Unwell

I was sick yesterday. Ugh. Just thinking of it makes my stomach turn.

On Wednesdays I work late at the salon. This Wednesday I didn't get home until 9. After chatting with Justin and his dad (who'd come to stay for the night) I came here, to the computer, to veg for a while. I grabbed a Mellow Yellow and started surfing.

It wasn't long when I started to feel a little icky. My main thought was that maybe I'd already had my fill of pop for the day. Do you ever feel like that? It's kind of like Thanksgiving when you've eaten too much. Know what I mean?

Claire was up until 11:30 and after she finally fell asleep, Nathan was coughing so bad I went and gave him some medicine. Finally at 1am, it was time for me to get some rest.

When my alarm went off at 7:10, my stomach was gurgling - nonstop. Justin got up to help get Nathan ready for school and to spend some time with his dad before he left.

I got out of bed and was beyond dizzy. I'd planned on working until 11 and then running to SF for some supplies and then finishing up my day from 3-5 at the salon. I took a shower and then laid back on our bed. I felt better if I didn't move. Standing up was even a chore.

Finally, I realized that I wasn't going anywhere. I called work and someone took my morning client. I had another client at 4:30 that I told them I'd come in for. I was sure I'd feel better by then.

Justin went to the store for me and got some Gatorade and soup. I slept from 11ish till just after 2. When I woke up I knew there was no way I would be able to go in to work. I called in and told them that I was feeling worse, not better. They assured me they'd take care of my 4:30 for me.

I laid on the couch from 2ish until almost 5 when it was time to get the kids. I had no idea how I was going to care for my children. I knew one thing for sure, they were having supper from across the street.

Finally at about 6:30 I started to feel a little better. Now this morning, I feel pretty good - so far. The flu has been brutal for our small town. Most of the time I escape it, but not this time.

Airbrush Make-up

I'm super stoked!

This weekend I'm going to a class to learn how to do airbrush make-up. I simply can not wait.

Friday night we'll travel out to Pierre and then I'll continue to Kadoka on Saturday for the 6 hour class.

I've wanted to learn airbrush make-up for quite some time. I'm very eager to learn all about it. My poor clients have been hearing me talk non stop about it. Actually, they are quite excited about it too. I hope to be offering it by prom. I think I'll have the technique down by wedding season for sure. I just have to get the product out there.

Some of the benefits of airbrush make-up:

• It lasts up to 10-12 hours without fading
• It feels unusually light to the touch
• It won't rub off on your clothes or anyone you come in contact with
• It covers wrinkles, blemishes, birthmarks and tattoos

Excited yet? Totally! Me too!!!!

This and that - take 5

I have a lot of random things to talk about, but you're getting another this and that.

Nathan had to make a habitat for school. He could choose any wild animal that he wanted. He chose a bear. I told Justin that this was really more for him and asked that he help Nathan with it. He was more than happy to do so.

Check it out.....

I loved the cave they made. Nathan had a great time learning about bears.

Friday night it was Madison vs. Milbank in boys basketball. It was just Nathan and I that went, but Claire thought she needed some makeup too.As you can see, she looks as though she lost a fight. She was quite proud of herself though. After getting ready it was on to the game.

I was scanning the crowed to see if I recognized anyone. There were a few people I knew, but not near as many as I thought I might know. One of my best friends from high school has a daughter who was cheering. It was good to visit with her for a little bit. (Heather, she was so sweet - and she's so pretty!)

It was finally time for the varsity boys to come out. Nathan went with one of his friends to give the guys 5's.

Once they come out, they do this.

Then they run through and give the kids 5's. In this first picture I cut Nathan out. Nice! This time I got Nathan, but cut off the players head. Oopie!

Hey! Who's that behind the pom-pom's?

It would appear as Dawson and Nathan are dancing with the cheerleaders, but really they are trying to catch stray balls as the boys shoot around before the game.We lost to Milbank - horribly. Milbank played great. Their boys didn't miss a shot. Our boys looked horrible. Horrible!!! We had fun nonetheless.

Saturday was Dawson's birthday party. We had a really fun time bowling with the kids. I didn't get any pictures of the kids bowling, but I did get a few others.

Caymen got a little upset when Tracy tried to take off her sweater.

But once she ate cake, she was fine.

Auntie Chell was giving Jack some cake. While she was doing a good job..........Jack thought maybe if he just picked it up off her plate, that would be better. Check out the smile on his face. So cute!!! =)

We had a really fun weekend!

