So, Hi!

Well, as much as I know you all love my excuses, the last few weeks have been very... MORESO than usual. Sickness, drama, sadness, amusement, chaos.

The usual ingredients that make up 0ddness.  And I'm not even sure where to start, so in no particular order, this will be a generic catchup post (and, likely, veeeery long winded!)

Germs & Stuff
The Easter holidays got off to a stonking start.  Not.  Dominic came back from skiing in Austria, went to his dads, and spent time with his poorly half-brother.  Germs that he promptly bought home.  The night he came home, he felt a bit poorly.

Then started puking in the early hours.

Ever notice how sickness & diarrhea viruses strike in the night?  I don't think I can recall dealing with someone at, say, lunchtime, developing such a bug.

So, that night I was scrubbing a bed, washing sheets and a duvet, while Kellie and Dom spent the night in the living room so she could keep an eye on him.  All night, and most of the following day, he was a poorly boy, and Kellie was exhausted.  So I took the other three, and we spent the day wandering Gloucester Park, feeding ducks, and I exhausted the kids by making them run up the big hill.

That night, it was Mollys turn.  Kellie was still knackered, so I was on puke-duty, but thankfully, she didn't have it quite as bad as Dom.  He was full-on being sick, bursting blood vessels around his face and such like.  Molly, however, was puking in her bowl, rolling over and going back to sleep.

So the following day, Molly slept in bed with Kellie, Dom was fine, and Jaysen & Tam went out and about doing stuff.  Kellie developed a dodgy tummy, but wasn't sick, but I confined her to bed regardless. 

Sod. That,

That night, Jaysen took the role of Pukemaster.  So I was up and down with him, and again, it was nothing like when Dom had it.  Wake up, puke, wash hands and face, brush teeth, take clean bowl back to bed.  The following day, Jaysen stayed in bed, and the other three were kicked out.  Kellie was better but drained, and I was running on fumes, fully expecting Tam and/or me to be next.

But we escaped!  She was fine and dandy (though bored of being told which child was off limits that day), and I was just exhausted.

The shitter of it all, was that with Dom being away for Kellies birthday, plus Jaysen & Tamsyn being at Jo's for the week, we were all going out for a birthday meal for Kellie on Friday with family and friends.  However, with everyone having been sick, we decided to postpone it.  The second shitter, was we were supposed to go out on the Saturday as well, but again, we said no no no to that, just in case.  Saturday, I spent the day in the front garden trying to find a "lawn" and "flower beds" and removing all the rubbish that had blown onto it.  It was boiling hot, and no matter how much I drank, I was gasping.  By the evening, I could hardly move.  Oops.

Sunday, however, we were invited to Dianes (the Future 0dd Mother In Law That Irons Bed Linen) for a barbeque and some drinkies.  As no one had been ill for a few days, we said hell yes - we needed out - and went over there first thing Sunday.  We spent the first half of the day in the sun in the garden, having a few beers and eating, then in the afternoon we headed over to the beach and spent the afternoon sunning ourselves there.  Well, Kellie, Diane and Jon flopped on the sand, me and kids went crab hunting.

That evening, Diane me and three kids home.  Molly went to her dads, and Kellie spent the evening with her mum and Grandad.  On the way home, I felt a bit sick.  Not germy sick, not car sick, but sicky.  The boys, Tam and Me got in, sorted ourselves out and chilled out for a bit.  I was drinking water as I felt really peculiar.

Tam came into the lounge chatting to me and Dom, and my stomach sounded the alarm.  "Attention, these contents are evacuating. Now!"

I was out the chair, virtually threw Tam onto the armchair out the way and barely made it to the sink.  WOW was I sick.  Dom has never had the pleasure of Dan puking, and I've always warned them that I sound like a very badly injured cow being probed with something electrical.

Tam nipped upstairs and grabbed me toilet paper, Dom ran around getting me a drink, Jaysen rushed off to grab my tooth brush... After the shock of being sick passed, I felt MUCH better, but exhausted.  Dom put Tam to bed, Jaysen made sure I was OK, and I just flopped on the sofa.  One of the boys phoned Kellie to let her know I was sick too for good measure.

And that was it for me.  No more sicky feeling, no more being sick, just exhausted.  The general consensus is I spent two days in the sun and that my brain boiled a bit.

Ho Hum.

In other medical news - Kellies testing and probing is still on going.  The last batch of tests revealed precisely Sod and All, and last week she had another blood test, of which we're waiting on results.


Chaos
The reason for the front garden getting blitzed was thanks to my housing people letting me know that our roof is getting replaced.  Being the house is flat-roofed, and three stories in the air, they needed to erect scaffolding.  So I decided in my wisdom to trim the grass.  I say trim, it hadn't been cut since October/November of last year, so it was more like a meadow.

I strimmed it back, thinking it'd be wet underneath, but it was only a bit damp.  With the brilliant sunshine and April heatwave we had, I figured it'd dry pretty quickly, so I raked it off, and collected all the rubbish up.  Then mowed the lawn.  The weeded the flowerbeds. Then trimmed the bushes.  Then laid slabs under the front window.  Then washed the front window.  And washed the window frame. Then repotted a load of plants and lugged them into place on the slabs.  Topped up Bethys cherry tree.  Spread compost under the bushes.

