Arts as Astra

My in-laws finally left on Friday. They had originally planned to leave Thursday, but had second thoughts upon hearing about snow on the New Jersey Turnpike. So I've spent the weekend reacquainting myself with my family, though DS1 seems to have decided that I'm rude and he refuses to associate with me now.

On Saturday, we decided to spend a sunny albeit still a bit chilly afternoon hiking along the trail behind our house. The outbound trip was quite leisurely, at least for me and DH, since the kids actually moved under their own power for once. The trip back was faster, but quite strenuous for me and DH, quite leisurely for the kids, since we ended up carrying them the whole way back. But hey, they walked almost two miles on the outbound trip, and we took the shortcut home, so it was all good.

Later, we went to dinner with a bunch of friends of mine from work at a Cuban restaurant in Adams Morgan. ( Adventures in Cuban cuisine )

Sunday (today), we took the kids to the park and tried out our not-so-new (I think they are older than I am) tennis racquets that DH's parents had brought. DH and I tried to get a good volley going, but we're both out of shape and I've never been good at it. Our kitchen is more-or-less back in order, now that DH has installed the trim around the edges of the flooring. I tried to decrease some of our freezer/fridge contents by doing some cooking, so now we have apple-pear-cranberry pie (with a criss-cross lattice crust because I was feeling creative) and Leftovers Soup, Yum.

Woke up around 2am because the right half of my tongue and part of my lips had swollen up. I hadn't eaten anything particularly unusual the day before, except perhaps for some gourmet chocolate truffles. Conferred with webmd.com and DH, and decided to drive myself to the emergency room so that we didn't have to disturb the kids, and now I know where the emergency room is for the next time we take our eyes off DS2 for too long.

The receptionist took her time checking me in, meanwhile it was getting harder and harder to talk clearly, and finally a nurse came over and said, "why do you still have this lady? Look at her face! Come with me." So I guess it was bad enough that I looked pretty awful, but I hadn't bothered to look in the mirror before taking off.

Got electrodes stuck all over my chest and a heparin lock in my arm, and was told I'd be pumped full of steroids, benadryl, and epinephrine. But, as with most of my experiences with hospitals, they took their time about getting things together, and so it wasn't until about 4am that the nurse showed up with the meds. By that time I was starting to cough a lot, so she picked up the pace. The swelling went down almost immediately, and my cough cleared up. However, they kept me until 10am for observation, but I was able to sleep for most of that time (mmm, benadryl....zzz...) so it was okay.

My mouth and tongue are still a bit swollen, but that should go away over the next few days. I filled the prescriptions they gave me, and I am the proud owner of a shiny new epipen. *shudders*

Well, I accomplished my goal of not going anywhere over the weekend. But it ended up being eventful anyway.

( Tigerlily survives, for now )

( I attempt to start an exercise program )

( Maoschism Tangle, reprise )