Tag / Alex

by Greg

Target Practice

Kirstie - the live targetToday just after lunch, Ian and Alex were testing out a new Nerf dart gun set. It apparently includes a vest with little targets on it that presumably one or both combatants would don as they battle it out.

In today’s test however, Kirstie was wearing the vest. (And the cool, protective googles.) And she was stationary.

(That was the best part!)

So, big brother Ian was taking shot after shot at his 5 year old sister, while she just stood there and took it, giggling each time a dart would hit the target. (Other big brother Alex was collecting darts and reloading his older brother.)

One of many funny moments in the Campbell household. It’s certainly never dull around here. 🙂

by Greg

Cooperation

Yesterday the kids were all having trouble coexisting, and it was driving a very tired Mommy crazy! So, after they made peace with Mom, (and on a bit of a whim on my part) I gave them an assignment. All four of them were to work together to create a story – typed up on one of their computers – to present at dinner time. I gave them an outline of four things that they could decide that would help them craft the story, and I insisted that each of them had to have contributed a part to the story.

When it seemed they understood, I left them to their task (and that left Mom a couple hours by herself while the baby was sleeping!)

I stopped by a while later to see how it was going, and they were working beautifully together! They all had little chairs set up around one computer where the biggest brother was doing the typing. They all seemed engaged, and the best part was… it was working! They were each being considerate of the other, welcoming and accepting each other’s ideas. They were just being nice!

I actually couldn’t wait to hear the story they were producing, too! 🙂

Just before lunch time (probably a couple hours later), Ian came up and announced that they had finished, and asked if they could read it at lunch, instead of dinner. I smiled and agreed. Really, all that I had wanted to happen had already happened… the fun story was the “icing on the cake”. Still, I was quite interested to hear what they had come up with, all from their own little brains!

I think I’ll post it here, exactly as Ian typed it. The title is, “Picnic Mystery,” … enjoy.

Picnic Mystery

There once was a family who’s name was the Schroders. The kids names were : 1. Aaron age 17

2. Scott age 15 3. Victoria (Vicky for short) age 14 4. stephanie age 12 5. antonio age 10 (tony for short) and then there is Momma,Pop. Now lets start the story!

We begin in Idaho the Schroders (who lived on a farm)were going on a picnic. They were bringing balogna sandwiches,a ceaser salad,apples and bananas,and ice cold lemonade,and last but not least Momma had baked a blueberry pie. Aaron and Scott were helping Pop in the fields. Vicky and Steph were helping Momma pack the food and other things that you bring on a picnic. Antonio went to tell the other boys to come in and wash up.
They started off, they were going to the park that was about half a mile away. They had cleared a nice path that they liked to walk through every once in a while. When they got to the park they decided to play a game of softball and then they would eat after the softball game. Momma did not want to play so she was the ump. They chose Aaron and pop as the team captains. Tony and Vicky were on Pop’s team. Scott and Steph were on Aaron’s team. They started the game and the first team to bat was Aaron’s team and he was first to bat. He it a triple and Scott hit a homer and they both scored. Then they struck out. So it was Pop’s teams turn Pop hit a single then Vicky hit double and Tony hit a triple and then he tried to score but he got tagged. There was no more scoring so they called a tie and ate. When it was time to eat the pie was missing! They looked everywhere but they couldn’t find it and momma said she would make another so they started to go home when suddenly Antonio shoutd “Hey look up there the squirrels have our pie”. SPLAT!! The squirels droped the pie on Atonio. They went home and Antonio cleand up.And Momma made another pie and enjoyed withOUT any squirrels.

Made on a mac

Written by Ian,Alex,Kirsten and julia

by Greg

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Folks

It all started last Monday. Meaning, ten days ago or so. The previous day we had a mini-birthday party for our oldest daughter, Kirstie. Some friends came over, we played games, we sang birthday songs, we ate birthday cake, we opened birthday presents. It was wonderful. But that night, pretty sure it was the middle of the night (isn’t it always?) Kirstie threw up.