My adorable companion

I've been busy with other stuff and have been wanting to tell you about my new companion. I can't even wait to show it off. So there ya go!
I know! FUN! Do you think it's a little much? The color on our monitor stinks, so I'm not even sure you're getting the full effect. The color is much like a green Skittle. F*U*N stuff!Seriously, I can't get enough of it. It's a smaller purse than I usually carry, but it was so cute! Are you about jumping out of your chair trying to find out where I got such a cute bag? Here of coarse.

Wait! Who's that trying to steal my adorable companion's thunder?Oh! Hi there, Roo! I was taking pictures of my companion. Yes, of coarse I know that you too are my companion. Ok. Ok. You've officially stolen my purses thunder. You deserve it. :)

Awww, Roo. You're just too precious!

Happy 6th Birthday, Dawson!

While looking through pictures I came to this one. This one is so precious to me. This was taken at Dawson's 3rd birthday. Well, it wasn't on his 3rd birthday, but close to it. His daddy was on his way back from Iraq, serving our Country on Dawson's 3rd birthday.

That would be Claire in my big pregnant belly. We meet her 2 months and 1 day later.

Dawson and Nathan have never known a life without each other. Tracy would bring Dawson over after Nathan was born and we'd take pictures of the boys. Dawson has always been bigger than Nathan, longer, taller. In many of our early pictures, it looks as if Dawson is holding Baby Nathan.

Claire told me the other day that she loved her cousin Dawson. I didn't correct her, because I feel the same way. I feel that he's my nephew and I have so much love for him. (Claire also told Nathan the other day that he [Nathan] was her favorite cousin. HA!)

Tracy kept the little kids the other day and one of her daycare girls told another child that she must know who Claire is - she's Caymen's best friend. How sweet is that? We loved it!

Tonight we'll go out for supper and celebrate Dawson's birthday. If you'll remember, I missed it last year. (I read that post and started bawling.)

Happy Birthday to such a special boy!

We love you, Dallas!

Seriously Tracy, I couldn't resist.

Dr. Psychic

Last week when I took Jack to Dr. Psychic, I wish he would have looked farther into his crystal ball and told me that a week later I'd be the one feeling like a$$. Knowing would have been helpful.

~Later

Tough crowd

No school

Nathan didn't have school on Friday, so I took the day off and headed to Sioux Falls. He had to visit the dentist for another filling. He took the valium this time without much problem. It is horrible to watch him in that state. He looked totally off his rocker. I told him that the dentist wanted him to take it to make him relax. He kept telling me how relaxed he was. While I was happy to hear that, seeing him look as if he'd just conquered his first 6 pack wasn't much fun.

Everything went ok at the dentist. He has such a sensitive gag reflex - like none I've ever seen. The dentist gagged him so hard that he threw up. He did ok though. I would have fallen apart at that point, but he didn't. He got one filling and needs another. They couldn't get him to take x-rays so the dentist didn't know how far she needed to drill. She said she thought she'd be able to do it better at his cleaning in April. I had only one thing to say - Good luck! He doesn't take valium for his appointment and if she thought his gag reflex was bad on Friday - just wait until April. We'll see I guess.

I told Nathan that I'd give him a surprise if he did well at the dentist. He did great so we headed off to Chuck E. Cheese. As we pulled into the parking lot he said "I wish Dawson was with us". I'd actually considered bringing him, but Dawson hasn't ever been to the dentist and if Nathan was going to freak out then I didn't want Dawson to then think the dentist was horrible.

We played for almost 3 hours. Check out this picture we had taken.

Are you kidding me? I about peed myself when I saw it. I asked Natey what he was doing and he said "Well I was trying to smile where you told me to look!!!" Oh, well you missed the mark. :) HA! It kept me going all day. That's some funny stuff right there!

Anyway, we both had a great day. Today the kids don't have school either, so Natey's going to Dawson's for the afternoon. He's only been asking since Saturday.

How about a kiss?

Blah

I'm totally over winter. Seriously. I'm over it. When will the sun shine? WHEN? I'm over you, winter. Go away!

I have sick kids. I'm about to talk about vomit. You've been warned.

On Saturday night Claire got sick in her bed. Justin and I were up late and didn't go to bed until 1:30. I've had a lot on my mind and I needed to get it worked out. After going to bed late (did I say late?), Justin woke me up an hour and a half later asking me to clean up Claire while he changed her bedding. Ick! Just what I wanted to do. Ish!

Then Monday night Jack threw up in his bed. This time I woke up Justin and asked him to clean up Jack's bedding while I took care of Jack. Natey came down in all the commotion only to discover his 101 degree temp. He had goosebumps a mile high. Freakin' fantastic! I got Natey some Motrin and put him back to bed. I held Jack while Justin got his bed put back together. Fun stuff.

