Snow Day, Sick Day, Date Day and Orange Juice

Chapter 1--Snow Day!

I can't believe that it is the 26th already. What a weekend--I feel like it has been at least since a month since I last posted--not just a week!

To start things off, we had no school today!!! I don't know who was more excited at our house: the teacher or the students! (for those that don't know, my husband is a teacher). As soon as he got that welcomed phone call last night at 7:30 pm, he was excited, and willingly called the people on his phone tree. The children were thrilled too. Our 2nd grader asked if he could stay up and watch the Hallmark movie with us, since he didn't have to get up in the morning. He thought he was in heaven--a 4 day weekend for us (we are on the 4-day school week).

But the bad news--my sister that lives about 2 1/2 hours away had come for the weekend, and couldn't make it home on Sunday after church like she usually does. So she called a sub, e-mailed lesson plans and waited until Monday morning to leave. The roads weren't closed until last night, but the wind was terrible and coming straight from the north. When we first got to church at 10, the wind was howling, and 3 of the children fell down on the way into the church. The winds didn't let up one bit, and in fact increased. When we left church, it was hard to walk in it--the wind felt like it was biting us and the snow hurt as it hit us. I didn't want to leave the building--thankfully the image of our nice warm fireplace blazing at home encouraged me to get into the car and hurry home.

My sister didn't feel comfortable about leaving then, because of the strong winds (although the road didn't close until later that evening). But when she got up this morning, the road was still closed from the Montana state line to 15 miles south of us. So she was snowed in. Luckily they opened the road about 7:30 am. so she was able to leave shortly after that and made it home safely and in time to teach for the afternoon. We heard on the news that there were 37 accidents Sunday afternoon on the roads that she would have been driving. So we are thankful that we listened to the Spirit.

Today was too cold to go outside and play, so we all stayed inside. We worked on the laundry (finally got all the kids' clothes put away), dishes, cleaning rooms and playing. I had my piano students come early today; Bri had 2 friends come and they babysat the 3 youngest while I taught; Z & C played nicely with the girls or with each other; and Ethan had b-ball practice. Then we played games, put puzzles together with Emmalee, played the Wii, and watched a nature show about skunks.

Now I am waiting for baby boy to fall asleep for the night so I can snuggle into the nice warm blankets--it is already -6 (six below zero) and falling quickly. Although the wind has died down, there is still some wind so it feels colder!

Chapter 2: Sick Day

Friday, Jan. 23, 2009. It started out as a lot of normal Fridays begin--my alarm waking me up at 6:45 so I can get ready to leave for town by 8 am. I heated up a thermos of water (to make bottles in town if necessary), got baggies of cereal, packed the diaper bag, and filled water bottles for the children going with me. We had received about 1 inch of snow--just enough to be a bother, but not enough to shovel. Earlier in the week, the sun had melted some of the snow, so underneath this new snow was a nice layer of ice (Yuck!).

As we started into town, the roads were snow covered--they really hadn't plowed. But the farther south I drove, the worse the roads became and the slower I drove. I realized I should have left earlier, because we were going to be late to our first appointment--Callum's physical therapy. I had to teach my 12 year old how to text message him & let him know we would be 15 minutes late (I think it's great that she doesn't know how to text yet!). But once there, Callum had a melt down and didn't want to cooperate. He finally did what was asked of him, but by then we only had 30 minutes left.

My neck was killing me by now, but I thought it was because of the tension of driving on the horrible roads. The weather was foggy, but warm--about 34. So the roads were getting slushy, and there was about 6 inches of snow that hadn't been plowed. When we pulled out of the parking lot, I felt like throwing up, but I hadn't eaten a very good breakfast. So I tried to eat a little, but didn't have an appetite. I had no time to be sick, so I drank some water and drove to get Brienna's x-rays taken. She has scoliosis, and the back specialist comes from Boise every few months to see patients on this side of the state. After the x-rays, I hurried to the craft store to find the special paint for the pinewood derby cars (the race is Wednesday), and thanks to my speed, we had 1 minute to spare before occupational therapy for Callum.

