February 23, 2008 It’s sort of been a week from hell for me. Last weekend (the long weekend, I might add), I came down with a hacking cough, fever etc. etc. which has taken me absolutely forever to shake. Natalie and Ronda took John to Lhea’s birthday party, because I was too sick to go! He had lots of fun riding with Billy Wrolstad on the snowmachine and came home pumped up on sugar. We also have ditched the blue truck for a nice new Jeep Liberty. It’s dark green in colour (we didn't have a lot of choice of colours in stock and John’s favourite colour is green anyways). It certainly is a dream vehicle compared to that sucky blue (POS) truck which was on death’s doorstep and barely made it to McKinstry’s for the trade-in. We had a scare on Friday morning. John woke me up at 4:30 am and told me he couldn’t talk or breathe. At first I thought he was overreacting and probably just had the same cold as me, as I couldn’t really breathe or talk either. But I could see him gasping and panicking, so I woke up Derek and off to the hospital we went. We of course, got in right away and the nurse phoned the doctor on call right away too. At first the doctor thought John was having an asthma attack (never had one before), so she treated him with two masks of ventalin and some oral steroids. Then he had a steroid mask too. They took x-rays and finally concluded that John probably had croup. Sent us home and said if anything like that happens again, come right back in. He’s had to sleep with me for the last couple of nights so I can keep an eye on him. I wouldn’t sleep otherwise, trying to listen if he was in distress. Derek is beginning to hack now (because Wendy makes me sick), and will probably have the full-blown virus by mid week. I missed four days of work. I did go to the ER for myself as well, as I thought perhaps I had pneumonia. He said no and gave me some super narcotic cough syrup which at least lets me sleep. It’s starting to subside, but I think the cough will linger for a while yet. January 28, 2008 Well, we’ve been living in a bit of chaos the last little while. 2 weeks ago, Bob started work on our bathroom. Right now, we have a vanity with no running water, a tub, with no running water and a nice floor and walls (still no toilet though, running water or not!). Last night, John had the flu. He started throwing up at about 9:30 and was sick every hour or so all night. I’m very tired and grumpy today. He spent the morning with grandma and the afternoon with daddy and hopefully will be ready to go back to school tomorrow. We haven’t been doing much new…just swimming and doing school stuff. John did go to Joshua’s swimming party last weekend on the 20th and had a nice time. Valentine’s day is coming up soon, as well as the 100th day of school. Mme Konkle is planning a Carnaval week for French Immersion, so that should be lots of fun. January 9, 2008 Happy New Year to all of you! We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve with friends. They had us over for turkey dinner and John enjoyed playing with the other kids. We’ve took advantage of the rest of the holidays to do lots of skating at the arena. John is getting very good at it, but I had to buy him some new skates because the other ones were just too tight a squeeze. John had an ear infection at the end of the holidays and we had to spend 3 hours in the E.R. waiting to see a doctor. The doctor situation in Dryden continues to be critical. The Dr. who finally saw John was very nice. John spent the afternoon sleeping on my lap (he’s hard to hang on to). We also played name the countries in the continent and impressed the hospital volunteer. It’s back to school now! John is having a bit of a hard time waking up. Mom is too! I was sick the first day back with a sore throat, but it turned out to be viral and not strep. We’re excited about our bathroom renovations starting on Monday. It will be chaotic for a few weeks, but it will be nice to be rid of the mold situation in the bathroom. Hopefully, the mold situation will improve in the whole house with proper venting. We’re taking John to the eye doctor next week because he’s been doing this blinking thing. I think that it’s probably just one of his quirky things, like when he used to lick his hand and touch his nose. We want to make sure however. Derek made me do this diary..he’s such a nag! A worse nag than a woman! (which doesn't explain why it took 3 days for her to finally break down and do the diary!) Top © 2008 Derek Kennedy