May

May 14 - The month started out quite cool.
This was taken at the Waterloo Regional Police Services open house - a very fun event despite the cold weather.

May 28th - By the end of the month it was scorching hot!
Jacob and Laura are riding the train and enjoying one of the first trips of the season to African Lion Safari.

Just think... she has been waiting 8 months to sit on that rock and eat ice cream in her bathing suit!!

Laura finally rode the pony!
Laura asked last season to ride an elephant. We told her she needed to try riding a pony first and then, if she mastered the pony, we would consider an elephant. Today, she finally summoned the courage and hopped on!

Our first attempt at a veggie garden. I think this is squash.

Mamma's in the hospital!

On the Monday of the May long weekend, a headache started and it just wouldn't go away. It was the most unusual headache and my head hurt to move side to side, up/down. I was sensitive to light and throwing up as well. However, I honestly just thought it was a bad tension headache or something. Finally, on the Thursday morning of that week, on the advice of the nurse at our family health team, I went into the ER. Things were a whole lot worse than I realized and I was diagnosed with Viral Meningitis. I stayed in hospital for the next 5 days and was then allowed to go home with a portable IV (called a PIIC Line) that was hooked up to me for the next 3 weeks. A nurse came in daily to change the medicine and dressing. For the first several weeks, my head hurt to the point of puking if I stood up, or was vertical in any manner. When they told me I was going to be hooked up to IV for an additional 3 weeks, I called my mom to come take care of me and the kids..... but mostly me! Tina (who had just started her seasonal stay at Troll) came along to help out. I am VERY thankful that they were willing to come on a whim (literally, they booked their tickets and arrived overnight)! So thankful, that the night they showed up we called 911 because I was having trouble breathing and then took a trip to the ER in an ambulance. It was quite a scary time, but I am feeling much better now. I have some residual headaches, but otherwise am normal. I feel quite lucky!