Christmas Pics

 First ones were taken at my sister Sherry's on Christmas Eve

Our place Christmas morning

And Hannah absolutely adores her new dolly from Dollywood and their matching dresses! lol

Wayyyy too cute! BTW..she named her new doll 'Emily'


If you wanna see more you can check 'em out HERE 

Flu Shot Update

 Well I'll try to make this a short update, lol!

 

Amantadine is an anti-viral drug that is used quite frequently in flu outbreaks. It's also used to treat Parkinson's disease!! Just some of the side effects are Restlessness, Jitteriness, Inability to concentrate, Irritability, Psychosis, Insomnia, Tremors, Confusion, Depression, Hallucinations, Congestive Heart Failure, Orthostatic Hypotension, urinary retention. Incredible eh??

 

Normally ever year I am approached about getting the flu shot and when I refuse I am asked to sign a paper which states that in the event of an outbreak I will be asked to stay home from work. No one approached me this year yet and I didn't sign anything but my union rep says we can't go on that because it's common practice and I could have approached them about it!

I e-mailed a letter to the Minister of Health, Dalton McGuinty, my local Member of Parliament (Ernie Parsons) and to my union asking what recourse I have and just what is the legality of what my employer was doing.

 

I was surprised to say the least to get a phone call from my MP bright and early Monday morning telling me he was sorry he had bad news for me and that what they were doing was totally legal and there was not much to be done about it. He didn't get my vote in the last election, but I was very impressed that he would actually take the time to call, so he will be getting my vote next time around!

 

Yesterday I got a call from the union steward at work who said none of the other 4 girls it affected wished to put in a grievance and that we really didn't have a leg to stand on. This morning I got a call from one of the UFCW big guys telling me to go ahead with my grievance because he feels this is going to become a big issue, especially with all the flu outbreak this year, and that it would be best to have it on the books for future grievances. So I guess I am going to go ahead and do that.

 

Then you won't believe this but my supervisor at work called this afternoon and told me that the outbreak had been lifted and that they would be opening their doors on Christmas day and that I could come back to work then (I am supposed to work Boxing Day, and Sat. and Sun.)!!! Mind you my two week waiting period for my flu shot to kick in is still not up!! It won't be until the 30th!! They were so concerned in the first place that I may infect everybody and I was told I couldn't come back till the two weeks were over and now they have changed their minds!! Give me a break!!!! Where did their concern for the residents health go??

 

I haven't got back to them yet. I want to talk to my union rep first and find out what the heck is going on. And I think I will call the health unit and see what their stand is on my going back before the two week period is up.

 

I am so confused!!!!

 

I will let you know what the next few days bring!

Rant About My Flu Shot

 K here goes my little rant!!

 

Got a call from work on Monday nite. 'We've had a resident diagnosed with Influenza A and because you have not received your flu shot you will not be allowed to return to work on Wednesday unless you have your dr. give you a prescription for Amantadine'.

 

O.k., alright, so I call the dr. the next morning; get lucky enough to hit a cancellation and we get in for 1 that same day, Tuesday. Dr. says 'I don't like the drug, I won't give it to you, I wouldn't even want you to go home and look after your young daughter while on this drug' 'What I will do is give you and Hannah a flu shot right now'.

 

So I ask 'what will I tell work'? 'Tell them your dr. wouldn't give it to you and they may still make you stay home for two weeks till the needle takes effect' he says.

 

I call work and am booked off for Wednesday as I have not started taking Amantadine and am instructed to call the local health unit to see if perhaps the drug epiflu will be a reasonable substitute and be acceptable as an option for thier requirements of my predicament of being allowed to return to work. The health unit tells me they do not recognize that drug as a substitute that has been proven to work and that my company finds it acceptable and I will need to call them and see just how long I need to be on that drug before I am allowed to return.

 

OK>HOLD ON>did you catch that?? Work led me to believe that it was the health unit that would not let me return and the health unit led me to believe that it was my company that would not let me return.

 

I have spent all day on the phone to no avail because everyone, work included keeps giving me the run around. I have already worked through the scenario of me being off the two weeks and we can afford it because of all the stat holidays in that period, so that I am prepared to tell my employer that they better go ahead and fill my shifts because I will not be back for two weeks.

 

WAIT!! That is UNTIL I talk to my union rep who informs me that I will not be paid for those stats because one must work the scheduled day before and the scheduled day after the holiday in order to receive the holiday pay unless there is a verified personal illness. 

 

Man, oh man, it's just on principal alone now that I want to tell them they will have to find someone else willing to work during the Christmas break because I have had enough of their bullsh!t and runaround!!!!

 

I still do not know what I will be doing and you may suggest that it's all my fault in the first place, because why didn't I just get the flu shot, RIGHT??? But the thing is not one administrator had approached me yet at work to come in to their office and get the flu shot (which is the common routine every fall) and when I normally refuse (which I have for all 10 other years I have been there) I am asked to sign a paper and told that in the case of an influenza outbreak, that I may be asked to stay at home until it is over (again normal protocol)

 

But I am refusing the flu shot under the pretense that there will need to be an outbreak of influenze, not a single case!! I was under the assumption that outbreak meant that there was an increase in the disease and there were many people breaking out with it. Guess I was wrong!!!!!!!

 

They have advised me that I could go and get the prescription from a dr. in a clinic or emergency, but again the principal of the thing is that my dr. advised me against it!!

 

Or am I just being stubborn??lol

That could very well be

 

Thanx for listening!! Any and all comments would be greatly appreciated in the hope that I can take the words out of your mouth and along with mine, use them all in my rant against the administrator, LMAO!!

We're All Sick

 I've got two boys home from school today. Colton has been home two days now, not too sure how sick he really is, though he does have a cold.

Colin has had a sore throat for 2 days now and can barely speak this morning.

I've got a sinus headache like crazy, and last nite I didn't eat supper and slept off and on on the couch till I went to bed at 9. I had to sleep with my warm woolies on and my socks, which I never do! I just couldn't get warm all evening.

Hannah had quite a fever last weekend, and it has turned into a nasty head cold now.

I have to work tomorrow and this weekend, so I hope this doesn't get any worse!

 We got to attend 2 parades this weekend!!

 

It rained all day Friday so we kind of waited it out to see if we would go to Bloomfields nite time parade. They were the first in the area to have nite time parades and now all the surrounding areas are having them too. It is a very small little town filled with thousands of people that nite. It's crazy!!lol

 

Turns out the rain stopped just in time and even though it kind of misted for part of the parade, we had a great time! Not a whole lot of candy though, probably because of the rain and the dark. If you have never seen a nite time parade, I encourage you to do so if you can. You absolutely will not be dissappointed. It is beautiful the way all the floats are lit up and even the horses have lights on them!

 

Saturday morning we had got a little bit of snow so it was picture perfect for a parade. The kids came away with tons of candy and Colton and Hannah even got two little stuffed animals!! I love small town parades, cuz you get to see so many people you know in them. A young girl that Cody goes to school with (our mechanics dd) rode one of our horses in the parade too!