So I Like Making Breakfast For Dinner...

A few weeks ago, I woke up on a Saturday morning and made pancakes.  I haven't done this for quite a while.  I mean QUITE a while.

Bronson woke up, saw me making pancakes and started to laugh.  He said, "Mom...huh huh huh...pancakes for breakfast?...huh huh huh."  I guess he thought pancakes were a dinner food.  I guess it REALLY has been quite a while.

Tough (but not really) Easter

The day before Easter was fun.  Everyone seemed to have recovered from the previous day's sickness so we decided to go ahead with our Easter Egg Hunt plans.  First, we tried out our local grocery store's hunt.  I didn't take and pictures there because I was trying to keep track of four kids in a sea of children, but it was actually really fun!

Then, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for their neighborhood's hunt.  Oh how we love this hunt!  We go every year.  It was very fun (if a little chilly) as usual.  Grandma fed us delicious food before we went.

Our family was the only ones from the Smiths in attendance this year.  We missed our cousins.  I can see all five of my kids in there, but I'm not going to try to point them out to you.  Just know that they're there.

Dave was supposed to take pictures, but he forgot.  So here are the one or two I got after it was basically over.  This is Ali and Nicki.  Alison wasn't going to do it this year - she's getting too old.  But in the end we let her do it one last time. 

I wish you could have seen this boy!  He was adorable!  Each time he found a treat, he acted so shocked and thrilled!  

After the hunt is over, there is always a little bartering and trading.  

Grandpa Smith hung around to make sure no one took advantage of Bronson. 

Later in the afternoon, we colored Easter Eggs.  Alison missed it this time because she was at a friend's house. We missed her.  

While David and I were going through some things in storage, we found an old Easter bonnet from Alison.  We also found some Cookie Monster slippers in just Quin's size!  He wore both items for most of the day.

Throughout the day, it was clear to me that I was still sick.  The nausea from the day before was gone, but the sinus infection and body aches were still lingering.  David also became unwell.  He never threw up, but his stomach was queasy and he had a low grade fever for a while.  We accomplished very little all day.   I did take the girls to the general womens' conference that evening, but I probably shouldn't have.

When I got up on Easter Sunday, I knew I was pretty sick.  I made a breakfast, which nobody really ate (between David's stomach and the kids' Easter baskets no one was very hungry) then I went back to bed.  Alison took on the responsibility of preparing dinner and Nicole played with the boys.  They were very helpful.

I was felling pretty sad.  This Easter was no different than any other day at our house.  We had no plans to spend time with our extended family - they were all busy with their own plans.  Originally, I asked David if we could go to Temple Square in the morning.  What better place to spend Easter, right?  But when I woke up sick, I knew that wasn't going to happen.  Our dinner was nice, but not really that unusual.  I cook pretty well about six days per week around here.  So I was feeling sick, tired, lonely, and all together picked on.

While the rest of the family was at church, I had some time to watch LDS videos about the Savior.  It really helped me to get a better perspective on my day.  Fancy celebrations are great, but unnecessary. The important thing was that I personally reflected on the blessing of the Savior's atonement and resurrection.    I had a very nice hour of repentance and refocus.  I even got the courage to write a little testimony on social media for the first time.  It was terrifying to me, but I eventually dared to do it.  After church, the same friend who I brought dinner to knocked on my door with a complete Easter meal for us.  Can you believe that?  People are so nice!

I wish I could say that the rest of the day totally turned around and everything was magically wonderful.  It wasn't.  I mean, I think things were probably a little better, but for the most part it was just loud, sugary, and messy. Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.  Happy Easter.

Sickness - and a fun family visit

Why has our family been sick so much lately?!?!?  It's killing me!!!

On Tuesday night, after our neighborhood caucus meeting, and after fixing David's flat tire, and after changing sheets on two wet beds, I went to sleep.  It was late, and my head was still churning, so it was after midnight when I finally drifted off.  Some time around 4:00 am, Josh woke me up and told me that he'd just thrown up.  Luckily, he'd made it to a bathroom sink before doing so.  I got up with my poor sick boy and took care of him as he threw up another five or six times in the next three hours.  Around 7:00 in the morning, however, he said he felt good.  I kept him home from school still,but he turned right around and felt great. I wondered if he'd eaten something strange or something like that.  Who knew? In the mean time, a neighbor friend of mine mentioned that her family had been sick all week so I brought dinner over to her. It seemed like a nice thing to do at the time...

