Weekly Review March 6 '10

This week was all about illnesses and repairs. Frank wasn’t feeling too well the early part of this week—he had a bad headache, mild stomach upset, and chills.

Tanner started feeling sick on Tuesday morning. He was complaining about his stomach hurting when he got up, and within an hour or so he threw up, so he stayed home from school that day. By evening he was able to keep down liquids and light food, but I kept him home on Wednesday “just to be sure”. He was a lot perkier that day and ate regular food and kept it down, so I let him go to YM that evening. By the time he got home from there, however, he was complaining about his stomach hurting again and before bedtime he threw up again—and again around 2:00 am. So he stayed home Thursday and Friday also.

Meanwhile, Seth threw up Thursday morning around 4:00 am. He immediately fell back asleep, but threw up again at 5:00 am and 6:00 am. Unfortunately, Frank had left for work at 3:45 so I had to take Scott to Seminary (I tried to get him a ride, but that didn’t work out.) Tanner was sick and asleep in the living room (he wanted to be closer to the bathroom) so I woke Jared up and had him stay in my bed next to Seth, who was on the floor in my room. When I got back from taking Scott to Seminary, Seth was throwing up again. He didn’t go back to sleep after that, and for the next 3 hours or so he threw up every couple of minutes. Fortunately, Scott got a ride to school from the church and I found someone who could take Jared to school, so I didn’t have to leave again. I stayed on the couch holding Seth and a bucket! The poor little guy was so miserable for those couple of hours, until he finally fell back asleep around 9:45. He slept for over an hour; when he woke back up I started giving him a tablespoon of soda every 10 minutes. He threw up again about 40 minutes later, so I waited for an hour and then started the doses of soda again. This time he kept the soda down for 2 hours and by later in the day he was able to eat a few crackers and a little bit of egg. He started to get some of his energy back that evening, also. He slept solid all night long Thursday night, and by Friday he seemed to be mostly his old self again although I was very careful what I gave him to eat and he really didn’t eat much of anything I gave him. Today he seems to be completely recovered, though.

On Wednesday Tanner and Frank had appointments with a podiatrist to have plantar warts removed from their feet. That wasn’t a big deal except for one of Frank’s warts was actually under his toenail, so they had to grind down through the toenail to get to remove the wart. The podiatrist said that one would be very sore—and she was right! He has been hobbling around on that foot ever since and it has caused him a lot of pain. Today it started to look red and swollen, so he called the doctor and they called in an antibiotic for him. I hope he feels better soon! In spite of his painful toes and not feeling well, he has put in a lot of hours at work.

The dishwasher would not start on Sunday. We had trouble getting it started one day last week also, but were finally successful in getting it to start. This time we couldn’t get it to start at all so on Monday we called about having someone come look at it. No one could come until Wednesday. The repairman came to look at it Wednesday morning and he figured out what’s wrong, but the new part won’t be in until this Wednesday! In the meantime, we’ve been “enjoying” lots of family “togetherness” while washing dishes. We’ve only had the dishwasher since last June, so at least it is still under warranty and we don’t have to pay to get it fixed.

The heater is not under warranty, though, and that’s the other thing that broke this week. I think it was around Tuesday or Wednesday that I noticed that although the heater seemed to be running almost constantly, I was still cold. I mentioned it to Frank, but he was too busy to check it out. On Friday he looked at the furnace and determined that something was definitely wrong, but he didn’t know what exactly so he called a repairman. The repairman was able to come right away and he was able to figure out what was wrong, but the part we need was not in stock anywhere in the whole region. He said we could pay extra to have it sent “over night”—which meant it would get here on Monday. Oh, and the cost to have it fixed was going to be $475, not counting the $100 we already paid him to diagnose the problem. We asked him to order the part (what else could we do?) but then Frank decided to call a client he has who does HVAC stuff to see if they could get the part in sooner. They couldn’t, but they offered to fix the furnace at cost in exchange for Frank doing some computer work for them. Frank checked with his boss, who said it was ok, so that’s what we’re going to do (we cancelled the order with the other place). It’s only going to cost about $150 instead of $475—big help! We have still been without heat, though, but fortunately the weather hasn’t been terribly cold—50’s during the day and 30’s at nights. It is still very chilly in the house but it could be a lot worse!

I’m wondering what is going to happen next—it seems like we’ve had to deal with far too many expensive repairs around here lately!! That, and medical bills….

Let’s see, what else happened this week? Sunday I had ward council before church and I was very late because I got the time messed up in my head and thought it started at 10:00 instead of 9:30! I was waiting outside the bishop’s office by 9:45 for bishopric meeting to get out (I thought) but by 5 after 10:00 when no one else had showed up, I realized something was wrong…boy, I felt dumb!! I forgot to mention that 2 Sundays ago Scott gave a talk in church and he did a very good job. I still remember his first talk as a 12 year old, when he spoke for about 30 seconds! He’s come a long way since then.

The earlier part of the week I managed to get some organizing done. The month of March is my month to do the kitchen. I cleaned up my desk, the console table, and the pantry. The corner of the kitchen where my desk is located looks much neater now. I still have a lot of work to do, though. I also did some organizing in Seth’s room—went through his toys and clothes to weed out things he’s grown out of and things that are broken. His room is looking much nicer now, also.

I finished reading Return of the King. I thought the ending was a bit anti-climatic, but it is a great series—really enjoyed it, and I can appreciate the genius of the author! I’m still working my way through the appendices at the back, but I don’t feel as driven to finish those—I’ve finished the stories, at least! On Thursday when I was sitting on the couch holding Seth for hours, I decided I might as well start watching the movies (I refused to watch the movies until I had read the books.) I watched the first movie, which I’ve actually seen already (watched it after I finished the first book years ago). Tanner didn’t want to watch the second movie, and I kind of wanted to refresh my memory about how the first movie went anyway. We have the extended versions of the other two movies, so I’m not sure I’m going to have time to watch them anytime soon! I might have to watch them in installments.

Wednesday evening I had a Primary presidency meeting and afterwards I interviewed a Primary girl who is about to turn 12. Friday I had my annual GYN check up. Frank and I went out to eat last night; on the way home we stopped by the Blue & Gold Banquet. This is the first year in a long time that we haven’t had a Cub Scout age boy, but I still felt the need to stop by to do the “Primary president thing”—that is, support the boys! We got there just in time to see the awards and enjoy the cakes the boys made for dessert. The cakes, as always, were very impressive! Very cleverly decorated and they tasted good, too.

Jared went home from school with his friend Sage Friday afternoon to help celebrate Sage’s birthday. They played laser tag and went to a restaurant for pizza and cake. Scott and Jared both went to spend the night with their friends Ryan and Bryson. Tanner was invited also, but I wouldn’t let him go since he didn’t go to school and was still getting over being sick.

I’ve been trying to work on Seth’s quiet book all week but other things kept taking precedence, so I only managed to work on it for a few minutes today. My back has been hurting today (feels like I strained it just a little) so I didn’t get the floors swept and mopped either. (I’m sure Frank would do it for me if he wasn’t having the trouble with his feet.) One thing I did do today was fill out a letter of recommendation for our friends, the Becks, who are applying to adopt through LDS family services. They called us last week to tell us the good news and ask us if we would do a letter of recommendation for them. We are very excited for them!! They are great parents and any baby would be lucky to go to their home, so we hope they get a baby soon. (And if you know a baby who needs a good home…please consider them!)

Now it’s quite late and I’m very tired, so off to bed I go!