VioletMoonDancer7's Xanga

Happy Birthday Kelly!!

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:03:27 GMT

Hey Kel,

I hope you see this. I'm going to try to send you an e-card, but just in case it doesn't go through or something, here's a note for the whole world to see...

HAPPY 35th BIRTHDAY TO MY FIEND, KELLY!!!

Now, go have some drinks!
(If your old and withered body can handle it that is, lol)

Have a Wonderful Day!

I wasn't prepared enough ahead of time to order a cake and have it sent to you (nor do I have the funds, lol) but I did some online searching and I found the perfect one. Consider it my gift to you!

Happy Birthday, Sugar Tits!

<3
Suz

Second Wreck in 6 Months

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:50:22 GMT

Billy is only 6 months old, and has already been involved in 2 rear end collisions. The first one happened a couple of months ago (you can probably find it on my tags), and the second one happened just today (well, yesterday now).

We were sandwiched in the middle of a 5 car accident this time. The truck in front of us had stopped, we stopped, the truck behind us stopped, and a Grand Prix behind that truck stopped. But (according to a witness that was further back) someone came up on the line of stopped cars rather quickly and instead of trying to stop they swerved into the other lane, leaving the young woman behind him no choice but to crash into us all. I was furious. I didn't see the crazy swerver, all I knew is that we and the trucks in front and back of us were completely stopped and somewhere behind us were heard "screeeeeech, crash, crash, crash,crash!" and we where hit. Billy bawled immediately, but did not take long at all to soothe, so I presume he is okay since he has no visible injuries and the impact didn't even SEEM as bad as the one a couple of months ago. After we were hit and came to a stop, Zeb put the car in park and shut it off and I jumped out of my seat to check on Billy. He didn't appear injured so I took him out of the car seat to calm him. Then, I walked down the line in back of us to see where it all started. When I reached the rear most car and the young woman was getting out of her vehicle, I screamed at her, "You stupid bith, you hit my baby 4 cars up!" The witness who was further back approached me and was saying it wasn't her fault, this one ass hole had swerved out of the way. Well, according to every officer there, she's the one at fault because it was her responsibility to be traveling at a safe speed and distance fromt he car in front of her to have stopped after he swerved out of the way. No matter what I know it's not the fault of us or the trucks on either side of us.

Luckily, no one in our vehicle seems to be injured and we have current insurance. Our liability policy has lapsed, but just a month or so ago, our car loan company sent us a letter that they had obtained full coverage insurance for us because all that was on file was a liability coverage and under the contract of our loan agreement we have to carry full coverage while there is still a balance due on the account. That's the only reason we let the liability policy lapse in the first place. So, even if this stupid girl wasn't insured, we are taken care of. She had insurance documents in her hand so as long as her payments are up to date, it should be covered by her.

Here's the front of our car (the window fell off track a few weeks ago and we had this plastic taped up there until we got a chance to see if we can get it back on ourselves). The ball hitch on the back of this truck was imbedded into our front bumper. Here, the truck owner is surveying the situation with one of the firemen tha arrived on the scene.

Here's the truck behind us, right up against our trunk. It dented the back of the trunk pretty badly and even caused it to bow upward on the top part of the trunk lid. The rear was pushed forward a little, causing both rear doors to stick when trying to open them.

Here's the back end of the truck behind us and the Grand Prix that was behind him. The man in the red truck was moderately injured and taken from the scene in an ambulance on a back board. The bridge of his nose had a cut on it that was bleeding and he seemed dazed and confused. The paramedics on the scene assured us that he would be okay, he just had to be evaluated right away.

And this is the woman who caused the initial impact. I'm not sure if according to the police report that she was at fault or the car that swerved out of the way, but that vehicle was not at the scene and I wasn't aware of it until the witness lady approached me after I bitched out the lady in the rear car.

Ironically, Zeb was wearing THIS shirt. Need a closer look?....

Hahahahaha!!

