It's taken me...

two weeks to get around to updating this darn blog!

Don't get me wrong - I seriously had good intentions! Every day, as I sat myself down to check my emails, I planned to update. And then those emails would lead to phone calls, or orders to be packed, or problems to resolve. Then there are kits to pack, product to enter, stamps to design.

And wouldn't you know it? The kids demand to be fed, too.

There just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day!

But I persevere because I love what I do. And I love my family enough to feed them 5 times a day. Even if they take me away from my blogging...

So what's new?

Well... alot. Since the admission of my Tony Stark/Iron Man/RDJ obsession, there has been kit packing & shipping, thunderstorms & soccer games, 9-1-1 calls & ambulance rides, and a trip to and from Metro Airport in Detroit. See? Alot can happen in my life in just a couple of weeks!

Our June kit shipped out on the 26th. I wonder what the Canada Post employees think when they see me, with my dolly and stacks of pizza boxes, coming up the ramp. More often than not, I've got one or both rugrats in tow, and they're both carrying a box or two, too! Someone's going to call me on child labour, one of these days... ;)

The hot, muggy weather has hit southern Ontario and with it, comes the volatile thunderstorms and rain. Last week, it started to rain very hard in the afternoon and we were sure that the soccer games were going to be cancelled. We picked up the kids and after taking a little tour of the houses in a subdivision closer to Connor's school (found a few that we liked!), we thought we'd drive by the fields, just to make sure....

Big mistake.

They were playing! I kept Aili in the car, in disbelief that they would send the little ones out into the cold rain! She was crying because she wanted to go out, but thankfully, they called the game and didn't play at all. Her coach stopped by the van and was completely drenched!

Connor's team, on the other hand, were on the field, warming up! Connor was bound and determined to play so since he hadn't changed at Latch Key (thinking the game was cancelled), he hopped into the back of the van and was out of his clothes and into his soccer kit before I could even attempt to change his mind! Of course, there were only about 8 kids on each team, so they RAN for the full length of the game and were covered in mud, shivering from the cold!

And to top it all off, they only TIED 2-2! Might as well not have played! But they had fun and that's all that matters. And I thanked my lucky stars that Connor showed restraint when I saw some of the other kids running and diving headfirst into the mud, much like you would do on a Slip 'n Slide! No amount of Tide is going to help those poor moms!!

Last Saturday, I had a bridal shower to attend. I was so excited, as it was one of my former co-workers from a previous Shoppers and I haven't seen her or the others in a while! Elaine and I were going to drive together, which would give us a chance to catch up too, since we haven't seen each other lately either!

Well, par for the course, Aili woke up at 5am, complaining of a tummy ache. She crawled in with us for a few hours, but was feverish and grumpy. We started with the acetominaphen to keep the fever down but around 11am, I checked her as she lay on the couch. All of a sudden, she went into convulsions. Her mouth clamped down and it looked like she was swallowing her tongue! I began SCREAMING for Gary as I tried to pry her mouth open. I finally managed to pull her chin down long enough for her to take a big deep breath, and then her eyes immediately rolled back in her head and she began to drift in and out of consciousness.

In the meantime, Gary finally heard me (as did all of our neighbours!) and he rushed in and called 911. By the time the paramedics had arrived, she was breathing normally, but was still drifting in and out. They checked her stats and took blood to rule out low blood sugar but still wanted to take her into emerg to get her checked out.

On the ride in, she slept and thankfully, the paramedics got the nurses to take Aili right in, so we didn't have to wait. They were all enamoured of her curly hair and big wide eyes - they gave her a "boo boo" bag, filled with a colouring book, crayons and an adorable stuffed monkey (which we later named "Chunky"!) They took more blood and urine samples, and a chest x-ray. The doctor finally determined that she had an urinary tract infection! And the seizure was just a result of the spike in temperature.

Of course, after the samples were taken and the x-rays were done (during which she was a little trouper!), she was raring to go!! With a prescription and her goodie bag, we were out the door, within 4 hours of the start of her seizure! It's amazing how resilient children are!! My nerves, on the other hand, were shot! And of course, I missed the shower. :(

The only other downfall is that she HATED the meds and it was a chore to administer them 3 times a day! Although there weren't any more of the normal signs of the infection (pain when voiding, fever, tummy pain), we continued the course of the drug until Friday! So hopefully this is the last we see of it!

On Friday, Aili and I drove Gary over to Metro Airport in Detroit to catch his plane. He was traveling Detroit to Seattle, then driving up to Port Coquitlam for a wedding of a friend of the family. We were both supposed to go, but at the last minute, pressure from mounting deadlines for me forced me to opt out.

Unfortunately, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup the night before and we were heading over the border right during the peak period for traffic for the parade!! It took us nearly an hour to just get through Customs! Aili and I hoped to get some shopping in, but I was afraid that the traffic coming back would prevent us from getting home in time to meet Connor after school.

With a nice hot weekend ahead of us, the kids and I packed up and headed to my sister's house for the weekend! Luckily, her kids are all home this summer and the boys, aged 19 and 22, were fantastic with the kids, entertaining them in the pool all day! While Aili slept and Connor battled the boys on the Wii, Liz, Sarah and I scrapbooked - or rather, Sarah scrapbooked and Liz and I tried to reorganize our stuff! I finally have everything back in order - I cannot scrap when I'm not organized!)

But the mojo wasn't flowing anyways and although I started a page with the new July kit, it just didn't come together. So we just swam and ate, ate and swam all weekend! The kids slept so well - we definitely need a pool!!!

Sarah came to stay with the kids on Monday night as I head over to Michigan to pick Gary up. His plane was about 30 minutes late, so we ran into a humdinger of a storm! The sky was green, visibility was near zero and the rain was pelting down! Add to that the fact that I wasn't quite familiar with the area and it made for a white-knuckled trip!

Gary headed back to Detroit last night to see Rush at Joe Louis Arena. Sadly, his original partner in crime, our friend, J, was sent out of town on assignment so he missed it! :( Luckily, a co-worked of Gary's was able to make it. J's wife, D, offered to watch all of our kids if I wanted to go in his stead, but Rush is definitely NOT on my list of priorities! Now, had it been U2...

So there's our two weeks in a nutshell! And I just received some FANTASTIC news from my editor at Canadian Scrapbooker about an upcoming article - which I can't share just yet! But soon hopefully...

Thanks for reading this far! ;)