For all my Fever Blister Sisters- A CURE!

I have suffered many, many years from a horrible virus: the fever blister. You can call them cold sores, herpes {above the neck, thank you very much} or whatever you'd like, but they're awful. Be thankful if you don't have them. They make it hard to eat, they burn and tingle and they HURT. Besides all that, they make you {Read: ME} feel like a monster! You can't lick your lips, put on lipstick, smile/ laugh without pain, kiss your kids or even your husband {if you are still into that type of thing :-}. I place the blame for this disease squarely on my mother- who apparently passed them on to me. If you have never had one then you just don't have the virus that gives them to you. Again- please be thankful for this.
I woke up Monday morning about 4 am and felt it coming. That horrible tingle sensation and then I felt the swelling. DANGIT. {First thought- at least it was after our Sunday School Christmas Party. I am so stinking vain sometimes.} I got up and immediately put on some Denavir cream that I had from the last one and surprisingly was able to go back to sleep. I dreamed that they were small and went away quickly.
Unfortunately, the first part of that dream didn't come true. They were HUGE. I mean big swollen globs on my top lip- 2 of them! I looked like the after picture of Botox gone wrong. Ugh. So embarrassing.
I called one of my Fever Blista Sistas, Beth, to commiserate on the way to pre-school. She told me that another of our FBSs had gotten her a prescription for Valtrex. This particular FBS, who shall remain nameless, works in the medical field and is basically our hook up for anything medical that we need in a hurry or out of regular office hours. She has checked my kids for ear infections on Sunday afternoons, she has called in medicine at 7 pm and she calms my fears at all times! You really need a friend like this if you don't have one.
So, nameless Dr. FBS called in the prescription for me and I was on Valtrex (a pill) and Denavir (a cream) by noon. Here is more information about those medicines. {And, yes, I was at the pharmacy thinking, "Please, please, please don't say over the loud speaker,'Mrs. Dunham, your VALTREX is ready", but they didn't! I saved a smidgen of my reputation. At least now people just think I was in a Botox trial. I don't know which is worse.}

48 hours later- this thing is GONE! BUSTED! I am so pumped. I can almost wear lipstick again, but the swollen and gross portion was gone by this morning and most of the redness has disappeared. Usually these things last a week, so this is like an early Christmas miracle!
I have tried EV-RAY-THANG under the sun to get rid of these boogers and this is the best cure out there- for sure.

For all the other herpes-free sistas out there, please take this unsolicited advice:

1. Don't point out to someone else if they happen to have one. I guarantee you they know it's there. {Someone did this to me today. Yes, thanks. Really? Didn't know. Hmm. I should take a look at that.}
2. Act like you don't see it or shocked/ surprised if we mention it. That makes us feel like we're somewhat human, even though we know you're lying. Thank you.
3. We can tell when you're staring at it. I know it's like a train wreck, but focus on our eyes- or hair- or even boobs would be better. Just please don't drill a hole in our funky lip.

So, I hope this helps any other FBSs out there. Good luck and Godspeed Fever Blister!

Stalkers Anonymous

Hello. My name is Hillary and I'm a stalker.

I've been stalking for about a year now. Today is my first day to come clean.

I have updated my blog list on the right to include people that I visit every now and again. Some people I just found out had blogs today (Amber, Amy, Eve) and other's I've been checking in on every now and again via somebody else's links. Well, now that blogger has this handy dandy thing for blog lists that puts the ones that have been updated first on the list, I just decided to come clean. This makes my stalking blog reading much easier. Instead of double clicking from one to the other, I can just see who has written something new (when it's working correctly) and just read the top of the list. I know I could go with Google reader, but for some reason I like this better.

So, if I'm stalking you, think of it as a compliment! And I will do the same. I'm so glad to catch up with old friends (from elementary and middle school, even!) and "meet" new people who I think are interesting. Or the people out there that I just know we should have been friends, but somehow missing each other while still having many same friends (Carrie). Well, now is the time that we can be cyberfriends.

