Sick of sickness.

My whole house has been engulfed in sickness.
Jamie still has his whooping cough - although thankfully its almost past now, only coughs about once a day.
Friday 22nd about 4am Marko came into me complaining of sore legs. I got him to the lounge room to put some Deep Heat on his legs when he said "My elbows hurt, my arms hurt etc" then I felt him... bloody hot.
He had Friday off school with Jamie up at the shed and they didn't get home until 1am as Jamie was putting the turbo in the Patrol.
Saturday, woken at 3am with the same scenario... hot hot hot... gave him some panadol and we sat on the couch watching a dumb movie. I was working Saturday arvo so he was home with Jamie who was in the garage with Ricky from footy making up some plaques. Mark did not have any tea, not hungry.
Sunday, woken at 2am (are you seeing a theme?), again hot, hot, hot... well I finally found my thermometer and took the poor boys temperature, it was at least 39C as that is as far as my thermometer goes (its a fertility one), and I panicked. Jamie wouldn't wake up - once he's asleep, there is just no waking him - so I called the GP Access Clinic which is wonderful. I knew he wasn't ED criteria, but he needed to see a doctor, or more to the truth, I needed to talk to someone to tell me not to panic. I did not inform them I was a nurse, that would just be embarrassing.
We went to the GP Access doc on Sunday who said Mark had the flu...
I was home with him on Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday evening, my throat seized on me and both Mark and I have been coughing ever since.
I've been dizzy, nauseas, not eating *well there has to be one positive* coughing, grumpy, sleepy, sneezy and feverish.
Its awful, as of tomorrow, I will have had 5 days off work = for a damned cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coughing.

That is the main sound in our house for the past month!

Jamie is coughing.
Jamie is coughing, a lot.

Today he was officially diagnosed with Whooping Cough. I'm very surprised as I thought it was a children's disease. I have been vaccinated, as has Mark which I guess is why we don't have it.

Dramas with this cough include - its bloody noisy. He seems to stop breathing during a coughing fit. The force of the cough makes him vomit.

On the weekend, he was having a bad night. He had his friend Aaron over to help him fix his computer. I had gone to bed. Jamie started to cough, he walked from the kitchen into the office and stopped... he coughed... stopped breathing... and fell down and stayed there for about 30 seconds making Aaron very frightened... scaring Mark and his friend Madsen. Anyway he's fine now.

Medications include: Intal (a medication like ventolin to suppress the cough) and now codeine phosphate to work on the cough centre in the brain. Seems to be working.

That Intal was a bother.... Friday I worked until about 4.10pm drove to school to collect Mark, drove to Hamilton to collect Madsen, drove to Lemon Tree Passage (50km) to collect Jamie, drove to Newcastle West to try to get the script, drove to Hamilton (again) to try and get script, drove home (dropped off Jamie, Mark and Madsen), drove to Charlestown and got the script and then drove home!!! I was very exhausted after all of that.

Other news is my friend Ella turned 30. There was a big *do* with all the cool chicks from work. Unfortunately I had to work, so I arrived at about 10.30pm and it was fun, even if only for the short time. I work with some beautiful women, Kathryn, Lauren, Ella, Toni and Amy to name just a few.

Football was a disaster on Sunday, biffo with the Port Stephen's Team. Freaking rediculous that kids footy would do such awful things to parents. There is going to be an investigation in the behaviour of EVERYONE. Finally Daniel came to play and he scored the only point for the U12s.

I'm done - I think.

Toronga Zoo

Thursday we went to the zoo with my friend from work Ella and her two girls Jena and Kayla.
Marky has a *thing* for Jena - which is really just friendship but because Jena is a girl, its a *thing*.
Here are some photos from the day.

School holidays.

We are officially up to Day 4 of the holidays and I don't think I want to kill Mark just yet.

Over the weekend we had a great visit from Frank and Ernie. It was so comfortable with them. The three men worked VERY hard on fixing our 4WD, rebuilding the engine from scratch as far as I can tell. They didn't get home from the shed until midnight on Sunday after having footy in the morning - the kids won again - then straight up to the shed, working all bloody day and night. Poor Jamie had to go to work in the morning starting at 6am!!