He did great, but we didn't have much time so we grabbed a Little Caesar's pizza and ate that as we went to the scout office for awards and more pinewood derby things. I didn't feel good still, and by now I knew I was sick (because the pizza didn't even taste that good). We had about 40 minutes--not quite enough to get the grocery shopping done, so I headed to the DI to look for belts and pants for Brienna. She found 2 of each and I found a few things for Benjamin, and then we were off to the back specialist. We arrived right on time, and settled in for the wait. Ben was hungry, so I nursed him, and nursed him, and nursed him. He ate for 30 minutes and still no doctor. Another lady waiting with her daughter asked at the desk about the wait time. That's when we (all the people with big x-ray folders) found out the doctor's flight had been weather delayed, so he had arrived late and was running late. I felt so terrible, that I just wanted to lay down and take a nap, but compromised and rested my head against the wall.

We finally got in a little after 3 (1 hour after our appointment), for a 10 minute visit. The curve has not gotten worse yet, but she hasn't started to grow, so it's a wait and see game still. So 4 more months. In the meantime, she was prescribed a foot lift for her left shoe. By now, it is 3:20 and Callum has a doctor's appointment at 3:30. We quickly loaded up (do you realize how tiring it is to put an infant car seat in and out of a van so many times in a day!! thanks to Brienna for taking over for me) and pulled in at 3:33. I had Brienna start undressing Ben so we could change his diaper (he was very wet), but they called Callum back so we didn't even get his diaper changed until later. Callum was there for a check-up and for his poor eczema--it is terrible! We have tried so many creams and medicines (both prescription and over the counter) but nothing seems to work long-term. Dr. is trying another ointment, this time to only use with flare-ups (not to use continually) and a med. for itchiness. We will see if they help.

After finishing up at the Dr. office, I really just wanted to be home in bed, but had to go to the office to get a foot lift for Brienna, and run to Wal-Mart to pick up Callum's prescriptions. It was at about this time that my sister called to let me know she was at the turn off to either head to my house (and cut off 20+ miles), or come into town to met me. I begged her to come and help me get some of the shopping done (Aunt Pamela to the resuce!!). Rusty and I were planning on coming in to town for a date Saturday, but with the way I was feeling, I wasn't sure we would make it back in. So I knew I needed to get some of the groceries that we needed this week.

We got the big and important things off my list, and then headed to the check out lanes. Thankfully we got through quickly, but then we still had to stop for dinner. Plus I needed something to eat/drink for the trip home so I could stay awake. I got a shake (lasted me almost all the way home) & hamburger, and the kids got Subway. I usually love a sub sandwich, but it didn't sound appealing to me. We finally got on the road about 7 and home at 8.

Is that the end of the our Friday adventure? No--there is one more thing that happened before we got home--about half way home, an owl hit the passenger side of the front window and scared Brienna half to death! Thankfully, it didn't crack the windshield more than it already is-- just made her cry for a while.

I made it home, and begged everyone else to bring the groceries inside and put away the fridge stuff as I collapsed onto the couch. I was freezing in our toasty house (82 with a fire going), and had 2 blankets on me. I dozed on and off, heard Ethan get home from his Mackay b-ball game (he checks in with me), took some Tylenol, and finally felt alive when my fever broke about 6 am. I slept a couple more hours, took a shower and lived for another day.

I felt better, but not 100 well. My body didn't ache like Friday, and I was tired, but I decided I felt well enough to go into town on a date. We just went to dinner, and 2 stores for a short period of time. It was nice to get out with Rusty--we had only been out once since Benjamin was born, and this time we went without him. I was tired and almost feverish again by Saturday evening, but had a good night's sleep, and lived to see Sunday (although it might have been warmer if I had been sick and stayed inside out of that ferocious wind!).

All I can say now is that I am sure that Friday was at least a 48 hour day (because my body felt like it had been tortured for that long), and I love ORGANGE JUICE--my "medicine" that works for me when I don't feel good.

Until the next adventure--keep blogging!