12 days later and coming out on the up side

Whew.. this cold/flu/infection whatever really kicked my butt!

This is the 12th day and I am finally starting to feel better.  We went to a ClinicCare walk-in place in Appleton the other night, and we got told to go home, keep taking out over the counter meds and get rest.  Even with signs of yellowish ummmm "nasal discharge" and yellowish green stuff produced from coughing from lungs, the nurse practitioner there said that is no longer a recognized sign of infections.... and they are not handing out antibiotic prescriptions anymore for our type of illness.  She said go home and keep doing what we are doing.  Steve has been sick too, but not as long or as severe as I was.

Sooooo we went home.  Doing all the over the counter stuff, and tea and honey, and Vicks and steaming showers etc.  Plus ... drugging up each night on Nyquil to get some rest.  Feeling like total crap.

Wednesday we said "enough was enough", and made an appt. with our own family doc during the day hours. He said 10 days was too long to be sick, examined us both, our blocked ears, sore throats, infected eyes, etc. and gave us both antibiotics. After 3 or 4 doses, we are already feeling much better, and will continue for all 7 days to knock this crap outta us.

Okay.. enough complaining.

I have been using my blender (thanks Sarah Kopf) for my own smoothies.  A dollop of mango fruit juice, a banana, a handful of ice and voila.... almost as good as the smoothies from Dairy Queen!


Even though we have been sick, we did manage to get little Finney's Poop Yard put up again for this winter.  During the spring, summer and fall months, we normally go outside with our dogs each and every time while they are on a long runner cable to the big backyard.  We never let them off leash in our yard, as we live on a very busy street.  So its kinda a pain to get all bundled up each time the dog needs to go out.  Especially when we are feeling sick?  It was time to get the Poop Pen put up!


Last winter when we got Finney, part of the agreement with the Wisconsin Sheltie Rescue program is that we have a fenced in yard.  So we bought a 5x10 kennel and put up the two short panels between the house and garage on the south side, and the two 10 foot panels in an L shape between the house and garage on the north side.

Once Finney was nicely leash trained, we took down the pen in the spring, but always keep him on a leash each time we go out with him.

But for the winter months, we decided to put it back up again.

It makes a perfect little Poop Pen, plus we only have to open the door to let him out to go, and we get to stay inside warm and dry!  We watch from the kitchen window for when he is done, and zooms back up the steps to get into the warm house. We have another back door to the house beyond the fence to the right.  And if we enter and exit through the garage so we don't need to use the locked gates on the panel.  It stays secure for the little guy all of the time that way.

He looks so little in there, 

our bitty Finney Boy! 

Well, I have one more sad note to mention.  Prayers for a family member are asked for, as cancer has evidently spread and now she needs kind thoughts and prayers more than ever.  Please keep her in your thoughts and heart as her family goes through this painful process of dealing with cancer again.