Queenies Little Kingdom

My husband is living on Benadryl. If you’ve ever had the need to take a Benadryl, then you know that’s not a quality life. Benadryl does not make you feel yippee-ky-yay! It’s a knock out drug. Meaning, you take it and it knocks you out. Now, why you ask is he taking this stuff? We cannot figure that out yet. But he’s sick!

Weird things keep happening to him. It started last week, he jumped out of bed (he was lying there reading) with a terrible nose bleed. He hasn’t ever had a nose bleed in the 19 years we’ve been married. We think….weird. Then a few days later he has some reaction and his tongue swells up. We do not know why. We’ve gone down the list of everything….food, soap, candles, cleaners, medicines….everything. The day (Fri.) we were gone for our anniversary he was hoarse and without a voice. He sounded terrible.

When he got up on Saturday, his top lip was swollen like he had a beak. Talk about crazy looking? He was totally a freak! At that point, he was almost convinced it was his medicine that he takes every morning. But he has taken that same prescription for years and after trying again a few days later, he found that wasn’t it. Last night was another night of misery. As soon as he walked in from work his face began to swell up. He ate dinner and popped his 50mg of Benadryl. We think….something in our house! But what?

He went to bed around 10pm, but soon jumped out of bed with these horrible foot cramps. Are they connected? Who knows. But he was going crazy, which means, I’m going crazy! Before he could go on to sleep he had actually taken 5 Benadryl. Then the snoring began! I didn’t get much sleep last night in case you were wondering. It was chainsaw olympics in my bedroom. Help me!

At dinner tonight, he was doing fine and then all of a sudden his bottom lip popped out. It’s swollen like he’s been punched. What to do????? We are baffled! Ok…..here’s all that has happened to him.

1) swollen tongue
2) swollen top lip
3) swollen bottom lip
4) bloody nose
5) swollen eyes
6) hoarse-y throat
7) feet cramps
8) chest congestion
9) sheer misery and discomfort

Now, I know a thing or two about allergies. We are one of those whacked families! We have experienced some bad allergies over the years. But, for him……not like this! EVER! Two of our kids have milk and nut allergies. Hubby has dairy allergies (but he hasn’t had any of that) and we just can’t figure this out. So, I’m on the “heal the hubby” crusade. I’m beginning to get real frustrated with this…..and think crazy things like….do we have toxic mold or something?

HERE’S WHAT SEEMS TO BE NORMAL IN INDIANA THIS WEEK!
DOWN TREES! With kids standing by in awe!

Suppose you only had thirty days left to live……what would you do? Would you take a trip? Would you do something that you’ve never done before? Would you change the way you were living?
These are some of the first session’s questions from the book, Live Like You Were Dying. Our church launched the study last week. The entire congregation is participating in the study (all at different times and in smaller groups) for the next four weeks.

I learned of the book this summer at the Southern Baptist Convention in Indy. The author was there promoting it to the thousands that attend the greatest convention in the world. Sure, I’m a bit biased! The book seemed very intriguing! So, when I heard that we were going to do it at FBC…..I was psyched! Hubby and I will be leading a group of parents to teens on Wednesday nights. Pray for us! This study is heavy stuff.

I have been trying to think of what I would do if I was told I only had thirty days to live. I’m not into jumping from high places or crazy about seeing a foreign country. I love to travel and would enjoy going somewhere exciting like Greenland or Switzerland but not under those circumstances. My thoughts go more to my family and loving them with every ounce of my being. I think I would want to have a platform to speak the truth about my Savior. Maybe live that dream of speaking to women about my life and what God has done for me. Honestly, I would want to show people the love and forgiveness that they deserve from me.

What about you? Tell me, would you want to do anything in particular? I don’t have too many regrets, at least not any that burn my heart so deeply that I have to do them or else. I must say that I’ve loved my life and I feel more than thankful for all that God has blessed me with. He’s been more than generous with me. Thank you, God.

I’ll try to keep you updated on how the study goes.

Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.”

I’m still here.  Waiting for phone, internet and cable tv….but still here.  We have so much to be thankful for and we are thankful.  But we miss those luxury items….the kids complained this morning…we’ve watched all our movies and we don’t want to see them again.  (Oh they are funny….no way have they watched all of our movies!!)