Feel free to come clean, too. I will take it as a compliment. Unless you're an actual, certified stalker. Then, I'll have issues...

Walking through The Park and Reminscing

Oh my! We have had a FUN day today. Donna and her two kiddos, Marc and Julia came up to Huntsville to visit us today from Birmingham. Shana got to come, too (even though she didn't get home until 1:30 last night from work), and we had such a great time reminiscing. We talked about everything from step shows that we (okay just I) participated in in college (there was a sorority group- it wasn't me by myself) to the Trojan Room- our dining facility of choice on campus. All of us lived in our sorority house at the same time and it was a blast.

Don't you just wish you knew how much fun you were having while it was happening? (Did that make sense? You know what I mean.) Spring semester of our senior year, Donna and I would lay out at the pool across the street pretty much every day (or close to it). I was taking 9 hours (3 classes) and was only considered full time because I was graduating. Ahhh. That was the life. Why were we so eager to get into the real world, again? Someone please remind me.

So, it was fantastic to see Donna and Shana and the kiddos today. Marc is 4 and Julia is 2. Owen thought Marc was super cool and that he had acquired a new best friend. He cried on the way home and said he wanted Marc to come over. Awww. I am glad they hit it off and played well together. The kids played in the playroom for a while with Cooper while we hung out and caught up. Then we all went to Chic-fil-A (our dining facility of choice NOW) for lunch and ice cream.

I have taught about a dozen people this trick, so I guess I should reveal it to all of blog world.

*** DID YOU KNOW- You can turn in your unopened Chic-fil-A toy in a kids meal for a FREE kids ice cream?? *** We do it every time and I think it's a must. E.g. When I told Owen we were going to CFA, he said, "ice queem?".

Then, we went out to Bridge Street to play in the fountains. We've never been there before, but I've always seen kids running around there when we go, so we thought we'd give it a try on this hot day. It was a hit with the older kiddos and I finally remembered to get out my camera:Owen and Marc playing in the water- no fear at all- lovin' it. Owen fell/ slipped several times and just kept going. I think the bottom picture shows a slip in action. Julia was too cool for the water, so she hung out on the sidelines in the shade. My kind of girl.

And Harris would like the world to know that he doesn't believe in "matchy matchy"... or even "quasi- matchy"... or in "matchy" of any sort.

When we were leaving the parking lot we were trying to get the kids to hug/ high 5 and they did that well- before I could take a picture, of course- but this is what I got. Owen as a force-hugger: "Come here and wrap your arms around this belly, baby."

A wonderful day! Thanks to Donna and Shana for coming all the way up to Huntsvegas to see us! We loved every minute of it and can't wait to see you again soon! I'll come down next time!

Is this Jurassic Park?

We have had an adventurous day today! Both of the kids are home with me for the next 1 1/2- 2 weeks because their pre-schools/ mothers morning out programs are closed for the break between summer and fall. {What, you don't get that break off of work? Well, me either! Why can't we learn and schedule our vacations accordingly?}

So, I've got all kinds of fun activities lined up because mommy becomes a bit boring and I'm determined not to let Owen quote every line from any Thomas video. He knows so many now and just throws them out { e.g. "Slow down and puff with care!"} whenever and I have to explain to people that he's quoting a Thomas movie... and I'm sure they're thinking he's seen it 100 times... but he just quotes anything!

Anyway, today we ventured out with Cate and her daughter Ellie to Harmony Safari Park. You've never heard of it? Apparently no one has! It's a free range zoo that you drive through. It's about a 25 minute drive from downtown, but not too terribly bad to get there. Free range zoo means that the animals just roam around and are not in cages. "Roam around" means that they come up to your car and eat out of your hand. How can this be? Take a look at these pictures:

This is one of many ostriches. They were our least favorite because of their attacking nature and weird googly eyes. Sorry if you're an ostrich lover.

