The Weekend

Friday: We had Joy School over at our house again. I thought we did it for the last time a few weeks ago, but I ended up taking another turn. We cancelled it on Wednesday since the kids and I all had colds. But Friday we extended it a little while and had a mini birthday party for Ty. It worked out nicely to not have to plan much extra, the kids would already be there. He didn't want a birthday cake but instead requested donuts and chocolate milk. So after the preschool section we cleaned up and pulled out the balloons and donuts. Here he is blowing out 5 (!!!) candles in his chocolate donut.

(Don't mind our bare walls. Kenny removed all the wall-hangings and spackled the holes in the wall when he was here last week.)

This is Tyler with his friend William O'Neil. They are great buddies.

I meant to get a good group shot of everyone in joy school but one girl wasn't there that day and the other had left. So these are the boys: Nate Tusberg, William and Grant O'Neil on either side of Ty.

A moving guy also came that day to evaluate how much stuff we have. Have I mentioned how grateful I am that the company is moving us?! Holy cow. Packing is by far the worst part so to have that off my shoulders is a HUGE relief.

That night everything was fine and normal, the kids had a bath and went to bed without a problem. Then at 11, I was in my bed reading, about to go to sleep and Brynlee woke up crying. I went in there and she said "I'm all wet". I got closer to her and reached out to touch her and could smell the vomit, and felt it all over her clothes, bed, and in her hair. I got her changed and cleaned up and brought into bed with me. Not too many minutes passed and she did it again all over my bed this time. Throw-up is disgusting. So I changed my sheets too and started a load of laundry, got Bryn changed again and prayed that was the end of it. But it wasn't. The next time we didn't quite make it to the toilet for the first round so it was all over my bathroom floor and down the side of the toilet. Thankfully no more laundry this time. I finally got smarter and brought a bowl into bed with us. She threw up several more times. It was so painful and heartbreaking to watch her go through that. I started to feel upset and frustrated that Kenny wasn't home. Then I had a thought hit me: "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. What are you grateful for in this situation?" And it changed everything.

I realized I was very grateful for washers and dryers. I always think of the pioneers and realize how much worse it could be. I had a bishop when I was younger, Bishop Livingstone, and I remember one time he said that the Lord must have created sloths just to have something to compare humans to. Ya know how in the scriptures it's always like "you are an unwise and slothful servant" or something? Well I feel the same way about pioneers. Maybe the Lord just had them go through all the crap that they did so that for the rest of time we could compare our lives to theirs and feel better about our situations haha. I know that sounds terrible, and I say that sort of tongue-in-cheek. The point is that I'm not going to be able to handle any hardships if I just have a "woe is me" attitude. "Forget yourself and go to work", right?.

Well she must have just had something bad to eat, I don't really know what was up that night. But it ended somewhere between 1:30 and 2 a.m. and she's been fine since. I kept waking up to check on her, but she was done, and nobody else in the house got sick. When Madi woke up the next morning at 6:30 I was less than thrilled to get up with her. Then I had a dramatic trip to Wal-mart that morning where it was a snow storm and I needed my thyroid medicine and a few other essentials but I forgot my wallet and they wouldn't let me write a check without the proper ID so we came home empty-handed, etc. etc. Stupid things I tell you. But I had a nap with the girls when we got home and that always makes life seem better :). And we eventually made it back to the store in better spirits and took care of what we needed to.

Today was our last Sunday in this ward. I got to teach Young Womens again and I'm always glad to have that over with. I love preparing talks and lessons, but I really really don't like teaching. Madi was quite a distraction for the girls during the lesson, but oh well. I know they can't help it--she's just cute. We went to the Palmers for dinner tonight, again. Really going to miss that family. Well this is getting awfully long, and it's late. Good night.