Our 15th Week ~ 2014

Our 15th week was interesting {ahem}.  The weather has been getting nicer and nicer so on Sunday after church, we loaded up the bikes and went for a ride on the trail.  Except for Nick who stayed home because he wasn't feeling great.  And his bike "sucks" (from leaving it out in the weather).  Nick ended up missing school Monday and Tuesday because he was sick.  He doesn't have the mumps, which we already knew (if you will remember from last week, one side of his face was swollen so they tested him), but he did end up with a cold and a sore throat and cough.

Alex was complaining that his ear was hurting on Monday morning - not inside like an earache, but outside.  I checked it over and didn't see anything so off to school he went.  He didn't have a fever or anything, so I figured he wanted to stay home because his brother was staying home.  He went to the nurse a couple times.  She called me and we talked about the situation.  She checked his ear and didn't see anything either.  Monday night, shortly after he went to bed, he came back down and told me he had some dirt in his ear that he couldn't get out.  Upon closer inspection I discovered that it was actually a tick.  Tucked down in the corner.  (see the below picture)  It wasn't engorged or anything, so I figured he got it Sunday on the bike trail.

(Photo courtesy of bigstockphoto - I added the arrow)

He freaked out a little and then cried great big crocodile tears while I removed it, which wasn't an easy feat considering where it was located.  Even though I tried to distract him by letting him play on the Kindle while I did it.  :)  His ear was still red and swollen Tuesday morning so I called the doctor to see what they thought I should do.  The nurse suggested I have him checked just as a precaution, so I took him in that afternoon.  The test for Lyme's can't be done until 10-14 days after a bite, so he got put on an antibiotic to help with the infection/swelling.  He wasn't crazy about having to take medicine until he tasted the pink stuff.  Apparently it tastes pretty good because he reminds me when it is time to take his medicine.  :)  Within about 36 hours the swelling and redness went away and he is feeling fine now.  He would like to get the blood work over with though and asks me every day when we are going to get it done.  Even with all those needles poking him while we are in the hospital for his appendicitis in 2012, he is still nervous about it.

Anyway, things pretty much got back to normal by the end of the week.  I got to run outside a couple times thanks to the gorgeous weather we had.  Had lunch with a friend on Friday.  Slept in Saturday morning - the first time in a long time!  Went to the symphony with Doug Saturday night.  The last concert of the season.  And it was fabulous!  The special guest was a 14 year old violinist who was incredible!  I really wanted Keira to go with us, but she opted to go to a youth group activity.  My in-laws came in to hang out with the boys.  I didn't realize how long it had been since we last saw them.  

I am still participating in Fat Mum Slim's photo a day challenge for April.  I am really enjoying it.  It gives me a reason to pick up my camera every day.  And challenges me to get creative, which is something I need right now.  Here are a few pictures from my week that didn't already get posted in Sunday's Scavenger Hunt ...

I took my camera and macro lens with me on our bike ride on Sunday.  Just in case I saw any flowers along the trail.  As you can tell, I did.  Though this is probably actually a weed.  Still, tiny yellow flowers among all the brown was a welcomed sight!

Tuesday's prompt was hobby.  I had Keira help me with taking this picture because I was too lazy to set up the tripod.  Plus I did a lot of running with taking Alex to the doctor and then trying to find where his prescription was and was running out of time.  (They called it into the wrong place but we eventually found it.)  Keira actually made this scarf for my mom but didn't know how to finish it off, so I did it for her.  Go Black and Gold!

Wednesday's prompt was dark.  I ended up using a different picture for that because I didn't like the background of this one.  We will need to try this again sometime.

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have already seen this one.  Friday's prompt was 3 of a kind.  I had this idea in my head and Keira was nice enough to help me make it work.  I took three pictures of her, each in a different position, then made them into one.  Don't ask me how I did it because it took a lot of playing around in Photoshop and I'm not sure I remember exactly how.  :)  It isn't perfect but I still like how it turned out.  Cool and creepy at the same time.

So that was my week in a nutshell.  I hope you had a great one!  We had 80 degree weather yesterday and are supposed to get snow tomorrow.  Ugh.  But it won't stick around because it is supposed to get warm again by Thursday.  Hoping the clouds clear out so I can see the "blood moon" lunar eclipse that we are supposed to have happen tonight.  I guess I will have three more chances between now and September 2015 though.  I love stuff like that!

Linking with Tamar.

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