Now, let me tell you something about my wife’s genes. See, the Walker clan have this thing where, when they throw up… they don’t stop. So, the same seems to be true for most of my children. And Kirstie is no exception.

The rest of the night wasn’t too bad, but there were a few episodes, and it continued through a lazy Monday, till Kirstie perked up by evening. That seemed to be that. At the dinner table that night I even admonished the children to make sure to get their sleep this week, and be sure to keep drinking lots of juice and water. “That should keep us healthy,” I spoke wisely.

Should have listened to my own advice…

Wednesday night, having had no further evidence of this strange, short-lived stomach bug, we entertained some friends. They hadn’t visited our home before, but we had a grand time. They are game players, so we played Dutch Blitz literally into the wee hours of the morning! They and their three young boys stayed till around one in the morning! It was a blast, but the girls were up till after 11pm, and the boys didn’t go to bed till 1:15am or so!! We were all exhausted, and I had work to do after they left, so it was around four in the morning before I was in bed!

Needless to say, that pretty much exhausted us. But we were not done.

Thursday held more of the same. It was a long day of being tired – and a full office day for me. Work is very busy at the moment, and especially so last week as I had a short week due to one last day working at the Apple store (meaning I had one less day to get web work done in my office). So, a long day of work, and a tiring day of tired kids for Jen… we probably should have been done. Instead? We went to visit our good friends who live WAY too far away for the evening. We knew our limitations, and made sure to leave not too late… got the kids (and us!) in bed by 11:15pm or so. (Well, I was in bed a tad later…) 🙂

Needless to say, that pretty much exhausted us. But we were not done…

Apple days – especially the closing shift ones for me – are very long days. I had a lot to finish still, so despite the tiredness, I got up around eight to start my day. I call those my twelve-hour days. Usually 8:30am-8:30pm. That’s long and hard for me, but equally hard for Jen. So, it was a very long, hard, tiring day… piling onto our already exhausted family.

Ohhhh wait. How could I forget?

Friday morning at 5am, the craziness started.

Alex woke up enough to get to the bathroom sink, and threw up in the sink. What was that I had said about getting lots or rest and making sure to drink fluids… wait… what was that first one again….

Right! REST!

So, having less rest than ever… sickness took hold of us, slammed us to the matt, held us in a sleeper hold, added a pile drive or two, and then pinned us to the matt again, down for the count. Really. It was that bad.

After Alex, Julia started getting sick. Both of them were sick on Friday, as was I. I felt a bit queasy on Thursday night when I went to sleep, but made it to sleep and didn’t think too much of it. Felt well enough to go to Apple on Friday – and wasn’t going to call in sick my last day there anyway! BUT, probably about three hours into my day there, I began feeling definite signs that I was definitely sick. So, I pressed through, but that was probably not very smart. Came home that night – exhausted – to a family exhausted from a day of sickness.

We went to bed that night, hoping we had endured the worst of it.

As I recall, that night passed relatively peacefully. In fact, on Saturday, it was only I who felt bad. I woke up feeling exhausted, achy, head-achy, and a tad queasy. But, there was a houseful of germ-infested, sickness-filled bedding to clean! So, I set out that morning to eliminate the germs right then and there. I opened every window, and removed, washed and dried every piece of bedding on every bed. It was quite an undertaking. I sprayed every surface I could think of with Lysol. The house was completely free of germs when I was done.

Or so I thought.

After completely exhausting any energy I may have had left in my body, I collapsed on the couch around dinner time and began feeling really, really cold. I hadn’t felt like eating much all day. I think I had a bowl of soup for lunch. Whatever was going on, it was not good! We had canceled out on a trip to Buffalo that day for a big extended family birthday party, and as I laid on the couch barely conscious and shivering, I was really thankful we had not made the trip!

