My Randomness......February birthdays?!

What to type.

What to say.

Hmmm.

Oh, yeah! Gabby is finally feeling better. The mono and strep tests are all negative so far. They will call on Monday with the final strep test results. This is a good thing! She was unable to go to the doctor this morning to get released from her injury - just too sick. Rescheduled for Monday morning at 8am - love being the first appointment of the day! She will remain on the BRATT diet through tomorrow. You know - bananas, rice, apples, tea and toast. She is not real thrilled with the tea and toast aspect and was so excited when I brought the bananas home.

Abby has a volleyball game in the morning so I won't get to sleep in. I really would like to. I slept on the couch last night and Gabby slept on the love seat. My back is feeling the effects today.

I got to start working on the new cupcakes at work. I did not get enough done to actually put them in the display. We need a lot of 6 packs to fill the space and I only got about 10 packs filled. Two of those packs are already spoken for by my girlfriend. She was so excited that she is going to have them tomorrow night when her company comes over. They are way easy to put together but it does work better with two people otherwise the ice cream starts to melt and you don't want that to happen. So one of the day shift gals got trained on how to do them. I'm hoping that I'll get the help I requested on building some cakes. The owner wants the cakes to be built up. I'm afraid that with the economy they will go to waste but he is sure they will sell. I hope so!! We did have quite a line today for awhile. And I took one phone call asking about cakes. We will see.

It is still freezing here in the middle of Illinois. But for some reason it does not feel as cold. Am I getting used to the single digit wind chill? It actually felt warm in the sun and it was only in the teens today. Weird! Right now I am freezing for some unknown reason. Well, I am drinking iced tea so that is probably the reason that I am shivering from the inside out :} DUH!

I picked up my niece's birthday present today - she will love it and if she doesn't I want it back! She will be 16 next week. It is hard to believe my Katie bear will be 16! She is totally going to kill me for calling her that but she calls me Aunt Weiner so all is fair :} If you wanna know more about my nickname you can go here.

There are a ton of birthday's in our family in February. I just checked - there are 5. February is such a short month. How do we get so many? Well, I know how we get them but really 5 in February? Hey, you guys, can we move a birthday or two to another month of the year? August looks good. Only dad has a birthday in August! Ok, we will do yours and yours in August - got it?! You don't wanna move to August? Sesh, its not like you own the day or anything and who really likes birthdays once you are an adult anyway?! Fine, we will leave it but know that you would have gotten a way better and cooler card if we moved it to August. I'm just sayin'.

Well, I better call it a night. We are enjoying some much needed down time tonight. Praying you are able to do the same!

Hugs,

Jeanette

Almost done with this week!

Whew!

I made it through - only one more day until Friday :}

Gabby ended up staying home today and we got her in to see the doctor. They checked for strep, which I doubted anyway because she does not have her tonsils anymore. It was negative but they still send it in for culture. He then sent us on to get some blood work. His only thought was possibly mono. One of her friends at school has it. Thanks for sharing!! If they tests come back negative, then she probably just has a virus. I drugged her up so she should be getting tired and heading to bed. She has a doctor appointment at 9am for her injury and we are hoping they will release her to play sports again.

Let's flip to the next sicky in the family.

The MIL.

She had a doctors appointment today and they were to draw blood. My SIL went with her - MIL was angry!!! My SIL actually called the nurse practioner yesterday to tell her about the "episode" with forgetting the words on a page. She was very interested in this information and when she saw my MIL today, she listened to her heart. She is having a dopler test on Monday. My SIL said your heart should sound like running water if everything is work properly. Hers sounds gurgly and clogged. Hmmmm, probably because it is! When she told me MIL was angry I laughed and said maybe she should try to not keep things from her kids and that if she would quit lying about her health we wouldn't have to do what we are doing. Pretty much discussing issues with her healthcare provider and going to every doctors appointment because we just don't trust her! I'm just hoping that the extended family hears about it because then they would know that we ARE taking care of her and she is the one being the stinker.

OK, enough of the MIL!

Tomorrow is the big day. I get to make the yummy new ice cream cupcakes at work. I'm so excited! The day shift girls are excited too - they kept asking yesterday when we were going to start making them. I think they were having a hard time waiting too :}

Abby's volleyball team won their set tonight. Abby was so excited - she got the game winning point by spiking the ball! She was all giggles on the way home.

Totally off subject, don't you love The Office?! I could never work in that office but it just makes me laugh. "You have to tolerate alot when you're part of a family...." Amen!

Hugs all and thanks for the encouraging words!

Jeanette

I give up.

I was just about done decorating cakes today when I get the call.

You know the one.

The one you get from the school telling you your kid is sick.

BLAH!

Again?!

Gabby was just sick on Monday and stayed home from school. Back to school yesterday and today I got the call during her last hour. Don't know why she couldn't wait 1/2 hour before school got out but she couldn't.

