October 25, 2009

October 25, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

I feel like the fog has slowly lifted and we are resuming life as we know it. I spent the first part of the week still feeling crummy. Functional enough to take care of the basics at home, but not much else. All day Monday M felt pretty good, but then in the late afternoon his fever came back which meant that he had to stay home again on Tuesday. The good news was that all day Tuesday he felt great, and so Tuesday afternoon he felt good enough to change out the door handles on the front door.

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days for me. M had a much needed Presidency meeting on Wednesday and got a lot accomplished. Thursday night he had the Stake Priesthood meeting and came home very excited about the speaker.

Friday morning I watched two of the children of a friend. It was kind of fun to see what life is like with four kids. Most of the morning it went pretty well, but it was slightly crazy getting B-man from the bus stop. That afternoon we ran a few errands and then spent the rest of the day getting ready for a Halloween party. We had to do a little last minute scrambling because our sitter came down with the flu. (It has really been going around our area.) Luckily we took the sitter from someone else that had to cancel last minute due to sick children. We took J to the party and put him to bed in a pack and play, and B-man had a great time at home. The party was great! Costumes are not optional, and it is always exciting to see what people come up with. M and I went as gymnasts/ribbon dancers. The party went a lot later than we expected, but it was worth the late night.

Saturday was a very slow relaxing day. We all worked together to take out the garden and prepare the flower beds for the winter. The weather was warm and cloudy, a rarity these days, but it made for perfect gardening weather. That afternoon while I ran an errand M cut B-man’s hair, and then started cutting his own. I helped him finish up the cut. That night after the kids were in bed M went to watch the first half of the BYU football game.

I was excited today for several reasons. One was that I could go to church! And the other was that I could finally go to church in our new building. It was great to be able to be back in church, even if it was super noisy. After church we had enough time for dinner and some stories before the kids were in bed.

We love you all!

R, M, and B-man

The Garden's Gone

I took out the garden today. Actually I started to take it out, but M ended up doing most of the work. Rather sneaky of me, right? It felt a little weird ripping out tomato plants that still had developing fruit on them, but it had to be done. The first frost could come any day, and this was the only decent weather (when I would have help) for a while.

But on the bright side of things the dirt is tilled and ready to go for spring planting. Is it too early to start thinking about spring? That was all I could think about while ripping out the old plants. What I would plant in the garden next summer. I got some new bulbs too. I can't wait for more tulips in April! If I could we would skip over the winter months and get straight to spring again. I guess that's no surprise coming from a San Diego girl.

Withdrawals

This last week B-man watched a lot of television. He really had no choice, it was the easy way to keep him separated from germs, and to keep him entertained while both parents were sick. Normally he watches at most an hour a day, but some days he doesn't watch any. Sunday he literally watched it all day as M and I were both in a stupor from being sick. Now we are paying for it with some serious withdrawals.

All day yesterday (when he wasn't in school) he kept whining and asking to watch t.v. We kept saying no, and trying to entertain him with other methods. Nothing worked. He went to bed crying about it. He suddenly became obsessed with a "Rescue Heroes" show that I didn't even know existed. Apparently he is trying to learn the theme song to it... M and I even had our own FHE about what we were going to do, and how he could "earn" t.v. time.

Today I thought was going to be more of the same. It started out with an equal number of tantrums, but then magically in the early evening things started to calm down. The weather was nice enough so that we could go outside (not possible last week) and he remembered how to use his imagination. He still mentioned it a few times, but he wasn't in panic mode, and he didn't cry himself to sleep about it. What a relief! They don't call it the "wretched stone" for nothing!

October 11, 2009

October 11, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Here are the highlights from the week. Monday is a complete blur. I can’t remember anything that was noteworthy. J caught the cold that B-man and I had last week. Luckily it didn’t seem horribly bothersome to him.

Tuesday we had a fun afternoon. M knew he would be working extra later in the week and so he took off half a day. That afternoon after lunch we went to a “farm” in the area. It was way different than the farm we go to normally. This farm is only open for the fall season and it is really not a farm, but fun things to do at a farm. They had a multitude of long fun slides. B-man loved all the different slides, but he spent the majority of the time at the biggest slide. After a few runs we figured out which “lane” was the fastest and then he would only go down “number six.” The middle-aged ladies running the slide thought it was hilarious. Even M and I went down a few times, and it was much faster than the other lanes. We also loved the baby pigs and the corn maze. It was a very fun afternoon, and the weather could not have been better for the adventure. After we got home we had just enough time for a very fast dinner before I left for mutual. We had our first activity at the new church building our ward will attend. We were dusting and cleaning to make sure it would be ready for Sunday.

