Random Weekend Stuff

We had a pretty low key weekend. Saturday morning I took CJ to see Wall-E (the new Disney/Pixar movie), it was okay. I had read some pretty good reviews so was expecting better, but really the movie is about a trash compactor so what can you expect. We did make it through the entire movie though, half way through CJ thought we should ditch out and go see Kung Fu Panda instead (which he proclaimed quite loudly and got some chuckles from near-by parents), but I managed to convince him to sit through the whole thing.

Saturday afternoon I thought I was going to get the "his" version of the latest illness, but thankfully was able to nap it off.

Today, Charlie golfed in a golf tournament (the best kind of golf - free!) and the boys and I ran some errands and hung out. Here are some random pics...

CJ got some new goggles that he was excited about - so far they've been worn in the van, to play outside and in the shower - good times!


Brotherly love!


Nick practicing his monkey sitting. He's getting better!


Here's Nick sleeping like a true Bergeron - mouth wide open!

His and Hers

So apparently this "bug" has two versions...his and hers. It all started a few weeks ago when our neighbor Rich got sick...fever, chills, aches, layed in bed for two days in true man-sick fashion. Then Sara got sick - strep. Of course you've all read my wonderful experience from last week - believe me no need to relive that. Well Charlie got his "man version" of the illness yesterday. Fever, chills, aches, layed in bed/couch, missed work. But, no strep. What the hell? I think it goes back to the saying, "you're only given what you can handle!" Not that I wish strep on anyone, especially since I have to work tomorrow, but how odd that he can get all my other ailments but the strep throat part. Puzzling...

On a completely unrelated topic...I added banana's to Nick's cereal tonight - much better. Although the cutest part was watching him go to town on my frozen juice bar, I know bad mom. But it was so cute, he loved it. I'm sure it felt good on his gums.

Time to start some real food!

Nicholas has been eyeing us for a few weeks now while we eat, he's also been super fussy in the evenings and at night - waking up several times. It could be his teeth he is working on getting, but I thought I'd try him on some rice cereal as well. I think he spit out more than he consumed - he wasn't too sure what to think. CJ was napping at the time, when he woke up I told him I gave Nickey cereal. "Lucky Charms?" he asked. Sorry Nick, nothing that exciting yet...

I'm back!

Unless you were Charlie or Mom, you may have not known I was out of commission, here's a rundown of my week thus far...

Monday...I worked my evening shift, started to get a sore throat during a horrendous class entitled "Caring Connections", I thought maybe it was the class - how to make a caring connection with your patients - give me a break I'm just here to wipe ass, pass pills and bring home a paycheck.

Tuesday...woke up with a sore throat ,cancelled Nicholas's reservation for childcare at the gym, took a few Advil, dropped CJ and Dylan off at preschool adventure days at the gym, started to feel a little better, went to the mall for some bargain shopping. I felt a little OCD'ish as I came home with 8 bottles of hand soap from Bath and Body Works - hey it was on sale. And it kinda sucks to go back to Dial after having good smelling hands. Shopped the Gymboree Balloon sale right when they opened, nothing like Gymboree for $6.99 and under! Picked up CJ from the gym still felt pretty good, around 1:00ish I started to get my sore throat back, then the achy body, chills. Ick this isn't going to be fun.

Tuesday evening...I skipped tee ball because I felt like crap, Mom came to watch the boys on Wednesday while I went to a day meeting at work. She laughed - we'll maybe I came to watch the boys so you can be sick (ha, she didn't know what she was in for!)

Wednesday morning...woke up with razors in my throat, decided to skip my meeting at work. Went to Target Clinic when they opened in the morning, after the receptionist did my throat culture that should have been my first clue. Yep the receptionist...hopefully she's really a medical tech or something just also doing receptionist duties. She cultured more my mid tongue than my throat but the whole thing felt on fire so I didn't question it. The physician assistant came in and was more concerned with my pulse of 125 than my burning throat, I told her I wasn't too worried about it, I was probably more dehydrated and in pain than anything cardiac to worry about. I didn't tell her I was a nurse, but why should she care. After a 5 minute lecture on why my heart rate could be elevated the rapid strep test came back negative. The PA said it was probably viral and I could expect to feel better in 7-10 days. GREAT!