The ball hitch was imbedded pretty good. The truck owner tried jumping up and down in the bed of the truck and trying to drive away, but it wasn't budging. The fire department tried using this tool to pry the two of us apart, but that didn't work either. What finally ended up happening is that the wrecker service driver blocked our front wheels, set our park brake and got behind the wheel of our car to manually press down the foot brake while he had the owner of the truck in front of us back up slightly, put it in low gear and take off from us quickly. It broke loose alright, it ripped our front bumper completely off of the car! lol Our car was drivable from the scene of the accident though, so I guess just body and possibly frame damage. I'll be getting in contact with the police, our insurance company and the girl in the back's insurance company first thing Monday morning to try to get this handled as quickly as possible.

I have good news to share also...

Billy now sits completely unassisted for several minutes in a row. I'll update more about that (with pics and possibly video) tomorrow or the next day. Right now I need to get some sleep so that we can go into the doctor and attend Mike's parade in the morning.

Thanks for reading,

<3 Suz

Billy's first SOLIDS!

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:53:15 GMT

Billy has been eating cereal, stage one baby food and samples of mashed up whatever we are having for a full month now. Well, he recently had his first solids. A couple of weeks ago, this guy we know named Zane gave him a little maple treat. I wasn't too happy about it, but I figured one couldn't hurt as long as we watched him and he didn't choke on it. Zane held it up to Billy's mouth and didn't let him take it in, so it was perfectly safe. It was a dry cereal treat. Kind of like a cheese puff only maple flavored and shaped like a HoneyComb. Anyway, he sloppered on that until it was completely dissolved.

About a week ago, I gave Billy a cheese puff. Not the ball kind, the finger shaped ones. He held it in his hand and slobbered it down to nothing. He put it in his mouth a bit, but if he ever swallowed any bits it wasn't noticable. I watched him very closely and he never seemed to have anything in there when his mouth was closed. He never struggled or seemed surprised either, so I think he just worked it down to the goo that was left in his hand rather than actually eating it. LOL

Yesterday, he had 1/4 of a banana cut into 2 long finger sized pieces. I helped him with most of it. He was finding it very difficult to keep hold of that slippery ol' thing! lol It was mostly a learning exercize. He had already eaten his cereal that had baby food bananas added to it and he was acting like he was still hungry. I gave him the spoon to play with, but he kept gagging himself, so I grabbed the banana pieces for him to play with instead. He probably actually ingested only half of one piece, but he had a great time working on it. I saw him get bits into his mouth and chew on them several times. Words can't begin to describe it, so here's some pics.

LOL, hope you enjoyed that.

Thanks for reading,

<3 SuZ

Halloween Update

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:59:03 GMT

Last night didn't go exactly as planned, but it was still a lot of fun. I had planned to dress up as Ellie May Clampet (so I could carry around one of my critters, lol) but I got a late start on getting ready and Mike had plans to meet up with friends for a party, so we didn't really have the time unless I had rushed. Plus, I'm getting over some kind of crud and I just wasn't into it. This is the first year that I haven't dressed up at all. Even though we didn't have Mike with us for Halloween 2007, I still dressed up and went to the town fair that was going on. Zeb didn't dress up, but I did. Last year, the family did a matching theme and we all went as characters from House of 1,000 corpses and Devil's Rejects. We all had a plan for this year, not a matching one, but everything changed when it came time to get ready. Mike was going to be "The Crow", but he decided he didn't want to wear face make-up and he didn't have a wig or the hair length for that character. So, he saw the 4th of July/Captain Spalding hat in with the stuff and thought of being Uncle Sam by wearing his most patriotic clothes and using the grey wig to make a beard. Well, we reminded Mike that Uncle Sam's beard is more like a Colonel Sanders style goatie, but he could easily put stuff together to look like one of the ZZTop guys. As we started putting everything together (and after realizing we didn't even have a TOY guitar that would pull it all together) it looked much better as a biker. In fact, we all joked about how he looked a lot like Will, his step-grandpa (grandpapa). I grabbed my things for my costume, but I couldn't find the jeans that fit me the best and I didn't want to be walking around town being uncomfortable. Plus, it would have taken quite a bit of time to get the wig to look right and I simply didn't want to mess with it. Zeb was going to be a mummy, or even just throw on the "Jason" mask we have, but I didn't want to be the only one not dressed up, so he didn't dress up either.

