Hey, Mrs. Wilson!

Did you hear about that psycho on the Greyhound? Literally, a psycho. He brutally slaughtered a 22-year-old on a bus in Manitoba. I’ll let you read the story for yourself.
CTV
CBC
CNN

Disclaimer: If you’re a queezy person, stop reading now. Or just skip the first couple paragraphs.

That is me. I am sick. Contrary to the beliefs of one commenter on the previous post (Hi Megan!), I am NOT pregnant. Nope, not. I do, however, have the flu.

When I get morning sickness (which is really ALL DAY sickness), I’m extremely nauseous. Now? I am not nauseous. I feel like I took a whole bottle of laxatives and I saw earlier today what I had eaten at a baby shower I went to last night. I am achy all over and my stomach has been convulsing all day.

A real pretty picture, right?

When Liliana woke up this morning, she had blown out of her diaper, her onesie, and her sleeper. Wonderful. On top of that she has the worst diaper rash I have ever seen. My poor baby screams bloody murder every time I change her diaper. I don’t like seeing my baby in pain. I figured we both had the flu and called my boss and Liliana’s babysitter to tell them that they wouldn’t be seeing either of us this morning.

Liliana didn’t have any more episodes, although she still has a bad rash. But, Daddy gave her a soothing bath tonight (the first one he’s done!) before she went to bed and she seemed to be a little happier about her diaper area after that.

A funny moment earlier was when Noah was changing Liliana and we decided to let her “air out” for a little bit. She then peed on the carpet. It was just a tiny bit, but she seemed to be all proud of herself. The little stinker! Noah put a diaper on her right away after that. Then cleaned up the pee.

I’ve spent the entire day either in bed or in the rocker beside the bed (in our bedroom/living room/dining room/play room). Every time I stand up, I get sick. It’s really quite fun. Thankfully, Liliana napped and behaved very well today and Daddy was off work by 3:00pm to take over.

I’m hoping it is just a one-day thing, because I kind of need to go to work tomorrow. And this weekend is CRAZY busy. Be ready for lots of pictures (because I know you’re being deprived right now). On Saturday, Kaylie and her friend Daijah (DAY-YAH, because I know you were wondering) are having a joint birthday party. Both their birthdays are in the summer and they want each other at their parties. And? I hate birthday parties so having help with it is WONDERFUL.

Right after Kaylie and Daijah’s party (they’re turning 7 and 6 respectively) is my Grandma’s 80th birthday bash. It’s also a family reunion of sorts. A whole lot of my aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven’t seen in a long, long time are coming for the event. One of my cousins (who is my age) I haven’t seen since just after I had Kaylie. She brought me a water gun while I was still in the hospital to fend off the bazillions of visitors who were driving me mental.

I love my family dearly, but I’m kind of the black sheep. Or I was. Most of my cousins graduated high school and pursued 4-year university degrees, then got married AND THEN had kids (well, so far one has kids and one is pregnant). They have been incredibly supportive and never EVER gave me grief about stupidly getting pregnant at 17, but I still feel it. My fault, not theirs. It’s kind of hard to be the only one with a kid while the rest are off pursuing their dreams (which I did later, BUT STILL!)

My Grandma had been my greatest cheerleader since finding out I was pregnant with Kaylie. She has prayed for me daily (literally) and has always told me how proud she is of me. I love her dearly and I’m looking forward to spending her 80th birthday with her. It’s probably the last time I’ll see most of my family for quite a while, since pretty much all of them live in BC. It’s a long drive to Saskatchewan.

Speaking of, we’re leaving in 10 sleeps. Am I excited? Sure. But I kind of feel like I’m lying about it. It doesn’t actually feel like we’re leaving. I guess I’m one of those people who takes forever to adjust, or else I adjust way too easily. A week from today, we’ll be loading up a big truck to move half-way across the country. A week from Sunday, we’ll be leaving BC, spending a night in Alberta, 2 nights with my in-laws just north of Regina, and then on July 2nd we’re finally going to our new home.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Today is a list day.

1. Blog friends are AWESOME!

A little while ago, I participated in one of OMSH’s Color Me Happy Swaparoonis. It was an organizing swap. I received a sweet gift from Citystreams and put it to good use. BUT THEN! She decided that wasn’t enough and she sent me a WHOLE BOX of goodies for the WHOLE family! She wrapped each gift in tissue paper and had a note on each one. It was incredibly sweet!