The rest of the day was more of the same, sore throat, small fevers, did make it back to Target to shop a little between large doses of Tylenol and Advil.

Thursday morning - I didn't sleep hardly at all, my throat feels like someone has sliced it open, actually it kinda looked like someone sliced it open as well if you got the right flashlight angle. You can visibly see my enlarged lymph nodes on the side of my neck. 7-10 more days of this is unacceptable, I'm going back to a different urgent care for at least some pain meds. Off to Apple Valley Urgent care at 6:30 in the morning, I didn't tell them I had been to Target clinic the day before, I wanted an unbiased second opinion. This time a RN does my throat culture, which makes me gag. And she later tells me, it's not a good throat culture unless they gag. (I'll keep that mental note in my nurses toolbox) This time...DING DING DING DING, strep throat. Oh thank god, I've never been so happy to have strep, finally bring on the drugs. Got my script for penicillin and Extra Strength Vicodin and off I went. The rest of Thursday was more of the same, the Vicodin didn't really do much for the pain but made me sleepy enough that I could sleep. Then the puking started, oh yes what fun. Not only did I have strep throat I swear I also had some sort of stomach flu, but it was probably just the strep. Now my bitter side says, if I would have been started on antibiotics a day ago when I FIRST went in I could probably have avoided this part, but I'm not bitter. I didn't stop puking until about 10:00 at night when after begging Mom to take me to the ER for some IV fluids and antibiotics she reasoned that we should try a few other things first. The tea came back up immediately, but amazingly enough the ginger ale (that she went out to the gas station at 10:00 at night to get, gotta love her) worked and I could take my antibiotic and go to bed. Imagine this sloppy mess of a scene...I'm crying because my throat hurts to swallow, but if I don't drink I'm never going to get re-hydrated, but then I can't drink because as much as it hurts to swallow it hurts even more puking back up and I can't keep my pills down and this strep is never going to go away so I might as well die, so just take me in now. Thankfully mom in all her wisdom just started with the basics...some ginger ale. So I finally got some sleep.

This morning...a little sore throat but nothing I can't handle. No more puking thankfully. Mom got to finally go home, I'm sure she was quite ready. In true Mom form she nursed me back to health while feeding my family, taking care of kids, cleaning up after kids, bathing kids, and getting I'm sure much less sleep than she does at home. Thanks MOM, you are the BEST!

Charlie deserves some kudos as well, he got up with Nick for all the night time wakings.

Hopefully tomorrow will be even better, I might be able to go back to work. I had to call in sick tonight, I'm sure all my patients would love some strep throat to go with whatever brought them in.

So that's my lovely week! Hope yours was so much better, I missed so much, new blog posts, a new entertaining Bergeron email train.

Tiger tee-ball

CJ had his first night of Tiger tee-ball last night. I was working so Charlie got the task of bringing him. Sara was nice and watched Nicholas so Charlie didn't have to deal with 2 kids. CJ is on the green Shark team.

Safe!

We gotta work on that running form...

Charlie said he did pretty well. After a while he just wanted to go play on the swings, but managed to keep it together for an hour.

Grandma Beth I just remembered you are coming on Tuesday to watch the boys Wednesday, you can come watch some Tiger tee-ball too! Lucky you!

MN Zoo

CJ, Nicholas and I checked out the new Russia's Grizzly Coast exhibit at the MN Zoo on Monday. The place was a zoo itself! I wrongly assumed since it was a Monday and school had either just gotten out or as in Eagan/Burnsville was still in session that it would be quiet. It was pretty busy, but we still got a glimpse of the attractions.


The sea otters were quite entertaining running and jumping and swimming...

The grizzly bears were quite entertaining also, it's pretty amazing how close they come to the glass and they were quite active!










Despite the fact that we have a sandbox at home, CJ still had to check out the new digging spot...