I also began wondering about the next morning. I really wasn’t sure I was going to be able to sing as planned. The brevity of the bug passing through my children did give me hope, but mine seemed different. I went to bed around 11 that night (super early for me!) and just felt awful. If I hadn’t been exhausted, it would have been hard to actually go to sleep, I think. I was thankful that no other children were throwing up, though. That was a positive.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, Emma woke Jen up, or was it Julia? I don’t know, but she didn’t sleep very much. (And I certainly was no help! I woke up at 2 or 3am, so achy that it hurt to even breathe! Somehow I found a position that allowed me to go to sleep, only to wake up drenched in sweat a little while later!)

What a miserable few days!!!

Oh right, and it was Daylight Savings Time. I lost an hour of sleep that night. Nice. 🙂

Magically, I woke up at 6:40am, right before my alarm was to go off, and was neither sweaty, nor achy… and felt pretty OK! I rolled out of bed and got ready for the gig. All was pretty good, even mostly didn’t have a head ache. I was grateful for my healthy body and perhaps even more for the quiet house around me. That was a great sound. I began thinking we had finally made it through.

I’ve got to stop thinking that…

I instant messaged Jen in between first and second service and found out that the baby was now sick 🙁 Poor little Emma, whose first birthday is only days away, was not only throwing up, but it was about every 15-30 minutes! And, it was kinda strange looking, so it was definitely a concern to Jen – and now me! I had to go back to work, so with a knot in my gut – for Emma and Jen, not from a stomach bug – I sang my songs, then went back and talked to Jen on the phone. We were both praying that God would just remove this sickness at least from Jen, but I think from all of our household, too!

I got home and helped with Emma. Jen had her wrapped in a towel to catch anything she might not want to keep down. But actually, she had started getting better already. She was pretty happy, cheery and playing. We were so glad! Everyone else seemed pretty good, too, and Jen and Ian were crossing their fingers that they had somehow escaped this pesky bug!

Meanwhile, reality set in for me again and I had a pretty hard rest of the day – still quite achy, not very hungry, exhausted, and even cold/shaky. Not good. But when my body saw it’s chance to rest, it took it. I was in bed pretty early that night.

Oh wait… 🙂

Before I went to bed, Ian, who had just been saying that evening, “I feel just fine, Mom,” … yes, you know. He made it to a much cleaner place than most of the small children, but … it was only the beginning. In true Walker fashion, there were many more episodes for Ian that night and through the next day.

“WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END???” we wondered, simply exhausted. (But, admittedly, getting rather good at the whole vomit triage routine…)

I had another hard night – just strange overpowering flu symptoms. Jen did, too… no one has been sleeping well for quite some time in our house. Thankfully, most everyone was so exhausted that we did sleep in Monday. All of us. I still worked several hours in my office that day, but committed to not working more than a half a normal day. And indeed, that’s what I did. I think that was helpful, as there was no more aching, nor was I exhausted. There was also no more throw up happening in the house from the early afternoon on. It appeared that we were finally done.

Tuesday came and went without any trouble, so we even went out for a little pre-birthday treat for Julia (whose birthday was the next day) at Burger King. All did well, and we were home and in bed by a pretty normal Campbell bed time. Nice!

The Part You Just Can’t Make Up

Yes folks, as if that all wasn’t bad enough…

All day today (Wednesday) was very good. No throw ups. Much less exhaustion. All was getting back to normal. Had a fun birthday day -doing lots of fun things Julia wanted to do. Some of it was making fun things in the kitchen with Dad. We made a green birthday cake, which we later iced with green icing, and topped with green sprinkles. Then for dinner, she helped me make green pancakes and some sausage, to boot. (She loves the color green, can you tell?)

We stuffed ourselves with all of the green cuisine, and celebrated our beautiful little girl. Even made it to bed, and were settling down for the night when…

“Mom!” came the troubled voice from the top of the steps, “Julia threw up!!” Big sister Kirstie was appalled and so were her parents! WHAT??!?!? NO WAY. NO WAY! Again???

Sure enough… Julia had thrown up, so we began the clean up process. Jen started in on the mess in the room and I began prepping a bath for little Julia.