Liliana got a totally sweet pop-up book that she loved instantly.

Kaylie got a gift as well, but she was on a play date when I opened the package, and then I was doing dishes when she came home and Noah put her to bed, so she’ll have to open her gift tomorrow.

Noah usually thinks my whole blogging world is quite nerdy. He totally supports the blogging thing, and likes reading what I have to write, but still thinks it’s nerdy. When he found out that I swapped gifts with my blog friends, he though I was even nerdier. AND THEN! He got a gift!

He received a John Grisham novel (he LOVES reading) and this insulated beverage holder thingy. We’re quite sarcastically witty with each other (in a loving way), so it fit perfectly!

She sent me some sweet note pads

including a magnetic grocery list. I was giddy with excitement when I saw this. It annoys me to no end when I can’t find a scrap piece of paper to write my grocery list on, and I hate forgetting things. So, this can stay on the fridge so I can’t lose it!

Thank you so much Citystreams!

2. Noah is on a liquid diet

Yesterday, my darling husband had both his wisdom teeth pulled on the right side. He’s a little swollen still and hasn’t been able to eat anything besides yogurt and frozen yogurt. Tonight he had some tomato soup to take a break from the sweets, and we went to Wal*mart to try and find some inventive non-lumpy things for him to eat. As soon as he heals, he’s going in to get the other two pulled (on the 23rd).

I am totally not envious. I got all four of mine taken out at the same time, so I’m not sure why they’re not doing that to him. It’s bad enough getting it done once, but going in again? Pure torture.

3. Weekend packing party

While we were at Wal*mart this evening, I picked up some disposable plates, bowls, and utensils for our last week(s) here. This weekend is my last weekend for packing, since next weekend is my grandma’s 80th birthday and I have a whole schwak of family coming into town and the weekend after that, we’re gone!

4. We FINALLY made it to the beach!

Kaylie’s only been asking to go since December. Since I assumed (rightly so) that Noah would need some time to rest after having his teeth extracted, I took the girls on a trip to the beach. I have many more pictures to share with you, but I’m simply too exhausted to edit them at the moment. I’ll post them tomorrow.

We don’t go to the lake all that often, but I’m still going to miss it. It’s totally gorgeous and the lake bottom is pure sand, no sea weed (at this particular site).

Also, I’d better enjoy the mountains while I can, as it’s going to be quite a while before I see them again. It’s a good thing I’m not one of those BC people who hates non-mountainous areas, because Saskatchewan is flatter than a pancake.

I love it.

Last night, Ann, Janna, and I were catching up on One Tree Hill, and our four girls were in the back yard playing.

Or so we thought.

When the kids were in bed a couple hours later, I got a call from Janna saying that her girls’ tongues were burning. They had been eating rhubarb leaves. A lot of rhubarb leaves.

Kaylie was already asleep, so I could not ask her of her intake of leaves, so I prayed for her and hoped she’d be alright.

At about 2:00am, I heard heaving. I went into the girls’ bedroom to find a green pool on the carpet.

Gross.

I cleaned it up (luckily it was all in one spot), put a bucket by the head of her bed, and tried to go back to sleep. It was hard. I was worried about her. Were rhubarb leaves poisonous? If so, how poisonous? What do they do to not-so-bright little girls who eat them? I prayed again. God gave me rest.

When Kaylie woke up in the morning, she seemed to be fine. Until she started to eat breakfast and she started complaining of a burning tongue.

Great.

I called Janna back and she said that one of her girls had puked as well and that she had called poison control. Poison control had said that they didn’t really have any data on the subject, as they hadn’t had a whole lot of incidents with rhubarb leaves.

Apparently our four girls made data.

Woot.

Throughout the day, whenever Kaylie ate, she complained of her burning tongue. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do for her, so she drank a lot of liquids.

At least she now learned her lesson. No eating plants. And no eating anything unless mom or dad gives it to her. Period.

Kaylie did have a sweet day today though, burning tongue aside. Her birth father (or “old dad” as she calls him) came into town. She got to spend a bit of time with him yesterday too, but today he and his girlfriend brought Kaylie swimming. She loves swimming. She also conned them into buying her goggles for the pool and a Dairy Queen ice cream afterwards.

