Monday, October 26, 2009

Weekend Getaway: The Good, The Bad and The Scary!!

First off, I'm in a semi-rage because I wrote a looong post a couple of nights ago and uploaded a LOT of pictures--and the whole thing deleted--just like that! No back-up, nothin'. So I'm disgruntled, but I will regroup now and carrry on!

So what I was going on (and on) about was that the work on our new house is finally FINALLY done!! Well, mostly...we still have to do a little floor refinishing so we will have to evacuate in a couple of weeks for a few days--but after all that's gone on here, that doesn't seem too bad.

So now that the house is under control, we managed to go off for a little weekend getaway--well technically we were going out of town for a funeral because Don's aunt fell out a window (!?!) (although the details are sketchy and shrouded in mystery) but then there was confusion with the date of the funeral, so actually we missed it entirely. So in a nutshell--we went out of town for a non-funeral and to investigate the scene of the crime so to speak where the unfortunate window accident occured.

Are you confused yet? I am. Now you can see why I'm so mad my other post was deleted--I swear it made more sense the first time I wrote it!

So we drove to the farm town where Don's mom grew up (Trivia: Don's mom rode in a cart pulled by a pony to school every day.) (More trivia: The pony's name was Don! Is it weird he's named after a horse?).

Anyway, we went to this town which is very quaint and was extra-nice because of the fall folliage--also making for a great backdrop for photos of the kids!

Our first stop was the farm where Don's mom grew up (and also the scene of the window accident). There were so many beautiful spots for pics!

I made the kids lay down in the leaves for a photo op--though they were not too keen on doing it!
They look happy--but they were complaining.
Andy and Pickle were the only ones that enjoyed it!
Here are some of the kids in front of a shed:
The farm is surrounded by corn fields as far as the eye can see--so we ended up with lots of corn pics.
Pickle was really into the corn! It's grain corn and very beautiful:
All the kids posing with their corn:
Here's Pickle with some kind of grain. Hay? I'm not too good with the farm terms...
And Pickle checking out the well water (I love this pic):
And yet another one of Pickle hanging on a windmill:
The smokehouse:
This place was infested with lady bugs! I call this pic Potrait of suitcase and Lady Bugs:
Oops--another one of Pickle ringing the dinner bell:
After that, we headed down the road to the family cemetery. There were lots of cool picture opportunities there too.


Here's the cemetery with the cornfields in the background:
I liked the way the moss looked on this gravestone:
Poor Bony Bly! Struck down by one of those newfangled automobiles!
Gooser amongst the graves:
This Way Up:
Angel grave:
Miss Pickle:
After the cemetery, we did a little more sightseeing around town. Here are the kids posing by a river:
And by some beautiful trees:
I LOVE this pic of Pickle!!

Here are the kids with a cool statue:

And now for the scary part of the trip...

We went out for a nice dinner that evening and Pickle ate the usual kid fare--grilled cheese, etc.--but she had a bite of Teddy's raspberry cheesecake and things went rapidly downhill after that.

Right after eating it she said she felt like she was going to throw up--and as soon as we got to the hotel room, she did. All over everything...

But as I was changing her pajamas I noticed that she had a bumpy rash on her stomach and I realized she was having an allergic reaction.

Patrick has a peaunut allergy (nightmare!) so I always carry Benadryl in my purse and I gave her one right away. Then she had a bath and seemed to be fine, so I put her to bed.

About a half hour later, she started coughing. At first I thought Oh no--I hope she's not getting sick. Then, as the coughing continued, I started to worry that maybe she had aspirated the vomit when she got sick and it was messing up her lungs or something.

So I got her out of the crib and realized that not only was she coughing non-stop, she was wheezing and it sounded BAD.

She was kind of scratching at herself so I lifted up her pajama top and saw that she was COVERED in a horrible rash.

By now it was about 11:00 at night, but Don and I had no choice--we had to drive her to the nearest Emergency Room. Which was unfortunately not very close.