Monday Jamie went to work and I hung out at home with the fellas... then we did a huge drive up to "The Bay" or Salamander Bay and then around to the Lemon Tree Passage to get some hand cleanser for after working on cars. Gets the grease off really well. We got a huge 20L drum of it and not really sure how to dispense it into a smaller container so that it is usable.

Tuesday Marko went to School Holiday Program at the Hunter Sport Centre where he did "Mission Impossible" which he loved. Lots of gymnastics type stuff and running and jumping and other things that middle sized boys love. His favourite thing was jumping into the *foam pit*.

Wednesday was officially the coldest day of the year 15 degrees and WINDY. So what did Mark and I decide to do.. walk all the way to Jesmond for no good reason other than wasting time.

The football crisis deepens....
I still haven't vacuumed.
Roy is much better - or so I believe
My throat hurts, one of those left side only, OMG all of a sudden I can't swallow. Must have some panadol

Tomorrow we are going to the most beautiful zoos in the world - Toronga Zoo in Sydney with my friend Ella and her daughters Jena and Kayla. Mark and Jenna have a *thing* which really is just friendship but gee its cute, he is SOOO excited to see her, his clothes are all laid out for tomorrow (his spunkiest clothes), he washed his hair with shampoo twice, soaped his whole body twice and even brushed his teeth tonight without being told - and that is unheard of - all in preparation of seeing Jena! Wow that girl has some influence.

Other thoughts from this period of time is FOSTER PARENTING. I need to have some time to talk to Jamie, but I feel my life is heading in the direction of fostering kids. I have wanted to it for about 5 years so.. just a niggle in the back of my mind, but I wanted to wait until Mark was older and less likely to be hurt. As time progresses and I'm still not pregnant, my mind wanders to other ideas: adoption or fostering. The news these days are littered with stories of neglected, abused children and no one to look after them. The story of the twins in QLD who died at home and were not noticed by their mother for a week had a profound effect on me. I want kids and these "breeders" who have no job, no money, have kids to get the baby bonus just keep on reproducing. Then Frank loaned me the book "A Child Called It" and I think my life is changed forever. This is the story of Dave Pelzer who lives in America and was severely abused by his alcoholic mother from the age of about 6 until he was taken away at about 12. Boys and girls like Dave become the criminals of the future if foster parents don't step in and help. The on Sunday night was the show "Domestic Blitz" which featured a lady who has fostered close to 500 kids in her lifetime, well that was the clincher.
I think Jamie and I would make great foster parents. We are home a lot. We have space. We have a good home. We just need a little bit more money - get over this current crisis, and Jamie NEEDS a new job. Then we will seriously look into this.

I'm officially....

in love

with my nephew.

Check out the latest photos of Roy here.

YAY, June will be over in 7 hours. What a disastrous month for my family.

Freak

Does anyone know this song???

No more maybes
Your baby's got rabies
Sitting on a ball
In th middle of the Andes

Yeah I'm a freak (of nature)
Yeah I'm a freak

If only I could be as cool as you

Body and soul I'm a freak I'm a freak

Try to be different
Well get a different disease
Seems its a fashion
To need the cold sore cream
I don't really know
How to put on a cool show
As boring as they come
Just tell me where to go

If only I could be as cool as you

Well that is me at the moment, trying to be in fashion by needing the cold sore cream.
All this stress has finally caught up with me and I broke out. Not one, but two cold cores. I feel disgusting, I look disgusting and I'm TIRED.



Roy doesn't need an operation. He is healing himself - clever little boy :)

A long time between drinks.

