Winter Blahs

So what's with all of the germs going around this winter?? Jim was sick with some sort of virus for a week or so right around Christmas, and has been sick again with a nasty virus for 13 days now. It started with body aches, massive headache, and fever for a couple of days followed by the nastiest of "colds" - congestion and cough that just won't stop; no voice for two days. He finally went to the doctor and got a Z pak. The doctor didn't even look at him - just listened and said that everyone is coming in with these symptoms. Whether the ailment is viral or bacterial, by the time he's done with the meds, he should feel better. Annie and Justin happened to be at our house for lunch the very day that Jim started feeling bad, and a couple of days later Annie came down with the body aches, headache, and fever. She was too weak to pick up Claire, so Justin stayed home for two days to take care of them. Poor guy - he even took Claire alone to her two month check up with the pediatrician! Annie started feeling better and came to CR for a family get-together last Saturday, but ended up going to the ER at St. Luke's and spending four hours there to be diagnosed with pneumonia. Her virus ended up in the lungs with bad pain, but no cough or other cold symptoms. She was told at the ER that with the Z pak that she was prescribed she wouldn't be able to breastfeed Claire for 7 days. Not too happy about that; but on Monday after speaking with her pediatrician, that decision was reversed, and she's now back to nursing. Yikes! I'm on pins and needles wondering if and when I may come down with this, but have been getting lots of rest, which I think is good. Snow, ice, arctic cold, and illness . . . I think we should all fly south for the winter like the birds.

Technical Tragedy

Well, it happens. Even though it can be prevented it happens. And it happened to me as 2008 drew to a close. I lost EVERYTHING on my computer. Christmas card address labels that I've kept updated for over 15 years, two files full of recipes, all of my photo albums from April 2007 until December 2008 (though two that I had uploaded to Kodak Gallery were saved), and numerous other files. I don't even know at this point what was lost - time will tell. When I got my laptop two years ago, we had Vista installed. It's been good, except that Jim was bothered by the sound quality - a crackling noise which was noticed mostly when watching videos, listening to music, or making a skype call. (Was this a problem for me? Not really). After working with Dell personnel twice in December -one 2 1/2 hour call trying to make several changes, and a house visit from a Dell technician who replaced the mother board - the problem was still there. They concluded that it was a problem with Vista and suggested that Vista be re-installed.

So the call came from the Dell person saying he was ready to walk Jim through the steps to do the re-install. He failed to mention that this would involve re-formatting the hard drive, and that all of my info could be lost. If we had known obviously we would have backed everything up. Jim remembers that the first time we did it (to update XP?? I don't really get all of this stuff . . . ) that it didn't affect anything. Who knows . . . anyway, I was left not only with Vista re-installed but a completely clean slate as well.

It took awhile to really hit me what the loss really was, and then of course I was not too thrilled with the whole thing. Anyway, I'm in the process now of trying to get back all of my email contacts. So if you are a reader of my blog and haven't received any emails from me for awhile, it could be because I don't have your contact. So send me an email, and I'll re-add you to my contact list. And don't forget to BACK UP your files!

Oh, and in case you're wondering . . . no, the problem still is not completely solved.

Christmas Happenings

Today is the first "normal" day that we have had for several weeks. Jim is back to work and I am home today taking advantage of a day not subbing and thinking about what needs to be done during the week ahead. It feels good to be able to be back to more of a schedule, take a deep breath, and go forward. Already Christmas 2008 is a memory, but many special ones were made for our family this year.

Jim's mom and dad (ages 95 and 93) successfully drove from their home in Milwaukee to visit us and be part of our celebration here in Cedar Rapids. The weather was touch and go, so we were thankful they made it here and back safely. It was a special time for them as they were able to meet their tenth great-grandchild, Claire Grace Schumacher. Little Silas, Claire's 2 1/2 year old cousin was just as taken with her as they were. I guess babies delight all of us, young and old.

Though they live only a half hour away in Iowa City, Justin and Annie opted to stay three nights in our home with little Claire, rather than haul oxygen tanks back and forth. It is always delightful to have an infant in our home - we all enjoyed cuddling her and admiring all of her little antics.

How we celebrataed: I prepared our traditional Swedish smorgasbord for our Christmas Eve dinner which includes Swedish fruit soup, Swedish meatballs, sour-cream mashed potatoes, festive cauliflower, green "star" jello, home-made crescent rolls, and a chocolate/peppermint ice cream dessert. The dessert was a new version this year with peppermint ice cream sandwiches as a base rather than the Oreo cookie crust I used to make. It was a hit, so that will be included as our dessert in years to come. (Jason and Roxanne - we hope you like it as much as we did!!) After dinner we opened gifts and enjoyed seeing everyone's creativity with the ornament exchange that has become part of our tradition in the last few years. We draw names for a gift and ornament, and everyone takes pride in choosing an ornament that would be significant for their person during the preceding year. Jorie gave me a beautiful cloisonne' golden apple to signify my retirement from teaching; and Jim received a darling wheelbarrow loaded with a little bush and garden tools to represent the many hours he spends working in our yard each year.

On Christmas morning we began with an hour long skype call toJason, Roxanne, and Annikah in Tanzania. It was wonderful to be able to watch each other open the gifts we had sent and received in the mail. It was the next best thing to actually being together for Christmas. After the call we enjoyed our traditional Christmas champagne brunch and just relaxed the rest of the day.

One disappointment was that Jorie, Mark, Joel, and Silas could not enjoy the activities with us as a family. Joel had been running a fever and was suffering from a virus, and since the doctor had warned Annie and Justin that Claire should not be around any illness, Jorie and Mark opted to come over to our house in alternate shifts, leaving the boys at home. By New Year's Day, though, everyone was well, so Jim and I along with Justin, Annie, and Claire all gathered at Jorie and Mark's house for New Year's Day brunch.

Here are a few more pictures I took that show more of our Christmas.