I don't remember, I don't recall...

the last time an illness knocked me out of commission for three days!

It was probably inevitable. All three of the kids have been sick at some point in the past week or so, and I have ended up doing most of the caring for the sick children (please note: I did not say ALL. Ryan did some too, they just seemed to get sick when Ryan had prior commitments)

It started on Fri Jan 23. We had Rangers tickets and Sammie and I were supposed to go. However, after school, she was in bed instead of helping to clean the toy room. I told her if she was too sick to clean up she was too sick to go to the Rangers game, thinking surely that would get her out of bed, but she just went back to sleep. She developed a fever, and we realized that she really was sick. So Ryan stayed home with Sammie and Rylee, and I took Hailey to the game.

The next day Hailey woke up and said her tummy hurt. I suggested that maybe she was just hungry, or it was the result of too much sugar at the game (she ate most of a bag of cotton candy) Ryan was in a curling bonspiel that day, so I took all three of them to gymnastics (after asking Sammie how she felt, hoping she'd say she was still sick so I could sleep in!) At gymnastics, Hailey finished her class and said she was cold (which was Sam's first symptom) and her tummy hurt. She ended up falling asleep in my arms, and throwing up the minute we walked in the door from gymnastics. I spent the rest of the day checking temperatures (Sammie still had a bit of a fever, too) and checking on a sleeping Hailey to make sure she was still breathing. Sunday both girls were mostly better, and by Monday they were fine to go to school.

Ryan had a day off on the Wed, so I called home after school to remind him to turn the oven on and put dinner in. I expected to get the machine, thinking he'd be working in the basement (he's in the process of finishing our basement), and told him so when he answered. He said he'd done very little work in the basement because the babysitter had called and said Rylee was throwing up. He'd spent most of the day cuddling with her and cleaning her up when she threw up. She threw up again through the night, so I took the next day off as a family care day (bless whoever came up with those!) She seemed fine that day, no fever and no more throwing up, so on Friday, which was a PA day, I took all three of them to the sitter and went off to work.

So that night I was on the phone with a friend trying to make vacation plans when Rylee started crying. Ryan was on the couch with her and asked her if she was hurt, but she just kept crying, until she threw up. I hung up, we cleaned everything (I cleaned and changed Rylee, Ryan cleaned the couch) She threw up again the next morning, right after I said I didn't think she should go to gymnastics. She threw up again while I was gone with Sam and Hailey, so I took her to the doctor on call and sat with her on my lap for about two hours before we saw the doctor. I think that was the final straw.

On SuperBowl Sunday I woke up feeling not quite right, but not terrible. However, as the day went on, I felt worse. I could barely focus at church, and by the time we got home, I could hardly function. I tried giving myself a stern talking-to, saying, "You're not sick, you're just being lazy because you don't want to make the Key Lime pie," but the truth was, I could hardly stand upright. Sammie and Hailey pretty much made lunch for themselves and Rylee (Ryan was out buying last minute supplies for our SuperBowl party).

That day was also our priest's last day at our church, so Ryan went to the farewell celebration (I was in no condition to leave) He didn't get home in time to take Sammie and Hailey to hockey, so I did, and took Rylee with us, too. We realized we didn't have their sticks, but couldn't find them, so I figured they were in Ryan's car and maybe he was meeting us at the rink. We drove over and didn't find him. I asked if there were extra sticks, but no luck. We drove home, where Ryan told us he had just sent the sticks to the rink with friends of ours. The friends showed up back at our house shortly after, followed by another friend who was coming to the party. I sat down on the couch, barely aware of what was happening around me. My friend suggested I looked like I needed to go to bed, and I decided he was right, so I walked upstairs and did just that. That was around 4 pm, and I didn't surface until about 7:30. I walked downstairs with about 5 min to go in the first half, and most of our friends left at halftime. I then fell asleep on the couch, and finally went to bed around 9:30.

At around 11:30 that night, I heard Rylee crying. I heard Ryan walk into her room, then heard a curse word. I got up and joined him in the girls room, where I saw that Rylee had thrown up. Again. I cleaned her up, Ryan cleaned the bed up and we decided to put her in our bed for the night. At about 3 am I realized that even if I felt better, I wasn't sleeping well, so I should probably take Monday off. I woke up every time Rylee coughed, thinking she was going to throw up in my bed, but she never did. I stayed home yesterday, and since Ryan didn't have a call, he was here, too. We also kept Rylee home, just in case.

Last night I was on the phone with my sister, the nurse, who recommended one more day off. I decided that was good advice so I called in sick for today, too. This is the "I don't remember" part. I seriously don't remember the last time I even took one sick day, let alone two.

I do feel better today. My chest still hurts from coughing, but a long bath helped the aching in my hips (caused, I'm pretty sure, by all the lying around) I didn't sleep well again last night, because I was worried about Ryan missing his 8 am meeting and not getting up in time to get the girls off to school/daycare. However, I woke Ryan up at 6:05, and he left in plenty of time for his meeting, and the girls all made it to the bus stop/daycare - we were even early for the bus. I told the sitter that I'm home today if she needed to send one of the girls home, but so far, so good. So since I came home from dropping them off, I have acccomplished the following:

-checked email, Facebook and the blogs I read
-finished my book
-had a cup of tea while watching a show I recorded last night
-had a long, hot bath (with a new book)
-spent three more hours in bed, most of that sleeping
-written this blog post

Now, because I actually feel a little bit hungry, I'm going to go downstairs and have some toast and tea. I am giving myself permission to do nothing but get better today - as far as my students are concerned, I've been off for the last three days. I still feel kind of fuzzy-headed, so I think more relaxing is in order. Also more water, and maybe some food.

