I think that Tyler and I have caught that nasty flu that has been making the rounds in our family. Tyler suddenly felt wretched yesterday, he was shaking and had cold chills, and he had to leave work and go sleep in the employee changeroom because his head was aching so bad. I know it's bad for your liver, but Ibuprofen is wonderful for when you feel reaallly sick.

He's better today, because I dosed him with vitamins and put hydrogen peroxide in his ears to kill germs, and made him a healthy supper of chicken & garlic soup from scratch. (It was really yummy, by the way! It didn't have any onions. Ha.)

I'm feeling better than he is, but I'm still not 100%. I've fought off the yucky feeling with lots of lemon tea and vitamin c, plus good old fashioned rest and relaxation, but now I have a new problem. I want to get stuff done!

Sickness has a way of throwing a wrench into all your carefully laid plans. You have all your tasks laid out for the day, and you feel quite happy to have a list that you can check off. You're in control of your tiny little universe, and to you at the time, it's all good!

Too bad we aren't actually in control, and our lists mean squat in the face of God's plans.

The good news is, God is a master planner. Whatever you thought would be the perfect way of doing things, God has one better. Even when it seems that everything is going down the toilet, you can trust God that He will deliver on His promise that all things work for good for those who fear Him.

So I may not have finished everything on my list today, but I did get to minister to my husband (in sickness and in health, right?), which just helps him know a little bit better how much I love him. Even though I don't like it that he's sick, I'm glad something good came of it.

Now, to boil the kettle again. Lemon tea with honey is very soothing for sore throats.

I'm so lucky to have a husband who can work a saw with no difficulty. I'd probably chop off two of my fingers, and possibly a leg, if I was the one operating that thing. Power tools are not my forte. I take pictures of other people working power tools.

It is fun to see a room come together, though! Something that last year was just a mess of tools, a table saw, stacks of insulation and 2x4s (which aren't exactly measured 2 x 4, just so you know) plus lots of sawdust, is now starting to look like a room.

We're not ready for painting yet, and that's the part I'm most excited about. Painting is my forte, as are colours and matching colours. So much fun! I'm thinking blue, bright and vibrant blue, with an almost turquoise tinge. I'm very adventurous with colours, at least in my mind. I don't think I'll be the type that thinks to myself "Yeah, blue! Amazing blue!" and then chickens out and buys beige paint. Boring ol' beige. At least I hope not...

The reason I am a pill-popper today

GROSSS!

This is what happens to me when my immune system is compromised by a wheat infiltration. I ingested some wheat bran that was hidden in the vitamin B 100 complex I was taking for a few days, about four weeks ago... and I'm still experiencing side effects. One of my weirdest side effects is this funny skin rash that comes without warning for seemingly no reason.

I had a little tiny cut on my big toe, which kept on rubbing against my sock, which was irritating to me. So I put a bandaid over it. The next day my toe was swollen to twice the size!

I'm not specifically allergic to the adhesive of bandaids, I think I'm just super sensitive when I've had wheat. Anyways, it's very itchy and annoying, so I've been taking an antihistamine to try to calm down the reaction while I dose myself with vitamin C (gluten free, I've made sure!) and put melaluca oil on it every few hours.

And that is why I am a pill popper.

It's a beautiful day!

Brady and I had cabin fever today. We needed to get outside, and take in the sun!

I'm boundary training Brady, which means a lot of walking around and around and around our one and a half acres. Repetitive, yes! Boring, no! At least not for Brady.

"What's that! Oooh, a stick!"

"What's that! Oh, oh, a little piece of rock!"

"HEY COOL! A bug!" gulp

No, Brady!

I don't let her eat weird things, usually, but the bug disappeared rather quickly. Apparently they are crunchy and full of yummy goodness. I wouldn't know... I don't eat bugs.

She's so cute! And very smart. She's already learning how to heel, and when I start running she knows to run right beside me, not too far ahead or CHOKE!

Leashes are wonderful.

Anyways, the exercise, warm sun, and of course the antihistamines I've been taking (I'll tell you about that some other time) all worked together to make me very sleepy by 3:00. I was going to go to Goderich today, but instead I'm staying home with my hubby (who is watching more playoff hockey), and I'll work on my scrapbooking.

I love these lazy Spring days.

Scrapbooking!

I started my scrapbook today. I'm so excited! I have been planning on doing it for so long, I just didn't have my pictures developed.

