Weekend Update, here we go!

Hello everyone! Its been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd give y'all a little update on what's new with the Kasha family.

• Still not smoking. I don't know the exact number of days its been but it must be around three weeks now, eh? It gets easier every day, though I will admit I have my moments where my fingers are literally itching to hold a smoke. Like when we were camping this weekend, it was my first time camping being smoke-free and it just wasn't the same. Sitting around the fire is so BORING without a smoke in hand, haha.
• Gunnar is a now a productive, active member of the job force! He is a paper carrier for the Red Deer Advocate, and I could not be prouder of him! He has 24 'customers' on his route (here in Westwood) to which he delivers every day, and on Mondays and Thursdays he delivers the flyers and Central Alberta Life papers as well. The little bugger is pulling in over $120 a month! He is absolutely ecstatic to be earning that much money and already has a list of all the things he wants to buy. I did have to explain to him that just because he has his "own" money now does not mean he can buy anything he wants, like a Blackberry phone, haha.
• We went camping out by Prairie Creek just this past weekend and had an absolute blast. The Elgert clan was out there and saved us a spot. We weren't in the actual campground, thank god, but just off the side of the road in a big clearing. Everyone out there had their 'toys' so it was like a real community of quadders and bikers (dirt-bikers, that is). I have some great pics and video footage that I'll put up later in another post. We came home late late Sunday night and were unlucky enough to be caught in that nightmare storm while driving. Ty was in the motorhome pulling the trailer, in front of me, and I was driving the truck with all the bikes in the back. You guys, I have NEVER driven through anything that scary in my entire life. The rain was coming down so hard and fast my wipers could not keep up, there was like a foot of water on the road, and I couldn't even see the road! Once in a while, during a lightning flash, I could make out the white line on the side of the road and that is the only thing that kept me going straight. I was praying out loud the entire time.
• Oh, and I brought home some 'souvenirs' from our camp trip, in the form of hundreds of red welts all over my body, courtesy of those delightful little bugs known as 'no-see-ums'. How nice for me, eh? The areas of my body affected the worst are my ankles, calves and left wrist, but I have them on my chest, forearms, and the back of my neck, too. I have never, ever felt anything as itchy as those tiny red spots, I have literally been scratching the skin right off my body trying to appease the awful itching. After-Bite does not work, neither does calamine lotion or that old-fashioned stand by -- making an X with your fingernails then dabbing spit on it. The only thing that gives me a moment's relief is spraying Solarcaine on the bites, which cools and numbs the skin for about a minute. Then its fiery itching pain all over again. And on the Solarcaine bottle it says not to apply more than four times a day. YA RIGHT!! I've been doing it like four times an hour, and to hell with the recommended dosage. And the thing that's weird with the bites is that I didn't notice them while I was out there; it was only after we came home and went to bed, the next morning is when I noticed that I was covered head-to-toe in them. That was Monday morning. It is now Wednesday and it seems like every day I am getting covered in more. It makes me think that my pillow, which I brought camping, is maybe infested with them and they come out at night and crawl all over me and feast? Except I don't see the bugs on my bedding. And Ty isn't getting bitten, just me. So what is going on? Do I have fleas? What does a flea bite look like? But if it was fleas Ty would for sure have them too, right? So I don't know WTF is going on here. All I know is that if the itchiness doesn't go away soon, I am going be covered in scars because it is seriously impossible for me to not scratch. It just feels soooo goooood, even when it bleeds. The pain disguises the itching, at least for a few seconds.
• I'm planning on having our garage sale two weekends from now, so not this coming weekend but the next one. I think its the 16th. I really need to get rid of all that stuff, so I'm going to advertise in the local paper and hopefully there'll be a good turnout. Like I said before, if anyone has anything they want to get rid of and donate to us, please do so before that weekend. Thanks!
• Ty and I are re-starting our Deadwood obsession and are already on Disc 4 of the first season. Gunnar watched a bit of the show with us last night and he thought it was "hilarious" how often the F-word was said. He goes to me, "Mom, I bet you wished this was real life and you were there, because you would get $1 for every swear-word!" (I've instituted a new rule around here after noticing my boys were starting to swear like sailors, and since both boys are notoriously cheap with their moola they are now very conscious of what they say, lol. But they do both owe me about $5.)
• OMG, get this! Ryder got scratched on his finger (or bitten, but I think scratched) by a squirrel when we were camping! It didn't draw blood, and I immediately washed his hand with soap and water, then put antibacterial/disinfectant spray all over the hand. When we got home I called HealthLink and they said they were 99% sure he was okay based on lack of symptoms, no blood drawn, and the squirrel looked healthy. But anytime there's an "encounter with wildlife" HealthLink has to notify a certain agency and they then call you to discuss the encounter. So that guy called me and asked all about what happened, then he said he had to call the Medical Officer to see what he thought, about whether Ryder would need a Rabies shot! Ai-ay-ay! Poor kid. So I'm waiting to hear back from the guy and get the final verdict.