results, they're just getting faster. Unfortunately Sweetie had been ill with flu and fever for a few days and wasn't really feeling up to looking for or eating treats so we knew she was still really sick! It took over a week for her to feel better and be able to eat food again!

Someone brought in cupcakes for Sunday School just in case there wasn't enough sugar at home?

Science Week!

Science week also known as tear-my-hair-out-week! Or it would have been if reinforcements hadn't shown up! We started these projects well ahead of time. The experiments were performed, data collected and pictures taken. All that jazz was out of the way and so I thought we were out of the woods on this! Murray worked with them mostly, he's better at this stuff and handles the high tension environment better than I! However, even he threw in the towel one night when Honey was giving us the gears while practicing her presentation.

Luckily Nanny had come for a visit to see the big Wizard of Oz performance! (Since they were calling for a lot of snow, Grampy stayed home to keep the driveway cleared.) Also to our advantage: a sick day plus a snow day! Sweetie was home for a couple days not feeling well and but was well enough to sit at the table and put her poster together. She and Nanny were at it those two days for hours and hours while the other 2 were at school and made some good progress on the layout. It was a good thing Lovey's teacher hadn't assigned a project. There's no way we could have gotten all 3 done at the same time! Honey & Nanny logged a lot of time on the snow day and got it shaped up quite well!

Sweetie's:

Honey's:

 

Since she was in town and all.... we wanted her to really enjoy her visit and not feel like we only wanted her for her science talents! So if you're looking for a good time, you know where to come! I was never so happy to run to the hardware store in my life! Woohoo! A dishwasher that doesnt' crash and slide out of its own volition AND a microwave stand that doesn't wobble and tip? Sign me up! We're not sure if she'll ever come back after her little encounter with our slave labour guest house approach but we definitely enjoyed having her!

Honey's Viewpoint

oh that girl! While we were at a big family function at my grandmother's, there was a johny on the spot for the large number of guests. Honey saw it and had NO intentions of going anywhere near it. In an attempt to ease her fears, my Aunt Cathy took her over and told her all about how it had just arrived and was perfectly neat and clean inside and opened the door to show her the pristine conditions.

Unconvinced, Honey kept her distance as she looked in and promptly put one hand on her hip and the held the other hand out with her palm turned upward and scrunched up her face, looked at Aunt Cathy incredulously and said with a touch of exasperation and a dash of scorn "REALLY???!?!?"

Recently PW brought in a guest that he was promptly most inhospitable to. However the next morning, PW left a pile of vomit on the landing so apparently the guest got his revenge. The kids were grossed out (well, who isn't really?) and asked WHY he'd throw up like that?!?!?!? Murray said "well he must have eaten something that disagreed with him!" Honey replied vehemently "well, of COURSE it disagreed with him!!!! who'd AGREE TO THAT!?!?!?"

ohhhhhh that girl!!!

Busy Saturday Too!

Saturday started off with Lovey heading out to a violin rehearsal for 8:45. Then I got the other 2 up & ready & we headed to the gym to meet Murray for the hand off! I went to class & he took all 3 to the mall to pick up a bday present for the party that afternoon. After my class, I had a practice reading at church at 11 so I went to that and came home and rounded everybody up to go to the multiples BBQ to celebrate National Multiple Births Awareness Day. We had to leave early to get home in time for the bday party next door though. While the girls were at the party I went to pick up something to watch for movie night and also to search for a hat for the service on Sunday (more on that later).

By the time I got home the party was almost over and no one was very hungry for supper, having had their fill of hot dogs, cake & chips alllll day. I picked "The Greening of Whitney Brown" and they loved that! But you can't really go wrong with  "a girl and her horse" stories!

Another busy but fun day that came back to haunt us in the middle of the night when Lovey was standing by my bed saying she felt funny. As soon as I smelled the acidic breath, I leaped out of bed and propelled her sleepy little feet straight to the bathroom and got there in the nick of time! She was only back in bed for a few seconds when I heard her rolling back and forth, moaning and trying to get comfortable. I was pretty sure that wasn't going to happen and decided there was no point in going back to bed myself at that point. After a few minutes of that, I brought her back to the bathroom. Yep. Round 2 was on. Once that was over she felt much better and was able to get back to sleep. I was glad I'd decided to do all their showers before the movie and didn't have to get up early to do that!

Poor Deprived Kids

yeah right! They don't know how good they've got it around here! But they will when they're older, right? and then be appropriately grateful for the loving and enriched childhood we bestowed up on them during these years, surely?

