Valentines from He..!

Have you ever wondered how you could spend quality time with yourself on Valentines day? Ever wanted to just lay in bed, snuggled under the covers, locked in your room away from your kids for most of the the day? How about spending the evening with your spouse surrounded by people who just wanted to find out what was wrong with you till 4AM!!? Then you want INFLUENZA A. YES! THAT'S WHAT I SAID! INFLUENZA A will bring chills to your very core and pains that you can't imagine!
Let me back up a day. Friday when I got up I started coughing, not a big deal, it's been like that all winter. But when the boys got home from school I started feeling weak and feverish. By 3:00 I had a 103.2 fever and was curled up on the couch trying to nap. Luckily, all but Ammon were napping too. When Michael got home I just crawled in bed and stayed there all night. Michael figured he'd play it safe and slept in Ammon & Spencer's room. Thru the night my fever went up and down, and by Saturday it was between 101-102 degrees. Michael bought me some pretty flowers and a giant cookie for Valentines day. But I was in no mood to eat it.
The cute little bear was from Ammon. He bought it in his class with "Class Bucks" he'd earned for the week for reading, turning in homework etc. He spent it on his Mom to get her this cute little Rose bear.
By 5:30 I was really starting to feel weird. Meaning sicker than I thought, about 6pm I took my temp and it was 104.5!! This is not a number that you want to see! I decided that I should call the doctor who told me that I should go to the ER. I said that would be hard with 4 boys, and maybe I'd be ok to stay at home. About 30 minutes later, feeling very out of it and the fever still hanging on at 104.5 we decided that we'd better find someone to watch the boys for us. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone home not only on a Saturday night, but VALENTINE'S SATURDAY NIGHT OVER PRESIDENT'S DAY WEEKEND?!! We started with our speech thearapist, no answer, then just started calling everyone that we had in our phones. This was becoming a joke. We were going to have to drag our 4 boys to the ER with us. Finally, Michael got a hold of our recently released bishops wife, Carol. She said her and Kevin had plans, but if we needed her she would watch the boys. Michael told her not to worry about it and we'd keep looking. And we did. No luck anywhere. We were ready to packup the boys and take them in tow when Carol called Michael's cell and told him to bring the boys over. My prayers were answered and we'd be very indebted to them.
We checked me into the ER around 8. I'm not sure how long we waited till we got back there. Didn't seem too bad. And I had a bed to lay on. Then the fun began. Blood work, breathig treatments, 6 sets of x-rays, some dude named Vernon laying outside my curtain that we nicknamed Frankenstein because of his moaning. The kid next to me didn't know why his mom called the ambulance...drunks sleeping it off in the walkways. A Girl found passed out surrounded by high school boys, this is what I call celebrating Valentine's day in style!! It's like watching an episode of ER without the extra drama.
They figured out that I have INFLUENZA A. Very contagious. I was so dehydrated that they had to hang 3 bags of salline to rehydrate me. I probably could have used another one. The doctor said that's why my fever wasn't going down, I had nothing to sweat out. Good to know. So, at 3:30am we headed home. The boys had done really well at Carol's. Except, Spencer got upset and crying and puked so Carol had to give him a bath. Sorry. Otherwise, the boys were asleep and I was ready for my bed too.

{post script...now Michael & Ammon have it too. It's been hairy a couple of days, but even after a trip for Michael to the ER in the snow, driven by a good friend of his we are surviving. Ammon is doing great, Michael & I are still fighting low fevers but are happy to be feeling better. Thanks to all who've prayed and helped us these past few days. xo}