I'm walkin' on air

Tonight at hockey the head of all the refs was watching our game for a bit because he's friends with my coach. My coach told me later that he had pointed me out to the ref and told him it was my first year playing hockey. The ref was shocked that I had never played before. He said I was doing really well.

Yeah, I pretty much rock.

But my dear, how 'bout you?

Okay, so I didn't quite make every day for NaBloPoMo, but I did blog more frequently than usual - almost half of my posts for this year are in November. I will try to write more frequently, but I'm never really sure who I'm writing for or why I'm writing. If it's just for me, then I'll just write whatever I want and not worry about my "audience". But if I'm writing this for others, then is it just to keep people updated on my family? Or to share my "random neural firings" about whatever pops into my head? Or for some other reason?

There's a big storm predicted for tonight, and for a while it looked like it was going to happen, but I think the worst of it may be over already, with nowhere near the 20 - 30 cm (8 - 12 inches) that was predicted. There was hail or something for a while, but I don't think it's going to stick around long enough to give me a snow day tomorrow. Sigh. I should probably do some marking, in that case.

I watched Sam and Hailey play hockey today. Holy moly are they ever cute! Everything is big on Hailey, so Ryan tucks her jersey into her pants, and you can't even see her number. I was picking out my kids by their skates (all the kids have matching jerseys, and most of them have black pants and white, black and gold socks).

Ryan, Rylee, Hailey and my dad came to my game last night. Ryan said he could really tell how much I'd improved in the short time I've been playing, which was nice to hear. I had a good game last night, so it was a good one for them to come to. I like when the coach is able to make it (he missed a few games due to the death of one of his parents) because he doesn't just say, "Good shift, D'Arcy." He tells me what I did right and why it was a good shift. If I did something wrong, someone on the team will usually let me know (in a nice way).

Sammie brought home her first term report card on Friday. She earned A's in everything except phys ed and art or music, I forget which, both of which were B+, if I remember correctly. Her learning skills (things like homework completion, cooperation with others, goal setting, etc) were all Excellent or Good. We're very proud of her.

I have nothing interesting going on in my head, so I think I should end this here.

I'm going slightly mad

That was my first thought upon shovelling all that snow I was rhapsodizing about in my last post. It's the only logical explanation.

Now I'm going slightly mad dealing with report cards. I handed them in last week, and got them back today with my administrator's comments. Why couldn't she read them before I handed them in for the final merge? I just want to be DONE with the darn things and now they're back to haunt me again. I've made the changes she suggested, and don't get me wrong, they were valid comments and I agree with the changes she suggested. I've just had enough of the stupid things. Now I get to prepare for report card fallout - they go home next Monday, and then parent-teacher interviews are on the following Thurs/Fri.

THAT should be fun. If I'm still only slightly mad after that, I will be happy.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I have just come to a rather startling realization. I just put the girls to bed, and was walking into the office to sit and finish up report cards. I looked outside at the snowy scene that will be my reality for the next few months (unless it suddenly gets warm again) and I realized that I love this weather. Not the white out blizzardy type weather, but nights when it's all white and quiet outside and snuggly and full of love inside. I don't think I could ever permanently live somewhere that didn't have snowy winters. If we ever do move to California, I think I will acutally really miss the snow.

Who knew?

Goin' to the chapel

Just a quick post while writing report cards - my baby sister called last night to say her boyfriend proposed! No date is set, as they have made a pact not to discuss a wedding for six months and just enjoy being engaged. Whatever. Probably sometime next year.

Congratulations Meaghen and Ryan!

Time keeps on slippin', slippin'...

Okay, well, I've missed a bunch more days. I'm here now.

We've set up Rylee's "big girl bed" in Sam and Hailey's room, so all three of them are sharing a room now. The room formerly known as the nursery is going to be a toy room. Rylee's bed is a toddler bed that looks like a train. We bought it when Sam was getting ready to move from the crib to a bed, and Hailey was coming soon to take over the crib, not that she slept in it for the first few months. When we told Sam and Hailey we were going to set up the train bed again, both girls started talking about how much they loved that little train bed, it was their favourite. This is proof that they have no memory of anything before the age of 2 or 3. Sam slept in the bed for a little while, but she soon decided she preferred the "big bed" (a futon) that was also in her room. When Hailey moved out of the crib, we tried to put her in the train bed in Sammie's room, but she wanted to sleep with Sammie, so it was the big bed for her, too. Happily, Rylee seems to like the new bed. Last night she didn't get out of bed once (that I heard, anyway)

It's report card season. First draft is due on Monday, and I have a fair amount of marking downstairs. I was all caught up and ready to start reports, but I wasn't counting on the students at my new school being near psychotic when it comes to marks. One grade 8 student almost got down on bended knee to ask if he could do some other writing assessment, because his mother would shoot him if he came home with the mark he had currently earned. It was a B+!!!!! So, I caved and gave all the gr 8's an optional assignment which they could use to bring up their reading mark, writing mark or both.

I have learned that if I don't get my caffeine until noon, I'm cranky.

I also decided this week to stop feeling sorry for myself that I haven't gotten close to anyone on staff at my new school yet. There is another teacher who is new to the school who hasn't really bonded with anyone else either, so this week I decided to make the effort to connect with her. We chatted a bit, shared chocolate and coffee, and I think I've made a new friend. I knew she was a graduate of the same teacher training program as me, but I found out this week that she went to the same university that I did for the mandatory third-year-at-a-francophone-university, and even lived in the same residence.

Today is the first time we've attempted to get Rylee to nap in the big girl bed. It doesn't sound like it's going very well. I should probably go look into that, then go do some schoolwork. And drink some more tea. It's chilly and raining here today, so tea is definitely in order.