Splish Splash!

We ventured out this morning, in search of a splash pad I discovered on-line. It only took us about 15 minutes to get there, and it wasn't crowded at all! Best of all - it was free! Ella had a blast, as I expected she would. Nate didn't enjoy the water as much as his sister did. He preferred to sit on the grass and eat snacks. I have definately been doing some detective work on the internet lately, trying to find fun activities for us to do during the day. I give this adventure an A+!

And here is a short video of Nathan doing, "So big!" It's not his best performance, but it's still cute!

Onto the next adventure!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It doesn't. Well...it does, but then it gets eaten by this visitor:

Oh well. Can't say I didn't try. At least someone is getting a good meal out of it all.

Joe's mother gave us two bags of clothes that were Joe's when he was a baby. Circa 1981 or so. We were able to pull out two or three items that looked relatively current, otherwise, they looked like clown suits...as was fashionable in the very early 80s. Here are some examples. My favorite is the shirt that has "Jeans" written all over it. Joe wondered if there were matching pants that had "Turtleneck" written all over them. We didn't find them unfortunately.

And just because I'm mean:

This is also what my house looks like, now that Nathan can crawl:

We are in trouble! Just today, Nathan showed us just how big he is. We've been working on "So Big!" and he finally did it. It was the cutest thing ever. I will try to capture it on video so you all can see how cute he is!

Book Review

While on vacation, I completed the book, "Hawkes Harbor" by S.E. Hinton. It was relatively short and it kept my attention. Turns out, the book was about vampires, which I did not expect at all. This is the same author who wrote, "The Outsiders," so I was expecting a great read, but it was only mediocre. It was somewhat entertaining however, and better than the last book I read. On to the next! I would like to read the "Twilight" series in the near future. I've heard good things.

Things I Learned on Vacation

We are back from vacation. We had a wonderful time in Shelby, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan.

We stayed here:

and had this view:

It was so relaxing! We had beautiful weather, with only one rainy day. We lounged on the beach all day, only coming inside to eat. We ventured into Pentwater, Michigan, an adorable little tourist town. We ate at Bubba-Q's for lunch in Silver Lake, Michigan, after taking a dune ride in this:

Nathan learned to crawl:

Ella was visited by the "Sand Fairy" every night. (Gigi put a treat in Ella's cup every night and Ella thought it was the best!) However, now that we're home, Ella still believes the "Sand Fairy" will be leaving her treats on a nightly basis.

We decided to take the high speed car ferry back to Milwaukee, since it took us nearly 8 hours to get to the cottage a week earlier, due to construction and traffic. It sounded like a grand idea, until we got on the boat and barf bags were being handed out. Lake Michigan was extremely rough that day, so rough that we couldn't even get out of our seats without falling into other passengers or just falling. And, about a quarter of the boat was seasick, including my husband and my son. Nathan vomited Exorcist style, which in turn caused a lovely young man across the aisle to begin puking as well. What a super experience. But hey, we arrived in Milwaukee much faster.

Back to happier times...each night we sat on the deck and enjoyed the sunsets:

We sipped Lemondrops (or Irish Whiskey for the boys) and played Yahtzee. I am addicted to Yahtzee! My family humored me by playing every single night. Thanks guys.

We discovered that Ella may turn out to be a champion kayaker (is that a word?) (Side note, "Kayak" is the word I misspelled at my 7th grade spelling bee. I spelled it "Kyak." Oh well.)

Despite the puking on the way home, it was a fabulous vacation. Now it's back to real life.

I am entering a contest to get my blog "made over." The website is onceuponablog.org and I've added the site's button on my side bar. Really neat stuff...maybe I'll win!

Urgent Care

*Update*
I woke up this morning with a headache. Again. I also felt really nauseous and couldn't even think about eating anything. (No, I'm not pregnant.) I called my primary care doctor and was able to get in to see him this afternoon. He told me to keep taking my Imitrex for the migraine, but up the dose and add naproxen (Aleve) to it. I told him that this headache is a little different than my typical migraines, in that whenever I bend over, or turn my head quickly, or exert any force (like sneezing, for example) the pain is throbbing. So he decided to check out my sinuses and sure enough, one side looked inflamed and blocked. So, in addition to the Imitrex and naproxen, I will now be taking loratidine (Claratin) and Nasonex nasal spray. I already took the allergy/sinus meds, and I'm about to take the massive dose of Imitrex shortly, and I pray that this headache will finally, over 48 hours later, GO AWAY!

*Original Post*
I spent the better part of this afternoon in Urgent Care. After enduring a 24 hour migraine and then throwing up at work, I thought it best to leave work and to to Urgent Care. When I got there, it was discovered that I had a 100.5 degree temperature, which explained the chills I had been having all day. I was shaky, my fingers felt tingly, and I was light-headed. My blood pressure was fine. I was hooked up to an IV, which became very painful and infiltrated, meaning the vein was punctured and the fluid was going into surrounding tissues, causing the IV site to swell. So, the IV was switched to the other side...the same side where I had already gotten blood drawn. I received two bags of fluid to rehydrate me. I was given Toradol through the IV for my migraine pain, however the doctor did not believe it was a migraine, since my usual Imitrex did not help and since I had a fever. The Toradol ended up helping after about 45 minutes, but it did not take away the pain completely. They finally gave me an injection of Imitrex, which took away the last of my headache. The doctor believes I have a viral illness. I already feel 90% better. Nathan is sleeping and Joe took Ella to McDonald's to play on the playland so I could have some quiet time. I plan on going to bed early tonight. I have a babysitter scheduled to come over tomorrow morning for a few hours, so I can spend some time packing for our vacation. We leave for Shelby, Michigan on Saturday morning. We, along with my parents, rented a cottage on Lake Michigan for a week. I'll post pictures when we return. Time to go rest and drink plenty of fluids.

Book Review

I just finished reading, "The Night Climbers," by Ivo Stourton. Do I recommend it? No. Am I sorry I wasted my time reading it? Yes. Am I surprised it sucked since I got it at the dollar store? No. On to the next...see my side-bar.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Here are two videos, one of Nathan playing with the house and Ella lounging in the pool. I can't figure out how to switch the order of my posts, so make sure to scroll down past the dancing videos to read my other new post. Enjoy!