gillie’s Neighborhood

I've been playing farmville on facebook for a few months now and I enjoy when they come out with new things for the holidays... For halloween they had pumpkins, tombstones, bats, spider webs, and haunted houses... so far for Thanksgiving, they have a thanksgiving table, turkeys, maple trees and piles of leaves you can get. It's really fun to build your farm, grow plants or flowers and watch them grow. As cheesy as it seems, I enjoy playing this little game to relieve stress :)

there are lots of fun games on facebook now... this one is a new game by the same people that made farmville. you grow little fishies by feeding them... if you don't feed them or give them love, they will die! once they get to the adult stage, you can sell them for money and xp points... pretty fun and addicting!! your friends can be your neighbors and you can send tank decorations to each other.

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Today, while we were walking, I was thinking of a comment  Apolline had left on my Missing Strangers post about social movements and urbanization.  We turned a corner and here was exactly what I had been imagining loneliness all together to look like:

Originally published at Creative Thoughts. You can comment here or there.

A few months ago I requested book ideas. I read through most of the recommendations and stole ideas from your blogs. I have always enjoyed reading, but never before have I enjoyed finding new books and authors to read.

I read "The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society" a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised. The format of the novel threw me for a loop at first and I wrinkled my nose but I am glad I kept going. Totally outside my normal reading zone but loved it. Honestly I have never read a post war novel before. It intrigued me. Definitely recommend it if you are looking for a good read.

I recently read
"Confessions Of A Demon-hunting Soccer Mom" the back cover claiming it was like Buffy grown up. pfft. Not quite but it was an ok read.

I still have a few books that I am in queue for at the library, like "Brooklyn". Yet I am hungry for more. My Dad left the latest Dan Brown that I plan on consuming.

I also plowed through the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. Now I am dying (har har) to watch True Blood. I am totally hoping to get the series on dvd for Christmas (hint hint J).

There is a new Stephen King out but I am waiting for soft cover (cheap cheap). I am seriously hungry for good stories.

What are you reading right now? What is on your night stand waiting for you? Please know that I do read most of what you recommend.

Originally published at Creative Thoughts. You can comment here or there.

I had a lot of people ask me if I was going to vaccinate the children. After a lot of long talks with my husband our decision was to absolutely vaccinate the kids. Our family doctor (whom I trust) was also very supportive of that decision. Up until Tuesday, Ethan was the only one that qualified and was vaccinated last week.

Now the rest of us qualify (excluding Cordelia as she is too young) because we live with a baby younger than 6 months old.

J & I are nervous to be vaccinated at the same time. Not wanting to crash at the same time we may spread it out so that we are not ill at the same time. Up until possibly today Becca was too ill to be vaccinated.

We are now on day 10 for illness.

My children have never been this sick.

Do they have H1N1? We will never know for sure which strain of the flu they suffered from. They were not hit as hard as some and harder than others. Considering they have never really experienced the flu, both Ethan and Becca fared well.

If  a shot could have prevented this misery in time I would have spared them this. Yet we have never got the regular flu shot since it had not touched our lives.

J & I still have not fallen ill despite the fact that all three children have shown signs of the flu.

J has a theory that we have already had H1N1 back in California. Both of us got very very ill and suffered for days. At the time I thought I was dying. Did that allow us to be unscathed this time?

Becca is finally feeling better. We are keeping her home today as a preventative measure. Monday is a Professional Development Day for teachers so she can return on Tuesday at full health only missing the letter J and the introduction to counting by  twos.

Ethan is still very moody and is experiencing stomach problems. His body aches leaving him miserable at times. It is quite unpredictable. Not fun.

Cordelia is stuffy and clingy but otherwise fairing much better than the other two. Thank goodness.

I am going batty all cooped up in the house all the time. I am dreadfully behind in Christmas shopping and errand running. I am looking forward to walks, interactions with people over the age of five and new scenery.

Have you or your kids experienced the flu? How did you survive your quarantine?