My Son has the Raffles Lucky Gene

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember me writing about my son winning a large teddy bear for the school raffle back in April 2010.

Well, last week, I gave my son $2 to buy more raffle tickets, and guess what!!!

Today he  came home with yet another Prize. This was a large stuffed toy sheep - about 18 inches tall by 15 inches wide.

And being 2 years older, my son no longer wants to be photographed holding this sheep.

So I have had to take a picture of the sheep - now named Sheepie - for the record.


There is a huge difference between being in grade 2 and being in grade 4. 

When my son was in grade 2 he was proud to hold Carrots (the large teddy bear ) and show him off to the world wide web.

Now that he is in grade 4, he no longer wants to do that. He was adamant he would not hold a stuffed sheep in front of the camera. The sheep was allowed to have his photo taken, but not its owner!!!

Update on my flu - I feel terrible.....

I developed an ear ache over the weekend. I couldn't do anything other than take some tylenol for the pain in my jawline. It was killing me.


Anyway, this morning, as soon as my son went off to school, I left to go see the doctor. She says I have an infection in my right ear, (which happens to be my good ear - the one I hear the best with). My temperature was still 37.1 - which is practically close to normal.

So she prescribed me some antibiotics. I picked those up on my way home and am now taking a 500 mg tablet, 3 times per day for the next 10 days.

 There is no more pain in my jaw after taking 3 pills already, but I still feel achy all over. And it really hurts in my chest and face to cough. I have the horribly loud hacking cough too. And I am coughing up that disgusting yellow phlegm again - but fortunately it is only in small amounts.

Oh and my mouth is very dry too. Not sure why but it must have something to do with the earache as my saliva was going completely dry before I started taking these antibiotics.

I know you don't really want to read details - but I want to document my illness.

Edited to Add (ETA)
I had this link sent to me as a FYI.
Cost of the Flu
I am not embedding it because I don't agree with everything it says, but it is somewhat informative.

April is most definitely Flu season

...in the Northern Hemisphere anyway.

 This month of April 2012 has been most wretched for me.

In the days before Easter (from April 6-9) I developed a sore throat and lost my voice. Over Easter I was coughing badly - mostly trying to cough up Phlegm - that's the thick yellow stuff. I know its disgusting to mention or think about, but its a fact of life when you have a cold. My sinuses stayed clear, I could breathe quite easily and I felt pretty good for most of the time - other than the sore throat and having a hoarse voice.

I have Skype chats with my family back in New Zealand on Fridays and 2 weeks ago today I couldn't talk very long because I felt so bad, my voice was hoarse and my throat was sore.


 The week after Easter the cough slowly disappeared and I was definitely getting better. Last weeks chat to my family on skype was much better - my voice was back definitely to normal.

 BUT - blow me down if this week I did not develop ANOTHER sore throat. Now I have different symptoms. So right now (as I type this) I am sneezing a lot - like every 5 minutes - and my nose is constantly running. So it is very sore because I have to keep blowing and wiping it.

I think this is the first time I have ever caught 2 different strains of the cold in the same month - let alone in the same year!!   Today's chat to my family was just like the one from 2 weeks ago. I couldn't stop coughing or yawning (because I was so tired).

Now please do not tell me to get a flu shot. Sorry but I do NOT agree with putting Carcinogens, Mercury and Anti-Freeze into my body for a virus that may or may not be covered.

Half the flu strains in those vaccinations end up not being covered by the flu shot because the medical corporations and the CDC in Atlanta make gross errors of judgement. .

 Its only a cold. Its not going to kill me and I would much rather get  natural immunity.