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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

STILL PUKING ON TUESDAY ...

Hi Friends!

Well, it's Tuesday, and everyone should be back at school -- but I have a house full of sickly children. Cameron and Molly stayed home today, because they still weren't feeling well. Isaac seems to be recovering quicker than me. He definitely has much better stamina! And Nate was the latest to be struck down -- he threw up twice during the night. Bill went to a doctor's appointment (cardiologist) and then to work -- so we're hoping he fares better than the rest of us. Last night he was feeling queasy, though!

So, I guess we're up for another day of resting and light schoolwork. Cameron has already hosted a Magic SchoolBus marathon! Tomorrow I am going to UCLA to meet with Dr. Karpouzas (director of rheumatology), so I hope we're all in better shape. Annie will be watching any kids who are still at home, and Bill will take me to UCLA.

More tomorrow when I know more ...

Much Love,
Michele

Monday, May 25, 2009

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Hi Friends!

Today is Memorial Day and our 18th wedding anniversary. Bill and I were married May 25, 1991. I am glad that this year we opted for a pre-anniversary celebration on Friday night -- because it is still flu-central at the Bland's house. Molly recovered by yesterday, but I was feeling really sick. Then last night Cameron and Isaac started puking. It was a long night, and I think I'll be washing sheets for a while.

Bill had to do the LA Marathon without Cameron today, because Cameron was still too sick. So, that was kind of sad! He left at 2 a.m. and he was back by around 10 a.m. The Scouts all did well!

Other than that -- we are going to spend a quiet day at home resting and recovering. I'll try to blog more tomorrow.

Much Love,
Michele

Sunday, May 24, 2009

SUNDAY!!!

Hi Friends!

Last night Heather and Will spent the night at our house. We were going to get up this morning and go to church. Somehow, that never happened. So Bill and I slept, and the kids played until Judi needed hers to come home for a family gathering at about 11:30 a.m.

Molly is feeling better today, but it seems to have hit me now. I woke up this morning with a temperature, vomiting, and diarrhea. Bill is teasing me that I have swine flu, but hopefully that's not it. I did have the flu shot this year, though, so I guess this is a mutant strain!

Bill and Cameron are busy making preparations for the LA Marathon today. They are riding their bikes in it tomorrow with the Boy Scouts. They are leaving at 2 a.m. in the morning, so I am hoping they go to bed early. I am very proud of them and all of their hard work and training! I would definitely be UNABLE to bike 28 miles.

So, I think we'll take it easy today, and I'll blog more tomorrow. If you see the LA Marathon on TV, watch for Bill and Cam on their bikes!

Much Love,
Michele

Saturday, May 23, 2009

SATURDAY!!!

Hi Friends!

I am still not feeling well, so yesterday I stayed in bed all morning. I elected to homeschool the boys on Monday (Memorial Day -- which we'd usually take off) instead of Friday due to how I was feeling as well as what we had planned for Friday night.

So, the boys were very cooperative and played nicely together all Friday morning while I slept. I got up around 12:30 p.m. and the boys and I took down tent city. We also got all the laundry put away (which was a lot after our plumbing issues!) and some general clean-up done before it was time to pick up Cam and Molly from school.

After school pick-ups which included Heather and Will coming over -- I showered and started to get ready for my anniversary date with Bill. Molly helped me choose the perfect outfit!!! We had tickets to see a concert in Los Angeles of 38 Special, REO Speedwagon, and Styx. Shirlene came and took Nate, Isaac, and Will to her house in Palmdale for the night. Heather went back home, and Cam and Molly had the house to themselves. They were spoiled, though, by Aunt Annie (or Alice) who brought them meatball subs from ToGo's. She also nicely brought us milk from CostCo, so I guess we're spoiled all around!

Bill and I had a great date. The only thing that could have been better is if I was feeling better. The concert would have been better without the headache! We drove partway to LA and when traffic was bad -- we stopped at Denny's for dinner. We then made it to the Nokia Theater (right next to Staples Center) by 7 p.m. for our concert. It was really good, and it lasted until almost 11 p.m.

Unfortunately, partway through the concert we received word from home that Molly was running a temperature and puking everywhere. Luckily, Cameron called our neighbor, Jeff, and he came over to help. They got the situation under control, and told us that everything was fine!

So, after the concert, we stopped at New Zealand's Ice Cream for smoothies, and then we came home. We made it home by 1 a.m. Cameron was waiting up for us to relive the gory vomitrocious details! We checked on Molly who was sleeping, and we gave her tylenol and
anti-nausea meds. She threw up several more times during the night, so it was a long night!