I'm stumped by her ailments. Headache, chills, dizzy, nausea after eating, glands under her tongue hurt. No cough, runny or stuffy nose or fever. Is it just something going around? These symptoms don't add up to me. Am I missing something? I was leaning toward sinus but without a cough or nose issue I just don't know what to think. She will be going back to school tomorrow as long as she is not throwing up. I'll give her some meds and send her on her way. Praying that she will make it through.

I need to be putting in some major time at work the next few weeks. I am told that past years have shown cake sales the two weeks leading up to Valentine's Day total about 80 cakes. YIKES! Add that to the special cake (strawberry and sweet cream ice cream mixed with strawberries with yellow cake) and a new line of cupcakes coming out and that all adds up to lots of work. The cupcake ingredients came in today so we had to experiment. The owner gave all the workers a sample. They are YUMMY! The bottom part that is usually paper is actually chocolate and then it will be filled with cake, fudge, ice cream and whip creme topping. There are three different flavors. I am hoping to work on making them all day on Friday so we can start putting them into the display. I think they will sell great. They are packed by the 1/2 dozen and you can pick a single flavor pack or a variety pack of the three flavors.

I have not had a great week but at least it is almost over. Before going into work tomorrow I will be decorating a cake for my DH to take to work on Friday. They will be saying goodbye to all the retiring folks that took the retirement package that was offered. I am sure it will be a rough day for some as they have called Cat their work home for many years. This time has been stressful on my DH. He has taken a bump up the ladder and is working with the guy who took his place. He is putting in at least 15 hours a day. In to work by 6:30, home about 5ish, maybe gets a workout in, hops back on his laptap to work on emails and such until about 11pm. This is our life for awhile. I am not complaining, at least my DH has a job and isn't in his last days with some horrible disease like my friend, Angie's husband. I'm sure she would give anything for her husband to be able to work 15 hours a day!

Sorry that I am such a downer tonight. I just don't have anything left to give. I need to get into God's word before I go off to bed. I'm praying that will settle my spirit.

Hugs all around!

Jeanette

What to do about my MIL!

How is that for a title?

I don't know how you all handle you MIL's but I have to be completely forward and honest with mine. Although she does not always return the favor. She has been alone in the house since my FIL died in October 2001. He pretty much kept her in line and would be VERY upset to see how selfish and "poor me" she has become. She has a martyr complex so she would rather be in pain because that would somehow make her a better person in other peoples eyes.

My MIL is in her early 70's (she just had a birthday last week). She has recently started having health issues. She has herniated discs in her back and it is looking like she has coronary cardic disease. This would not be a surprise to us has ALL of her siblings have had strokes. She is the youngest of 13.

So, I called her last night to see how she was doing and to see if she had gotten the results from her last blood test. She said the results showed abnormally high and she wasn't sure if it was because of the arthritus or if something was wrong with her heart. Well, I looked it up. Something is wrong with her heart! Shocker right?!

Apparently last week when my SIL and her kiddos were visiting, she was reading to the kids and looked at a page and couldn't read what was on the page. She said she knew every word but she couldn't get her brain to work. She did not say anything to my SIL because she did not want her to "worry". WHAT?! Basically she is having "mini" strokes. Nice eh? But I don't want to worry anyone!

One of my DH's cousins called her yesterday and asked her why her kids weren't taking care of her. Why her kids had not gotten her in to see a real doctor and why she had not seen a back doctor yet? On and on and on..... EXCUSE ME?! Ok, not that this is any of her business but when MIL does not tell us that something is going on, how do we know?! I plainly told her this - "how do we know when you don't tell us?" "Why is it our fault that you are stubborn and won't tell anyone when something is wrong?" "Well, if she can get you to go to the doctor and she can get you in to see doctors faster than have at it baby." YES - I said that to her point blank. Her response, "I know, I know!" Gggggrrrrrr, if you know, why don't you do something about it?!

Three of the four kids are at their end and don't know what to do. The fourth one is so involved with herself that she does not care unless she needs money then she knows where to go. But that is another story for another post!

So, what do we do? She has said more than once that she would be happy to die. Yeah, that makes EVERYONE feel all warm and fuzzy inside! We are frustrated and really don't know how to get through to her. She has said over and over that she does not want to have to live in a nursing home but that is were she is headed.

I spent the day at her house today to see for myself how she was really doing. She did great all day and really only has mobility problems when she goes from sitting to standing. She did get another med for her pain but only because I told her I would call her doctor if she didn't. My SIL is going to go with her to her next appointment on Thursday. Don't get me started on her "doctor" aka nurse practioner, who can't get all they blood they need all at once but have her continually return for "one more test". I am hoping that my SIL will take care of that on Thursday. I am all for going into a prompt care and having them do it all - which was exactly what I was going to do today if ANYTHING came up.

So, there you have it. My life will be revolving around my MIL for awhile. Please pray for her! Her name is Merrielle (Merrie for short). And, yes, if you haven't already guessed, she can be stubborn! But aren't we all?!

Hugs to all my blogging buddies!

Jeanette