Justin stayed home Tuesday with Jack and Claire. Jack had a temp which obviously means no daycare. Then yesterday at breakfast, Claire threw up out of the blue. I'd already made an appointment to take Jack to a doctor here in town (HUGE MISTAKE - keep reading) and planned to take Claire to daycare early. Well, she obviously couldn't go to daycare after throwing up. I put her in the tub, called Justin to see if he could come home, and ended up taking Jack to the doctor.

I had no idea how smart the doctor was. How lucky for me. (I wish you could see my face. Belch.) I knew Jack wasn't well. He was panting and his heart was racing. The doctor - without a blood sample - told me that Jack has Para Flu and/or RSV. Hmmm - all that without a blood sample? I told him that Jack had the same thing last year at this exact time and was in the hospital for a week. The doctor said that he didn't need to be in the hospital 'just yet'. He looked in Jack's ears and said 'they are pink, but not bubbling'. Bubbling? Bubbling? What in the heck does that mean? Bubbling? Ick!

Whatever.

He gave us a prescription for his non bubbling ears and sent us on our way. I had no idea that RSV could be diagnosed without a blood test. Lucky us.

Hopefully he does better today. Our daycare provider said he could go back to daycare today. Actually, she probably would have accepted him either day, but I didn't want them to go. I just want my sick kids to feel better.

That's all.

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day.

His Idol

On Friday, Justin came home early from work to stay with the little kids while I took Nathan to the game. Thanks Babe! The Bulldogs were playing Sioux Valley. I was pretty excited to go to the game because I know quite a few people from Volga.

When we walked in, we saw the little brother of Lance Tolley, Natey's sport idol. He said "Lance wrote on some things for him" and pointed to Nathan. We were in a hurry to get sat down so I just said "Ok" and continued on our way.

We found Tracy and got seated. I think it was before the varsity game (I'm not sure and it totally doesn't matter) that Lance's little brother brought these over to Nathan.

This was written on the back:

So Nathan made him this:

It will be sent in this:

I know that Lance is too young to understand how sweet this all is, but maybe someday his little boy will have his own high school kid that he'll look up to and it will come full circle.

Stress

I didn't realize how stressed I was working at 911. I really liked my job, but as things would turn out, I was really stressed.

My salon life is very different. I've had people walk out not loving what I did to their hair, but it doesn't stress me out.

The other day I spent 6.5 hours with a 16 year old girl who'd taken color into her own hands. In between her color correction, I did 4 other clients which had color, wax, 3 cuts and 1 style. While I felt bad that the girl had to spend most of her day at the salon, she's the one that turned her hair an ugly black color and wanted me to fix it.

Yesterday the owner of our salon asked me how the color turned out. I told her that the final product was pretty, however it took 6.5 hours and more steps than I'd anticipated to complete the project. The salon owner said "Wow! I bet that stressed you out, right?" I said "No, not at all. Hair clients don't create stress for me. Stress is when someone is yelling on the phone that they're being beat up by someone they thought loved them and needed help 5 minutes ago. Stress is when someone wrecked their car and their friend is trapped in the car. Sending a fire department in the opposite direction of the fire (which I once did) - that's stress. Hair? Hair isn't stress."

She smiled.

Ahhhhh prospective. Such a beautiful thing.

Once again - I bring you the mohawk

That's a pretty fancy mohawk you have there Jack. Just think, by the time you're 15 it will be cool.

You think I'll still have this stupid thing when I'm 15????

Dear Kerrie

I'm writing you today to ask you some serious questions. My first and most important is WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME?

I've been trying to figure it out for almost 3 months. I just can't come up with anything. I promise to make you feel better, yet that isn't good enough for you.

You're acting like a snob - a SNOB, Kerrie!

You say you're tired. You say you don't have energy. I'm here to help you.

Why don't you like me?

You hold your end of the bargain for a few days. I hold up my end and you start to feel better. You lead me to believe that everything is going to be fine. Then I start to see less of you. It isn't long and I realize that it's been a week since our last interaction.

I sit and wait.

Nothing.

I'm very helpful, yet you choose not to use my aid. I help you get things done. I give you the energy that you seem to crave. Why is this so hard for you? I just don't understand.

Your behavior is unacceptable, yet I long to help you. This is so easy, yet you choose to make it very hard. It's not just hard on you - it's hard on me. It's hard for me to watch you be as tired as you are. Come on Kerrie - snap out of it!

I'm not going to beg.

Well, maybe a little......

Come back to me, Kerrie. COME BACK. I miss you!



Until then,
Your Potassium Pill