This is shocking… prepare yourself…

Not two minutes later, from downstairs we hear, “Ian is throwing up!!!”

YOU. HAVE. GOT. TO. BE. KIDDING. ME.

No one was laughing.

It was true, but thankfully, I could tell something was different about these two, nearly simultaneous incidents. Both Julia and Ian showed no after effects. They were completely happy, alert, and totally fine after spewing their dinners on the floor. (Wish they could have found a better place for them…) My best guess is something that we ate was not “kosher”. Jen has already gone through the leftovers and some of the ingredients (the eggs in particular) and appropriately disposed of them.

But seriously, folks. How much can we really take? Do you know how much laundry we have done in the last 11 days? How many times we’ve changed sheets, pillow cases and blankets? How many times we’ve said, “Get the bucket!”? 🙂

Really, really crazy. From the stomach bug, to, what? Food poisoning? Not sure, but … can it please stop?

I’m hoping that by chronicling it, I’m putting an end to the story. Perhaps the pen is mightier than the germ? Let’s see…

THE END

(I think that probably did it.) 😉

by Greg

Who You Know

I was thinking tonight about how things have happened in my life. I got to chat briefly with a long-time, good friend – Adam – whom I do not get to really share life with any more. He and his family live in another area of the country, and aside from the occasional conversation over electronic mediums, and the even more occasional (meaning, almost never) in-person conversations, our friendship is mostly something from our past.

We can always pick it up again, whenever we strike up those conversations. But with such distance geographically, and chronologically, our friendship is definitely different than it was “back in the day”. (When I would say he was probably my closest friend.)

What is so interesting though – perhaps only because I’m thinking these things after two in the morning? – is how when you look back on life, it’s so cool to see how all things do work together for good. God crosses paths at just the right times. Somehow, reminiscing about the good ol’ days with my friend Adam reminded me that his friendship with Jen (and the words he spoke when he introduced the two of us) eventually brought five super-awesome people into the world.

Not directly, of course. Not even intentionally. But it happened. Adam knew Jen, and thought she was awesome. He said, “Jen’s the kind of girl you could marry,” meaning the general you, but … truer words he never spake. 🙂 Now eighteen and a half years later… I can’t imagine my life without Jen, and God has given us five tiny people to love and to be Dad & Mom to. Crazy.

That’s the other thing. Thanks to my friendship with Adam, I met Jen. Many years later, we married, and God added to our family… and not just “some people” but specifically, Ian, Alex, Kirsten, Julia, and Emma. Those are the specific people that God created – from me and Jen – and he wanted us to be the ones who were Mom & Dad to them. Sometimes that blows me away. Other times it just makes me smile. How cool that God set it up that way. He is the giver of life, and he has given these specific lives to our care, and us to them. So cool.

So just remember tonight (or, likely, this morning or later) that you are who you are supposed to be. All your strengths, and all your weaknesses. You are also in the right place, and in the right relationships, and perhaps you are even the Mom or Dad you are supposed to be. That doesn’t mean complacency about destructive behavior or relationships. It does mean that when you start to doubt your worth, or your impact… it’s time to remember that YOU are the perfect you.

Who knows what will be credited to you eighteen and a half years from now?

by Greg

Are You Ready For Some Football??

NFLNFL football is back! The regular season starts this week with a game featuring the World Champ NY Giants and the Washington Redskins on NBC Thursday night, a full slate of games on Sunday (including the BILLS GAME!), and then a double-header on ESPN on Monday Night. I can’t wait!!

The Bills are looking really good this year. From the coaches and the offensive and defensive schemes, to the players, established and new… it really could be a fun season to be a Bills fan. (I know I say that pretty often, but… seriously. Just watch…) 🙂

The start of the season also means that it’s time for Dad & the Boys to make their weekly NFL picks! 🙂 I almost feel like I am looking forward to that more than the football 🙂 It was lots of fun last year, and should be even more fun this year! We’re doing the whole season this time!

There’s a cool Facebook application where you can make picks and compare your results against your friends… it’s called Pro Football Picks, if you’re interested.