CJ LOVED the new water feature, we had planned ahead and brought a towel and extra clothes. We got quite a few odd looks from other zoo goers, and some longing looks from other kids who wanted to play in the water, but their parent's didn't plan for the water play!

Nicholas did what he does best when out and about...sleep!

The best part about being members...we were only their for an hour and didn't have to feel guilty about leaving after paying $30 to visit.

Joined the minivan club!

After Charlie took his Explorer to get an oil change we realized our minivan was in our future sooner than we thought. His poor Explorer is leaking fluid from about every orifice possible! Of course the mechanic thought its life expectancy was pretty bleak, and after the quote of $1800 to fix...off we went to find a new ride.

The result...
A 2008 Nissan Quest

This is the van we had planned on getting after doing some pre-shopping and research at the auto show this spring. It payed off to wait until now rather than getting it this spring - of course after looking at new vehicles at the auto show it was tempting to buy then. The rebate and financing were much better now than before.

After having a black vehicle that shows every ding and dust particle possible, the silver should be much more forgiving! It's a pretty basic van, not too many bells and whistles. The one feature I hadn't planned on getting was the DVD system, but I guess you have to special order one without the DVD system, CJ was thrilled!

It's funny, with more room than my Accord you would think the storage options would be better, but it doesn't have enough accessible storage from the drivers seat. I'll miss my center console and extra cup holders! But after a trip to Target for a bin for under the center tray and some seat protectors for the car seats (no more leather) - I think we're set. CJ proclaimed while getting ready for bed, "Mom, I love the new van." He already made me promise he could play in it when he gets up tomorrow morning!

We'll have to hang the tennis ball from the garage ceiling though, pulling it in gives only inches to spare to get it to fit. After driving my Accord into the freezer one too many times (no wonder it didn't work anymore!) it will take a little maneuvering to fit.

Oh yeah, for those of you wondering...wasn't she supposed to be at work? I was on-call this evening.

He rolled!

He finally rolled over, unwitnessed of course! I left him on his back playing on his changing pad, went out to flip the burgers and came back to this...




And of course he wouldn't do it again. someday I'll get some video of it I'm sure.

On another topic...CJ had Nicholas laughing pretty hard today, it was pretty cute!

New pics and video

Mad face

Toes! - he does suck on them, but haven't caught it on film yet...

Finally enjoying his tummy time (now that he stopped mashing his face into the floor)


Outside today...


And finally, video of his giggle - actually these were his first real giggles. Nevermind that you have to watch it sideways - sorry Emily you have to hold the camera horizontal - and I can't figure out how to rotate it. And PLEASE - ignore my crazy hair - this is what happens when you go to bed with wet hair (had to wash off the nasty casino smell from last night) and also ignore the cheesy mom smile at the end, yep pretty cheesy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday by going to Fogo de Chao in Minneapolis. We had a great time, 8 of us went. Great meal, great friends (and family - Emily)! Rich and Sara had been there before but it was a first for the rest of us. For $175 for Charlie and I, it's definitely a "special occasion" type restaurant. As Rich so eloquently puts it, "where else can you get the meat sweats?" Yes, that would be from devouring so much meat in one sitting. We all agreed the top sirloin was the best by far, excellent! For those that don't know what Fogo de Chao is, it's a Brazilian steakhouse where there is a huge salad bar (although salad bar doesn't do it justice, more of an antipasti bar) and gaucho's walk around with roasted meats on skewers. You have a card, one side green (more meat please!) one side red (I'm getting the meat sweats). There is a continuous flow of all different types of meats to your table, although I definitely decided I'm not a lamb fan. After cocktails and dessert our bill was $675 for 8 people, ouch! my cocktails alone were $9 apiece, yummy Caipirinha's - the Brazilian national drink. Basically a cross between a margarita and a mojito, yum.

In true Erin fashion, I didn't take many pictures, Emily shot this one.

After dinner Sara, Emily and I went to Mystic Lake until 2:30 in the morning. I think I came home with an extra $50 or so. Not too bad!