Turkey Pizza

Haha, I was just reading my last post.  What a wacky dream!  Guess that's what happens when you're feverish.  Well, thankfully, the shot I got at the doc's office worked, and I was well enough to partake in my own birthday pizza party festivities with the family (and regular doses of Ibuprofen to keep my throat from giving out, of course ;).  We all had a blast trying out the Playstation MOVE game that I won online, and everyone danced and sang and ate cake 'til we dropped.



This is the song that Pumpkin and his cousin D danced together.  They looked soooo cute!  I could kick myself for forgetting my camera.  I used my sister's camera to take a few pictures, but I was unable to upload them before we left.  Hopefully, I'll get copies soon.  The game we played (Singstar Dance) came with microphones and MOVE controllers so that 4 of us could play together at the same time (2 teams, each consisting of 1 dancer & 1 singer).  Even the littlest ones were able to play along.  Giggles danced a mean Supremes, haha.  We all had so much fun with it that I contemplated buying a Playstation of my own to play this game at home, but in the end, I decided against it and left all my MOVE loot at my sister's.  The PS is too expensive for one thing, and my kids are really just too young to benefit from having another video game console at home.  And really, I'm just not that into video games.  But Giggles had so much fun playing that, as a compromise, I decided to look for Wii game titles that the whole family can enjoy rather than just buying games for Pumpkin to use on his own.  More on that later.

Thanksgiving Day with the family was nice.  Not much to tell.  Turkey, bread, potatoes, stuffing, etc.  All in all, it was a very nice visit with the family.  Not too short, not too long.  QT had to jet off to California or somewhere right after we arrived, but he made it back in time for Thanksgiving Day.  Thankfully.  :)

Bizzaro Dream

Woke up this morning with the strangest feeling that I wasn't where I should be.  See, I woke up in the middle of a weird dream.

 In my dream, we were in the cafeteria at Pumpkin's school, and I'd received a packet from the school administration.  In the packet was a letter telling me that Pumpkin had passed some sort of test "with flying colors" (which is a highly technical term often used in official school documents, and my 1st inkling something wasn't quite right, haha).  Anyway, the letter went on to explain that Pumpkin had been found to have genius tendencies and was being put into a special program.  At first, I was very proud of Pumpkin, but upon further inspection of the packet, I realized that what I had been given were detailed class and activity schedules including all his electives already pre-selected for him for the rest of his school career.  "In preparation for what?," I wondered in my dream.  Right when I was trying to decide whether I should be aghast or not, I woke up.

And I still haven't figured out if this was going to be bad for us or not.

Note to self, remember to keep Pumpkin out of the hands of any super secret government institutions that might whisk him away at first sign of his genius.  Oh...and let him build a robot dog if he wants.

Night Sweats and Nightmares

Strep Throat.  As you can guess, my "good" feeling was short-lived.  As before, I woke up that morning covered in sweat and feeling mighty cruddy so I once again sent Pumpkin to school with the neighbors while Giggles and I paid my doctor a visit.  I opted to take the injected antibiotic rather than pills because I doubted I could swallow the pills anyway, but I just didn't want to wait 10 days to get better.

After my visit, I dropped Giggles off at a daycare then came home and lay down to rest.  My neighbor, God bless her, called me in the afternoon and offered to pick Pumpkin up after school. I agreed and lay down again.  Next thing I knew, Pumpkin was home.  He was excited to finally be visiting Giggles' daycare with me.  Don't ask me why, but that boy loves drop-in daycare centers.  When we lived in Denver, he often asked me to take him to the one at the mall, haha.  After a light dinner, I had enough energy to do a few chores around the house, but all too soon, my energy started petering out so I quickly bathed the kids, locked the dog up, and we all went to bed.

That was Tuesday.

Repeat wash and rinse for Wednesday.

Repeat for Thursday....except I was finally able to take Pumpkin to school myself.  I was planning on keeping Giggles home but quickly realized I wasn't quite up to the task after all.  Hello, drop-in daycare!


More importantly....tonight is the memorial mass for the daughter of a friend of mine from Colorado.  This is a picture of the little girl, taken earlier this year.  She and her family moved to Texas a few months before we did, and the little girl died as a result of of an auto accident near their home in The Woodlands.  Reportedly, the other driver (the one who caused the accident) was drinking prior to the accident. 

