Stomach Flu

This year, I got my flu shot at work so T didn't get one.  So..... guess what he got instead?

Last Friday night, I picked T up from Elena's.  Since it was Friday, he laid around watching tv.  I noticed he didn't snack and hadn't finished the pizza pieces he'd brought home from Elena's.  By 8pm, he was complaining about a rumbling stomach.  I could hear it from the other side of the room.  At 9pm, he was still complaining.

And by 9:30, he had his head in the toilet.

I was hoping this was something he'd eaten and that that was the worst of it.  So we gathered up all of our furry blankies and jumped into my bed so I could keep an eye on him throughout the night.  We gathered up a few towels too and placed the trash can beside him....just in case.

From 9:30-11:30, he tossed and turned grumbling and groaning in his semi-sleep.  I couldn't sleep.  I was just waiting for a vomiting explosion.  Instead, he woke asking for some water.   I brought him some pepto bismol too, hoping that it would calm his rumbling tummy.

After I medicated him, I went to use the bathroom and was startled by the vomit covered floor and toilet.  I hadn't realized that T got sick in the whole damn bathroom!!!!  I obviously wasn't going to get much sleep. When I started to clean up, I heard T gagging to vomit in my bedroom.  I yelled for him to use the trashcan or the towels...I just knew it would the sheets!  But he was so startled awake that he barely made it off the bed before pepto bismol colored vomit came exploding from his mouth and onto my favorite Pier 1 cream rug.   :-(

After he emptied, we cleaned him up and changed his jammies and tucked him back into bed.  Me, on the other hand, had the fine job of bathroom cleaning duty.  And my rug...well it was just too damn heavy and big to drag out of my room so I cleaned it the best I knew how and decided to really tackle it the next day.  I jumped in the shower to rinse off Tayshaun's flu-symptoms.

Around 1:30am, I made the texting rounds to let everyone know that T wouldn't be making his basketball game in the morning.   T continued to toss and turn through the night but didn't have anything more to throw up.

By the morning, T was up bright and early and ready to rumble.  I was ready for two more hours of zzzzz's.  We had exactly 30 minutes to be ready.  What the hell?  My hair still had a whiff of vomit-aroma so I jumped in the shower, again, and shampooed up.   And with half dry hair, I ran out to make T's basketball game....on time.

We didn't win the game and T wasn't 100% but he had a great time.  And I dragged a$$ all day.

I'm not used to T getting sick.  Next year he gets a flu shot for sure.

P.S. The rug didn't make it.  I think i'll need to take it to the rug doctor.  My new Target replacement just isn't the same. :-(

I'm tired of Winter!!!!!!

Here's our Lagoon trip this summer.  T and I giggle so hard when we watch this.  Our faces are crazzzyyy!!!  Thanks Tish for sharing!!!


lagoon sep 8, 2012 from Tish Lopez on Vimeo.

Is this really the Fun Bus?

With times the way they are, we decided to have a little frivolous fun.  What better way to hang out with the girls, gossip, laugh, and win a little money.

Party planner, Char, picked up some tix on the Fun Bus to Wendover a couple of months ago and they were getting ready to expire so we decided to head up there yesterday.

While we were shivering in our cars waiting for the bus to arrive, some of us were deciding whether we wanted to drag our coats along with us to Wendover. It was about 15 degrees out but think about how hot it would be carrying our coats around in the casino?

Finally the bus arrived and some of us dragged our coats on and others didn't.  As we were checking into the bus - at a very slow pace - again we found ourselves shivering at the bottom of the steps.  I was the one with the furry boots and coat...no high heels for me.

 So the Fun Bus is actually a really great deal.  $8 buys you a (cold) ride to/from Wendover, bingo games, a lunch/dinner buffet, $5 in free cash at the casino, a free Starbuck's drink, $1 bet on the Nugget tables, and discounts at the gift shop.

We didn't realize that it was going to cost us a little inconvenience too!!!!

The bus was a bit, I mean, alot, freezing.  No one could seem to find a heater vent above us or below us.  We were all just hoping it would get a little warmer as the bus warmed up.

But about 10 minutes on the road and just adjacent to West Valley City, the driver pulled over on the highway.  Our hostess was taking our money for lottery tickets and not explaining what the driver was doing.  A little irritating...but that's another story.

