Purple Dragon

... saw the littlest one throwing up at 4.45 - it seems that is the time for stomach bugs to kick in. Why they can't come during office hours or something is beyond me, why at the sleepiest time of night? She is currently camped out on the living room floor, grumpy as anything.

We had plans for today. We were going to get a friend of No2Child and a friend of No1Child and take them to one of these kiddy adventure places, like a glorified ball pit. So much for that. Lots of disappointed sprogs.

I am worried that, based on how the bug has moved thru the house, that I will be puking on Thursday instead of getting my plane. I guess there is nothing I can do, if I am.

Yesterday, we went into town because my only decent pair of jeans has a hole in them. I tried many pairs on and I was appalled at what 7 weeks of sitting on my fat butt has done. I don't usually get dressed in front of a mirror, and the mirrors in the changing rooms are NOT very compassionate. My girls were in the changing rooms with me, and were both loud and descriptive about my various lower body faults. I tried one pair of trousers on and then realised they were back to front.

What a few days I have had!

We had Laura being ill for a night and a day, then a day hiatus, then son kicked in. Why do kids always get sick in the middle of the night, so that NO ONE gets any sleep for 24 hours except them, because you are watching them so they don't choke on their vomit in their exhaustion.

We had been going to Landmark which is a great wooded park place with lots of great activities for the kids. things like those high wire walks and water slides and so on. Anyway, we never got to go because the kids didn't feel well enough. We will try to go another time, but we were all very disappointed. We decided to have a BBQ at home instead, and the weather changed from a lovely sunny morning to a cold overcast windy evening. Seems we were destined to have NO FUN the whole weekend.

Mum contacted me on Saturday to tell me that my sister (who has MS and is in a care home already for her disabilities) had a stroke. Apparently, the nurses went in on Wednesday morning to get her out of bed and found she had it overnight. They tried to phone Mum once, couldn't get her, so didn't try again. Mum went to visit on Saturday morning and found out then. We are SO angry. What if she had died between Wed to Sat?

She is in a pretty bad way for all accounts. She can't close her left eye at all, all the blood vessels are broken so her eye is red, and it is bulging out because of the pressure from the stroke. I've never heard of that, but there you are. Mum says it is continually pouring water. Her mouth is drooping as well, and she is drooling badly as she cannot swallow.

I have booked a flight to go down to England to see her on Thursday. I wanted to go sooner, but I was afraid the tummy bug would come down with me, and the last thing she needs is a tummy bug on top of everything else. I have a feeling that she isn't going to improve though, particularly as she has a bladder infection to top it off and it was a bladder infection that hospitalised her last time. Her temperature went up so far that they lost her, but they resuscitated her (against the DNR on file). That could easily happen again this time, but they are more aware of the DNR this time, so they will let nature takes its course.

Took son to the orthopaedic surgeon yesterday morning. He got some x-rays and a good looking at, and they have seen that he has inflammation on his heels and another part of both feet, caused thru impact. This was caused because of both his growth and his free-running. They have said that he needs to quit with the high impact jumping off buildings until he is fully grown. I doubt very much he will listen though, because (being 12) he is immortal and adults have no idea what they are talking about.

Was going to get fuel on the way to the hospital but we were running late (having been stuck for miles behind someone going 30mph on the country lanes) so I decided to get it on the way back. On the way back, we pulled in to be told that they were only accepting card payments as 'there has been an incident' in the payment kiosk. As I only had cash, I still didn't get my fuel

Middle of last evening, I started getting a really sore head. I took one of my migraine pills and went to bed about 10pm. At about 11pm, there was a ruckus with the girls deciding they didn't want to sleep in the downstairs bedroom and going back up to their own bedrooms. I settled them back down, and then couldn't get back to sleep Eventually I settled but I was awake and asleep and awake and asleep ...

... until 4.47 when a little voice at my bedroom door said "I've got tummy ache". Middle child then proceeded to vomit and poop every half our till the middle of this morning (I think it was half hourly for a good 6 hours) and now she is mainly keeping down water and warm lemonade although she is a complete heap. She is so pale you can see the veins in her face and so drawn - her eyeballs rolling in their sockets. She finally has some colour back in her lips though, at one point they were almost the same colour as her face.

We are supposed to be going out for some trips this weekend, but if she doesn't pick up, and if anyone else catches it, that's that.

Had a major meltdown this morning and made the children clean clean clean with a bit of tidying thrown in. Now my living room and dining room are spotless, two of the three kids bedrooms are spotless and two of the three loos are also clean and tidy. Kitchen needs some work, but that is always pretty much a work in progress anyhoo.