This is ROY DECLAN GEARY. He's our new little nephew/cousin born on the 5th June 2008 to my dearest (and only) sister and her hubby. Roy was a chubby bubby when he was born 4kg or 8lb13oz in the old money. That is Jo's nose and supposedly has a real Geary look as well. Sheena hasn't had much time with her new little brother as she was ill when he was born, so she was kept away and now little Roy is quite unwell. He was born with a VSD or Ventricular Septal Defect. He's currently in the cardiac ward at the Royal Children's Hospital, so is in really good hands. I'll give updates when they come to hand. I'm just busting to smell him... baby and milky.. yum.

I spent a week down in Melbourne waiting for Roy to be born, oops I mean helping out with Sheena in Jo's last week of her pregnancy. I adore Sheena, she is so magical. Happy, loving, bright and funny. We ripped off some Kelly Travolta who said that "Suri Cruise is a real artist". Suri is the same age as Sheena and that is 2.5years old, granted Suri is probably not delayed, but she is still a two year old. Anyway, Sheena did a scribble on a piece of paper and as a supportive adult, you praise the heck out of the drawing. I said to Jo... "you must be so proud to have such a talented artist"... well we thought it was funny.
There really is something about "blood" Sheena just knew that I belonged to her (if you know what I mean). After church on the Sunday that I arrived in Melbourne, Jo and Sheena were already at my parents house, I squealed and made a fuss, well she wouldn't let go.. cuddle city.




Jamie stacked his motorbike. It was his first accident and all he got was a grazed hip and a bruised ego. He was only going about 50km and it was really wet. Lots of people stopped to help him, I just love Novocastrians.

Birthdays...
Jamie turned 34 on the 6th June. We went to Forster for his birthday weekend. Connie and Paul came up to visit which was very nice. It rained ++++. Paul cooked us some lovely meals. I love not cooking. We stayed at Smuggler's Cove which is a 4.5 star caravan park and I'd highly recommend it. We had a 3 bedroom unit which was better equipped than my home. On our way home we had a kerpuffle. There was a clunk... we couldn't find the stick it sounded like we ran over. Next the temperature gauge went right up and there we stopped. Our three vehicles were out of action... I got to drive a gorgeous brand new Nissan Maxima for a week... I want a Nissan Maxima, or a Mazda 3, or a Corolla, or a Honda Jazz... umm I want a new car, but will have to make do the "heap of junk" that we call the Commodore. The photos below were taken on the side of the road, in the rain, waiting for a lift/miracle.

Mark's 10th Birthday was very very exciting for him. He was having his first party in 5 years. We invited 6 boys and they ALL CAME. Now I knew girls were noisy, but I had no idea that boys can squeal as loud as girls, but the added excitement of defiance. Well we survived it. Cost far too much money. A pinata, lollies, party hats (no idea why we did that) and because my oven has broken I had to buy a cake... delicious. Too many pizzas.
BUT Mark enjoyed himself All the kids did as well, there were only two that were the stand out annoying ones. The other 5 were great. All were picked up by 9.30pm and we went to bed. We Jamie and Mark had to shoot each other with his toy guns. We got him a game of Uno Attack (very cool people), both sets of grandies got him a PSP game. Jo got him a book which he likes a lot and then there is the CD - Novelty Songs of the 60s and 70s with Up there Kazaley. We're enjoying that. A huge thankyou also to Kathryn (the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world) for the PSP and caring for the puppy dogs. You are a marvel.
The boys after singing Happy Birthday (Madsen had a wet shirt after apple bobbing, hence he was shirtless)


Cake, the toilet paper game which turned into a toilet paper war!!! the pinata, the chocolate game.. YUM

Wow did you make it to the end??? If you did, please go have a cup of tea and good lie down, you deserve it. I'll try not to neglect you so often.

The Saga of the Commodore

Bizarre things happen in my family. Saturday afternoon Jamie had been to his friends house and was driving home over the Stockton Bridge. The sound changed a bit and then whoosh.. no more back window. That isn't normal, windows don't just fly out do they??? Now we have a good reason why out boot/trunk was always filling up with water - the windscreen wasn't in properly. On that drive we also got a super chip in the front windscreen.
The Commodore now needs

• Front and back windscreens
• 2-4 new tyres
• The gas system installed
• Back seat recovered.
• Automatic locks repaired
• Paint job fixed.