If this image had a LOT more snow in it, this is how our Fun Bus would have looked like yesterday along the highway.  Not so Fun!  90 minutes later and we had a replacement bus and some cranky employees/riders...but we made it to Wendover, safely, and shivering.

We decided not to take the bus home.  So we piled up in Lisa's truck and had a much warmer ride home.  Not this truck.  

We went home in this vehicle.  Alot warmer.  Better tunes.  And very comfortable ride.  Thanks Lisa for saving us on the ride home.

I'll try the Fun Bus again.  I really did have FUN!!!!!!

My favorite book list of 2012

I read some great books this year.  I really found some great memoirs/autobiographies I enjoyed.  Here's a list some of my favorites this year with a link to the Barnes and Noble site to the Overviews...just click on the bolded and highlighted book titles.  

Some would say I have a problem.  I wake up earlier than necessary so can I read while I get ready for work.  And until recently, I slept only four hours a night so I could get my read-on before bedtime. 

Some people like television, I love my Nook.

Defending Jacob
I love Grisham's legal thrillers.  But William Landay did an excellent job on this story.  Imagine the emotional and financial turmoil of having your teenage boy be accused of killing one of his classmates.  It could happen to you.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
This is the first time I've read Maya Angelou but it won't be the last.  Here's an autobiography about this authors early years during the Depression.  It touches on racisim, family, personal dignity, and many traumas.  I can't wait to start on another of Angelou books.



The Alchemist
I kept seeing this book pop up on bestseller lists, bookclub lists, as an international best seller, and apparently the best selling books in history.  So what was I missing?  So I decided to see what all the hype was about.  Plus being less than 200 pages, why not?!

This fable got me thinking about my life choices and made me wonder WTH I'm still doing in Utah?

The Glass Castle

This is an autobiography by Jeannette Walls that recounts Walls' and her siblings unconventional, poverty-stricken upbringing at the hands of their deeply dysfunctional parents.  This book is now under development as a film.

Reading about people dealing with hardships helps me appreciate my life so much more.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

This is story is about a mother's loss and the toll that it takes on her children. This book was on Oprah's book list; I've been disappointed reading from her list before but I liked the overview.   

Each of my parents are from a family of nine, surviving, siblings.  My grandparents raised children from 1920-1960.  I could only imagine the emotional and financial struggles my grandparents must have experienced.  This story tells about such a family's experiences during that era.

Brain on Fire

Another memoir I couldn't put down.  Can you even imagine????? Here's the author's description of her experience/book:

One day, I woke up in a strange hospital room, strapped to my bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. My medical records—from a month-long hospital stay of which I have no memory—showed psychosis, violence, and dangerous instability. Yet, only weeks earlier I had been a healthy twenty-four year old, six months into my first serious relationship and beginning a career as a cub reporter at the New York Post.

My memoir Brain on Fire chronicles the swift path of my illness and the lucky, last-minute intervention led by one of the few doctors capable of saving my life. As weeks ticked by and I moved inexplicably from violence to catatonia, $1 million worth of blood tests and brain scans revealed nothing. The exhausted doctors were ready to commit me to the psychiatric ward, in effect condemning me to a lifetime of institutions, or death, until Dr. Souhel Najjar diagnosed me with a newly discovered autoimmune disease in which my body was attacking my brain, an illness now thought to be the cause of “demonic possessions” throughout history.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I like reading before an upcoming movie.  The story explores topics such as introversion, abuse, drugs, sexuality, and the awkward time of adolescence.  This one took me back in time to past experiences and awkward moments.  I enjoyed the movie too.

The Life of Pi

Went to a flick and saw this as an upcoming film.  My companion asked if I'd read the book and I hadn't so of course I was curious.  When I saw the previews to the movie, it didn't seem I'd be interested but I downloaded the book anyways.  Turns out I was pleasantly surprised.

Ender's Game

I reached out to my Facebook friends asking for any recommendations for a good futuristic read and several introduced me to Ender's Game.  After I downloaded it, I was a little skeptical and thought I was reading a young adult novel but then the storyline started to develop and caught me hook, line and sinker.  Afterall, I loved the Hunter Games young adult series too.

The Time Keeper

A fable about the first man on earth to count the hours. The man who became Father Time.  This story became compelling to me as the author takes a simple concept and creates a story that show a new aspect of it to ponder.  There's a bit of sadness, a bit of thoughtfulness, and an ending that changes the common notions of time and how it's spent.

