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In-laws on Easter Weekend?

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Earlier today we got a call from Chris’ brother saying that he’s going to fly from his home in Chicago to Toronto April 10th to visit with us over Easter Weekend.

Now this is a guy who’s so afraid of flying that at least 99% of the time that he’s made visits to the area in the oh … 20 years that I’ve known him he’s driven the 10 to 12 hours from Chicago to Toronto rather than take an hour or two plane ride.

I guess it’s cheaper to drive if he’s bringing his family with him – well depending upon gas prices … but still .. you’d think he would have flown a few more times over the years if it weren’t for his terrible fear of flying!

So I guess we’ll have a house guest at least that Thursday night or perhaps for the whole weekend. I don’t know if he’s going to rent a car so that he can drive out of town to visit his parents and other family members or not … God … If he stays the whole weekend I might end up with a house full of in-laws! OMG! That would be terrible! Hmmm maybe it’s time to take a serious look at that Wilmington NC real estate I’m always hearing about and get FAR far away from the in-laws!

Right after Easter weekend- on Easter Monday in fact we’re having our oil tank replaced. I don’t even know if we’ll have a spare bedroom that weekend because we might need to move some stuff from the basement to the spare rooms so that the workers will be able to move around in the basement and get that tank replaced.

It’s not like I don’t like my brother in law or anything (well as long as I don’t disagree with him when he’s drunk he’s fine), I just don’t like a bunch of people descending on my house for days at a time without really even asking if it’s ok.

How do you feel about drop in guests or weekend guests?





NO to house guests!

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OMG … Chris’ parents are driving me nuts! Chris went back to work today for the first time since he was admitted to the hospital for his heart problems a week and a half ago.

Just like the last time he had heart problems I’ve been a little nervous about him going back to work, but he called me in the afternoon and said that he’d felt a little off when he first started, but had felt great the rest of the time.

Of course, his parents have also called several times today as well! As I said they are driving me nuts. I think they are expecting Chris to have problems and then be admitted to the hospital again … like that does anything for my worries!

Believe me, this time if anything does happen with Chris his parents can stay in one of those extended stay hotels with a kitchenette. I can’t have them invade my home again! Last Friday when Chris was admitted to the hospital they came down right away without even letting me know, so when I should have been trying to relax and get some food into me after spending hours at the hospital with Chris I was instead running around trying to clean up the house.

I get along with the in-laws ok … but they’ve done a few really bad things to Chris and I in the past so I really don’t like spending much time with them at all. I just don’t trust them.

Anyway .. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the rest of Chris’ shift went well and that he’ll be home here with me within the next half an hour. I’ve already got dinner cooking so we can eat shortly after he gets home.

How do you feel about your in-laws and no-notice extended visits? Do you get along with them well or do they drive you nuts like mine do to me?

Chris is home from the hospital – what a week!

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Wow … I can’t believe I haven’t written in this blog for more than a week! That must be a record!

Well, if you are a reader of my other blog, Tricia’s Musings, you’ll already know that my husband spent some time in the hospital last week. That’s one of the main reasons I haven’t been writing in any of my blogs this week.

Last Friday, while at work (in the hospital) Chris started to get some chest pain or rather a strong pressure in the left side of his chest. He also felt dizzy and disoriented. This has happened before. Back in 2004 Chris was getting the same kind of symptoms and by the time he made it to the ER triage desk he passed out right at the nurse’s feet! At that time they admitted him and did several tests to see if he had a rare heart arrhythmia called Brugada.

The symtoms and his ECG that he had in 2004 and has had occasionally since that time – including last Friday, all point to the heart arrhythmia, but the doctors couldn’t induce a heart arrhythmia when they did a special test called EP studies.

So back to last Friday … Chris had heart related symptoms and made his way to the ER. He was admitted after seeing one of our best cardiologists. As it turns out his cholesterol was high – both the good and bad cholesterol and his triglycerides were extremely low. So they decided to do an Angiogram on Monday to check to see if he had any blocked coronary arteries. So even though Chris was pretty much symptom free after the one incident on Friday afternoon he had to stay in the hospital until the angiogram was done.

As it turned out his coronary arteries were perfectly clear and the test showed no heart abnormalities. So we’re back to square one – he still has these weird episodes, but we don’t know for sure if it’s his heart that’s causing them … even though he has permanent electrocardiogram changes.

Luckily the hospital is close by as I spent Friday through Monday walking back and forth from home to hospital to visit with him. I also brought him one of our nice pillows from home (it’s a dense foam and it’s really heavy), all the things he might need (toiletries, undershirts, underwear, socks and reading materials) and my LAPTOP! Ahhh! Man I missed that thing. I live on my laptop, but even though Chris couldn’t get on the internet at the hospital he could at least watch the DVDs that I brought him and play some games etc.