So, just a few days away… let the games begin!!

by Greg

One-On-One, Full-Court… Football?

This weekend we did get some pretty decent weather, despite a good bit of rain, and we took advantage of it!

On Sunday afternoon, the boys and Kirstie and I headed up to the high school football field (just a few blocks from our house) and we found our way in through an open gate and played one on one football (Ian vs Alex, with Dad as the QB) … using the FULL FIELD!!! Kirstie ran right along with us, too. They would get the ball at midfield to start (no kickoffs) and they even had me kick extra points and FGs! 🙂 (I went something like 4-5 on XPs and 0-2 on FGs… not too good!)

It was a blast, and they were quite exhausted at the end! 🙂

Can’t wait till next time, though!!

The night concluded with a walk for the whole family around a couple blocks, and a visit with some new friends who live close by. We met them on the way and walked with them back to their house and visited for a while. They have three little girls about the age of our little girls.

As the kids were all playing in their front yard, Alex lost a tooth… literally! It came out of his mouth, and he lost it in their yard!! 🙂 Ha! The Tooth Fairy still came and left him a dollar in his (empty) tooth pillow, though. 🙂

A fun, full weekend of being a family of seven. Even got a visit from Jen’s bro and his son. Very nice. Hopefully a good recharge for me. Busy week ahead!!

(So, may be kinda quiet here!)

Definitely enjoying this season of life though. We love being the Campbell family. 🙂

by Greg

Big Family Shortcuts

I have noticed that with so many children around here, I am needing shortcuts when referring to them every now and again.

We already had “the boys” and “the girls” before for easy pairings. We also call Kirsten & Alex, “The Twins” because they really look a lot alike, and are similar in other ways, and are the two in the middle. Well, they were.

Now are getting even more creative.

First there’s Mom & Emma, who spend a lot of time together these days. We call them either “Momemma” or “Emmamom”. Both are equally fun to say.

Then we have, “The Oldies”. These are the three oldest kids, who are not our babies.

Then I came up with a clever way of referring to two kids at a time using former (or current) Buffalo Bills players’ numbers. For instance, Ian and Julia are “Frank Reich”. This is because Ian is the first born (#1) and Julia is fourth (#4), so together they are 14, which is Frank Reich’s number.

The combinations are pretty fun.

Ian and Alex? Jim Kelly. Kirsten & Alex (if we’re bored with “The Twins”) are Beast Mode (nickname for Marshawn Lynch, #23). Ian and Emma? Todd Collins. (I know! Good one!) 🙂 Alex & Julia? Terrence McGee.

Pretty good system, I think. 🙂

So, life as a big family continues to be very interesting, and tons of fun. More stories to come, I’m certain of it!

by Greg

Shorties

Since computer (and especially blogging) time is limited… please allow me to share some fun stories/thoughts using another list-style post…