As I type, Gavin and Don are outside doing detective work (disguised as Comcast cable guys searching for the down lines!!) and hoping to find the problem.  We have called them three times over this past week to report the down service and still have not seen a repair guy yet.  We ain’t bitter!  Just anxious!  I didn’t really think I was so into my stuff, but obviously I am.

This moment I have now on the computer (I’m bootleggin’ it).  Don has his cellphone connected to a laptop so I can have a small fix of internet.  God bless him.  Speaking of him, he’s having a crazy allergic reaction to SOMETHING!  He woke up this morning with a swollen top lip and as the day has progressed he has swollen all around his mouth and his eyes.  Two nights ago he jumped out of bed with a bloody nose (he does not have bloody noses ever) and his voice is gone.  He’s obviously having some sort of reaction to something going on here at home.  How to tell?  We’ve literally had no normal this week.  Pray for him as he deals…..He has to preach tomorrow and is really starting to look very odd.

Oh good news….while he and Gav are outside, they have found all the lines down for our cable.  Also several of our neighbor “dads” have come up as well to help and guess who innocently pulls up on all the “git er done”?  Yes, the Comcast repairman!!!  Yay!  I see them all trampling through the woods pulling and moving trees.  Yay…..we might be back among the norm soon!   Yeehaw!  Thank you God!  I am blessed, I tell ya!

I hope life is going well for you…..I feel like the week has passed with all it’s news and info right past my town onto other folks.  I haven’t heard anything about anyone outside my little family and friends.  This past week was our state ISTEP testing for our students, it has been moved to begin on Monday-Wed.  It is also our homecoming week, we party it up for these special occasions and this storm has really stolen our thunder.  Oh well….we will make the best of it.  You can’t keep a good dog down.

Till we meet again……I’ll keep on a chillin!  You do the same, friends.

No electricity + trees and debris all over the place = NO SCHOOL!  We have electricity again.  Today we watched as the power crews (not local’s….they traveled here to help us) worked tirelessly in our woods replacing all our neighborhood’s lines.  At almost 5:30pm, we had lights!!! Woohoo!  So exciting!  We would’ve really enjoyed our days off of school…..had we had some elecricity.  Haha!

You know that “not a happy camper” title?  I’ve learned where that fits best…when you’re stuck in a terrible windstorm and you lose all your county’s power!  I was not a happy camper!  I was hatin!  Hatin no lights…hatin no computer……hatin no hot food (we spent our budget this week and then some eating out here and there!!) hatin no hot water….hatin no real way of seeing the real me in the mirror or being able to do my hair.  I could’ve molded it into a nifty design if you asked, that’s how dirty it was.  For those of you who know me……I take 2 showers a day, so imagine how sweet I was?  Grrrr.

Oh the best part……I’ve been dealing with shingles all week!  My lip grew to the size of a fat grape and throbbed so hard that my eye kept twitching.  My left side of my face hurt so bad. Pathetic, huh?  I was, totally hurting.  Then on Tuesday, I decided if I was going to be a skank princess I was going to get out there and clean up our yard (the war zone).  I raked and hauled away trees and limbs all day (thank you to Gavin and Gates for helping).  When I stopped around 3pm for a sandwich, a little yellow jacket landed on my arm and when I went to blow him off (I was totally being kind and peaceful) he stung me.  Now 2 days later my arm is still swollen and throbbing as if he were still stinging me.  I’ve taken Benadryl….no helpy!  Can you believe all this?  I can’t!  It’s so crazy!

But, tonight….I cooked, washed tons of laundry, changed sheets and I’m feeling so good.  My anniversary was surely one to remember.  Tomorrow the kids go back to school and hubby and I are off to celebrate in Indy for our anniversary.  We are excited to get away, even if it’s only for the day and evening.  We know how to party!

So, to my bloggy pals, I’ve missed all of you.  I think I really am addicted to the blog world.  While the world was shut down…..I got a bit restless and fantasized about how to get on a computer somewhere and go to it!  Haha.  I recognize that’s a bit nutty.  I have since repented!  heehee.  I love my hubby for rigging me up that one night with his handy-dandy cell phone online so I could blog my misery across the airwaves.  What a guy!  That’s love.

Phil. 4:8  “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”