I honestly can't remember what this was, but this shows you how close they all were. This is Cate petting whatever the animal is. Cate, do you remember? Looks horse-ish, but I know there weren't any horses.And this is Tattoo the zebra. I think he was Owen's favorite. And I was his favorite. We had a big bucket of feed and apparently the animals know this. Is this crazy, or what?Cate said, "Oh look, get the camel over here", so I threw out food and he came running. Then he snuck around to her side! She screamed because of the lovely surprise, but that didn't scare him away. He wouldn't leave and had his WHOLE CAMEL HEAD in the car for a while. This is Cate trying to get him out!

There were turkey, deer, llama, monkeys (in cages), turtles, big ole snakes (appropriately caged), deer with fuzzy antlers (are those just deer? we were calling them reindeer because of the kiddos, but I'm honestly not sure if they are deer or what), bison, buffalo, aligators- the list goes on. And I could post a ton of pictures, but here are the rest of my favorites:

Owen was in awe of the whole experience. I kept hyping up the "zoo" and I know he thought that Barney was going to be there (one of his other favorite videos- I highly recommend), so I hope this met his expectations. He seemed pretty happy! (The cup is full of feed that he never threw out.)

How often do you get to see this?Here's precious little Ellie waving to some animal. Cooper (our babysitter) is in the "way" back with Harris. I'm so glad she came along because she could maintain the whole back 2 rows. She is great!A ram, I think.And a cool buffalo (or bison). Whatever you think it is- I'll go with that.
A llama- which Ellie kept calling "Mama". Some good jokes there.And here's where the title of this post comes from: Baby ostrich eggs waiting to hatch... or is it?Needless to say, we had a really cool time at the safari park. I would recommend it, for sure! Thanks to Cate for telling us about it!

The Free Zoo

Notice the blue skies in the picture above

Go ahead. Call me cheap (it's true!). Huntsville doesn't have a zoo, so we do what we can do for animal education around here!

We met our friends Aaron and Debra at Big Sping Park on Saturday for a picnic lunch. We are so happy that Aaron and Debra and their 2 precious little girls have moved back to Huntsville! Aaron and Jason went to high school together and have been friends since then. And Debra was a Space Camp counselor with me and Jason, so we've known her for a long time, too! I even caught the bouquet at their wedding (a few months before Jason proposed...).

This park is super nice and is downtown surrounded by big buildings. Think Central Park on a Mayberry level. If you've ever been there, though, you know it's beautiful and quaint and we love it! We had family pictures taken there for Owen's first birthday.

The free zoo has ducks and birds {that will eat out of your hand}, HUGE fish {I mean HUGE! We saw some with dorsal fins sticking out of the water- seriously}, birds and geese. They will all fight for your stale bread and crackers and very few have missed a meal. There is a big ol' pond and a great red bridge with picnic tables, sidewalks and big swooping trees. Here's a video of our whole group feeding the fish. Notice the calm weather.

About 10 minutes after this video, the bottom dropped out of the sky. We were back under the trees by then, so it wasn't too bad and we decided to wait it out there. It was such a great picnic and Saturday treat.

We've been to the free zoo a lot and can let you know the good ages for children.

This is Owen at 16 months- not a great age: {"Holy COW! That thing is my height!!"}

Harris at 8 months {and 9 months is good, too}- just happy to be along for the ride:

This is Owen in June {2 3/4 yrs}- now telling all the birds and ducks what to do:

And this is to show you how tame/ acclimated to people, yet still vicious the animals are. {I'm sacrificing my image in this horrible picture here}, but when we went to the free zoo in June, Jason happened to catch the moment that a duck/ goose?? bit Owen's little hand when he was taking too long to feed him! No damage, but it scared both of us. I can't imagine that animals in the wild harass humans like this, but who knows? I'm sure humans don't regularly carry bread to them, either. This is about as "wild" as we get! Look how surprised Owen is; obviously I am, too!So, if you live in or visit Huntsville, I would highly recommend the Big Spring Park downtown for a nice treat. You might get bitten, rained on or attacked by Jaws the catfish, but it's always an adventure!