Weekly Review March 14 '09

The “battle of the germs” goes on at our house! I hope someday we are all well again at the same time. Although Seth never did throw up again, he had “sloppy” diapers for several days and it was obvious he wasn’t feeling his best. He got really sore in the diaper area, so diaper changes were quite an ordeal.

Meanwhile, Jared started sounding “stuffy” on Friday, and he was quite hoarse on Saturday. (Didn’t stop him from playing basketball for hours with the other boys—it was a very beautiful day!) We decided on Saturday that we weren’t going to take Seth to stake conference the next day and when I got up Sunday morning I told Frank since he and Seth were staying home anyway, I was going to let Jared sleep in and stay home also. That turned out to be a good decision—when Jared woke up (shortly before I left) he had a pretty high fever and almost no voice. He said his throat was so clogged up that he felt like he couldn’t breathe through his mouth.

I took Scott & Tanner with me to stake conference. (Unfortunately, Frank missed the Saturday evening session. He was just too tired to go, and I was too tired to manage dinner / baths / bedtime without him!) Because I was singing in the choir, I sat up front. Scott & Tanner were sitting in the back of the chapel, so I couldn’t see them very well, but from what I saw they were behaving very well. Because both of the choir numbers were closer to the beginning of the meeting, I left the stand during the congregational hymn half way through and went to sit with Scott and Tanner. The meeting was good; we had a visiting general authority—Elder Chipman—who was the main speaker. The focus of the meeting was mainly missionary work.

After conference our friends the Koettings came for dinner—that is our “stake conference tradition”. Jeanine was telling me that we can’t ever move away because coming to our house afterwards motivates her kids to want to go to stake conference. They actually look forward to stake conference! Well, it is good for us, also. My kids always look forward to it, too. I had sent Jeanine an e-mail to warn her that we had some germs, but they all decided to risk exposure and come anyway. We had a yummy dinner and a nice visit. It was so warm that day that we had to open all the windows. It was almost too warm! A lot of the bulbs in my yard are starting to come up, and a few little daffodils have bloomed. It is cooler now, and I’m sure we’ll have a few more cold days before we are through, but hopefully nothing cold enough to kill the flowers.

Jared had a high fever (103) Monday morning, so I decided to take him to the doctor to make sure he didn’t have strep or something like that. The strep test came out negative, but the Influenza B test came out positive. They prescribed an anti-viral medication for him that is supposed to help him have a less severe case of the illness, but he also has to start taking it within 48 hours of getting symptoms. I knew we were already pushing it, since he was having some symptoms on Saturday, and then when we called our pharmacy and found out that they were out of stock and had to order it and it wouldn’t be in until Tuesday afternoon, we just decided to forget it. (A friend told me later this week that she got some for her kids and it was so nasty they wouldn’t take it and it was expensive, too—so I’m kind of glad things turned out the way they did.) Jared mostly lay on the couch and did nothing Monday and Tuesday. He continued to have a pretty high fever. But on Wednesday afternoon he started to perk up. By evening his temperature was down to 99.9, and on Thursday morning his temperature was back to normal. I still kept him home Thursday and Friday because he still had a pretty nasty cough. I wanted to make sure he was really getting better--I didn’t want him to jump back into things too quickly.

I woke up in the night Tuesday several times feeling nauseated. When I got up Wednesday, my stomach was hurting. It felt worse if I got up and moved around, so I tried to stay down as much as I could that day. I didn’t eat anything until dinner time. Frank was able to work from home that day, so he was able to help me a little bit. We had quarterly Enrichment meeting that evening, and I am bummed that I missed it. It seems like I always miss the March Enrichment meeting! My stomach felt a lot better Thursday—I was just really tired and weak from lack of food or drink. It felt good to be able to get some things done, though.

My friend Marci, her husband, and oldest daughter went to Las Vegas this week and she asked us to keep her son Evan while they’re gone. Evan came over on Wednesday after school and he will be here with us until late Monday evening. He is a year younger than Jared, so they are friends. He goes to North Frederick Elementary, which is the school my kids used to go to before I moved them to the charter school, so he is able to ride the bus that comes near our house. I think he is having fun and he has not been any trouble.

I took Snickers to the vet Friday afternoon. He is healthy and growing well. It is going to cost s pretty penny to have him neutered, but it needs to be done. When we were getting ready to leave, a guy brought in this huge dog—I think it was a mastiff or something like that. The dog’s head was bigger than mine! Everybody in the waiting room got a laugh when little Snickers started barking at this dog! Not too bright. The big dog just ignored him, though. Scott was invited on Friday evening to spend the night with his friend Joey, down the street. They went ice skating also. The rest of us watched a movie with lots of “movie treats”. Frank pulled some muscles in his back (he picked up Seth!) so he was feeling pretty miserable. He’s better today than he was yesterday, but his back is still hurting him quite a bit.

Today I feel like I’ve been going non-stop. I made French toast for breakfast, helped all the boys with homework and with scouts, got sharing time ready for tomorrow, took Scott and Tanner and three other boys in the ward to pass out flyers for their scout fundraiser (lawn aeration), made dinner for 9 people (the sister missionaries joined us tonight), bathed Seth and got him to bed. I still need to sweep and mop all the floors, but I am taking a break for a few minutes!

I still didn’t get any pictures this week. The camera batteries keep dying every time I try to take a picture! Maybe next week!