That afternoon, Jenny, Ashley, and Paige dropped by to say hello. They'd been in town for a few days to tour a few colleges in the area (can Ashley really be that old?!?!?) We chatted for about an hour - they giggled over Quinton's cuteness, and I fed them a cookie before they left.  Again, it seemed like a good idea at the time...

On Thursday, I decided to let my girls miss the last day of the term (they just play all day anyway...) and spend the day with Paige since they only see her once per year or less.    Jenny and Ashley had plans to spend the entire day in Logan looking at USU, so Paige was home alone with my parents.  It was their wedding anniversary that day, by the way.  We decided that it might be fun for all of them to go on some sort of outing.  I wasn't feeling very good that day, but not in the same way Joshua had been.  I wasn't nauseated.  I was pretty sure I had a sinus infection (I won't go into the details on that) and it was bad enough that my whole body ached in a feverish way.  The girls helped me get some basic housework done before they left.  I then spent most of the day resting while Bron and Quin played around me.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith took Paige and our two girls to Salt Like City.  They walked around temple square.

 They spent some time at the new family history discovery center.  It sounds like an amazing place!  It's all interactive and fun stuff! I plan on getting my Young Women group to go some day soon.

They ate lunch at the Beehive house.  How cool is that?  Alison and Paige shared a piece of chocolate cake.  It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Then, they went back to my parents house and hung out for a while. The girls started to make a fun music video before it was time to leave.    They all got along super well the whole time.  We all wish Paige lived closer! 

That night, after Nicole's basketball game (which is another thing I'll have to write about some day), we came home and went to bed.  I took a bunch of Ibuprofen and went to the game with her.  It seemed like a good idea at the time....

At around 1:00 in the morning, I woke up feeling really nauseated.  I was trying to hold perfectly still and pray it would just go away (always a great plan, right?) when I heard someone in the hallway.  It was Bron saying, "Mom!  I'm gonna hwow up!"  I said, "So am I.  Let's go!" and we ran into the kitchen.  I grabbed two large tupperware bowls (let me interject here to say that after years and years of puking experience - 5 rough pregnancies, etc - I have found bowls to be my preferred puking receptacle.  I know other people who are firmly in the toilet bowl camp, but this is what works for ME)  and we commenced to throw up at the exact same time.  I was holding his bowl for him and puking into my bowl simultaneously.  Now THAT is multi-tasking!  

Around 2:00 am, as I was trying to get Bronson to fall asleep on the couch, I heard a whimpering cry from the baby's room.  I knew exactly what it was.  Sure enough, when I went in to his room, I found the crib and the baby (luckily not the recently cleaned floor) were covered in vomit.  This is not an easy thing to face when you yourself are on the verge, but I kept it together admirably well as I cleaned everything and everyone.  Poor Bron threw up another seven times throughout the morning - every 20-40 minutes.  I threw up only twice more, but I wanted to throw up much more than that.  At some point, I turned on the television, and we watched Daniel Tiger cartoons.  After a couple of hours, I decided that Quinton probably wasn't going to throw up any more and I put him back in his crib.   Bron finally fell asleep on the couch around 4:15 am.  At 5:00 am, Alison came upstairs.  She had just vomited all over herself and her bedroom.  Sigh.  She took up post on a chair and threw up three or four more times. She woke up Bron, who also began puking again.  Soon, Quin woke up and joined me on the couch.  When David woke up on Friday morning, he found a bunch of people sprawled out on couches in various levels of misery. We all prayed that he would get through the day at work before it hit him.  Nicole and Josh were the biggest helpers that morning, until Nicole started feeling miserable as well.  She never actually threw up, but had a couple of close calls.  

All in all, it was the worst possible start to spring break in the history of mankind.  Just kidding, but it wasn't exactly fun. The good thing about this bug is that it leaves as quickly as it comes.  By mid-afternoon, Bronson was back to his good ol' self.  I set him and Joshua on a quest to wipe everything in the house that someone might have touched with a Clorox wipe.  By evening, we all felt pretty hungry.  And by the next morning, there was no sign of nausea in anyone.

I'm writing this post a few days after this happened, and as of yet, we haven't heard of anyone else getting infected by us.  I hope they don't - it's not the best way to make and keep friends.

Nicki's Blog

I helped Nicki set up her own blog. It is a great way for her to journal, I figure.  She would love to have you take a look at it.  awesomekidnicki.blogspot.com