Someday my prince will come, but Daddy will always be King!

Someday my prince will come, but Daddy will always be King!
Daddy's Girl

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog.

Life greatly changed as Darren and I welcomed Greta Claire to the family. I started this blog 5 weeks pre-parenthood; I thought I would learn to Blog as a hobby and to occupy my time when I was awaiting baby and tried my best to continue through her first year of life to document some of the ups and downs, funny moments, scary moments, etc. While I greatly enjoy sharing our adventures, it has been hard to stay committed to regular posts, but I certainly will do my best as our little girl is now 6 years old and full of comic relief, bright ideas and the most amazing quotes! So, enjoy the adventures of Gail and Greta, I somehow seem to find the most interesting things each day, so this is the truth blog, how things really are, what I'm really thinking and feeling....it could be interesting!



Thursday, February 27, 2014

5 pounds of snot and counting...

Greetings Blog Followers.  It has been a month since my last confession - I mean post, and not much has changed... The snot continues to flow, the voice still sounds like a man, I have annoyed just about everyone on the 3rd and 4th floors of my work building with a dreadful hacking cough and now I type...frustrated and annoyed that month two of being sick is coming to an end and I'm afraid I'll enter a 3rd month still sick.

Not to say I haven't tried every trick in the book, I have pretty much bathed in Vicks Vapo Rub, feet, back, chest, neck, nose...cut up onions (are you imagining the aroma of Vicks and Onion together - it is awesome) ... cool mist humidifier, cough drops, had to break some rules and take over the counter meds, jugs of orange juice, 4 batches of chicken soup, NOTHING WORKED.  After 11 Doctors appts (yes, you read correct) I was given a puffer, antibiotics and then finally, 50+ days in to the battle, finally a cough suppressant.  While it has improved a tad, and the cough medicine has allowed me to rest and save my poor ribs, to the regular joe, I sound like I'm on my death bed.  I can tell you one thing - who needs a gym membership when you can cough for 2 months and blow your nose every minute - surely I have lost at least 5 lbs of snot...and you should see my abs.  AMAZING!  Perhaps not a 6 pack, but 4 pack for sure! 

Poor Greta was the little germ monster who started all of this, and she has fought her own battle, home a few days, back to daycare, then home again, few more days at daycare and what do you know...home again.  She still loves it.  She has made so many sweet little friends and is excited each morning and night, so very pleased, but oh my the sickness...I have learned however (thanks to a friend) that unless they are barfing - it is off to school...ha.  Granted, I will also keep her home if her fever is that crazy that she can't move...but I think we kept her home when she certainly could have gone.

Due to my health, I sadly haven't really had many adventures, for a few weeks my only outings included the Dr's office or a pharmacy - granted, the Dr's and Pharmacist are like family / friends, so in a sense, at least I was seeing friends!  Not many have come near (can't blame them for the germs) - UMMM, come to think of it, only 2 friends in 2 months have come to my house....The sad thing, even when I am not sick, I see the Dr and Pharmacist much more often than I see "friends".  I won't do another blog on friends, but I did read a great quote today "As we grow up, we realize it is less important to have lots of friends and more important to have real ones".  I pray Greta has good friends in her life. I have had so many acquaintances, and a lot of people I thought were friends, but sadly, you do learn who and what matters over time.  I strangely, and often wonder, who will come to my funeral...will people who say they are a friend who haven't seen me in years despite living a few minutes away come through the doors ... I think I may do a funeral by invite...that way I won't have to come back and haunt all those who came to see me in a coffin, but didn't bother to make an effort while I was walking and breathing...I think I would make a good ghost, I may actually have a lot fun ... turning lights on and off, running water in the bathtub, opening closets and turning on appliances.  Watch out folks...I may not be convinced there is a heaven, but I definitely believe in ghosts! 

I do miss shopping...being sick and going out in public places is just not good this time of year, couple that with the insane bills we have coming in, it has certainly hurt my shopping ability...let me explain.

The scene - I was on my death bed (for the 100th time), fever of 102.9, trying to sleep in amongst coughing up a lung and gasping for breath in between coughs...I needed fresh air, so I asked Darren if he would open the window...he said no, I said "Do IT"...he was ticked, I was more so, I won, the window was open.  Fresh air helped and I was able to get some sleep.

The Morning arrived with Greta screaming, "DADDY"...Despite having a bed, Greta rarely will get out of bed on her own and walk through the house, while I do love this aspect of her morning ritual as I hate the idea of her just roaming through the house and us not hearing her, it is rather annoying to hear such a scream at 5:30am.  Darren went off to get Greta and brings her to bed.  Around 6am, when the alarm clocks are going off announcing it is time to get up and get ready for work, Darren yells, the pipe is frozen.  I heard this, but just couldn't figure it out...yes, the window was open, but we had heat...well, I thought we had.  When the lights go on, sure enough, water flying in all directions coming from the baseboard heater...water quickly flowing on my lovely hardwood floors that I paid a small fortune for (I picked the floor before I asked the price, but then nothing compared - of course not, because it was the most expensive)...okay, back to the story - we are quickly grabbing towels, and I yell to Darren to shut off the water (okay, perhaps not that calmly and definitely not those words), of course, his response - I don't know how...holy hell (okay, getting closer to the words I used)...Alas, the water is turned off, and I just can't understand how we ended up with a frozen pipe from a window being open for a few hours - and then it is discovered...Mr Cheapo turned the damn heat off in the room, because why waste money ... Oh my nerves...sick, was actually getting up early to go to the ER in hopes of some relief and oxygen, but now, I am cleaning up water and screaming with a squeaky voice.  Then, what does someone smart do, oh yes, he jumps in the shower, right beside the room with the broken pipe and the water starts again, sadly, as I'm now getting Greta for her day on the opposite end of the house, I do not realize the new flood of water for 10 minutes, and another leak.  Burning hot water, coming out of two cracks in the pipe...  So, yet another call to the plumbers...who of course, only get a call from our house before hours or on the weekends.  While it would be great to think the story ends there, that would involve someone having a little luck - and since it is me, well, enjoy the next part.  The plumber arrives, has to drain all the pipes in the house, I am working from home, so I disappear to review my daily emails and Darren informs him where the leak was (THE - meaning one)...he didn't chose to let him know that I saw a second leak further down on the pipe...Darren leaves to take Greta to school and I am busy working, but a little sound is disturbing, it sounds like a river ... in my house ... I put the lap top down and enter the room, actually the hall, as that is where the water greets me.  I try to scream to the plumber who is in the basement, but I can barely squeak, I'm now smashing the door, trying to keep the dog out of hot water...and finally, I get his attention and scream flood.  Would have been so wonderful if Darren showed him the second leak - or perhaps believed me when I said there was a second leak...oh well...every towel and blanket we own helped soak up the water, 2nd plumber called in and now we just wait for the bill...they left around 10:30 - should be a great one.  Oh yes, Darren survived - I am not quite sure how, I can't really say we have spoken much since that time, but he is alive! 
 
So, that concludes all I can think to share of life in our house the past month.  I have been eating a lot of french fries .... and chips, but the weight keeps coming off - while not usually something to complain about, I have been too sick to buy new clothes, so it is getting a tad annoying.  Dare say my next specialist appt, coming up in 10 days will include, "I want a full body scan, an MRI and a full blood screen - AGAIN".  Find the culprit and fix it. 

Toodles.

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