I blame Uncle Gary. He put this cool new program on my computer, Photoshop Elements, and with it I could do so many neat things that I just couldn't get my wedding pictures developed as they were! I cropped pictures, erased power lines, took away zits and hornets, chopped heads off and put new heads on, and a bunch of other cool stuff!

Bad, bad Uncle Gary. But thank you!

Anyways, I finally got my pictures, and today when I got home from getting my hair done (whee!) I started my scrapbook.

I finished my first page, which only took me four hours. Ish.

But it was so much fun! And now I'm hooked. I was using all my cool toys and tools that I got for scrapbooking for Christmas (thank you Tyler!) and man was it fun.

I'll probably work on it a little bit tomorrow before I go away, too.

I enjoy working. I actually do! It feels good to do a job well, get it done, and then relax at the end of the day.
I don't just mean work as in an outside-the-home job, I mean work in general. I like washing my floors. I like making meals and putting away laundry. And, with Spring finally here, I LOOOVE getting out and raking up last year's mess!

Goodbye, old musty leaves!

Goodbye, hundreds and hundreds of chestnuts that fell from the massive, ancient tree in my yard!

So long, sticks and dead grass!

Smell you later, dried up dog poo!

And so on.

Some people might call me crazy, but raking the lawn is one job that I actually feel an itch to get done. I've been driven batty this week, because with the busy-ness of life, I haven't been able to get more than a half hour into my lawn.
There's a back room to work on with my hubby (drywalling a ceiling is rather difficult, by the way!), the in-laws are renovating and so we've put in a couple evenings there, I went to get my wedding pictures developed (FINALLY! Yes!), and that's my whole week eaten away.

Today the sky was sunny all afternoon, until we got home. Then it was rainy.

Sigh.

I'd rake tomorrow, but I'm stopping at mom's for a visit. Maybe I'll get an hour or so in after we get home..... but probably not.

I'm hopeful for Saturday morning, because I won't be working, but then again, I do need to get my hair cut.

So many things to do, so little time!

Someone please tell me that life isn't always this busy!










Stop laughing at me.

Love is.... not complaining when your husband watches 4 hours of TSN.

It's playoff time! Whoooooooooo!

I'm learning how to be excited about hockey, basically because I'm gleaning information from the conversations my husband, my brother-in-law, and Owen the Breeder-Barn guy have during break at work. That, and I don't mind watching Sportscentre with Ty. It is actually interesting! Especially when you start to recognize names and numbers of players.

"Hey! I know that guy! He scored a wicked goal against the St Louis Blues last September! He should ask for a trade because you know that the Bluejackets are a dead-end team, they're not going anywhere!"

That's right. I speak hockey.

For a girl that grew up in a house where the only hockey we ever watched was the occasional Stanley Cup playoff game (usually featuring the ever-toiling, ever-failing Leafs) and besides that, zilch, I do pretty good keeping up to my hockey-crazy relatives.

I heard a rumour that Roberto Luongo (only one of the two best goalies in the entire WORLD) has asked for a trade from his do-nothing team, and one of the teams that he mentioned he would like to be traded to is the Ottawa Senators. I would LOVE that. Ottawa is my favourite team, and Vancouver is Mike's. Don't think for a second that I wouldn't rub it in for the rest of his life.

"We got Luooongo and Youuuu Dooon't!"

That would be truly sweet.

I'm quite happy that I'm able to enjoy something that I would be forced to watch anyways. If I'm going to watch something for months on end, I may as well get pumped up about it!

WOOHOO!

Bleh

I am not the party type.

Well, I do like to have fun and dance and visit with family and friends, but staying up late and drinking some and waking up with a headache is just not my thing.

I have absolutely no desire to do anything at all today. But I have to move my sluggish arms and legs, because I have a 55th anniversary celebration to go to.

Bleh.

Hopefully the leftover chili I had for breakfast will give me some gas for my engine.

CRASH! Thump.

"YOU CHEATED!"

"Twice!"

"Actually, three times. HEHEHEHEHEHE!"

"AHCK!"

CRASH thump bang bang Crash KENG!

Ah, the melodious sound of competitive air hockey. My husband, against two little flaxen/ash blonde harpies.

The screeching is what gets to me eventually.

"AAAAAAAR! AAAAAAAAAR! AAAAAAAAAH!"

It seems like a small puck made of plastic is especially vexing to the harpy kind. It causes a kerfuddle.....
Especially a puck driven by an annoyingly talented, slightly cheatering, and shamelessly mocking man.

But, I can handle the peace and quiet of my house broken up by the occassional air-hockey playoff, because it means company is here and I do enjoy company.

Even the screeching harpy type.