Turns out i had more favorites than i thought so I'll stop there.  Ok, I just want to add something else... I love to listen to Sophie Kinsella's chick-lit novels via audiobooks simply for the darling British accents.  After I've just finished a very serious or disturbing book, I try to find light-hearted, funny ones to follow.  Kinsella always comes through.  This year, I read "I've Got Your Number", "Shopaholic Ties the Knot" and "Shopaholic & Baby" and wasn't surprised that they had me laughing and driving around a lot just to finish the dvds.  

So that's good for 2012.  Hope you try one of these good books and enjoy them as much as i did.

Snowboarding

It's probably a good thing I don't go snowboarding with the kids.  I'm told Keenan and T practice 180 and 360 degree twists and turns in the air and in jumps.  Keenan has gotten a water proof sports video camera but hasn't published any videos yet.  Tish forwarded me this from her phone.

I'm convinced that snowboarding is building a high tolerance to the cold in T.  I picked up the boys a little late from the bus stop last week and was worried they'd be cold.  Duh Yvette!!!! They've been out in the cold the entire day.

 Gotta love our Utah mountains.  Beautiful!

 Thanks sister for introducing me to the Top Of the Mountain.

 Do Not Fall in snow deeper than your waistline Keenan.  Scary.

 During summerbreak, the boys boarded daily.  This picture isn't detailed enough to show but that line goes for miles up the canyon.  EVERYONE must have taken off work for Christmas break.  Doesn't anyone go to work???

One of grandma's friend has a son whose become an excellent artist.  She and grandpa had a great idea this Christmas to hire him to paint some great art on the boys' Vans.  T will be wearing these for skateboarding and as dry shoes after snowboarding.  I absolutely love 'em.

Time To Sleep

So I'm starting a post about Healthy Sleep Habits and it's 10:42 pm and past my planned bedtime.  Not a good start.  So I'm going to try to make this quick.

How long should we really sleep?  That is the question I've been struggling with for the past year.

About a year ago, I started weaning myself down to four hours of sleep a night.  Why do you ask would I want to sleep only four hours?  I found myself entertaining and caring for my son and leaving little room for my own pleasures.  Instead of working out at the gym, I was roller skating.  Instead of reading at the library/book store, I was in the video store.  Instead of watching Oprah recordings, I was watching Phineas and Ferb.  Instead of cleaning my bedroom and relaxing, I was helping with spelling tests and book reports with books, paper tablets, pencils, and toys all over my bed.

So I started to stay up just a little longer after putting my son to bed.  I wanted to find time for myself, by myself.  Maybe to jump on the treadmill, read a little, catch up on some recorded tv episodes. I don't know,  just doing whatever Yvette wanted to do.  So one hour became two, then two hours became three and then I was going to bed, on average, at 1:00am and rising for the next day at 5am.  This routine took about two months to master.  And pretty soon, my internal time clock was "needing" only four hours of sleep....even on the weekends.

Unfortunately, there was a price to pay or should I say many prices to pay.

With four hours of sleep, I was drowsy on the drive to and from work.  I was sleepy at my workstation.  I'd be drowsy in the evenings reading to Tayshaun.  Slowly more and more negative symptoms began to arise from lack of sleep.  My eyes looked tired.  I didn't have any energy.  I was snacking more.  I didn't want to exercise or even clean the house.  I was using all my energy at work and on Tayshaun and had little else to give.  I was pooped all the time.  I was even asked to take a drug test at work.  I'm told they lottery pick those they ask but I wondered if it was due to my sleepy look.

What should have been obvious just didn't click in my mind.  Maybe because I wasn't willing to give up my personal time (after 10pm).  I thought maybe my age was catching up to me.  I wasn't happy with my lazy body and mind but I wasn't sure how to fix it.  So I went to a bio-restoration physician -which in hindsight wasn't a bad idea.  All in all, I'm pretty healthy.  But I did learn I was lacking in my thyroid level so was given a prescription.  And I was recommended vitamins.  I'm not one for taking even Tylenol so I really had to force myself to take these prescriptions and vitamins but I was willing to do it...just to feel better. In my medical history, I was asked how much sleep I got nightly.  I exaggerated and wrote down six hours.  When the doc reviewed my documents,  he promptly recommended that I add a few more hours to my sleep time - which essentially he was telling me I needed eight hours of sleep.  How could I give up my four hours of Yvette time???