HOURS I was out there and knackered out, but it looks sooo much better.  The scaffolding out there now looks shite, but Arwen is enjoying jumping onto it from the windows, so at least someone is appreciative of it!

Additionally, Kellie has now started working again, albeit in a temporary role covering Kerrys maternity leave. Monday to Friday, 9-5, and she's loving it.  She's in an office working for Kerrys dad in his asbestos testing/removal company, and while it's busy, she is really enjoying herself.  The chaos aspect?  Trying to get through to various government departments to tell them of a change of circumstance.  HELLISH! Three or four hours to talk to two departments.  And we still have two to go!  DOH!


Drama & Sadness
In miserable news, my poor little Sally dog had to be put to sleep last week :(  For regular readers, you'll know that Sally has been a poorly doggy for almost three years now, to and fro the vets every two to four weeks, pills, shampoos, lotions, potions, injections, biopsies... You name it, the poor little mutt went through it.  The official line from the vets that shall rename nameless was that she had an auto-immune condition that caused her body to have serious issues with her skin and tried to remove it.  The checks for bugs and tumors and cancers and everything else, but apparently no, just the autoimmune stuff.  And a gammy leg-joint so she limped a bit.

Over the last eight months, she has rapidly gotten worse.  The vets line never changed.  It didn't matter that she spent most of the time wetting herself, that she was losing weight, that her eyes occasionally gummed over.  The cure for ALL that was "Shampoo once a week, special wash once a week"

A few weeks back I decided something had to be done for her, and called the vet.  They said continue with the shampooing. I called rescue charities (no one will want an old sick dog), I called the RSPCA (we don't take unwanted pets), I called the vets (shampoooooo!)... NO ONE wanted to know.

But last week, a lady from the RSPCA turned up on the doorstep.  They'd had a report of a neglected dog from a neighbour. She came in and spent time with me and Sally, and I plonked all the medical reports on her lap, all her drugs and stuff, and she said it was obvious she WASN'T neglected, but that she was definitely not well.  And that at her age, anything invasive would probably spell the end, and said maybe the best thing for her would be to put her to sleep.

It was shit, a horrible decision, but I know it was for the best.  The lady was really nice, really supportive, and said it was clear she was a well loved, looked after dog - and to get a white boxer to around 15 years old was well impressive.  So go Sally Dog.

She came back a while later to let me know it was all done, apologised that it had to be done, returned her collar and lead, and let me know that she went very peacefully, wagging her stupid tail the whole time.

She even called me the day after to make sure I was OK.  So full marks to the RSPCA, even though they didn't listen to ME, they came through in the end.

But wait.

Yesterday, RSPCA Lady is back on my front door step.  Very apologetic.  "We've had another report about neglected rabbits" she said.  So back through she came, into the garden, and spent time with two fat, well fed, fluffy bunnies that are anything BUT neglected.  Yes, they need a larger cage but we're still waiting to grab the other half of the Bunny Mansion.

So went through her paperwork and said its obvious they are well fed, looked after, but to make sure they get their bigger cage and are able to exercise more.  Fair enough.

But it would seem that we now have a neighbour that is being a fuck head.  If said-neighbour was that worried about the bunnies, then surely when they reported Sally, they would have reported the bunnies at the same time?  But no, this was another, new complaint.

The really pissing-us-off thing is, as far as we know, we've never annoyed or angered any of our neighbours.  The new people next door can't see the rabbits from their garden, which means it has to be someone to the right.  The old couple next door would have knocked on the door if they had any concerns.  There are newish people on the other side of them, so I am wondering if somehow we've annoyed them?

Kellie got in from work and I let her know.  She was reeeeally pissed off.  The bunnies are her pride and joy (her babies, as she calls them!) so she called the RSPCA and explained to them what is going on, and has *cough*politely*cough* asked them to inform the person reporting them that no action has been taken, and to kindly keep their noses to themselves.

Other chaos in Chez 0ddness... Well, we've shifted some bedrooms around which was a complete MISSION.  The boys had the medium room, while Tam had the large room.  So we swapped them.  The boys, however, live like complete and utter slobs, and it took an entire DAY just to clear the rubbish out their room.  We then had to disassemble beds and sort through toys and clothes, move stuff, relocate stuff, move stuff, reassemble stuff...

I'll also skip the part of dropping a fully-assembled bed on my noggin.

In total, THAT little shebang took three days in total, but is much better now.  And now Kellie is getting ready to start decorating.  Mollys room first (it's the smallest!), followed by Tamsyns room, and finally, the boys room.  They are currently in a girl-decorated room, and are not getting their room done until they can learn to keep it tidy, bring down dirty cups and glasses, and bring down their dirty laundry.  The last MOUNTAIN of gross clothes is still a work in process.

Oh yes, and the tumbler has died as well, so the laundry is taking ages.


I'd like to say "that's it!" but I am sure there is more stuff that I am forgetting... It has literally been one thing after another, getting into routines, then having to change those routines, and trying to get some semblance of order in our little world.