I exhausted myself by carrying all that stuff back and forth and of course all that walking back and forth. Given that I’m not all that healthy myself what with my Crohn’s, vitamin D deficiency and worsening back pain, it took me most of the rest of the week, once he was home, to recover and kind of feel up to writing in my blogs again.

We did score a few things from the hospital. When I brought him a pillow from our bed he decided to take the cover off and use the hospital pillow covers. Since the pillow was too big he had to use two pillow covers to cover it. I was too tired when Chris was discharged from the hospital on Monday evening to remove the covers so we have them at home. (We’ll return them of course, Chris will be back to work on Tuesday and he can bring them in then.)

We also managed to get some promotional pens from the hospital. That was actually a catch, since there’s never a pen around at the hospital when you need one. As you might know I’m an ER nurse (on medical leave) and I had to have a stock of pens to bring with me to work and I had to guard them with my life as they would be “stolen” if I left one on a counter … so to actually get “hospital pens” is a rarity! LOL

So … that’s my long story as to why I haven’t been blogging this week. Chris is dong fine. He’s currently vacuuming for me! Baring any new symptoms he should be ready to go back to work on Tuesday. His groin is healed from where they did the angiogram and he’s on Cholesterol lowering medication (Crestor). I’m doing better too. Man is is ever stressful having your husband in the hospital – especially when you don’t feel all that well yourself!

I hope that you’re week has been better than mine and if you are in the North East that you are able to enjoy this slightly warm spell that we’ve been having. Our snow is all melting away and I expect by the end of the week, if the above freezing temps keep up, that our snow will pretty much be gone. Probably just in time for a new snow storm to sweep in! LOL

BTW there will be no Green Thumb Sunday post this week. I’m just getting back on track, so I’ll leave Green Thumb until next week.

I’m glad the holidays are over!

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So … How did the Holidays treat you? Did you have a nice time with friends and relatives? A big turkey dinner at Christmas? Get at least one present you really wanted? Party too much at New Years?

Chris and I had a nice Christmas and New Years. We went to his parents on Christmas day for a meal. No, it wasn’t a turkey dinner. Darn! My Mother in Law isn’t the best cook. She made mashed turnip, carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing and uhm cooked up those pressed chicken breasts that you get from M & M’s.

The meal was OK, but for me it didn’t seem like a true Christmas dinner. So this weekend Chris and I are going to either get a small turkey or some turkey breasts and I’ll make us up a tasty New Years dinner either tomorrow or Sunday. Hey, it’s not the holidays to me if you don’t have some leftover turkey kicking around.

Chris’ older brother was visiting from Chicago and he brought his youngest son, 14 years old, with him. So on Christmas evening we drove from Chris’ parents home in Brantford back to our house in Toronto and all the guys ended up going to the park down the street from us to play hockey on the hockey rink. They actually did that twice a day for four days. So the guys got their exercise!

Unfortunately when they were in the house they watched hockey game after hockey game – old classics and the World Junior Hockey tournament pre-games so needless to say I’m hockeyed out. Chris’ cousin brought his two sons over for one of the days as well, so I think I’m “guyed” out as well. There was way too much testosterone around here last weekend!

Chris’ brother left on Monday and I’ve been recovering from the holidays and enjoying the peace and quite ever since.

Unfortunately for my nephew, I happened to go into the basement one day during the week and I discovered that he’d left a piece of his Samsonite luggage and a pair of jeans behind! I guess things like that happen to 14 year olds! Now I need to find out if we should ship the luggage and jeans to Chicago or just keep them until they come back for another visit.

It was really cold here at New Years so instead of going downtown to see the live show that they put on here in Toronto we stayed in and cuddled on the couch watching TV. We ended up watching the Niagara Falls New Years show and saw Roger Hodgson of Supertramp and Kim Mitchell perform. It was a great show!

Overall I’d say the holidays were great, but I’m tired out. I’ve been so sleepy this week. Maybe I’m fighting something or maybe it’s the Vitamin D supplements that I started taking (just found out I’m vitamin D deficient) that are making me tired. Either way I could sleep all day and night. Not good when you work from home!

I hope that the holidays were good to you and that you’re ready to get a good start in 2009! Happy New year and thank you for being loyal readers! I appreciate your visits and comments.

Still shopping for Christmas gifts

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I’ve slowly been getting our Christmas shopping done, but I’m stuck on a gift for my in-laws. Keep in mind that we have almost no extra money for Xmas this year, so I’ve been being very frugal and imaginative with the Christmas gifts I’ve purchased so far.

My In-laws love to have a movie night at least once a week, and my father in law is really into watching his hockey games. I was thinking of looking at popcorn machines to see if I could find one for a decent price and get it as a gift for them. Obviously they enjoy having a snack when they’re watching movies or hockey so I thought a popcorn machine might be the perfect gift.

How do you go about picking holiday gifts? Do you buy things that you think people need or things that you think (or know) they might want.

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