I started researching "how many hours of sleep do we need" and read many startling facts.  Very short sleep is attributed to many illnesses.  Minimal sleep loss takes a toll on your mood, energy, and ability to handle stress.  The quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life, including your mental sharpness, productivity, emotional balance, creativity, physical vitality and even your weight.

It's so obvious.  And I knew this subconsciously.  I just hadn't been willing to change.  Well in the past two months, I've slowly been working up to seven hours of sleep.  I can't quite get the eight in but I'm trying.  Even with seven, I wake up at four hours but I'm able to fall back to sleep.  But then I'm up again two hours later.  And I have to force myself to clear my mind to get that extra hour.  Sometimes, I start thinking about the laundry I need to wash and I want to get up.

This week, I had a night of six uninterrupted hours of sleep and slept the additional hour before getting up for the day.  I am feeling positive differences.  I'll post again in a month or so with an update.  Hopefully, I'll be sleeping eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.

Good Night!

Snowstorm at 4pm

I looked outside at noon and wondered if the weather reports were off.  This morning the traffic boards on the freeway had warned of the 4pm snowstorm.  But the sky was blue, the clouds were sparse, and the sun was bright.  

Well, the snow started falling at 2:30pm so at 4:30pm I decided to get a headstart.  By 5pm, this was how the roads looked.

Normally I'm on I-15 in ten minutes; It took me a half hour.  I-80 and Bangerter were exactly like these pics.  There was only one truck/trailer stuck in the snow as I drove.  And as slow as the traffic was, I expected to see crashes or cars along the roadside, up ahead.  Nope.  Thank goodness, there were no collisions around me.  Later I found out that the Utah Highway Patrol reported at least 75 accidents between 4 and 9pm.

Again it would have normally taken me 20 minutes to pick up Tayshaun, but I literally inched my way for 90 minutes.  I white-knuckled it the whole drive. When the traffic was at a standstill, I read and responded to texts from family and friends with warnings to be safe.

Eventually I started to feel claustrophobic. There were hundreds of cars ahead and behind me.  The snow was pelting down, my side mirrors were snowing up and I was driving 0-5 mph. I said a little prayer, giving thanks that this wasn't one of those days that I'm running on fumes because i surely would have found myself parked alongside the road with an empty tank.  I laughed at my dumb self because I could totally have seen this happen to me. 

Despite the heater, I felt a little chilly.  I thought about how many glasses of water I drank this afternoon and panicked!!!  I was trying not to think about my bladder for fear that it would start to feel full.  And then WHAT?!  What to do; what to do.  So I started to go over my options.  There were no gas stations, no alleys, not even a bush in sight. ?Options? I didn't exactly have any!!!  So I cranked up the radio and started singing and head bobbing to distract my bladder.  

When I finally got off Bangerter, I wasn't sure which was worse - traffic at a snail pace or snow packed roads.  Finally I reached T.  On the ride home, we just kept the music up, loud.  I slid right past our turns not once but twice.  And I watched other drivers do the same.  

Our lucky stars were protecting us tonight.

After we made it home, I decided I wasn't going to experience that terror again tomorrow and announced that we would be staying home for a bad-weather day off.  Tayshaun's response was "I'm going to miss my spelling test!"  HUH!?  If I say red, he says blue; if I say cold; he says hot....you get the picture?!  As of 10pm tonight, there were no reports of school cancellations.  But it was reported that the districts will be assessing the weather and roads in the morning before making a decision.

For those of you leaving your homes tomorrow, be sure to put your hats and mittens on.  It's gonna be a cold one!  As for me and T, we'll be snuggled up in our furry blankets drinking hot chocolate.

Christmas Break

Tayshaun lived in the snow during Christmas break.  He mostly snowboarded but he also enjoyed the snow in the valley.  Kingzley was especially glad for T's company this week.

Kingz gets thrown in the tub several times a day when it's snowy.  There's no other way to melt the snowballs from his coat. 

2 0 1 3

Back to work tomorrow.  It's been a great 11 days off with family.

In viewing my 2012 posts, I'm again reminded that I didn't post much this year. I don't even have enough to print a photo book for 2012.  So one of my goals this year is to post more regularly so I'll be able to save our memories hardcopy.

 The boys waiting for the ball to drop to bring in the new year.

Happy New Year!