So... after we got everyone ready, we first took a few pics in the yard with the fall trees in the background. Here's a couple....

Zeb, Billy and Mike

Tucker had to get in on a shot too. See how he's eyeballing Mike? Tucker didn't seem to like the costume at all. lol

Our first stop on our "Trick or Treat" route was Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Here's Billy and Grandma playing.

Here's Grandpa, and Billy being much more interested in the dog than anything else. lol

We took Mike over too, and he met up with his friend Justin. From there, the two of them were meeting at a church with a girl and her family and other friends for a party. Dad had agreed to take them over so that we could do our trick or treating with Billy.

Here is Justin holding Billy and Mike acting like he's gonna give them a beat down. lol

We only went to about 3 other houses after Grandma's. There weren't many houses in the neighborhood with their lights on and we had candy at home for ourselves already. Billy certainly wasn't going to eat any of it. LOL We just wanted to commemorate the occasion with him in some way.

After "Trick or Treat" we had plans to go bob for apples with some other friends. Well, when we got there, Billy was already asleep and the party guests were already mostly drunk, so we didn't do any fun games or even pass Billy around and take pictures. We hung out for a short time, Zeb had a beer and Billy slept then we went home.

Billy stayed asleep even through transferring out of the car seat onto the couch coushion next to me.

We piled this candy around him to make it LOOK like he was crashed out from a sugar overdose, but he was just worn out from all the traveling and excitement around him.

awwwww... lol

We didn't do our close of the evening prayers and picture session either. I just completely forgot about it. I guess I just wasn't into the holiday this year at all. I was a bit drained and as I mentioned before, still recoving from some illness. So, you'll just have to see spirit photos the next time I get one. hahaha

All in all, we had fun. We ate candy after we got home and Billy slept most of the way through the night. I woke him up to take him out of his costume and get him in his jammies and he barely even noticed. He stirred a little, but 30 seconds in the rocker and he was out cold again. He woke up one time around 3am and I gave him some milk and he was back to sleep before he even drank enough to build up a burp. I put him on my shoulder and patted him anyway, but he was completely zonked. lol

It was a fun night.

Thanks for reading,

<3 Suz

Edit, added around noon, CST...

The party I mentioned Mike going to was a sleep-over... a co-ed sleepover. However, from talking to the parents and the fact that they weren't supposed to wear any "scary" costumes and met for transport at a church... I'm sure it's wasn't the kind of co-ed sleepover parents are scared of. Mike is only 14, and I wasn't sure if I should let him go or not, but Justin's parents are fairly protective and they allowed him to go, so I took my cue from them. Mike and Justin are best friends and the girl who was hosting the party has a twin brother and therefor has many more male friends than females. Only one girl was invited (other than the host) and something came up where she would not be able to make it. So it ended up being all boys at the party except for her. Mike still isn't home yet. I just got off the phone with him and we are double checking with Justin's parents to make sure the transportation plan is still the same. I may have more to comment about that later, but for now, I just wanted share that Mike went to his first ever co-ed sleep-over. lol

Spirit Photo?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:37:18 GMT

Anyone who's read my blog for a long period of time will know that I believe in the existence of spirits around us and that I celebrate "Halloween" as a "Day of the Dead" type occasion. Sure, we dress up and go trick-or-treating, but I often include a prayer at the end of the night that says something about helping "trapped" spirits to "go home" and thanking them for their watchful guidance and protection. I will be doing the same this year and will try to capture some spirit photos (if they aren't camera shy, lol) but I have one to share now...

See the orb above Billy's head that is a little larger than his head is? This is NOT a flash reflection. Flash reflection has a specific pattern that often includes bright streaks, but even the circular flash reflections are much brighter than this is. I also have several other pictures taken within seconds of this one, under the same lighting, and also using flash where no orb shows. There is another with a bright spot in it, but it very clearly reflection from the wall. This is different.

Here is a copy of the same picture where I have cropped it to make the orb the main focus. It is even more clear here that this is NOT a flash reflection.

