When I left off last week, we were still in North Carolina. We had a delicious meal with Frank's brother James and his family on Friday evening. We enjoyed getting to know his wife and step children a little better (they got married a year ago). We stayed later than we should have but we were enjoying ourselves.
The plan was to get on the road for home around 8:30 the next morning. That plan got messed up when Seth woke up at 6:30, throwing up. Lovely! At least I happened to be in the room at the time--I had just woken up and went in to check on him--or there would have been a much bigger mess to clean up than there was. I got him to the bathroom as fast as I could. We debated a bit about what to do but finally decided that it would be best to try to get home as soon as possible. Because of the delay caused by getting Seth cleaned up and trying to figure out what to do, we didn't get on the road until about 10:30. I sat in the back next to Seth, holding a bucket. We stopped to buy tissues, bottled water, and hand sanitizer. Jared was a champ and sat next to me--he climbed out of the car and helped me rinse out the basin every time Seth threw up. Lots of fun! In spite of being sick, Seth was fairly cheerful most of the way home. We watched the movie The Avengers (I had not seen it previously) and he fell asleep a couple of times briefly. We were a little over half way home when Frank announced that he wasn't feeling well, pulled over, and got sick by the side of the road. Great! In spite of that, Frank continued to drive for a while but after another hour or so he felt worse so I took over driving and Jared (bless him) took over taking care of Seth. Tanner's job was to keep me awake, because by then it was dark and I was feeling sleepy. (A few minutes of driving woke me right up, though--I hate driving at night and I hate driving in unfamiliar places, and both together is just plain torture.) I had to pull over one more time for Frank and he slept for a short period also but he insisted on driving again when we got about an hour from home because he knew how much I wasn't enjoying driving. It took us about 9 hours to get home because of the frequent stops--I lost count around #12, but I think we stopped about 15 times.
Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the time we got home. Frank crashed in bed and Seth lay on the couch watching television while Jared & Tanner unpacked the car. I drove out to pick up Snickers (he stayed with some ladies in our ward) and then spent the rest of the evening unpacking and getting Seth settled in bed. I didn't get to bed until after 11:00.
The next morning Seth and Frank were still sick. It was obvious that Frank was too sick to take care of Seth, so I got a ride to church for Jared & Tanner, and I stayed home with the sick ones. Actually, I wasn't entirely sure that I wasn't going to be sick myself. I had been feeling kind of sick off and on most of Saturday, and just kept praying that if I was going to get sick it would hold off until we got home and unpacked. Well, it did hold off...and thankfully I never did get sick. I was so grateful! Frank felt pretty miserable all day Sunday and he slept a lot but Seth turned a corner around 11:00 and by evening he was keeping down food and bouncing off the walls. I kept busy taking care of them and got our Christmas letter written too.
Monday was Tanner's 16th birthday. He opened his presents very early in the morning, before Seminary (everyone except Seth was awake):
He received earphones (Perry the Platypus ones) and an iTunes gift card. His main present he received about a month ago--a "new" (to him) iPod. Frank got a used one from eBay for him--he ordered it about the same time as he ordered Jared's and for some reason I can't comprehend, Frank gave it to him when it arrived instead of saving it for his birthday. So I was worried his birthday would be a little boring, but he seemed to be perfectly happy. We didn't do his cake either--we're doing that tomorrow so he can have a couple of friends over to share it, along with a pizza dinner. We originally planned to do that on his birthday but had to move it when Seth and Frank got sick. He got to choose something he liked for dinner and we had some cookies he likes too.
Meanwhile, Monday and Tuesday were extremely busy for me. Besides all the usual household chores that need to be done, I was also getting caught up from our trip and I had a dinner for 60 people on Wednesday evening that I was preparing for (YW in Excellence). I barely sat down either of those days, but I did get everything done. Frank still didn't feel very well on Monday so he took a day off. I kept Seth home for his "just in case" day and he was fine all day. It was a good thing Frank was home too because I had a lot of shopping to do for the dinner and I was able to leave Seth at home with Frank while I got that done. Seth went back to school and Frank went back to work on Tuesday. I had a presidency meeting that morning then spent the rest of the day doing YW preparations and household chores.
Wednesday morning I got up early so I could get a triple batch of stew going in crock pots for the dinner that evening. There was a lot of peeling and chopping of vegetables and meat to do, so it took a long time. I had to take Seth to school before I finished. I came home and finished up the stew, then exercised and showered. I had to make another trip to the store because Wal-Mart was out of spoons the day before. Jared had to be at basketball practice at 5:30. I took over some of the food at that time, then came back to get the stew. The dinner went well, though. Everybody loved the stew! Several of the girls shared what they did for value projects and I was so impressed with all of them. One learned to make knit hats and gave them away, another made blankets, another learned to sew and made a skirt, one took a lifeguarding class (and related it to being spiritually prepared), another helped paint several rooms in her house, one made a beautiful bulletin board with quotes about what faith means to her, and one learned to play the ukelele--she played and sang a song for us. It was really awesome! So it was a great evening, and worth all the work.
The last couple of days have been less hectic but I still kept busy. Tanner had a doctor appointment yesterday (just a medication check) and I took he and Seth to get haircuts. I got all the Christmas cards ready to go and mailed them this morning. Today I spent most of the day getting caught up on 2 weeks' worth of budget information. We are hoping to start getting out Christmas decorations this evening.
Right now Tanner is out on a date. Didn't waste any time, did he? He is going out with a girl named Alivia that he knows from our stake--she's the daughter of his "ma and pa" from Trek. I guess they've been friends since then and when he mentioned he was turning 16 and that he wanted to celebrate by going on a date, she responded "I'd like to go out with you sometime". How easy was that? Anyway, I hope he has fun.
That gets you caught up on us!
1 comment:
fun! except for the throwing up part! fun that Tanner is on a date and you got your cards out already. It's been one of those weeks so I am hoping to get my Christmas cards done this week and then finish decorating our downstairs tree! we have enjoyed seeing Scott while his been down, we'll miss that.
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