Monday, October 31, 2011

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? a Whinge & a Halloween Birthday!



A weekly event hosted by Sheila from Book Journey to discuss your reading week ~ the books you've read and those you plan on reading in the coming week. Thanks Sheila :)

Sending you warm hugs across the miles Sheila as you grieve for your little friend Elmo x



Sorry for taking up this post with a massive 'whinge' but desperate times call for desperate measures and I'm doing my best to retain a sense of humour. I find that 'putting it out there' so to speak ... helps and that way family gets a break; not that I'm a bad patient, but I worry that they'll get sick of me, after all I'm sick of myself. Laughter is great medicine, I can't tell you how much the video clip above cracked me up; sent to me by a friend on fb (ignore this one if you find slight crudeness offensive.) So if you have a good joke ... don't hold back; please share!

Happy Halloween & Happy 20th Birthday to my son Anthony (on right)

I spent 2 days in bed resting & sleeping so I could go to Ant's birthday dinner; poor Cal has the flu too but we scrubbed up ok.


left to right:
Callum, Michaela (niece), Narelle, (sister) Kevin (bil), myself, Mike, Ant & Christine

I'm still hoping to go to scrapbook retreat this weekend but my diagnosis of Thryotoxicosis was the icing on the cake after 2 weeks of bizarre illness. My nuclear scan showed a rare form of thryoiditis which is now being symptom controlled except for the high blood pressure & excruciating head pain. Mike has flown back out to Chinchilla this week; he has been my rock and my safe harbour while I've been sick and miserable. I'm so thankful that I didn't have to go through this without him by my side. 

I'm having a CT scan of brain tomorrow just to rule out anything else and then I'm going to have some acupuncture to see if that helps relieve the pain where conventional medicine hasn't. You know when you're just as sick of yourself as you are of being sick?? Well that's me. I'm trying to stay positive but when your head feels like it's been hit-on by a baseball bat for the last few weeks, it's a little difficult, so please help me out by sending good thoughts or jokes this way. 

Failing that, if I could just remove my head, I'm sure I'd be fine to go to camp :)

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Fortunately I had a lot of things already scheduled last week so I didn't have to worry about too much.

I posted reviews for: (click on title)

YOU ARE MY ONLY by Beth Kephart ~ Beth writes from the heart!

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh ~ a favourite for 2011.

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Giveaways:

OCTOBER CELEBRATION GIVEAWAY ~ 3 winners. International ~ enter here. Last Day!!
Destined by P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast ~ enter here.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AGAIN by Brian Rowe ~ enter here.

Winner of THE COUNTESS by Rebecca Johns ~  The Brunette Librarian

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Finished last week:

LILY OF THE NILE by Stephanie Dray - enjoyable

BONJOUR 40: A Paris Travel Log (40 years. 40 days. 40 seconds) by Karen A Chase - loved it, review, interview and giveaway scheduled Wednesday.

MY SOUL TO STEAL (Soul Screamers #4) by Rachel Vincent - will probably do a group review of these.

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This Week's Reading List:




DEARLY, DEPARTED by Lia Habel ~ page 15

SONG OF THE NILE by Stephanie Dray

JUNIOR'S DESSERT COOKBOOK by Alan Rosen, Beth Allen ~ I hope to at least flick through this one even though I'm not up to cooking anything this week.

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Reviews still to do:

IF I TELL by Janet Gurtler

MY SOUL TO KEEP by Rachel Vincent

MY SOUL TO LOSE by Rachael Vincent


19 comments:

  1. I've never heard of Thyrotoxicosis before. I hope the acupuncture will help. It is amazing how sometimes natural treatments work better than medications. I can't think of any good jokes but I will be sending positive thoughts your way!

    I will have to check out your review of The Language of Flowers. I have a copy but haven't found time to read it yet. I did read Dearly, Departed and I loved it. I hope you will too.

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  2. I had not heard of the illness myself but you are still doing a lot despite this. I do hope that there will be further improvements and especially the headache will go away permanently.

    Going now to look at the reviews as I have been away from Colombo for one week and trying to catch up with everything is rather tough.

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  3. Sorry to hear you've been so unwell. I hope that the acupuncture helps.

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  4. I'd love to read Son of the Nile one day. :)

    Also, what a good looking family you have! :) You all look so happy. :)

    New Follower. Come see my Monday! Have a great week!

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  5. I hope your symptoms will soon be under control, it sounds awful what you have to suffer.

    Amazing that you managed to get a birthday dinner done and that you women all wear the same color top! :-)

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  6. Did you notice that you & Mike are wearing the same colours as Narelle and Kevin and even Christine has it in her dress. Will make scrapping that photo nice and easy LOL. Take it easy and fingers crossed that you'll make it to camp.

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  7. @ Leeswammes & Alaine, hahaha didn't notice til you mentioned, it, it certainly wasn't planned. We were running late to get to the restaurant 'Sweet Mandarin' ... Anthony & Christine were already waiting for us lol

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  8. Your picture at the restaurant looks so good! I am so sorry you are feeling unwell... I hope that this passes quickly and you can get back to 100%!

    Thank you for your kind words about Elmo... it has been a hard week.

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  9. I'm so sorry to hear you're having all these problems, I hate when that happens! You're in my thoughts, hopefully nothing new comes up and you can get on the path to recovery.

    Have a great reading week, your books look lovely!

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  10. Oh, I do hope you feel better soon! Being sick sucks!

    I read and reviewed The Language of Flowers last week, and plan to read You Are My Only (among others) this week.

    Here's MY MONDAY MEMES POST and
    MY WEBSITE

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  11. Oh my, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope the acupuncture works. I can sympathize, without my meds my pain would be intolerable so I hope you find something that works for you.

    on a lighter note, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, thank you for sharing the video.

    Dollycas
    http://www.escapewithdollycas.com/

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  12. I hope you start feeling better soon and that you have a great week.

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  13. I hope you will be ok *hugs*

    Happy Halloween :)

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  14. I feel so terrible for you!! I'm hoping that all of the other tests go fine and that something alleviates your headache!!! Take care of yourself...love the photos of you and your boys!

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  15. I hope that the scan goes well today and you find some relief from your pain.

    Hopefully you will be able to escape into a good book!

    Shelleyrae @ book'd Out

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  16. Nice family photo. I'm surprised you call him "Ant". :-) You look good considering you are fighting pain. I'll keep you in prayers special this week hoping they can find some relief for you.
    I like the look of this week's books. Happy reading.

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  17. I've never heard of these conditions. I am so sorry about your headache. It must be bad if you are sick of yourself! I hope you are on the mend soon and that your other tests go well. Hugs your way.

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  18. Oh no sweetie! I am so sorry to hear about your achy head and other assorted health issues. I truly understand what you mean when you are sick of yourself being sick. We are so used to being on the go and doing things, that these set backs really suck ass and disappoint us.

    I hope things improve and will keep you in my thoughts, always :)

    Love the photos. Your family is so photogenic!

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  19. Oh my! I'm just getting around to visiting because it sounds like we are in similar boats. I've been having terrible migraines recently and just can't seem to kick this one I've had for nearly a week and a half. It's awful! I sincerely hope you are feeling better and the doctors are figuring something out. It's awful being sick! I know exactly what you mean about just wanting to feel better already. *hugs* and sending you lots of thoughts & prayers.

    Hope you're having a wonderful week otherwise!

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