Pneumonia!

Friday, March 12th, Sarah came home from school pooped. I was making a few phone calls and when I was done, I couldn't find Sarah anywhere.

She was sound asleep on her bed! Very unusual for my active girl who likes to stay up late like me. She perked up the next day and seemed fine over the weekend.

On Monday, she was very hard to wake up for school. She started getting ready, but said she was too tired. I took her temperature and she had a very low grade fever. Around 99. I let her get back in bed and we just had a lazy day. The next day it was the same thing. I hated having her miss school for such a minor illness. Her fever never even got up much higher than 99.1 and she wasn't really complaining too much about feeling terrible, but she was starting to cough a lot. It sounded like bronchitis - a deep cough. So I made a Dr. appointment. We were planning to go to Utah on Friday so I wanted to nip it in the bud if it was an infection of some kind.

Daddy came and took Sarah to the doctor since I had preschool at our house that week.

I was shocked to find out that she had pneumonia! Her symptoms didn't seem that bad. The cough was getting bad, but I wouldn't have guessed she was that sick.

Poor Sarah also got a wart that has been driving us crazy for a couple months, frozen off at the same appointment. (I had scheduled it later in the week before her illness and decided to kill two birds with one stone.)

Needless to say, Sarah missed school all week, but recovered quickly with antibiotics. Towards the end of the week, I started feeling crummy. I barely made it through preschool on Thursday with a bad sore throat. Because Sarah was home all week and my nights were full, I never got out to run any errands before the trip. I got desperate enough to get a babysitter so I could go get groceries! That was a first.

I actually really enjoy sick days with my kids - weird, I know. I like taking care of them and having them home with me. But sick "weeks" are hard! It's tricky getting everything done! Especially while hosting preschool too!

It seemed like we might not get to go on our trip with everything going on. Luckily, Sarah and I were both much better Friday and we were able to leave Saturday - just a day later than originally planned. What a week!

St. Patty's Day Fundraiser!

From Blog Favorites #3

For Girls' Camp in the summertime - the girls have about $120 they need to pay. So we try to do a fundraiser or two to help them earn money. We had a spaghetti dinner in January and Emily, our ward camp director had a creative idea for a second fundraiser. A St. Patrick's day leprechaun hunt for kids in the ward and neighborhoods. The girls dressed up and brought homemade treats. Families in the ward signed up to have the girls come do a leprechaun hunt with their children. They paid a small fee for the visit and treats.

From Blog Favorites #3

Randie and Nina getting treats onto plates.

From Blog Favorites #3

Kristy helping arrange plates.

From Blog Favorites #3

Britlee, Nina and Kristi getting into their roles!

From Blog Favorites #3

Sarah, Nat and Angela closing their eyes - they missed Lucky the leprechaun, he is so tricky, but left some treats behind!

St. Patty's Day

I usually like to do something fun and greenish for St. Patty's Day, but this week was such a blur (see Sarah's Pneumonia entry) that I was just proud to remember to help Ang and Natalie wear green to school. We had preschool that day and the kids all looked cute in their green. They had fun learning about ABC's that day...

Angela loves to wear her "funny little hat" on St. Patrick's Day. (o: I love it!

Tori meticulously paints her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree in shades of green. How appropriate!

Natalie's Recipe

I've mentioned before Natalie's love for being a "cook" and inventing her own recipes. This one is a strawberry cream cheese sandwich with a grape suspended in the air by a toothpick. She seriously comes up with all this stuff on her own and never ceases to amaze me with her creative and "fancy" little brain. (o: What a hoot!

My Sweet Baby Girl

Ugh - my baby is growing up and I can't stop her. I want her to stop. I want all my girls to stay little. There is a scene in the Japanese animated film "Ponyo" (it's by the same guy who did "Spirited Away" which we love - very, very different from your average Disney cartoon FYI) Anyway, there is a father of a little fish who is trying to grow up. The dad puts the fish in a jar and tries to physically stop the fish from growing up. He tries to squish it smaller. It was humorous and sad to me all at the same time. That's exactly how I feel. He couldn't stop it any more than I can.

I can't believe Angela will be in Kindergarten next year. What will I do with her gone? I know it will be nice to get some things done around the house, etc. etc. But seriously, I would rather have my buddies with me. I am jealous of those moms whose kids are in the stage when their kids are all home with them. I loved having our own schedule and not having to accommodate the school schedule. Maybe if I went back in time I'd remember better all the hard parts of that season of life too. But as I come close to that being a distant memory, I get so sentimental and sad about moving on to a new stage of life as a mom.