I don't have any particular speculation as to "who" this spirit is. Our whole family has lost many loved ones in years past, all of who would probably have an interest in watching Billy grow and protecting him. This picture was taken on October 15th and I can't think of anyone that the date would be related to. Then again, I don't many of their birthdays or other dates that might be significant to them.

I don't really have anything else of significance today, I just noticed this when uploading pics to my Facebook albums and wanted to share it.

Hope you enjoyed this, thanks for reading!

<3 Suz

All I Want for X-mas is My Two Front Teeth...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:34:10 GMT

Billy won't be singing that song! lol Tooth #2 made it's way through the skin sometime in the evening on Monday, October 28th. Just a few minutes ago, I finally got a good shot of them!

They are still a little hard to see, but they are most definately there and through the skin. There is a little red spot in front of the left tooth (the right side of the picture). As I examine it, I can't tell if it's blood from the teeth cutting through or just what, but there is no steady blood coming from it. Billy seems to be doing a lot better with his moods too. I can tell they are still causing him pain now and then, but not as much as the days that they actually came in or before they were through the skin at all.

I don't have time to update beyond that right now, but I just HAD to share this pic.

Thanks for reading,

<3 SuZ

Lots of News

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:20:52 GMT

Topics:

First Tooth (and #2?)
Sewing Projects
Grades
Tucker
To Do List

Teeth: Billy's first tooth broke through the skin on Friday morning. (October 23rd, 5mos. and 3 days old.) It's the bottom front, his right side. The left one is just below the skin and swollen, but it hasn't cut through yet. Billy hasn't been overly fussy, but he's had his moments, that's for sure. LOL I can usually find something to soothe him, but every now and then he'll have an hour where he's just hurting and there isn't anything else I can do for him. I just hold him and rock him and keep trying to offer him different things to chew or suck on. Eventually he finds something he likes or nods off to sleep. We bought some name brand Orajel and that helps sometimes, but we only use it as a last resort and it doesn't do the trick for long, but it offers a short distraction to get him interested in something else.

Sewing: I haven't done a lot in the sewing department, but I did get a pair of longies finished. They look pretty nice, but as per my usual pattern, they are too big. Hahaha. Oh well, he can grow into them. I'm pinning them for now to make use of them, and I might take them partially appart and size them down a bit, but it's not a priority. I'm hoping that Wednesday I'll be going over to Judy's to do a little sewing. I want to put together my soakers and Judy received some precut diaper pieces for Freecycle so that we can each try our fist diaper. I actually have one that I got from Diaper Swappers that I want to take apart. It's got a lovely plush inner (I think maybe OBV - organic bamboo velour) but it's a pinnable pocket with the opening in the front and I'm having trouble pinning it in such a way that it doesn't slip. So, I'm going to take it apart and turn it into one where the soaker pannels are sewn in and the top soaker layer will be that soft material.

Here's my first pair of completed longies.

As I already mentioned, they are a bit too big in the seat, so I'm pinning them down, just below the waist band and sinching it in snug in order to make use of them.

The good news is... they look great! Here's a close up of my hem stitching. When I sew by hand, I almost always use a standard straight stitch. I leave a gap, weaving in and out of the fabric in one direction, then when I reach the end I go back and fill in all the gaps on either side of the material. So far (though I haven't done a lot of laundering yet) everying this holding together nicely and as long as I use a color of thread that doesn't draw too much attention, it even looks nice. In fact, I think I'm going to go ahead and finish up the jacket by hand.

Grades: I received my first Midterm grade report. Only my Math instructor has officially issued reports. In that class I have a 92.5% overall grade with a 96% on my last test. I'm going to contact all of my instructors to see if I can get a report for every class. I shouldn't have anything less than a C in any class and most are in the straight B range if my records are accurate.