Also, Cam and I checked on the hamsters late last night and discovered one dead hamster. We also had one hamster struggling and caught up in the fluff. So, we had to distract Mama hamster, and rescue the struggling one. Then we put all the hamsters together in one central nesting location for her. That is, of course, what everyone wants to do at 2 a.m. in the morning!

I slept in until noon today, and Bill got up with the kids. Shirlene brought them all back around 8 a.m. this morning. This afternoon, Bill and Cam are at Cajun Fest for Boy Scouts. The rest of us are just hanging out around home.

I hope you all are having great weekends!
More tomorrow ...

Much Love,
Michele

Thursday, May 21, 2009

THURSDAY!!!

Hi Friends!

I never got around to blogging yesterday. It was a busy day, but as of now it's just a blur. I just know that I spent a lot of time cleaning the sewage back-up out of our garage laundry room. I also went for a walk with the boys in the SUNLIGHT!!! So, I guess I pushed it a bit too much, and the lupus body was not pleased with me. I woke up with my usual red face and spots all over my body. Also, I was very very tired and had lots of pain in my hands and feet.

So, I took it easy on myself this morning. We had a late start to homeschooling, and you have to love it when you can teach school in your pajamas! I managed to get showered by the time I needed to go pick up Cam and Molly from school. So, I considered it a success that I had homeschooled and showered for the day! After picking up our kids and collecting Judi's kids who have been hanging out here after school -- I worked around the house and did laundry, laundry, and more laundry! I am still working on it, and I have about 3 loads left. I hadn't done any for a week due to all the craziness and our plumbing issues. Let me tell you, 6 people make a lot of laundry in 7 days. Tomorrow we'll work on putting it all away!

Judi continues to do well at home and is recovering slowly. I have mostly been helping out with the kids as well as visiting with her each day. So far, Jeff has been staying home from work -- but soon he will need to go back. Her Mom has taken Family Medical Leave, and she will be staying with them for a while. She's a really nice lady, and we should all have a lot of fun torturing Judi with her exercises!

Tomorrow night Bill and I are going out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We will be married 18 years on May 25th. However, on that day Bill and Cameron are doing the Los Angeles Marathon with the Boy Scouts on their bikes. So, we'll celebrate tomorrow. We are going out to dinner and then to a concert with Styx, REO Speedwagon, and 38 Special. I am looking forward to it. It will work out well, because Shirlene always takes the little boys on Friday night. And Cam and Molly are thrilled to have the house to themselves.

I'll sign off now and go switch one more load of laundry before bed. Bill is currently piling up all the medical bills. We have finally gotten insurance to pay their parts of all my bills, so now we are paying our share. It only took a year to work it all out, but OH WELL! It will take a serious dip into our savings, but it will be nice not to have them hanging over our heads anymore.

Much Love,
Michele

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

NORMAL, CRAZY WEEK ...

Hi Friends!

I haven't blogged for a while, but it's been a busy several days. On Friday we took Molly to Disney's California Adventure. The short story is we had a fantastic time, but we didn't get home until after 2 a.m. Annie again took tons of photos, which I'll get around to posting someday. Thank goodness we don't have anymore birthdays until July.

Also on Friday, Cameron received his class ring at school. He is thrilled about it, and he has been wearing it ever since. I'll try to get a picture of that tomorrow. And Bill and the boys hosted a pool party for our Bible study group Friday night. It was a barbeque pool party, and it sounded like fun!

I spent all of Saturday helping the Malone's. Brian, Jeff's brother and my deceased friend, Julia's husband, was getting remarried. So, first I helped Jeff get all the kids ready for the wedding. I curled Heather's hair, and she looked like a little princess! Then, after they left for the wedding -I went to the hospital and spent the day with Judi. She had a broken femur which was completely reconstructed with a rod and screws at the knee. She also damaged her kidney, broke a rib, and had collapsed her lungs. And of course, there were numerous bumps and abrasions as well. Anyway, she had a rough day on Saturday. Specifically, they had tried to take her off of oxygen, and she was just not breathing well. I ended up having them reconnect her. Also, they were doing much invasive testing. So, she needed a hand to hold, and when he returned, Jeff needed someone to talk to and help him make decisions. I was glad to do it after all they have done for me!