The picture above is Angela with Tori at Out of This World; a fun special playdate - and nice break for Tina and I to just chat. Tina and I reminisced about the days when the only thing we had on our schedules were playdates. Those were fun times and we could hang out for hours - until nap time - unless we were having too much fun. Now we have kids in all different directions, kids going/coming home from school, forgotten homework or lunches, sick days, preschool, lessons, parties, volunteering, etc. Life is much more hectic and not as laid back as it used to be. But I get to sleep through the night. I have time to myself when Angela goes to preschool. I can do so much more with independent children. I can go to the bathroom with the door shut!, get completely ready for the day all at once, practice piano, work on photo shoots, read more, etc. These are all good things. And I love watching the girls grow and show their personalities as they get bigger.

So I'll suck it up and enjoy this stage. But the thing that makes me struggle with this stage is that it is one step closer to the inevitable. When the house will be waaayyy too quiet and there will be no schedules or little people to accommodate. )o: That will be lonesome.

Angela tells people when they ask about her going to Kindergarten next year, "Mommy will miss me." Yep, my little sweetie - I sure will.

One of those days...

I HATE daylight savings, I've decided. I'm already on a late schedule and daylight savings totally messes me up. I forgot to change our clocks in the kitchen last night and accidentally fed my family at 7:30. My mom called and said something about us having a late dinner. I didn't think 6:30 was THAT late. (o: Whoops. Needless to say the girls got to bed late too.

And getting up this morning was a bear. It took me forever to fall asleep last night. My body just likes the old schedule.

Besides the adjustment to the schedule, Nat woke up a little too late to get to the bathroom, Sarah woke up with a fever and there was no clean underwear in Natalie's drawer. Oh yeah, and I HAVE to figure out a way to get to the store (with a sick child) today because we have no milk or essentials and I am making dinner for a friend tonight. Hmmmm.

I wanted to just go back to bed. But moms don't have that option. We just make it work - that's part of the fun and creativity of being a mom. Sooo -

I got Sarah Tylenol.
Searched for the closest fit of clean undies for Nat - it turned out to be Angela's (o: Good thing she's skinny!
I figured out a way to get my workout in since my trip to the gym was out - thank goodness for my treadmill.
I've got Nat's bedding clean (but not back on the bed yet)
Washed the girls overflowing basket of laundry - plenty of clean underwear for tomorrow!
And I've found a quick meal recipe I can make if Bob* can just get home by 4:30 so I can run to get a couple ingredients at Freddy's. If not, I think my friend may have Papa Murphy's, but that wouldn't be so bad, I guess.

The funny thing is - this is actually not that bad of a day - I mean, at least I had a chance to blog about it. I've had way worse! Here's to a FANTASTIC Monday - can you read the sarcasm in that? Nah, seriously, if these are my biggest problems I have it pretty darn good. I can't complain - well, I guess I just did, and now I feel better.

"You're Right Mom"

I was just looking at the picture of Angela and Tori at Out of This World and forgot to share a very important story that I need to document to read back to Angela someday.

When we arrived there that morning, we noticed a brand new inflatable slide/obstacle course that replaced the smaller and worn out one she had played on at previous visits. Angela is a little hesitant about trying new things. I had to encourage her for about 20 minutes to even go inside the inflatable fun house. It wasn't any scarier than the one next to it that she loved. I told her, "Once you go through it and just see it, you aren't going to want to stop playing in it!" I tried and tried to convince her and finally had to drag her over and walk around the outside encouraging her the whole way, "See? Isn't it fun? Keep going - see? You're doing great! Isn't it fun?" She kept looking back very hesitantly at me and really didn't want to go down the big slide. She was so nervous - which cracked me up, because the other inflatable slide she loves is a bit steeper and bigger.

FINALLY she relented and just came down with a very nervous face. However, as soon as she hit the bottom and was in my arms she exclaimed with joy, "Mom! You were RIGHT!" And she ran around to go back in again.

She played on that thing for most of our visit there.

So - I just had to record these words. How often does a parent get to hear that sentence? It is a treasure. Like a beautiful song. (o: I will come back and read this story to her in a few years when she will probably think I am never right about anything.