Tucker: Tucker has had a bit of a backslide in the chewing department. I'm sure he's bored. Last week he had two bad days where he chewed on things he KNOWS not to chew on and that are a little on the spendy side if we replaced them. He chewed up a bunch of Mike's stuff early in the week, including the cartridge that plugs into the PS2 to operate his wireless controller. He followed that with a couple of good days and then he decided to chew up the bottom bar on the underneath, inside of crib rail. It's still usable and even when we lower the matress all the way down the matress is tight enough that Billy won't be in danger of getting any splinters, but it looks crappy. Then, just this morning we were issued a written warning from the local Animal Control because Tucker was reported "running at large". It was mine and Mike's fault this time. I asked Mike to put the dog out this morning, but I did not remind him to check and make sure the gate was secure before he did.

To Do List:

Housework - LOTS! I need to vaccuum, rearrange my desk area and organize the living room, put away laundry, wash diapers, and by the time I get all that done I'm sure there will be at least 10 more things to add. LOL I also need to clean out the bathtub again and put some more drain-o down it. I'm hoping I can also find some time to do a complete inventory of our refigerator, freezer and cabinets so that I can plan some meals ahead of time.

School work - Tonight I meet with my acting partner, I have 1/3 of my math assignment to finish before tomorrow evening, I have some Political Science things to do this week and my regular Computer class work too. PLUS, I'd like to get the time to create a spreadsheet for each class where I can track my grades more carefully for the rest of this semester and upcoming semesters.

Sewing - At present, sewing is the lowest on the list of priorities, but I'd like to get over to Judy's tomorrow so that I can at least finish putting together my soaker panels. I don't really have any other projects planned except possibly fixing the too big longies and maybe trying my first diaper, but I doubt I'd be able to do all of that in one day even with a sewing machine. LOL

Organization - I feel like my house and schedule is getting away from me again, so I'd LIKE to make up detailed schedules for each family member that show when the guys are responsible for taking care of Billy while I do homework and more explicit instructions for Mike regarding his homework and chores.

Blogging and Pictures - I'd like to find the time to update my Facebook and Myspace photo albums and capture some shots of Billy's new tooth to post. I've tried getting some but either flash, movement or just a bad angle have so far got in the way. This is the best I could do...

When I tried this shot with flash, it was completely white washed and you couldn't make ANYTHING out. So, I turned off the flash and got a super blurry shot. At least you can see the swelling here. The side where the tooth hasn't broken through looks more white here, but the one that is through the skin is Billy front, bottom right side tooth.

Here's how Billy looks after most of his meals now. This one REALLY showed up because it was cereal mixed with prunes. LOL He's started to grab for the spoon and put his fingers in his mouth and spread them all over his face between bites.

Here's Billy doing the inch worm crawl...

Still workin' it...

It may have taken him 5 minutes, but he wiggled accross 2 couch cushions! lol

They Grow Up So Fast...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:51:45 GMT

Today, Billy turned 5 months old. Where HAS the time gone? Not much has really changed as far as his growth and development, so if you want to know about his milestones, you should read the 4 months post. This time, I'm focussing on Mike (but there are ARE some Billy pics if you scroll to the bottom).

Mike is 14 years old now... God that makes me feel old. It's his first year of high school this year and he's in the 9th grade. Wow... a Freshman... yikes... I AM old! hahaha. Anywhooo... one of the classes he signed up for is JROTC (junior reserve officer's training corps). It's an Army program where essentially he learns how to be in the millitary. You can go to YouTube to see a video of some Team Building Exercises that they did this past Saturday. Mike is barely in it, but you can catch a glimpse of him and still get to see the activities that they did. Anyway, last Friday (October 16th) he had to wear his uniform for the first time. I was trying to catch up on sleep when he left for school, so I didn't get to see him in it until he returned home from school. It LITERALLY brought tears to my eyes seeing him come home in that uniform. It was like I was suddenly sent forward in time in my mind to him coming home from deployment or something. Grandma and Grandpa came over to snap some shots of him in uniform and once my eyes dried, so did I.

Here's the full uniform, standing at ease

Here's a closer shot

Salute

Standing at attention

Now, even though this post is mostly all about Mike, it's still Billy's 5 months "birthday" and I do have pictures to share...