I was very grumpy today and the kids were treading on every nerve, so I retired to my bedroom about 5pm and stayed there till 6pm to get some peace. Grr.

Son tried to strim the garden but the strimmer was playing silly buggers, so that was a fail.

Fact of Faked is back on the telly, I love that programme. The debunk so called strange phenomena, or don't, depending on the evidence. It is good. They did a ghost video tonight and it was quite fascinating.

Another programme I really love is Hart of Dixie. Today's episode in which Lavonn Hayes parents get back together and Lemon doesn't elope after all was really emotionally 'up there' for me. I know it is only a programme, but it is well acted and although it is light hearted, they also have poignant moments. Last night's recording of Once Upon a Time was pretty good too. One of the characters came out with a cracking line, something along the line of "when the earth gives you a push backwards it is a bit of a shock to find that the person who was supposed to catch you, wasn't there." All in all - good writing.

So last night's plan did not go well.

The kids settled down in the caravan and their Dad decided he was going to kip out there with them. I was sitting in bed, studying, when the two older ones came in. They couldn't settle and wanted their beds.

Of course, this meant that when their Dad got up at 5.30 to go to work, he would not let the wee one stay herself, so he would lift her in, and she would wake up, so that would be me awake, so staying up late studying was not an option any more. So, down went the books so I could get some zzzs in before my early morning.

However, an hour or so passed, when I heard the wee one tootling up the stairs to her bed. I went in and settled her down, tucked her in and was walking back along the hall when I heard major vomiting going on downstairs. It would appear that I had managed to give Himself food poisoning with the pie I gave him for his tea. Poor bloke sounded like he was turning inside out.

Today I managed to catch up on my reading and get my essay written. It was supposed to be 2000 words by noon, but I managed 1750 by 5pm, so hopefully I shall get some sort of mark for it. We will have to wait and see.

I went for a job interview this morning .I knew as soon as I left that I didn't get the job because the main woman of the three interviewers didn't like me very much. Also, I was dressed wrong. I wore a skirt and heeled boots (same outfit I wore for the job interview a couple of months ago that I *did* get) but they were all in trousers and flat shoes.

Shame, because the hours would have been fine. Hey ho.

My friend from next door came and spent the afternoon blethering and righting the world ,which was nice. We agree on a lot of things, and have a similar sense of humour, so I am lucky in my neighbour.

The kids and their Dad are sleeping in the caravan tonight. Better them than me!

I wrote down the wrong date on my TMA for one of my courses and I thought it was the end of August it was due but it was end July. I wrote to my tutor who agreed that I could send it in late - tomorrow. Not a chance. I thought I had ages and hadn't really done the reading I needed to do. I could probably pull an all nighter for the reading and throw something together for the essay tomorrow, but it will be awful. I shall give it a try, though.

Suppose I ought to get on with that, then, eh?

I spent the whole day today cleaning out the snooker room. It is one of those rooms that doesn't get used every day and is also the last stop on the way to the garage, the tin shed and the caravan, so things get left in there 'for now' or 'until it stops raining' and then never moves.

I have three THREE bags of rubbish! I also had to empty my vacuum cleaner TWICE! I still have a stack of filing to do, but I couldn't be bothered to finish that.

Did I tell you that my son finally got his finger out and tidied up the caravan? We have a 28' static caravan that has been the dumping ground for old toys and stuff, and it got to the point that you couldn't actually walk thru it safely. One of our neighbour's kids came up and the two boys tidied and chucked away (and re-dumped in the tin shed) and now the place is fab. Son has been sleeping out there quite a few times with his pals, and one night we had 6 kids kipping in there. Great fun for them Peace for me!

Anyway, I am going to get a skip towards the end of the month, and the girls and I are going thru the stuff that has been dumped in the tin shed, we will put out stuff for the car boot sale that I will get round to some time this year (probably) (maybe) and the rest can get chucked.

Been watching lots of Big Bang Theory on the telly. I only discovered it recently, so I am loving it. Sheldon is hysterical. Also been watching Falling Skies, The Finder, Sinbad, Drop Dead Diva, Raising Hope, Once Upon a Time, Hart of Dixie, New Girl, Eureka, and am about to start watching the new Fact or Faked and also A Gifted Man. Was loving Grimm!

I have a job interview tomorrow morning, part time in the local town (6 miles away) clerical assistant. I would ask you to wish me luck, but as I am fabulous, I probably don't need it