My Favorite Aunt

For those of you who have never met my favorite aunt your life would be greatly inspired by her. I am an only child. My mom is an only child. My dad has one sister, hence my favorite Aunt Carol. As a little girl I would always be excited for her to come and visit us. She would even take me for the weekend for niece and aunt time. As I grew older she would take me to Disneyland. (I grew up in Southern California and I went to Disneyland when they had E ticket rides...ask an older person if you're not aware of what that is.) We went to Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm, she would spend the night on Christmas Eve to be there when I woke up on Christmas morning. She is a savy business woman who owns an import-export business. I think I get my love a jewelery from her and her mom. Not all of this came easy for her, like any of us, but she stayed strong and became the woman she is today. When I was 18 she took me to Hong Kong and Hawaii for a graduation present. Probably one of the coolest experiences of my life. She helped my out when I wanted to serve a mission, she was there when Michael & I got married. She adores her 4 grand-nephews and they adore her (and Aunt Donna). Especially when they come at Christmas time and make sugar cookies with us. This Christmas she made me a collage of pictures of the two of us. It made me cry when I opened it.
My aunt not only helps and spoils my boys, husband and myself, but her friends too. A few years back, one of her oldest friends was dying. She didn't have a home to live in so my generous aunt bought her a house to call her own while she lived out her last months. I've seen the generousity of my beautiful aunt and want to thank her for all that she has done for me my entire life. The phone calls just to check in on me, the Halloween, Easter & Thanksgiving cards to let me know that I am loved. The hugs and kisses that are always there even if we aren't together. I love you very much Aunt Carol and I am so glad that you are my aunt.

Loose teeth and the boys

It started off with Talmage's bottom front tooth being loose. He was pretty excited, but I was more excited. Most kids would be wiggling that tooth like crazy. Not Talmage. He was pretty attached to that tooth and there was no getting it out.


Even after we found out that Ammon also had a loose tooth on the bottom. The funny thing with Talmage is that his new tooth was already poking thru. Ammon was ready to just yank his out. Finally, I was able get Talmage's out. Then on Friday during Ammon's lunch, he took a bit of his sandwich and out came his tooth. Poor kid couldn't even finish his sandwich because he got blood on it. Opps. He was still excited about loosing it.

And the snow,snow,snow came down, down, down...

And yet another snow day for our boys. Monday was probably one of the craziest days I have had in a while. Michael was up at 5:30 shoveling so that he could head out to work early. He was coming home to watch the boys for me because I had a 9:45 doctor appointment. After our 6 am phone call to tell us that it was a snow day, which I appreciate, then Talmage had a fever, with the chills. Great...then I get a phone call from the Home Depot delivery guys who had my new fridge. They had told me that it would be in the later morning, and now they were telling me 10 minutes. CRAP!! So the boys are eating, I have to clean out and off the fridge and then all of a sudden Talmage starts to puke. So I'm helping him and cleaning up while I'm trying to make sure I'm dressed and ready for the delivery guys and making sure that the fridge is good to go. So the fridge got delivered, Michael got home so I can go, and after 2 hours I got home. Talmage was really tired and around 2 he fell asleep in my bed. At 3 he woke up with extra purple red cheeks and ears. I took his temp and it was 104.2. So I called Michael so that he could come home and take our very feverish boy out in the snow to the doctor. They thought he could have strep with his golf ball size tonsils, so that's how they treated him. It was quite a day by the time it was all said and done. By the way here is my cool fridge, Thank you Aunt Carol.

Sometimes you're so sleepy..

Spencer was crawling on Michael's back while they were on the bed. All of a sudden Michael realized that Spencer wasn't moving around... He must have been very tired.

When it's quiet...

Michael had meetings in California, so it was just me and the boys for a week. They actually did real well for me. One day I went looking for Spencer...this is where I found him....
We buy our toilet paper in the big cases and stock it in our laundry room. Spencer decided that he needed to unwrap all the rolls. He was very proud of his accomplishment as you can see by the smile on his face. Hey where are his pants??

Super Bowl Sunday

The boys were really excited that the Cardinals were in the Super Bowl. Not that we hardly ever watch football, nevertheless, for the Cardinals to be in the Super Bowl was AMAZING! We were at my parents so Nana had bought the boys Cardinals cups and football cupcakes. The red frosting was really red, so we made sure that Talmage didn't have any. Red 40 Dye makes him hyper and uncontrolable. So white it was for him. I had to take their pictures.