Here is Billy chewing on my ankle bone. I was giggling because a) it ticked a little and b) I had just cracked the singing joke, "the ankle bone's connected to the - jaw bone" haha

Here is Billy handling his awesome feeder from Nanny and PawPaw. I haven't put actual food in it yet, but he LOVES chewing and sucking on it with ICE in it. That's why I have a receiving blanket draped around the front of him. It drips a LOT with ice. lol

Here's that apples and pears diaper cover with his "home grown" shirt. I think it looks pretty cool together.

This boy is even cute when he cries! hahaha

I don't know why I wanted to include these really. They are the only shots I have where he's crying. I usually turn the camera off as soon as he starts fussing, but this fit came on very suddenly.

This one is to show one of his 2 birth marks. I guess it not "technically" a BIRTH mark because it didn't show up until about a month of age. See that little freckle on his left thigh? His other birth mark is in the same place as Mike's... the nape of the neck, hidden in the hairline he has a "strawberry patch" or "angel kiss". You know, one of those red blotchy marks that almost looks like poison ivy without the bumps. LOL They fade for many people, but I can still see Mike's when I give him a buzz cut and Billy's is just as dark as it was when he was born. I wasn't sure if it was an actual birth mark or just marks left by the process of delivery, but since it's still there 5 months later, I guess it's there to stay!

Well, that's all the updating I have for today. I hope you enjoyed these.

Thanks for reading,

<3 SuZ

FIN! (Well Sorta, lol)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:29:06 GMT

Today I finished up Billy's jacket... sorta. I still need to finish off the sleeve and bottom hems, the collar and the closure, but all of that I'm doing with a sewing machine and I'm having trouble finding the time and transportation to get to a friend's house to use one. But, it's wearable as is and so far looks AWESOME! (Yeah, I know... there I go bragging again, lol)

Left: Back of jacket and hat unfolded Right: Front of jacket and hat folded up

The jacket material came from a vest that I posted when I first started this project about a week ago and the hat and skull material that is on the back of the jacket came from a robe of mine that I never wear. Everything is oversized, but not so big that Billy can't use it now. The hat LOOKS super big, but no air gets in by his ears with it folded up a little and there is plenty of room for him to still wear it as he grows, especially if we fold it down.

Here's a shot of Billy wearing both. I know... It's SUPER big, but I meant for it to be. I wanted him to be able to wear it for a long time and I figured if I messed up on it I would want the extra material. Well, since I took my time and did all the stitching (thus far) by hand, I didn't mess up any. Plus, I'd rather error on the side of him having to grow into it than it already being too small for him.

My first attempt at a hat came out LOOKING great, but it was WAY too big for Billy... so now I have a new hat! lol I think I might put a skull and crossbones on mine too so that we can be matching when we go out and about. I don't know though... the small one was kind of a pain in the ass to cut out. It was super easy to put on though. I knew I would end up stretching it out if I tried to sew it on with a machine and I didn't even think of adding the skull and crossbones until I already had the hat completely put together. I would have had to take it apart in order to stitch it on without going through 2 layers of fleece. So, I ended up just using fusable web to "iron on" the skulls and crossbones. You can't really tell the stitching in the photo, but this hat is put together completely different than the one shown with the jacket. This one is four pieces in a petal shape put together like a beach ball with a wide strip at the bottom for the brim. The one with the skull on it is constructed just like a newborn hat. I used 4 pieces of "dome" shaped material and put them together so that none of the seams can be seen even when it's turned inside out. The first style looked fine, but since I made it too big it would only fit him if I folded it up enough to expose the inner seams. I tried folding it IN instead, but then he looked like a Goomba (you know, the mushroom dudes) from Mario Brothers! LOL I figured if I made it too big again, then maybe at least I could fold it up and not have it look ridiculous. LOL

Here's my favorite hat shot. His expression is sooo cute! lol It had shifted a little so that one ear isn't covered in the picture, but he was really moving his head around pretty crazy. I had to turn the flash on in order to get a shot that wasn't a complete blur! hahaha He left the hat on for about an hour before he started tugging at it and that was inside our comfortably heated house.