No problem

A good read.

If you are looking for an uplifting and incredibly sad blog to read. The faith that Tammy has is incredible. All I can say is thank goodness I don't live in America... after reading this blog and then watching Sicko... how can a government do this to people.

I just finished reading Li Cunxin's book Mao's Last Dancer. It was totally amazing. I loved it all, the poverty of his childhood, the regimental-ness of his adolescence, his bravery and his love of... ballet. In a million years I'd never imagine I would want to see a ballet, but after reading Li's book, I really do, but probably won't :)

I am supposed to read Emma by Jane Austen next, but it really does not appeal. So I might skip that one.

Maybe I'm nesting.

I feel somewhat organised.

Last night I did all of the dishes and the kitchen looked wonderful.

I asked Jamie to collect Mark from school, its on his way home, and I have to make an arc. I just wanted to come straight home.

Jamie called me and asked for some Chocolate Royale biscuits and some coke. Like the good missus I am, I obliged. What you would like for dinner? I don't care.

So I bought a cooked chook. Arrived home, the boys are watching The Matrix (VERY LOUDLY) on the telly. I assembled a salad, cooked some pototoes (Mark would prefer to have noodles than potato, I cooked some noodles).
Served dinner. Cleared the table. Washed dishes. Fed the dogs. Folded the washing.

The boys are still watching The Matrix (VERY LOUDLY).

I must be coming down with the flu.

WTF??

Another football story.

We take two kids to football twice a week. Once for training and to the games. There is a little 8 year old called Ricky and his 11 year old brother Jake. Jake is a lovely boy, Ricky well he's a little bit feral. Nice enough though.
We drive the kids cos #1 the car doesn't work. #2 Dad got "done" for drink driving and lost his license.
My WTF comments are such.
The mum doesn't come out of the house to say thank you, they don't ring to make sure its ok we collect them, its now just expected. Mum or dad don't thank us after we drop them off or make sure the kids behaved themselves. They show ZERO interest. Very annoying.

The last two weeks the boys have not had breakfast. We collect them about 8am and drop them home about midday. They are playing a very physical game of AFL. Last weekend I felt sorry for them and got them a packet of chips - good nourishing food. When I thought about it, why is it my responsibility to buy them a snack, they should eat before they come, they should have a snack with them or money to buy one with. So I said no this week. Poor little Ricky was starving. But they are not my kids. At the end of the morning the canteen had too much food and was giving it away. So my point to the parents wasn't as good as I would have liked it to be.

When we dropped them off I went into the house, introduced myself, said the boys had a great game, which was true. I then mentioned that it would be a great idea to make sure the boys had breakfast before they came or had a snack...
"That's their own fault, they should get up earlier and have something to eat"
Again, not a thank you.
Do I make some vegemite sandwiches to prevent the annoying "I'm starving, have you got any money?"

OH DEAR... these poor boys have not got much hope in life when the parents care so much.

Cross Country

Back in the good old days when I was at school, I used to fake asthma on the cross country running days so I wouldn't have to run. I hated it that much. Mark loves sprinting, he's not a fan of long distances,or so I thought.

On the Saturday afternoon Mark rolled his ankle. We went ice skating on Saturday night. He tried to get out of AFL on Sunday morning saying his ankle hurt - he ended up playing in two games. Monday morning, he said "I need to stay home as my ankle hurts, it will be so boring not being able to run in the cross country".

Anyway. I collected him from OOSH and he had a funny look on his face.
"I did terrible in the cross country, last, after all of the boys and even all of the girls"
Oh well I thought, you do have a sore ankle.
HUGE SMILE "As if, I came first".

MY BABY CAME FIRST, in a 4km run. The assistant teacher suggested he run at a steady jog rather than sprint, so as not to wear out. And it worked.

He's off to the Zone Cross Country Run on Friday. I'll report in how he went.

Football Family

We spend so long at football each week. This morning we set the alarm at 6.30am went to collect 3 other kids whose parents do not drive. Then drove off to Medowie for a 9am start.