My darling daughters are hooked on online gaming. It's a little early in life to be dealing with this but why wait? Let's get into the hard stuff right away! Dang you Disney! They have a wonderful website and you can play for free and have access to mediocre characters, accessories and watch the "members" shop for new hairstyles, clothes, pets, home furnishings and what not. However, this "member" status costs $6/month which we're not willing to invest in (times three at that!) and they can only become members when they have money of their own they want to spend on it (and even then I try my hardest to delay, distract & deter). They love it and want to be able to play together but Murray's craptop is not getting any younger and already has missing keys, a cracked screen and the monitor is detached from the base and only connected by a couple frail looking wires. (but hey, it still works so why would a fella want to upgrade a classic piece like that???). This leaves them with only 1 computer available. mine. Their solution to this problem is that they "obviously" need their own computer. I'm pretty sure Sweetie spearheaded this campaign.

They gathered allllllllllllll their money (except Lovey, she needed to keep $6 so she could become a member!) and put it together in a bucket. My aunt out west just sent them $20 each. Grandad gave them $5 each last week and they had other money from previous savings. Then they counted it all up and they're at $108 which, let's face it, couldn't even buy them Murray's craptop on ebay! So far they're very keen and dedicated to this shared savings project and asked for a job to earn money. I offered them $1 each to wash down walls in the kitchen. They snapped that up in a hurry.  However with distractions and disagreements, it took most of the day (off and on, of course!) to actually finish the job. At one point, Honey felt much too tired to continue and needed to "rest". I found her downstairs playing on Murray's workout bench and told her I was going to dock her pay if she didn't finish. The other two offered to pitch in to finish her section so she could "rest" which was ok with Honey. I said that would be fine and applauded their teamwork approach and using their fruits of the spirit. Then I sent Honey to really rest, in bed, in her room, fighting, whining and arguing all the way. (which only confirmed that she really did need a rest!)

So the "laptop" fund now stands at $111. Any bets on how far they'll get before it all goes to crap??? Oh and there's no way of knowing who started with what. Before I knew what they were doing, they'd already dumped all the existing funds together. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my clean kitchen!

So So Sunday

Yesterday seemed to start off ok, no one had any trouble in the morning so we got up & headed out to church. All went well and we had another nice bland meal for lunch! We took the rest of the afternoon easy and I caught some more of my online workshop and was enthralled at this chick's speed at editing and the images she's able to create. wow. I've got one volunteer to try out this style of portraiture already and can't wait for her shoot! I may be looking for more testers, look out, I may be coming after you! :)))

Despite our incredible germiness and questionable state of health, Grammie & Grandad weren't willing to pass up our Sunday dinner plans so we headed their way and tried not to breathe on them too much. 

When we arrived, Baby Pinecone was breaking a trail for Max that went around the house. He needed some assistance in getting it packed down nicely so we all did a few laps and voila, instant smooth trail!

As a rare occurrence, everyone ate their supper and qualified for the dessert round! I think that was the first desert I'd braved in a few days but it didn't cause any damage so I guess I'm pretty much recovered. We'll see how long my new snackless habit lasts now that food doesn't instantly give me nausea at the thought of it. I've only snacked once in the evening in over a week so that must be some kind of record!

On the way home, we stopped in to check out Grandad's curling game but could only stay for one end since it was getting late. We got home, got everyone tucked in and then, close to midnight, the yelling started. Honey had unloaded what appeared to be about three times what she'd eaten at dinner, all over her bed. Soooooo the flu's not entirely gone from our house yet. She had a lot to holler about and her bed was in no shape to return to and that was not an acceptable state of affairs for Her Royal Spewiness! Finally I gave her a blanket and she fell asleep on the bathmat. While waiting for her to conk out, I covered the couch in a waterproof sheet, put sheets on top and when she was out of it, I transferred her over and covered her up & hoped she wouldn't notice til morning! (it worked btw, whew!)

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!

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!

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!

Charge of the Lice Brigade!

So far so good! The girls were with Tulip on Sunday and that's the day her mom found the lice on her. No sightings here yet and I'm checking daily, sometimes twice daily. It can take up to a week for nits to appear but I'm hoping my Tea Tree Oil trick saves my butt! In the meantime I'm sending the Braidy Bunch to school every day. It means getting up 20 minutes earlier and listening to a lot of whining as I braid their heads within an inch of their lives. Twenty minutes of that beats the pants off what Tulip's mom described to me on the phone last night though! She said it takes her about 2½ hours to go over Tulip's head, picking and pulling and Tulip cries the whole time, it hurts so much. She's also done 40-50 loads of laundry since Sunday night. Oy vey! I don't see us surviving that if it hits here.

But that's not our biggest concern at the moment. Murphy seems much worse this week. He's refusing to eat most of the time. We have been able to get one small meal into him each day, some DentaStix and he can't get enough snow lately. Weird. Last night he was out in the cold til 10pm and only came in because I went and dragged him in. Today he wanted back out early this morning and when I brought him in shivering around mid morning to get him warmed up, he turned around and wanted back out. I made him stay in for a couple of hours but by then it was sunny out so I let him go out til Murray got home from supper. He has no energy, and just lies on the floor or couch all day. Today he didn't even thump his tail whenever we came in to the room. When he's lying still, I have to look closely to see if he's even still breathing. I'm afraid it's not looking good. We're taking him to the vet tomorrow afternoon to get him looked at but we doubt this is a "fixable" situation. He seems so sad and listless. We hate seeing our Murphy baby like this and are trying to brace for the worst.

