Housebound

This has been a very long week. Starting on Tuesday Drew was home from school for 3 days. She said that her throat, head and stomach hurt. No fever, no outward signs of illness except for droopy eyes and whining, whining, whining. By Wednesday Gillian caught on and didn't want to be left out so she said her ears hurt. Not that I didn't want to believe her, but when she started doing handstands and cartwheels at 12:30 I told her it was time to go to school. She said she was just practicing but decided she probably felt ok to go to school. Then on Thursday both the girls were home. I gave up trying to convince Gillian that she wasn't sick. Bad mom. I figure she will pass second grade and I wanted her to keep Drew company so that Drew wouldn't hang on me all day complaining of a headache/sore throat/achy stomach. She asked to go to school at 1:40. I guess she got bored of being sick. This time I didn't let her since there was only one hour left. It's funny because Gillian's symptoms were the exact same as Drew's, including feeling drowsy. I wonder if she knows exactly what drowsy means because she wasn't acting drowsy at all. She was very cute and thoughtful on the first day of Drew's illness. She rubbed Drew's back, snuggled her and brought her breakfast in bed.

At 3:00am Gavin woke me up saying he threw up in the hallway. Sure enough there was a nice spread of vomit going down the hall toward the bathroom. Then he continued vomiting throughout the rest of the very early morning. Poor kid. He was white as a sheet with a slight greenish tint. He didn't eat anything all day but was able to keep some fluids down. I've never seen a kid throw up so much.

The good part was that the girls were very eager to escape the barf germs and go to school.

So that was my week.

My house has a certain stink to it right now.

Awesome.

Mid-winter break

I don't ever remember having mid-winter break. Here in Washington the schools seem to always come up with reasons to have time off school. This time we took advantage and did something fun. We rented a cabin for 3 days close to Stevens Pass with the Peays and Bubba and Jo. We spent Thursday and Friday skiing and Saturday hanging out. The kids spent hours and hours in the hot tub and playing pool. The cabin is more like a lodge, complete with a huge elk head.

A total of 11 kids. We picked up an extra, Spencer Smith, after skiing Friday. Both ski days had beautiful blue skies and nice spring skiing conditions.

Darren stitched up the leather couch that the kids ripped by jumping on over and over again. Apparently the couch ripped itself because none of the kids fessed up to it. There was also a broken mirror that we had to replace, another mystery that no one confessed to.

We found an awesome trailer with a metal roof built over it.

Table for 10 kids.

Love this guy!!!

George the Gingerbread Man

Another George in the house. This time he is a cute felt Gingerbread Man. Drew introduced him to us for Family Home Evening. She read the story about him as he escaped from the oven and ran around helping people. Very cute. So now we have a tally sheet on the refrigerator and when we do something nice for someone in the family we put a mark and leave George where we did our service. So I started it out by making Drew's bed. It should be a fun thing. So far Drew and I are the only ones to have tally marks. We will see if Gavin catches on.....In other news, Ruthie is still in the hospital. It has been 2 weeks. She is doing much better, talking and such. She still has to have help walking and doing rehab so she is at Evergreen, which is closer to us. She decided to shave her whole head since there is no possible way to blend a half shaved head. She has a large scar about 5 inches long in a semicircle from her forehead hairline to her ear from her surgery. I have to say that I am jealous of her shaved head. I wish I had a good reason to shave my head. I've always wanted to know what it feels and looks like. I think she actually looks really good. My kids like to visit grandma at the hospital. Gillian has made many cards and drawn many pictures. Ruthie is truly a wonderful woman and I'm so happy that she will have a full recovery! It just wouldn't be the same without grandma around!

And in other other news I have crazy neck right now. Somehow Richard and I inherited some crazy "batman neck" gene. Richie named it that due to the stiff movements you have to make in order to compensate for not being able to move your head without searing pain. Arghhhh!!! I let it keep me down yesterday but decided to hit the gym anyway today. After all, Batman still needs to work out!