The under 10 team (Mark plays on this team) played ok. They were completely thrashed, but that is ok. Only one kid cracked a 'nana about it. It was one of his first games. Not entirely sure of the score, but I think we only got about 7 points.

Next was the Under 12's and there was a parent barney. The coach, Ricky, is only 17 and he drives me NUTS. He is so over the top, loud and opinionated.... but the kids seem to love him and are desperate to please him. Well, it is a rule that all the kids wear mouth guards - that makes sense - well kids being kids - forget their mouthguards. Mark was one and another boy forgot his. The dad of the other kid (from now on referred to as Dad A) said its ok Kid A can just play without his mouthguard, and he wouldn't sue the club if anything happened to Kid A. Ricky said "I'm the coach, and am here for the kids, and no kid is playing without a mouthguard". Red rag to a bull, Dad A cracked the sads, and blew up at Ricky. Not entirely without reason. But made it EXTREMELY uncomfortable for all involved. Jason (Club President) and Jamie (Coach of U10s) were trying to smooth out the problems.... OH DEAR. Not sure if that was understandable, but trying not to be libelous. I'm on Dad A's side!!

DAMN our tv is not working, its completely scrambled. Our oven broke yesterday. Petrol is very very expensive.

Planning a Holiday.

Jamie and I are planning a trip to HAWAII... how cool is that?

• We both need to get new passports - very sad - they have been gathering dust.
• Book time off work.
• Book flights.
• Book accommodation.
• Work out my feelings about leaving Mark behind. We'll go to Queensland once the baby we are going to have is a toddler, ok feelings are fixed.
• Get Dad up to babysit / get kid to school.
• The SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE.
  

A girl I worked with and a Facebook friend from long long ago have both been to Hawaii and are in the process of giving me some good tips. Tanya stayed at Aqua Wave said it was good there, so will definitely check that one out. Rhys hasn't giving me options of accommodation yet, but he will if I ask him.
Must go to a travel agent to get a good deal. Whatever you do, don't tell Jamie this, but I don't completely trust the internet and tv for that matter. I always thought Jetstar would be the cheapest. Well I just looked up Harvey World Travel and .... Qantas is very cheap - and they give you food!!! OH my goodness. I'm in shock.
I credit the pictures to this site.

Enthusiasm

I have just done a little bit of blog surfing. Here, here and here.
How do people keep up their enthusiasm?

Scrapbookers for example, there are names in the industry that have been around for AGES. They are prolific scrapbookers. Chefs such as Gordon Ramsay *yum* how can he keep up his enthusiasm, I can't cook for three people without losing interest.

Well I'm thinkin' deep tonight.

I WANT SOME ENTHUSIASM.

I was going to upload a whole bunch of photos.. but our computer is a piece of crap.
Who could imagine being practically married to a computer nerd and our computers are rubbish.
I guess its the way it goes. Mechanics cars are crap. Builders have broken houses.
Very annoying actually.
I want to paint the doors in the computer room. The rest of the room is a light aqua (nicer than it sounds) not sure what I want to paint the doors though. I would like chalkboard paint, but Jamie is against that (boohoo). Maybe just stick with white. Can't go wrong with white. It'd be nice to surprise Mark and mum with the doors painted.
Mark is having a fabulous time with his grandparents.
Mum & Dad have spent up big in the last couple of weeks. They got a caravan and a 4wd. Not at all sure if this is what the car and the van look like, but hey its a picture. Mark adores them both.
Feeling a bit sleepy now, so I won't tell the very cool story that goes with the Suzuki Grand Vitara. By the way its the car I wanted, not a totally square Nissan Patrol - a very unsexy car.

*Sigh*

I feel icky. As I said to Ella last night, "I feel like shit, a nondescript shit, but shit all the same"
Snoozed most of the afternoon. Did my grocery shop - thank goodness for a really good pay (yipee)
The rent for Feb has finally been paid, found it in our bank as I was writing out the "Notice to Vacate" form. Oh well. I can start again on the 18th, as if he'll pay this month without force.