I decided to give her one more Benadryl before we left--and I'm so glad I did--because I think it made a huge difference in her breathing. Then we had to drive on these very dark and winding roads--not really knowing where we were going. And did I mention it was raining?

But we made it in one piece and they were able to fix her right up with some steroids and antihistimines.

This is what the backs of her legs looked like:

Basically, her entire body was bright red and covered with bumps. It was SO scary!

Poor Pickle!

But she's fine now--though I have to get to the bottom of what she's allergic to. I called the restaurant, thinking there must have been nuts in that cheesecake, but they say no...I'm having her allergy tested soon.

The next day we were all exausted from our night of terror, so we didn't hang around long--just for breakfast and a few more pics.

Here are some of Teddy looking like a little model!

Gooser and Patrick:

And, finally, the kids posing on some rocks:

OMG--can you believe how long this post is? Can you believe I had to write it TWICE?? Sorry if it's incoherent--it's late, but I'm determined to post it tonight.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Fishcapades

You know when you have kids and the house is just too quiet? And not a good peaceful kind of quiet--a "what are they up to?" kind of quiet. I had one of those episodes today...

I was in the kitchen with Pickle and she was happily playing with her Little Pet Shop animals so I called my sister and, while I was talking, walked into the living room to try and clean up a little while I chatted.

A few minutes into the conversation I that that sudden "it's too quiet here" feeling. Normally, very little time can pass without Pickle asking for something to eat or drink or making general demands--I knew something was up!

What I discovered was a most disturbing sight--water everywhere and Pickle near the fish tank holding a bag of cotton balls.

Upon closer examination, I realized that she had decided to fill the tank with the cotton balls while removing stuff like plants and rocks which were strewn all over the floor.

As I removed more and more of the drenched cotton balls, I realized one of the fish was missing.

I looked all over the floor and couldn't find him anywhere. Then I spotted the poor thing in a nearby basket. I scooped him up in my hand but he was totally lifeless.

On the off chance a miracle could occur, I plunged him into the water and he took a fish gasp and came back to life!

I don't know how long he was out of the water--but apparently a fish can look totally dead and still be alive!

Anyway, Pickle got in BIG trouble and had to go on a time-out in her room which she was not the least bit happy about.

But, when the time-out was over and she calmed down, she uttered one of the better Pickle quotes: I told her to go apologize to the fish and she said "I sorry fish. I sorry I killed you."

I had to hide in the other room so she wouldn't see me laughing!

Sorry I killed you...


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Monday, October 5, 2009

Apple Picking

This past weekend we decided to flee from all the chaos and construction of the new house--so at about 4:00, I kicked out all of our workmen and we headed out of town. It was SO nice to have some time away from The Move--it's been so all-consuming and we needed a break.

The highlight of the weekend was apple picking. Just being out in the fresh air on a perfectly perfect fall day was great!

Here's Teddy climbing a grain silo:

And Teddy and Pickle on the wagon that took us around the orchard:
Miss Pickle bagging some apples. Look at all those apples on the ground! What a waste...
The Gooser looking dapper in a Batman shirt and blazer (notice he's lost his front teeth):

Here's Patrick with his bag o' apples:
Group shot! I think this one has potential for the Christmas card?
Andy, Patrick and Gooser riding on the wagon...
...pulled by these:

Portrait of Gooser in the orchard:
This place also had a nice pumpkin patch. Here's Pickle amongst the pumpkins:
Andy found a good one!

A sweet brother/sister moment. Awwwwww!

I loooove this Pickle pic!!
When we were finished with the fruit and gourd picking, we stopped by the country store for cider and doughnuts and all that jazz. They also had an outdoor barbeque going with grilled corn on the cob. It was SO good!
Children of the corn!

Quick house update--things still look like this around here:
You can see why it was so nice to get away for the weekend...

Please make it end! I can't take much more!!
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