And THIS is perhaps the coolest hat hair ever! hahahahaa!! What a silly Billy. ... and y'all thought he looked like one of the Misfits before! I love this picture too. lol

Well, that's all for my craftiness... now it's time to make a 5 months post!

Thanks for reading,

<3 SuZ

Do Not Take Fever Reducers

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:18:36 GMT

Fever and Pain reducers like Tylenol and Motrin (acetaminophen and ibuprofen) can be a great help, but if you think you MIGHT have the new flu strain of H1N1 then you could be doing more harm than good if you use them.

The H1N1 virus (swine flu) is pretty much the same as any other flu. The main difference is that it progresses faster and produces HIGH fevers. The high fevers can cause hallucinations, dehydration, rapid heart rate and even brain damage. When people die from the swine flu it's from heart attack, dehydration or improper brain function.

One might think that the best way to avoid this is by taking a fever reducing medication, but that's actually the LAST thing you want to do. If you take a medication to control the fever, you have no idea how quickly the virus is progressing. The medication my also reduce some of your aches and pains and those symptoms are another sign that the virus is progressing. A fever of 100 degrees Ferenheit for children or seniors or a fever of 104 for healthy adults is grounds for emergency room admission even if you don't have the funds or insurance to pay for treatment. If you or a member of your family spikes a high fever, make sure you are tested for the H1N1 virus before you start trying to treat it at home.

Now, I'm not saying to go to the doctor or emergency room as soon as you show any signs of illness. I'm saying, take time off work/school and listen to your body. If you have symptoms that are more severe than any other flu you've had, you just may have the swine flu and need to be treated in order to fight it off. If you take over-the-counter medications to control your symptoms your body won't be able to communicate with you about the difference between this flu and any other you may have had in the past.

In this time, everyone seems to be either panic stricken or simply getting tired of hearing about it and taking the bullet-proof approach (It's not going to happen to ME or MY family). Well, neither of those attitudes are healthy when there is a "killer flu" circling around the globe. You don't have to get into a doctor right away and rack up medical bills that you can't afford, just do what you would normally do without the over-the-counter medications. Rest, drink lots of fluids, eat bland foods if you are vommiting... you know the drill. If the symptoms get so severe that you can't suffer through without the use of medication, go to a doctor and ask for an H1N1 test. Once you are tested you can be treated properly. If it ISN'T the swine flu, then you can use your over-the-counter medications, but you don't want to do that unless and until you know for certain that it is NOT the new H1N1 flu.

Here's a comparrison showing the difference between a cold and the flu. Remember, this is for ANY flu. The H1N1 has the same symptoms as any other flu only it progresses faster and produces very high fevers.

Symptom	Cold	Flu
Fever	Fever is rare with a cold.	Fever is usually present with the flu in up to 80% of all flu cases. A temperature of 100°F or higher for 3 to 4 days is associated with the flu.
Coughing	A hacking, productive (mucus- producing) cough is often present with a cold.	A non-productive (non-mucus producing) cough is usually present with the flu (sometimes referred to as dry cough).
Aches	Slight body aches and pains can be part of a cold.	Severe aches and pains are common with the flu.
Stuffy Nose	Stuffy nose is commonly present with a cold and typically resolves spontaneously within a week.	Stuffy nose is not commonly present with the flu.
Chills	Chills are uncommon with a cold.	60% of people who have the flu experience chills.
Tiredness	Tiredness is fairly mild with a cold.	Tiredness is moderate to severe with the flu.
Sneezing	Sneezing is commonly present with a cold.	Sneezing is not common with the flu.
Sudden Symptoms	Cold symptoms tend to develop over a few days.	The flu has a rapid onset within 3-6 hours. The flu hits hard and includes sudden symptoms like high fever, aches and pains.
Headache	A headache is fairly uncommon with a cold.	A headache is very common with the flu, present in 80% of flu cases.
Sore Throat	Sore throat is commonly present with a cold.	Sore throat is not commonly present with the flu.
Chest Discomfort	Chest discomfort is mild to moderate with a cold.	Chest discomfort is often severe with the flu.

I hope this helps you!

<3 SuZ