She can wrap people around her pinky finger in no time flat.

Before they went swimming, they got in some good back yard time. There are two things Kaylie loves most: being outside and going swimming. Both activities in one day make for a great day.

Also in town are my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law-to-be. We got to spend a good part of the day with them and it’s been amazing. If I had to pick my in-law family out myself, I’d end up with the same in-laws. They’re that wonderful. (Don’t let that get to your head – you know who I’m talking to!)

Due to our small space, we cannot have people stay with us (unless they want to sleep in the bathroom). But, we’ve hardly noticed since we got to spend so much time with them anyway. Tomorrow Noah is taking his mom and me out for a week-late Mother’s Day lunch. Going out to eat means that I do not have to cook. This works out well for me. Also tomorrow, I hope to get some sweet shots of Noah’s mom and Liliana. Two gorgeous Wilson women.

Our internet? Is still not up. (Luckily I have an office.) Apparently the router is caput. Or something like that. And being that it’s a long weekend, Telus can’t come and bring us a free new one until Tuesday. DO THEY KNOW WHAT NOT HAVING THE INTERNET DOES TO PEOPLE?

There’s my long weekend so far. Besides the puking and the internetlessness, it’s been amazing.

And it’s only half over.

We’re about 90% moved in.

Hooray!

Thank you so SO much to those that helped us move. Many hands made light work. (Except for the fridge!) Thank you to Marg, Brian, Cath, Ryan, Jon, Jeny, Nita, Tanya, and especially Ann (for the delicious chili, making the beds, letting us live with you, and way too many things to mention), Kevin (for watching and changing Liliana), and Michaela (for keeping Kaylie occupied). Also thanks to Curt & Debbie for letting us use their truck (we were very careful) and Ken & Wendy for letting us store stuff in their basement!

We still have a couple odds and ends to move or put into storage and we have to clean the house, but most of it was done in only 2 hours last night. I’ll post pictures of the new place soon, but first I have to make it look like home instead of a big pile of stuff.

On Tuesday night, in the middle of the night, I woke up swallowing knives. It got worse and worse during the day yesterday (headache, sinus pressure, nose bright red and running, swallowing bigger knives) until I was sitting in Ann’s living room at about 8:30 last night and I started to shake. Apparently it’s not a good idea to move when you’re getting/have a cold/flu. Jeny (sweet friend that she is) went out and got me drugs and vitamin water. I went to bed at 9:00 and slept quite well. Well, as well as you can when you’re sleeping on a futon instead of your queen bed and waking up to blow green snot out your nostrils.

**

Did you know that it’s my baby’s birthday tomorrow? Well now you do! We had a little celebration at our Widow’s Dinner on Tuesday. All three of us ladies have a child with a birthday within a week and a bit. Michaela turns 5 next week, Gavin turned 2 last week, and Liliana turns 1 tomorrow.

This is what we like to call Bum Cake. It tastes a lot better than it sounds.

Liliana and Michaela were there to blow out their candle, but Gavin had been taken home by his daddy so Michaela blew his candles out for him.

We let Liliana try out the icing. She wasn’t too sure what the stuff was and was quite dainty and gentle as she put her finger into it.

After a little taste, she dug right in and we took it away so that the rest of us could get a little icing.

Apparently she likes cake.

She liked it so much that she shared it with her hair, her clothes, and Ann’s floor. And probably some went to Buddy the dog.

I can’t believe a year has gone by already. I’m going to try to absorb as much of her babyness as I can.

Read this and protect your baby.  I just threw out a lot of “7″ plastics.

Thanks for the link Angella!

Liliana had her 1-year doctor’s appointment today. She’s not quite one, but my doctor is extremely popular and therefore extremely hard to see when you want to see her. She’s amazing and worth the wait.

Since Thursday, when Liliana first got sick, she has not eaten a proper meal. She’s been drinking most of her bottles, but will eat nothing but a couple Cheerios or Graduates Veggie Puffs. I actually got about 5 spoonfuls of applesauce into her at lunch and was quite proud of her.

Since she has not been eating a whole lot, I think she has lost a little weight. She was 19 lbs 9 oz at her 9-month checkup, so she has only gained 8 oz in three months. Or maybe she gained and then lost. Either way, her doctor wants to see her again in a couple months to make sure she’s gaining weight.