The boys are off to footy practice, its been a very wet week.

I'm watching Le Journal on SBS and its talking about rising cost of food and petrol world wide. In some asian countries RICE is becoming a luxury as it has doubled in price in the past two months.

I'm getting rid of Mark on Saturday, I'm gonna miss that kid. he's such a delight. He;s off to Nan and Pop's place, he is so excited about his holiday.


* * * ******************** * * * ****************** * * *


Its our 8th anniversary this weekend. How amazing is that? So much has happened in those 8 years.
Jamie has changed jobs about 5 times (Ansett, bizarre little jobs, Forstaff, Boeing, BAE)
I have changed career.
We moved interstate.
Mark started school.
We bought two houses
We now own two cars, a motorbike and a boat.
Jamie is the Football Coach
I'm the treasurer at OOSH
We have two dogs and two fish (after the big fish kill off 3 weeks ago when we had 6)

Ok that is enough. The plan for this year is a holiday (YIPEE) and a pregnancy. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone and then we can have Brooklyn like Posh and Becks, and hopefully we can call our baby "Puket", "Bali" or "Gold Coast"
And then hopefully we will get married too, 8 years of thinking is surely enough.

Arrrggghhhh

Finally I decided to help out my guys. I cooked tea. Well I put the ingredients in the crock pot and it cooked itself.

I got home from work at 10.30 and there it was still in the crockpot, still cooking.

They didn't realise that it was there.

So what did they eat? A chocolate bar and coke from the servo on the way to cricket.

OH DEAR.

Hospital at home.

This is a scary big spider near Rocket's workshop. Needed a picture again.

Daniel, he's our neighbour from two doors down and is Marko's current best friend. They spend every moment of time together when they are not at any football training. He's a lovely Sudanese boy, so polite.

Anyway today he and Mark were playing out the front and he tripped and fell onto our brick fence injuring his knee. Mark came inside screaming.. he just stood there looking terrified, he thought his bone had come through through skin. It didn't bleed though, just pushed the skin back, like a superficial graze. But on his super black skin his knee looked white like the bone was poking through.

I cleaned him up - not that it needed much cleaning. Jamie got some padding and a bandage from his fishing kit (hmmm must raid work for some supplies for a real first aid kit) and off he hobbled home with a bandage around his knee. Poor kid he was so brave.

Must remember to check out my emergency nursing technique and investigate his knee tomorrow or Wednesday.

Not sure what to title this one!

Thought I'd just say hello again.

Suffering from insomnia again - only 12.30 - but its annoying.

I had some funny stories about Mark but I can't remember them.

Something bizarre that happened yesterday. After work I was SOOO exhausted that I went straight to bed. It was 3.30pm. That is just wrong really. Poor Mark had no idea what was going on. Jamie was watching the footy - his beloved Kangaroos got smashed, despite winning early in the game. After I woke up we decided to go to the beach as Marko wanted a swim, we went to Horseshoe Beach alternatively known as *The Dog Beach* and the puppies had a swim. Charlie loves the ocean, she tears in after the ball and swims out to bring them back. Marky was swimming with them. Skye just barks like as crazy man. My thought is he is protecting Charlie or Mark when they are in the water and wants them to come in. When Charlie swims out, Skye follows him despite his better judgment just to protect her.
Anyway after the swim we went back to the car and Charlie got diarrhoea (arrgggh just like work). Now a dog with the squirts is a really weird thing to see. Anyone have any idea what would cause that???

Ahh the Magic Bullet infomercial. That reminds me of a time Mark and I went to Centrelink - he yelled at the top of his voice "This is my favourite ad" he found a chair and sat and watched it. Well surprise surprise we now own a Magic Bullet and it sits in the cupboard gathering dust. HMMM why do I succumb to infomercials.

Got to try and get some sleep. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some batteries and upload some new photos. Got some great ones from easter.

Bye
PS. Is that better Kathryn??