Once upon a time there was a nasty bug. He was green, and mean, and very, very strong. And he saw Katie, and he thought, "she is the perfect tool. I shall invade her body, and through her, I shall conquer that family."
And the virus began its work. Katie started hacking. And as she hacked, she hugged her mom. And she asked to cuddle. And she shared airspace. And she shared that virus.
And then I started hacking. And hacking. And hacking. My husband, who is a doctor, said, "it is only a virus. You wil get better."
But he did not know the virus' powers. The virus invited bacteria into the lungs, and the doctor said, "my, you have pneumonia." And she gave me drugs. Good drugs. And I loved her.
My husband laughed. "Those will do nothing! It is only a virus!", for he did not see the bacteria that was invading my body, and surreptitiously invading his.
And finally, on Saturday, he succumbed. His fever was dangerously high. His oxygen saturation was dangerously low. And after some time in the hospital, he emerged with drugs to fight the initial virus, and the double pneumonia which he has.
But the virus was not done. For it said, "there is still one more member of the family. We shall get her, too!".
And so I slept in the spare room Saturday night, checking on one child with a high fever in one room, and one husband barely breathing in the other. The child slept for 36 hours straight. The husband went into work today.
But I still feel like crap. My cough is better, but the flesh and the body and the Kleenex are weak. And they are warring against my spirit, saying, "it is better just to die." The virus wants to win.
My spirit says, "No! There are good things in this life, like chocolate, and I must experience them some more!" But the body says, "Aaarrrrrghh, cough cough cough, aaarrrrgh."
And hence, blogging may be light. I think I shall go die now. Hopefully I shall be resurrected soon, and will be back to my normal self.
1. When I was in grade school I used to fake asthma attacks to get out of gym. I hated gym. I wasn't overweight, and I was actually quite athletic. I've always loved aerobics, and I could do the Jane Fonda Workout when I was 11 without breaking a sweat. I've always liked tennis. But team sports gave me hives. The thought that someone was watching me just about did me in. So I'd bring my puffers, have an attack, and presto! It worked great with skiing, too.
I always promised myself that one of the blessings of being an adult is that no one could ever force me to play sports again, and I haven't played volleyball or basketball or baseball since I was in grade 9 gym. And I'm very proud of it! But boy can I kick butt in baseball on the Wii!
2. I used to fly across the country by myself as a child, starting at age 7, to see my father. The Toronto-Vancouver flight was 4 1/2 hours, and I managed it okay. But I learned something important: when you cry, stewardesses bring you chocolate chip cookies. So I'd periodically turn on the tears. It seems that I spent a great deal of my childhood faking things!
3. Diane met Bruce Springsteen and Dan Aykroyd; I've met Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson when they were filming Three Men and a Baby in Toronto. I was working at Maple Leaf Gardens, our hockey stadium, where the three of them had rented a box for the season. They'd arrive early, and I'd sometimes get to serve the drinks! It was kind of gross, though, because Steve & Ted would pick girls out of the crowd (everybody knew they were there) and bring them up to the box to do who knows what. Tom Selleck stayed out of that, and eventually stopped coming to the games. But the ushers basically acted as pimps on those nights, fetching willing girls, and they were happy to do so.
4. I've been inside the hotel where they filmed the original Star Wars. You know that scene where they're sitting inside Luke's aunt & uncle's house, and it's got kind of a round roof? It was filmed in Tunisia, in the Sahara Desert, where everything is built underground. I've been to that underground city. I even rode a camel there. Pretty wild.
5. I will always feel guilty that I didn't pay more attention to my grandparents when they were alive, especially my father's father. He didn't live that far away from me, and I could have visited him more, but life got in the way. My mother was always bothering me to email him, but I never knew what to say. I don't think I was very good with older people. But now that I am getting more mature I think I would have handled it better, but he's gone. I'm glad my children have younger grandparents that they can be close to now. My grandparents were well into their sixties when I was born, and even though they made it to their nineties, they were still "old". I don't really remember them young.
6. I went to an all-girls boarding school in grade 9 and totally rebelled. I didn't want to board to begin with, but I'm just not one who deals well with rules. All the rules about what time you did his and what time you did that chafed on me. So I'd start protests where no one would make their beds, or I wouldn't go to study hall. I still got great marks, but I hated most of the other girls and I hated the school, and I left as soon as I could! A few daughters of chairmen of Canada's banks went there, and daughters of ambassadors. I even danced with the son of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (our Prime Minister at the time) and danced with Jonathon Crombie, who was going to a neighbouring boys' school. You probably know Crombie as Gilbert Blythe in the Anne of Green Gables series. But in general it is a year I try to block out of my memory as much as possible.
7. My husband broke up with me on my 21st birthday! That's part of my testimony that I give when I speak, and I make it into something funny (though it has a serious message at the end). But it was so traumatic. We were to be married on August 17, and he announced in May, on my birthday, that he didn't think he could go through with it. I was absolutely devastated, because I was certain that he was the one that God had for me. I had to work through a lot of things with God that summer, to make sure that God was the foundation of my life, and not Keith.
Thankfully, Keith came to his senses and we were married in December instead of August. All is well, though I had a really hard time trusting him early in our marriage. We talk about this whole thing at marriage conferences quite a bit, and the poetic justice is that people often boo him! But I can also see how God did a work in my life that summer that wouldn't have been done otherwise, and it prepared me for my son's illness and death. God really does take all the crap in our lives and use it for good!
So those are my 7 Juicy Tidbits. And now I have to tag 7 other Twitter people. So here goes:
These women are a weird mix--some homeschoolers, some writers, some internet marketers. I follow a rather eclectic mix on Twitter! But we'll see what they have to say!
So I am sitting on a flight from San Francisco to Syracuse, New York, beside a guy who seems pleasant enough. He moves his bag so I can sit down. He doesn't use my arm rest. He allows me to look out of the window. He apologizes profusely when he has to get up and use the bathroom, which thankfully is only once during the flight.
But he also inhales three Bloody Marys and watches porn on his video iPod.
What should one do? Ask the drunk to stop? He was turning the iPod so I couldn't see it, but it reflected off the window at one point and I very clearly saw what it was.
Just one of those amazing experiences on the Alaskan cruise I just returned home from!
My in-laws are celebrating their 40th anniversary, so Keith and I took them on the trip of a lifetime. I didn't really announce it beforehand because I don't like putting a post up on my blog that says something like this:
"I'M AWAY FROM MY HOUSE FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS SO COME AND ROB IT!"
You know what I mean? But I'll tell you all about it over the next few days. It really was phenomenal. And it was the first time my husband and I were away just the two of us since our honeymoon.
We had such a good time, except that we never did get any chocolate chip cookies at one of the places we stopped to eat at because three families in front of us in the buffet line picked up all the cookies and wrapped them in Saran Wrap before we got there. I really wish I had more temerity to go up to them and say something. But I didn't. So now I'm just sharing it with you all.
I'm probably just trying to forget about the fact that the kids are at summer camp, and we're home and they're not. We go to pick them up on Saturday and it's killing me.
But, to keep myself busy, I'm speaking at an online homeschooling conference tomorrow. You can find out more on the little widget at the bottom on the left hand column.
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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