Adding to her symptoms, she has a rash that covers her back, her front, and her face. It was a good thing she had a doctor’s appointment today anyway so that she could get her rash checked out. Her doctor thinks it’s just a viral infection and took a throat swab.

Liliana is a bit more active, crawling and a bit of walking around, but for some reason she will not go up the stairs anymore. She’s been a little happier today, which is such a blessing. I miss my happy baby.

There was one place that she was quite happy though.

In this. More on that tomorrow.

Noah

Noah is feeling much better. He’s on strong anti-inflammatory medication and it’s doing its job.

Someone mentioned it to me that it was quite cruel of me to make Noah bring me a diaper for Liliana when he was feeling so badly. Okay, so maybe that was a mistake. I can be a bad wife sometimes.

Liliana

So you didn’t know she was sick. Surprise!

On Thursday, her babysitter told me that she snuggled with her for half an hour. That was my first clue. Liliana does not snuggle. It goes against everything that she believes in. Thursday evening she had a fever, became whiny and did not want to be put down. That also is not I’m-so-independent-leave-me-alone baby.

Luckily, Noah has Fridays off so he could look after her while I worked yesterday. She pretty much cried, whined, snuggled, and slept the whole day. And had a fever and the runs. She did not want to eat. She also fell asleep in my arms and almost fell asleep in Noah’s arms. This has not happened since she was a newborn.

Today she’s a little better. This morning and she was still whiny, snuggly, sleepy and runny, but earlier this evening she actually went crawling and walking. Apparently she’s feeling a bit better.

I really don’t like it when my kids are sick, but I have to admit that I’m really enjoying the snuggle time I’m getting today.

We’re having about 25 people for dinner tomorrow night, so I’m hoping Lili’s feeling a lot better by then.

Okay, so it was mostly Noah’s bad day, but it was not a great day for me either. There were a couple sunny spots though. This will be in mostly point form, as it was just that kind of day. I’m sorry if I bore you with my longwindedness, but it was a very very full day.  (PS. If you don’t feel like reading it, then skip down to the bottom and read the note there.)

I dropped Kaylie off at school.

I dropped Noah off at the dentist.

I dropped Liliana off at Finney’s house.

I dropped the car off with Noah at the dentist and walked to work.

I got to work at 9:00 (ish). So far so good.

I got a call from Noah (he was at work by then) at about 10:15. He said he was having chest pains.

Now let’s back track just a little bit. Noah has not been to the doctor in the whole time I’ve known him. He pretty much boycotts the doctor. He also does not get sick. Ever. Okay, just once, but it was just a bad cold and he solved that with a whole lot of NyQuil. He is also not a whiner. At all. So when he admits that something hurts, I know it’s serious. He also said that the pain went all the way through to his back and that he could not lift anything (which is kind of vital to being a grocery clerk).

I asked him if I could take him to the hospital or to the doctor or something, but he said he’d call me back in 15 minutes to let me know how he was. He had just been told by the dentist that he needs to have all four of his wisdom teeth pulled, so I was hoping it was just some sort of anxiety attack.

During that time, he went to talk to the pharmacist (he works in a grocery store with a pharmacy). She called the hospital and talked to a doctor who told her that it was most likely not heart related because of a couple symptoms that he did not have.

He called me back and allowed me to make him a doctor’s appointment. Now I know he’s really not feeling well. I made the appointment for 11:00. It was 10:52. I told him to book it to the medical centre (conveniently only about a block from where he works and across the parking lot from where I work).

We waited in the waiting room for about half an hour before Noah was called in. (Yes I went with him! I was worried about him!) He came out of the exam room and was sent to the hospital for an EKG and a chest xray. Oh goodie.

I took him to the hospital and showed him where to go (like I said, he boycotts doctors and thus had never been to that part of the hospital, only that maternity ward!) I then went to play taxi for a friend’s preschooler. I picked her up and dropped her off at preschool and then went to see how Noah was doing.

He was just finishing with some blood work and we headed over to Radiology. Luckily, it was a short wait and we were out quickly. We were also starving as it was just after 1:00 and breakfast was a long time ago. We picked up a super healthy bag of grease some McDonalds and headed to my office to scarf it down before my dentist appointment and Noah’s doctor’s appointment for his test results. There’s nothing better than McDonalds right after an EKG.