Wednesday was a quiet day. I haven’t been going anywhere unless really necessary so that I can get J into a routine of sorts. Thursday after B-man came home from school we went to the farm. We had a picnic and then played with some friends from our ward that just happened to be there at the same time. Then we picked our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and went home. For a while B-man was more interested in the big dog that was with the farmer driving the hay ride. He told him about Scout our family dog that just died. It was a very B-man conversation to be having with a stranger. Eventually he came and actually picked a pumpkin, although he always made sure he knew where the dog was. (Not because he was afraid.)

Friday was picture day for B-man. I gave him three options for shirts and he picked my least favorite. Then he insisted on wearing shorts that didn’t match, but I decided it didn’t matter because you wouldn’t see them in the picture anyway. He has been going through a spiky hair stage, and I tried to convince him to do the “wave” hair, but he insisted on spiky. In the end I think we compromised enough so that it looked like we did care about pictures. About five minutes after getting home while I was working on lunch he was laying on the carpet by the sliding glass door saying he wasn’t hungry. Since that isn’t exactly his normal behavior I checked his forehead and discovered that he had a fever. He had also been coughing. I immediately put him in pajamas and made him lay around for the rest of the day. I’m pretty suspicious that is swine flu, I know of quite a few cases in the area… That night I went to a fondue girls’ night out. I made a chocolate fondue with bittersweet chocolate. It was delicious!

Saturday morning I got up before anyone else and headed out looking for deals at garage sales. I shopped until J needed to be fed. Then I came home and fed him and headed out again. M was very nice and not only took care of a sick B-man and J, but he also managed to completely reorganize our storage room to utilize the shelves that I had purchased that morning! It was a fun surprise to come home to. The rest of the day we spent at home trying to keep B-man away from J. If he was by himself for too long we would hear him call out “Mom, I’m lonely!” and then we would go and try to be by him more.

Today B-man’s fever has been gone, but we didn’t want to take him to church until it had been a full day with no fever. So M went to church without us. It was kind of a bummer to miss the first week in the new chapel. After church we had homemade pizza for dinner. Normally we do that on Friday but since B-man was sick we kept pushing it back, and he made me promise to do it on Sunday. It has been hard to keep B-man away from people today when he has been lying around for three days. He is ready to get out some of his energy now that he is feeling better. Tonight he was talking about Darth Vader and when I asked him what Vader says he exclaimed with a lot of vigor, “You don’t know the power of Jesus!” Well said, B-man well said.

 

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J

October 4, 2009

October 4, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Time continues to march on by. My main activity of the week was fighting off a cough that came with my cold. It has been a long time since I’ve had to deal with such a gross cough. Now poor J has the cold. We did have a few noteworthy things this week. Monday night for FHE M gave B-man a blessing to start the new school year. We had been speaking to B-man about it for several weeks. It was a sweet experience for all of us.

Tuesday night we took both of the boys to a “Back to School” night that was solely for the kindergarten classes. It was great to hear from the teacher about what they do every day, and what will be going on the weeks before our first parent teacher conferences. B-man was so cute and quiet during the whole meeting.

Wednesday night I had book club. We discussed Catching Fire and had our largest turn-out ever. Book Club night is my favorite night of the month. The next day after B-man got home from school we went to the farm and met some friends there. The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time.

Benjamin showing off his “spiky” hair. Watch out it’s sharp…

Friday was a busier day. I got my haircut which meant a lot of coordinating with M to make sure that someone was home. I was so happy to be getting my haircut. Then as soon as I got home we started trying to get dinner on the table.

Saturday morning (as every morning) we were up and going early. We went looking for things at a community garage sale nearby but didn’t find anything too exciting. We came home to have lunch and get ready for Conference. We loved being able to sit and watch Conference all day! In between sessions B-man and M took turns playing with a new remote control car that we found at a garage sale. It is a very fast and maneuverable car. That night M went to the Priesthood session and then went to get food with members of the ward that wanted to go.

Today has been another great day watching Conference. We’ve had a great day of listening to our leaders, food, and friends. It makes not being closer to family bearable.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J

Yard

I have been meaning to give a little yard update.  More for my parents than anyone else.  Here is what the backyard currently looks like.  The garden did great, but is starting to look pretty wild and scraggly.  The flowers on the shady side make me so happy.   I go out everyday on my deck and just stare down at my back yard.  If you look closely you can see the weed that was as tall as me when we got home from vacation.

The garden side…

 

The flower side…

The view from our basement door…

And remember the rose bush that I planted while M was out of town and I was pregnant?  It almost didn’t survive our attempts at watering and caring for it.  But I think it is going to pull through.  I wasn’t sure what color it was going to be because the picture was faded by the sun on the package.  But with a name like “Prom Night” I was pretty sure I couldn’t go wrong.

Speedy Revival

Remember Speedy? Well he has been replaced. B-man discovered that there were some caterpillars on the petunias in our front yard. Consequently we now have at least six caterpillars in a jar in our home. I can barely look in the jar, because all the squirming gives me the creeps. I hope they turn into butterflies (or moths?) soon because we are running out of flowers.