  • Julia just turned two, but she is the smartest cookie in the bunch sometimes. This week she has been really helpful with the laundry. I don’t always know whose clothes are whose, but she does! Seriously funny. And helpful! Also, she is a great talker (though sometimes hard to understand). Maybe one of the cutest things she says is when she’s really excited about something, she says, “Yay-uh”. (Pronounced like a souther gospel preacher, which I’m pretty sure she’s never heard…) 🙂 Hilarious!
  • The Sabres won tonight. They keep stringing me along. They sit 5 points out of the final playoff spot with only 12 possible points remaining. Thanks to some good scheduling, the team we are chasing (Boston) is our opponent for two of those games, so we can possibly make up 4 points in those two games. There’s still a very outside chance they can make the playoffs, but I’m really not optimistic about any chance of advancing if they do. We shall see…
  • Michigan State has worked their way into the sweet sixteen in the NCAA tournament. (Which is now only the terrific twelve or something after last night’s games…) They really have a good team this year. Solid rebounding (as always) from our big guys, Namick & Suton, and a stellar freshman Kalin Lucas, as well as solid scoring threats in Morgan, Allen, & Gray. Ohh yeah… we also have that guy Drew Neitzel… he’s pretty good. (If you don’t know him, he’s a senior, and he was fanastic as a sophomore at least, and has only kept getting better.) 🙂 They play Friday (and hopefully Sunday). Friday’s game is against the #1 seed in the South region, Memphis. 9:57pm tip off on CBS. Well worth watching!
  • Kirstie just oozes nice. It’s incredible. If there is ever any “not-niceness” between anyone in the family, Kirstie steps in to the edification of the one not-niced. Every time. She’s so great! Such a gentle heart. She’s my little lover. She often tells me, “I just love you, Dad!” And then gives me a big hug, and often a big kiss. Well, as you can guess… I just love her, too. 🙂
  • Sometimes I really can’t believe how old Ian is. He is nine, and definitely becoming his own person. We can see the things he really likes to do. He even talks about it. He’s starting to figure it out too. He’s very creative. He too is a gentle spirit. (Sometimes too gentle. 🙁 Easily crushed.) He’s an artist. He’s such a people person. Loves people. Could be his weakness actually (people pleasing) but it will also be a great strength. I’m honestly a little nervous about this transitional stage. Will I(we) handle it well? Will we be able to encourage Ian as he really begins becoming a unique individual? It’s a very interesting stage for all of us. I think we are merely on the cusp, but we’re definitely there. All we can do is just love him, train him best we know how, and live out what we say. And overall, make sure he knows that he is completely safe with us any time and always. That may be harder than it sounds – or I may just think too much. 🙂
  • Alex is TOO picky! Argh. It’s been quite a struggle with people bringing us food (a bunch of new stuff he hasn’t really seen before) and getting him to eat. Not to mention the great Easter candy he knows we have… that’s quite a distraction as well. 🙂 It was funny today when we were dealing with all that again for the 17,000th time that I actually thought of “the kids in India” when I was so mad at his pickiness. “You know, the kids in India don’t have any food! They just eat rice, if they can find any!!!” (Not sure on the accuracy of that statement… but thought it was funny that I actually thought it, and sorta used it. I am truly a dad, and truly old.) 🙂
  • Emma Caroline couldn’t be cuter. 🙂 Funny story from today… we got a new monitor so Jen can be down here and Emma can sleep upstairs. All of a sudden we heard a screaming baby in the monitor! Yikes! What happened?? That was not normal. (Although, she has had a tendency to “freak out” at times…) So, Jen went to help her – but she was sound asleep. Completely still. Weird. When Jen came back down, Emma started freaking out again! Worse than before! Very, very strange… Jen went back up… Emma was completely still!!!! Finally, we sent Ian up to check while we stayed down to listen… you guessed it.. we were picking up someone else’s baby!!!! Ha! Very weird. Kinda funny… very weird.

Much more to tell, but no time, and no energy with which to tell it. Must sleep.

by Greg

Progress Report

Well, it’s been a little over a week now that we have been home from the hospital with our newest family member, and it’s even been a couple days since any of us has been sick. (Not sure which one of those bits of news is more welcome at this point…) 😉

Today was a fun day, actually. There were no scheduled visits, which although greatly appreciated and enjoyed, do not really allow for any sort of a schedule to the day. Not so this day. We got a lot of cleaning done (even finally vacuumed) and finished 4 or 5 loads of laundry (and a few loads of dishes). We read library books in the morning before taking a walk up to the library (all seven of us!) and getting some more books! (We read some of those upon our return home!) We even had time to run some errands (the four older kids and me) which included a stop at our favorite ice cream place – CHILL & GRILL – for an end of the day treat!