When I got back from my appointment, I called Noah to see how his went. He said that there were too many patients ahead of him so he went home and waited for the nurse to call him.

I went and picked up the preschooler and brought her home. I called Noah when I got back and he said that the nurse had just called. I picked him up and we waited for the doctor. Again. While I waited for him to come out of the exam room, so many what-ifs ran through my head. What-ifs are not fun. I will not even write them, because they’re too scary to re-think.

When Noah finally came out, he said that the doctor said that it was probably just a skeletal or muscular inflammation (phew!) and that we needed to pick up some prescription anti-inflammatory medication.

We dropped off his prescription, picked up Liliana from daycare, picked up Kaylie from her after-school playdate, picked up Noah’s prescription, and finally headed home.

The kids and I left right away to walk to Ann’s for our weekly Widow’s Dinner and gave Noah some peace and quiet.

One problem. Halfway through our dinner, Liliana produced a dirty, stinky diaper. I changed her before we left and naively thought I did not need to bring a diaper. (I hate carrying a diaper bag.) I called Noah to bring me a diaper with the promise of pizza when he arrived. I felt completely horrible for making him even move because he was in so much intense pain and by this point could hardly move his left arm.

Being the amazing, wonderful husband and father he is, he was there in a matter of minutes and I traded him pizza for a diaper.

The kids are now in bed and Noah is asleep on the couch beside me. Bliss.

Time worked out of an 8-hour work day: 1/2 an hour
Amount of gas used during crappy workless day: 3/8 tank
A healthy husband: priceless

*******

I’ve been following the Confessions of a CF Husband blog for a little over 3 months now, and have been reading the story of Nathan, Tricia, and little baby Gwyneth. Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis, and gave birth to tiny Gwyneth Rose at 24 weeks on January 8. Soon after giving birth to Gwyneth, Tricia was put back on the transplant list as she desperately needs new lungs. Today is Nathan’s 27th birthday. Nathan and Tricia got a call earlier today that the transplant team had a set of lungs they hoped would be a match to Tricia. The lungs were checked out and determined to be a match. Right now, right this second, Tricia is having a life-saving transplant surgery that will hopefully give her many more years with her husband and newborn baby daughter. Go and check out Nathan’s blog. He and Tricia have amazing faith in God and it is evident in every single blog post. If you feel led, pray for Tricia, that her new lungs will work as they should, and that through their story God will be glorified.

Today seems like a list day, so here goes:

1. I know what you’re thinking. That’s the cutest baby bum you ever did see. Liliana wore her baby emo jeans for the first time today. She got them for Christmas from Auntie Tali, and Noah and I have been waiting for the day when we can put them on her. She looked quite cute in my (totally unbiased) opinion.

2. Gross thing #1: Kaylie found a slurpee cup on our bookshelf today. Apparently it was shoved behind the books, probably right before a showing. (We find inventive places to put things out of view.) I asked her to dump the liquid in the bathroom sink and then throw the cup out.

She took a little longer than I thought, so I peered into the bathroom. She was drinking it. I still shudder when I think of it.

3. Gross thing #2: Liliana has had bright green snot coming out of eyes for the last couple days. When she woke up from her afternoon nap, she couldn’t even open her left eye because of all the dried-on snot-ish substance. This also makes me shudder.

4. As I was pouring running Liliana’s bath earlier this evening, she found her bar of soap on the side of the tub. She put it in her mouth (as that is where everything goes). She made a face, looked at the soap, put it in her mouth again, made another face, and then threw the soap across the bathroom.

Funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.

5. Kaylie is feeling better and went to school for the afternoon today. She looked like a bit of a crazy person this morning when she got up, but don’t worry, I cleaned her up before I sent her out the door.

The necklace Kaylie is wearing is my peace offering to her for not letting her go to the concert last night. I didn’t tell her about it until after I got home because I didn’t want to disappoint her too much. She was quite understanding, and really liked the necklace.

6. I received some nice ad revenue on Friday that covered more than my hosting fees, so I decided to use some of the remainder to buy something from Bethany Actually’s Etsy Shop.

She’s a genius with a crochet hook.

7. One last picture, just because she’s a cute little bald baby.