Happenings

I'll do a separate big post on Easter one of these days when the pictures are ready, so for now here's a little update of some of the goings-on around here.

• I've been a fan of Downton Abbey since it debuted years ago.  David never watched it with me.  Then this past Christmas break I persuaded him to watch seasons 1-4 with me all over again.  Somehow he agreed and loved it, too!  We finished those seasons (and the 5th) in March.  It was so fun and enjoyable having a show to watch together in the evenings.  David just asked me the other night when there will be more Downton to watch.  :)  We miss it, and I think we also miss doing that shared activity.  

• From around the time Eli turned 4 in December, through all winter long, he struggled with very bad temper tantrums.  Something would set him off and he'd instantly turn very angry, upset, and violent.  The only thing I could do was try to hold him through it until he could calm back down.  They increased in number and intensity, until finally I started spending a lot of time researching angry/violent behavior in preschoolers.  I paid attention to triggers, and tried to be more aware of my own tone and behavior.  We switched him from cow's milk to almond milk, thinking maybe he was having stomach aches and that contributed to his anger.  Anyway, I'm not sure what exactly caused the tantrums, but he's doing much, much better.  I am positive that the change in weather has been a big factor in his happier, more agreeable attitude (being able to go out and play a lot).  Also, I think having David home more with tax season over has also helped a ton.  I will be curious to see if next winter we'll face the same issues, but I hope as he matures I'll be able to help him better communicate his feelings. 

• About 1-2 weeks after Clara had bronchitis, Eli ended up with the stomach bug.  :(  It began one morning when David was given a free celebratory Friday off work, so we all planned to go to the Children's Museum, where we were to meet my mom.  Eli had diarrhea before we left (more than once).  I ended up feeling a lot of Mom Guilt that day, because even though he told me his tummy hurt, I thought he'd be fine, and so we packed him into the car.  A forewarning of what was to come happened while we were taking the 1st roundabout.  Eli started talking about boats, and how he could never go on a boat because he'd get sea sick.  5 minutes later and he was throwing up all over himself.  :(  Oh, it was the saddest thing!  I felt so horrible for him, that he was so incredibly miserable and then had throw up all over himself (we are all very aware of how tremendously yucky throw-up is).  As we turned around to head back home I wiped him up the best I could, all the while feeling so upset at myself that I didn't listen to him and pushed him too hard when he was sick.

He threw up 4 times from then until late afternoon.  But for the four days following he had terrible diarrhea  all day every day.  He barely ate a thing and wasn't interested in doing much of anything.  Somehow we magically made it to the toilet every time (once a very-near accident while announcing in the car that he needed to go).  And the biggest miracle of all was that nobody else caught it!  I disinfected a ton, and boy was that a grateful relief!  Eli was a pretty puny boy for a while after that, having to hold up his pants when he ran.  But once he was back to himself his appetite came back strong, and he is doing great!

• During the same time that Eli was sick, we had a plumber come to our house because we had a leak.  Our water bill had been far over what it should be.  It was a useless visit, since the plumber told us we'd have to figure out where the leak was before he could do anything.  So the leak detector guy came out with a bunch of fancy tools and gadgets and spent 2 hours doing his detective work (only to end up being 2 feet off).  The Saturday of General Conference the plumber came back and jack hammered the floor right under our fridge (it was a slab leak).  Now, almost 2 weeks later, the fridge is still in the middle of my kitchen, as we are STILL waiting to have flooring replaced over the area.  Yes, you could say it frustrates the heck out of me every time I'm in my kitchen.

The condition of the leak area, with the fridge pulled out in front of it.  Grrr.

• Right on the heels of Eli having the stomach bug he then got a crazy rash!  It all began one day when he put a bandaid over a tiny pink spot on his arm.  (He loves to find "boo boos" to bandage.)  Somehow another bandaid got placed around that same area.  I'm never very good about taking bandaids off.  It seems like they generally just fall off on their own.  But the bandaids he had on were not falling off, and instead were pretty secured on.  I could see underneath them that he had a couple patches of very red, broken skin.  This concerned me, and finally in the following couple days both bandages were off.  There was an area on his arm that was red and patchy, but I assumed it would heal okay.  Then all of sudden his arm got  much worse!  And then it spread to the side/front of his stomach!  We think he ended up getting a staph infection.  He had some really big, very painful-looking sores.  He seemed fine otherwise, so at first I switched off using calamine lotion and hydrocortisone cream, and then I was able to put on some medicine I was given from a past staph infection, and that helped it finally start clearing up.  He has yucky scarring, which I imagine will take a while to leave.  The poor kid!

This was the rash before the bad sores came and it spread really badly.

Okay, I promise that's the last of the bummer updates!  :)

• A little over a month ago I was called to be the Young Women Secretary in my ward at church.  (In addition to what I already do as the Personal Progress leader).  I'm happy to continue working with the YW, and getting to know them.  They are fantastic girls!   Last month I was in charge of an activity for Personal Progress.  I made the evening about patriarchal blessings, since they are required to learn about them under the theme of 'individual worth.'  We played two games--Duck, duck goose wearing two different shoes that belonged to someone else, and another game called "Revealing Colors."  Each girl took some m&ms, and each color corresponded to a question that I asked the girls.  The color questions were basically going off of The Color Code personality test.  Red had to do with something they're passionate about, Blue was something they do to relieve stress, Orange was an adventure they'd like to take part in, Brown was something that makes them frown, Yellow was something that brightens up their day, Green was something they love to do in nature.  After the games we played Patriarchal Blessing Jeopardy!  I thought the night went well.  We had some fun and learned important things.  Only one of the girls in attendance had received her blessing already, so I know it was good preparation for the others.

Handouts I made for the girls

• Last month my dad celebrated a milestone by turning 60!  I wanted to think of a special gift to give, but with our rounds of sickness I spaced the upcoming day.  One week before his birthday I contacted (with the help of my sister who's friends with so many on facebook) everyone I could think of from throughout his life to ask them to send a memory of my dad.  The plan was to put all the memories together to create "60 Years of Memories."  The response in that one week was outstanding!  I had 120 memories from about 54 people (some writing several, which just made it more fun).  I gave him his gift at his birthday party, and it was just so fun to watch him open it and realize what it all was.  He was very touched by the wonderful things everyone had to say about him, and I was thrilled that he could have that life-long gift.  

My parents already owned this old mailbox.  Was the perfect thing to place the envelopes in when I gave them to my Dad!

• Friday evening my mom and sister came up for a night out together!  My mom treated us to dinner at McAllister's, the movie Cinderella (a cute, inspiring film), and ice cream at Handel's.  It was really nice to have that time together to talk and have some fun.  I'm grateful to have them close enough to make these gatherings possible!