Earache :(

Got a call from Murray while I was at the gym this morning. Lovey had an earache at school and needed to be picked up. I brought her home and she had a snack and went to bed and is still sleeping. I peeked in on her and found her cuddled up with some comforting companions. I think it's so sweet to see that she's still young enough that Barbie can make her feel better.

She also had a bad fall in gym and crashed face first into the floor and cut her lip and that's when her ears started to hurt. Her pupils were fine and no dizziness or vomiting so I don't think she has a concussion but we'll be watching her just in case!

Fun in the Sun!

We had another nice day and made good use of the pool today! We even found 5 friends to come over and play!

In the morning I went to a class at the gym and then squeezed in 15 minutes on a lovely little thing I like to call "stairway to he!!" I see the really really fit kids using this beast all the time and decided maybe there was something to it. So after 3 years of studiously avoiding the darn thing, I hopped on a couple weeks ago. Knowing I'm not at those other girls' level, I thought I'd start out for 20 minutes at oh, I don't know, let's try level 3. It was tough! and although I was sure my heart was about to explode out of my chest at several points during that session, I made it to the end! Whew! After I got off, a couple of the aforementioned superfit girls asked how long I'd been on for and were surprised that I'd gone for 20 minutes. Then one of them thought to ask "What level did you start on?" I explained that I was just testing it out and wasn't sure I could do it so was only on level 3 that day. A quick look of understanding flashed in their eyes and they tried to change the subject. I wasn't having any of it! I hounded them to find out what level they start on. They tried to evade the question but that just made me more curious. Obviously it was WAY more than level 3 and they didn't want to make me feel bad. My persistence paid off. They do 15 minutes and START on level 10 and jack it up throughout the 15 minutes. Instead of being discouraged, this gave me a target! So for the last couple of weeks I've been increasing my level and every time I do, I'm positive I'm not going to make it. The machine is pretty high up and it's already warm and sticky in there at floor level. Take it up a few steps and the air gets even hotter. Do some high speed stair climbing and voila, I'm barely breathing!!! I totally have to cheat a bit by leaning on the arm rails but I figure that will get better over time right? Anyway, I'm excited to be now up to level 8 for 15 minutes! That's not too far from level 10..... theoretically anyway! How's that for exciting summer vacation plans???

Ok enough about the gym! We went into town to pick up a parcel, my newly repaired lens! How I missed that!!! Once we got home we were starved so I whipped up some french toast and we got ready for the pool. Honey ran next door to round up the troops over there and then her friend from school arrived with her older sister and a little later, Tulip joined us! They all had a blast, jumping and splashing around, making whirlpools and getting out to bounce on the trampoline and hang out in the playhouse. We had some freezies and watermelon to cool off and I finished reading a book while they played. It was a great afternoon!

Apparently it was too much activity for Honey though! She was so tired she had trouble finishing her supper! At 6pm, she asked to go bed and brushed her teeth and tucked herself in! I didn't really think she was going to go to sleep. When I peeked in, she was reading a book so I expected her to run back out at any moment. Fifteen minutes later there still wasn't any sign of her so I went back and she was out! She wasn't feeling well on Sunday after Lovey got sick and had a bit of a fever last night so I guess she's not fully recovered yet. Hopefully a good night's sleep will do the trick.

Valentine's Celebration!

My little Honey Bunny came home sick from school on Valentine's Day and spent the day with me as I got our big dinner ready! We had pan seared scallops with garlic orzo & asparagus, some chocolate dipped strawberries and a valentine's cake. She was mainly interested in her DS anyway and didn't pay me much attention at all! I did take a break and we played something she wanted to do but I forget what it was now..... dang.

Since she'd missed all the fun at school, I let her open a parcel that arrived in the mail that day & she found some treats from Nanny & Grampie. She also opened all her valentines from school and showed me who they were all from. There might have been a few treats sampled in there somewhere too but I really can't say for sure ;)

How convenient that Valentine's fell on Candle Monday! Unfortunately, our dinner guest wasn't able to make the festivities due to messy weather so she missed out on some of the festivities but we did come up with some things for her the next night...... To Be Continued..... ;)))

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our V-day got off to a rocky start when Honey was tossing her cookies last night. When she woke up this morning she seemed to have recovered. She hopped out of bed & hollered "IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and immediately got dressed, ate her breakfast & got ready for school without any complaints. After they got on the bus, I headed out for groceries and was going through the checkouts when the school called, asking for a pickup!

I brought her home and she had a restful day and no further problems other than stomach pains now & then. She didn't eat much today but did feel well enough to sample some Valentine treats!

Lovey appears to be the next to go down, she went to bed tonight with a temp of 101... stay tuned for the continuing saga!!!