I slept in on Sunday, and Bill went to the dump as it was Free Dump Day. Bill and the kids went to church on Saturday, but I was too wiped out after Friday's fun and Saturday's stress! In the afternoon on Sunday I cleaned up the house. You can imagine what it looked like after my absence of two days. Then Cam, Molly, and I went to Smart and Final for groceries. We have a system now where every 2 weeks they help me with a "big shop!" They each push a cart for me, and they help me with the heavy items. We also went out for lunch at Carl's Jr (payment for teenagers is always in food!) and to Borders where Cameron was on a search for a movie he had been wanting. We were successful, and he was very happy to find his movie on sale for only $8. We later watched it -- Romeo + Juliet, it was Shakespeare's original version set in modern times. Think gangs, etc -- but they still talked in Old English. It was very cool.

Also on Sunday, they released Judi from the hospital. So, I went over and helped her get settled in. She is doing really well considering the extent of her injuries. They have a hospital bed set up for her downstairs, and she can walk small distances with a walker. I helped her wash her hair, which she hadn't been able to do for almost a week, and that really lifted her spirits. I saw the pictures of her car, which they had to pull her out of. I also saw the pictures of the house/tree she hit, and pictures of what her leg looked like after the accident. It was bent at a 90 degree angle and not at the knee. After seeing the pictures, I was just thankful that she is still alive!

Monday was a fairly typical day. The boys and I did our homeschooling. Annie stopped by on her way home from Anaheim with our usual Big Gulps. We made cookies and cards for Judi and visited her. We also took her kids over to our house after school, and they stayed for dinner.

One funny story from Monday -- after picking up Cameron and Molly from school, Cameron decided he'd like to stop at 7-11 for a snack. He always takes his wallet to school, and he had plenty of money -- so we stopped. After getting all of his food, etc. -- he realized he didn't have his wallet, and I didn't bring my purse. So, I had to leave Cam and Molly at 7-11 and go home to retrieve his wallet. They were pretty glad to see me when I returned.

Also Monday night we went to the dollar store in the evening, and we found many treasures! I always go for a few things and walk out with about 100, but it is still cheap entertainment! When Annie and I got home, Bill was snaking the drain in the laundry room. It was backed up, and we couldn't use the kitchen sink, dishwasher, or wash machine without it all overflowing!

He was not successful, so today we had Rescue Rooters over in the morning. $600 later and we're all fixed, but I'm not looking forward to doing all the laundry or cleaning up the garage tomorrow! As it was, we had to run the dishwasher 2 times tonight to catch up on dishes. Also today, we had the maids in for cleaning, and someone bought our mini-quad. We recently bought Isaac his own 50 motorcycle, so everyone had pretty much outgrown the quad!

I did get some homeschooling done, and then this afternoon -- I SOS'ed Annie to come watch the boys. I was having some problems of a female nature, and needed to go and see the gyno! Not fun! I will not go into details, but it is lupus-related and there is a treatment plan, and trust me -- you don't want to know more.

We still have the baby hamsters. Mama Fluffy is doing really well, and she is beginning to trust us around the babies. They are growing black fur and are very cute.

I will write more tomorrow...

Much Love,
Michele

Thursday, May 14, 2009

HAMSTER NEWS!!!

Something exciting happened at our house! We have great news about the hamsters. The hamsters had babies. We are planning to call the boys Carman, Petra, and Michael Jackson. We think there are 3 boys, but we can't be sure. We'd call the 2 girls Brittney Spears and Hannah Montana. When we saw the babies we were super-excited!

The babies look like little miniature naked mole rats. Their eyes are closed. There is skin over their eyes. Their skin everywhere is see-through, and you can observe the organs of the babies. Fluffy is the mom, and Teddy is the dad. Fluffy made her nest on the top level of her cage. The babies are in a bunch of fluff just like her name. Sometimes she leaves them for a few minutes while she gets herself some food so she can produce milk. Then we can see the hamsters up close. When Fluffy is with the hamsters they are below her nursing. Then you can't see them.

Teddy has his own house now. We bought it at PetSmart today. It is 3 stories, and now he has a better house than Fluffy and the babies. He had to be moved from the babies, because boy hamsters eat the baby hamsters no matter what! First we put him in a big bin. Then we went and bought his new cage. We are planning to buy a great house for the baby hamsters, too -- but we can't move them yet.

All the hamsters are doing fantastic. Fluffy is a good Mom. We did have one scare when one baby got lost. Fluffy went downstairs to eat, and the baby wandered away from the nest. When Fluffy came back, she didn't notice the baby was gone. The baby was crying for his Mom. We had to use a plastic spoon to place him closer to his Mommy. Then they found each other.

We are happy to have baby hamsters. Since we'll have these hamster from birth, they should live a long time. They are cute. WE LOVE THEM!!!

THE END

--by Nathaniel Richard Bland and Isaac John Bland