My friend and I were in the same mom's group back in Denver, and we, along with about a dozen other moms, were pregnant at the same time with our seconds (or thirds in some cases).  She and I hadn't managed to meet up since moving to Texas.  We were casual friends at best, but I'd hoped we would see them again at some point and that our daughters could play together every so often.  I'm ashamed that the first time we'll say hello again will be as we say goodbye to her sweet baby. 

Rest in peace, angel.

This Always Happens

The day before QT left on his week-long trip to Denver, I started feeling odd.  It started with some pressure in my face (from sinuses) and then I started feeling a bit weak.  By Sunday night, I was feverish, my throat hurt, and I ached so much all over that I could barely stand upright.

I'm home alone with the kids, so of course I still have to do what needs to be done.  Kids need to eat, and they poop, and the dog has to go outside.  They both got cereal for breakfast, and the neighbor was able to take Pumpkin to school, thank God.  Poor Giggles, all she had to eat during the day was some leftover mac-n-cheese and a TON of Cheerios.  Oh, I think I was able to get her a yogurt drink out of the fridge too, haha.  I was too nauseated to eat, but I forced myself to drink water and eat a cracker every so often.  After we picked Pumpkin up from school, I made myself drive to Whataburger to get the kids some food.  I was in so much pain, I wanted to cry, but I was afraid they wouldn't get to eat otherwise.

They gobbled down their food, but later that evening, Pumpkin asked me if I felt "good enough to make us something like dinner?"  My poor babies!  I have been so useless all day.  After dinner, and as soon as I could rationalize it, I bathed the kids, took the dog and the trash out, and put everyone to bed, myself included!  It was about 7:30 by the time I was done, and Giggles fell asleep instantly.  Pumpkin, on the other hand, was up for a while.  I think he was worried about me.  In his prayers, he asked God to make his mommy get better, and when he saw me shivering uncontrollably, he scooted closer in bed to help warm me up and then offered to bring me another blanket.  So sweet!!

It's nearly midnight now.  About an hour ago, I woke up completely drenched in sweat.  I literally flicked a bead of sweat off of my forehead.  Ugh.  I realized that I felt better, not quite as achy, so I guess the fever must have peaked after we fell asleep.  I debated just going back to sleep, but instead, I got up and showered.  And, I really do feel much better.  I'm even able to sit at the computer, ha!  Going back to bed now.

Making Pizza


 The kids and I made some pizzas for dinner today as a surprise for their Daddy.










This is the cheese pizza.  The other was pepperoni.

While our pizzas cooled, we enjoyed a Black-eyed Peas video on Pumpkin's computer.  Check out the cool light-show speakers I got at Target.









Earlier this week, or maybe it was last week, we were outside coloring with sidewalk chalk, and Pumpkin thought it'd be nice to draw something special for me...on my car.  It's cute.  Sadly, the rain washed it off yesterday.

To The Pain

Chock full of energy one day, I decided to tackle some heavy lifting around the house, and I somehow managed to seriously injure my right foot.  Perhaps it was when I slammed the ladder down on my (previously unremarkable) bunion.  Who knows.  It's a mystery.  Anyhoo, I'd been taking a Zumba class at the neighborhood exercise center since we'd moved here, and I didn't return to finish the week thinking I'd take a couple days off and return the following week.  WRONG.

So wrong.  By the end of that week, my entire foot hurt so much that I was hobbling around barely able to put shoes on, much less walk in them.  Even my other foot had started hurting by then since I was basically hopping around on it all day trying to stay off the injured one.  In desperation, I ordered some weird rubbery foot pad on Amazon and felt stable enough a few days later to attempt to continue my ambitious organizing/unpacking project.  DUMB - SQUARED.

While carrying a box and overcompensating for my still unhealed foot, I twisted my back.  ARGH!  With back pain, I would normally just pop a few pills and keep going, but as luck would have it, I was all out of meds.  And I hadn't yet found myself a local doctor.  So, I had to drag myself (and Giggles) to a clinic near our neighborhood, talked to a nice doctor, and got my drugs.

All that happened the week before Halloween.  Believe it or not, I'm still not able to walk properly on my right foot.  I'm walking well enough around the house, but I'm still using the weird rubbery foot pad thingamajigy to go out because I'm afraid of ending up stranded at the grocery store halfway through the bread aisle and not being able to get back to my car.

So...I'm feeling a bit bored and restless.  I've already watched Seasons 1 & 2 of The Closer (on DVD).  I've already watched a movie (Date Night, which was surprisingly funny), and I've already read a couple of new books and even reread a couple of old faves.  I look forward to regaining my mobility SOON.  Next week will be the true test because QT's going out of town for the week.