It was a really fun day. 🙂

We also took a break in the middle of the day (after lots of serious house cleaning) to play a game, just Dad and the three oldest kids. That was fun. I am thoroughly enjoying spending so much time with my kids. I love this part of having a new baby 🙂

There have been a few fun kid moments over the past couple days…

Last night, after a looong day of fun on Easter Sunday (which included your normal easter fun as well as a visit from our friends the Chis and two trips to Chill & Grill!) Alex snuck upstairs to get ready for bed and as I was coming up to put the boys in bed, Alex said, “Wait, Dad! I’m almost done!” He was very happy about it, so I let him finish what he was scheming. When I got up there, I saw Alex putting the finishing touches on cleaning the bathroom for Mom & Dad. 🙂 He said he knew we were tired, and he wanted to do that for us. He cleaned the sink, and even used “just a washcloth and some water” to clean our toilet. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Very cute… a little gross… but very cute.

Tonight as I was bathing the girls (which I remembered that I needed to do after I had already gotten the girls in the jammies for the night…) Kirstie was almost done and she said as I was washing her off, “Dad, when you need me to wash you off I’ll just do it for you, OK?” 🙂 Again… very cute.

There have been many cute moments like that this last week or so, and I am so thankful that though it’s been super hard work (lack of sleep, lots of extra sickness, lots of extra visits, and just being behind already from the 3 days at the hospital) it’s so totally worth it, and there are many fun/amazing moments with my kids that I am definitely blessed to have.

That said… there’s not much time to do the stuff I’m wanting to do (or needing to do!) as is evidenced by a blog post at 1:00am 🙂

Tomorrow we have a visit from some friends in the morning, and then in the afternoon we’ll hopefully be getting our new van seat, which will allow us all to (legally) go somewhere as a family of seven! (Right now, our van only seats six.) 🙂 Oh, and then another friend will be bringing us dinner. Probably a good day for that!

At least we’re not still sick! 🙂

Oh, and Jen and Emma are doing great. Jen was feeling pretty bad at the end of last week (which is why I am still not back in my office officially) but feeling lots better now. Things are definitely progressing.

I may have to post some more Emma photos here pretty soon… Still working on the video, too. 🙂

by Greg

Sickness Invades The Campbell Home

Jen (the pregnant one) has been sick (on top of the discomfort of pregnancy) over the past couple weeks with a few various ailments, but it didn’t stay with her. Kirstie has been complaining of ear/head/neck pain off and on for almost a week now. This morning, Kirstie was still very lethargic, and her oldest brother Ian joined her in her illness-induced lethargy.

The sickness canceled our plans for today. Which were quite plentiful.

Well, the two other kids and myself were not feeling sick at all – in fact quite the opposite for the “evens” (kids #2 and #4…). They were quite loud, boisterous, and generally making life more miserable for their sick siblings.

I decided to take the healthies out to Wendy’s where a group of friends generally gather every Sunday afternoon. Was even hoping to catch our nephew there who turned 20 today! (Yes… I am old…) 🙂 No luck there, but there were about 6 or 7 families represented, so it was definitely a nice visit for Dad who is a “people person.” 🙂

Untill…

Half way through our time there, Alex started showing signs of lethargy as well, and even ended up laying his head down on the table at one point. 🙁 He removed himself from the group (sat at a nearby table, not very like Alex with his friends) and just seemed to be getting exactly what everyone else had.

Scary thing? So did I.

As we were leaving, all of a sudden, my neck started aching, and I just felt very weird… maybe light-headed, but not that bad. Just tingly all over. Made it through that, enjoyed lunch, but felt a little strange all the way home. When we got home we put the new sickie in bed, and that’s when it hit me.

COLD!!! I could not have been colder! I got under 6 or 7 blankets, all the way under, and turned the heat up! If you know me, you KNOW that something is wrong! 🙂 I really didn’t feel lethargic, but still had an achy body all over, and had the chills som’n fierce!

So, I had some tea, put on my warmest sweatshirt, and took the rest of the day a bit easier.

Dinner was funny. I just reheated some leftovers for all the sickies (which is all but Julia!) and no one really wanted much of anything. 🙂 I still ate a decent amount, but definitely didn’t taste right.

Right now, at a VERY early hour for me, I’m gonna down some NyQuil® and hit the sack! Might not wake up till 10 tomorrow! 🙂

Here’s hopin’!