My Latest Disorder

This afternoon I tried to have a conversation with my husband in our bedroom.  Even while trying to converse with Ryan, I find myself listening to the pandemonium that is four children.

Suddenly, in a lull in the conversation, I loudly yelled out, "Flush!" and Ryan gave me this odd look.  The opening of the bathroom door stopped, and flushing noises were heard.

Ryan was still looking at me out of the side of his eye.  I said, "I sound like I have Tourette's syndrome, don't I?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking, but I wasn't going to say anything," he replied.

Adventures and Misadventures

I'm not sure what I was planning today, but it certainly didn't look like what happened. 

I took Emma to SEEK before school this morning.  She complained of a scratchy throat and an upset stomach before we left, but I sent her anyway.  Exactly 30 minutes later, I got a call from Emma saying she was sick and wanted to come home.  So I dropped Elizabeth off at school and picked Emma up in one swoop.  Go me. 

A little snooping later, I think the real reason for the "sick symptoms" was probably due to a flashlight and book found in Emma's bed.  Who knows how late she was up.  Anyway, after a rest, she was rearing to go.  I reminded Emma that she was technically home sick, and she did not get to go outside and play, or anything super fun. 

We did watch Harry Potter 2, and do a couple of quieter activities.  Just before Daddy got home, we got the nail polish out and I cut and painted the twins' nails.  Emma was next.  I thanked her for being patient, and started painting her nails.  Part way through painting her toe nails, she was swinging her other foot and she totally spilled a whole lot of nail polish on our living room rug.  Gah!!!!!!!!

Literally 5 seconds later, Ryan walked through the door. 

Between Ryan, myself, a bottle of carpet cleaner, 3 towels and a whole lot of elbow grease, we got our rug cleaned. 

Once that catastrophe was adverted, Ryan and I talked about going to Lowes (a half hour away) to pick up a new set of living room blinds (as I killed the one we have about a week ago.  Somehow opening the blinds on a daily basis is hard usage on cheap blinds.).  We would make an early dinner and then go.

As I was making dinner, Elizabeth informed us that her 1st grade concert was tonight.

Seriously?  How did I miss that?  All righty then.  In my defence, I don't think they sent home ANY notices before the one today.  I swear I read them all.  I think?

We arrived early.  I sent Elizabeth up to the front and we found our seats.  As we waited, Maddie said she needed to go potty.  Ryan took her.  About a minute later, I got a text from Ryan saying puking was imminent. 

So I took a bunch of pictures for Ryan.  He missed Elizabeth's concert. 

I want this flu bug to be over.  So. Very. Much.

Elizabeth did a great job.  She did the actions with the songs, and better than most.  She was even facing forward most of the time. :)

Sorry these last couple of posts have been downers.  It's been a rough ride.

Series of Misadventures

Oh Monday.  That was just mean.

Our morning was off to an ok start.  All went alright until about 1:30 when Ryan called and asked me to pick him up after school.  He had taken his bike to school, and after getting sick in his closet sink during class time, he didn't feel like pedaling himself home.  I offered to come get him then, but he said he was doing ok and didn't want to miss the last two periods. 

At 3:30 I started getting every one's shoes on to go get in the car.  The van didn't respond when I pushed the button to unlock the doors.  Oh brother, the keyless-entry battery kicked the bucket.  So I manually opened the van (gasp! how terrible!) and herded the twins into their car seats.  And then I put the key in the ignition and heard the half dead, "di...i..in..g" and realized it was the car battery that was dead. 

I left the car unlocked after coming home from our toddler preschool coop, and while I was making lunch, the twins climbed back into the car and turned on the light button so all the dome lights were on.   It only takes 3.5 hours to kill our battery apparently.

Dang.  Dang.  Dang.

I tried calling Ryan, but it went to voicemail.  He doesn't ever check that, so I texted him, "Can't come get you.  Sorry.  Battery dead.  Twins are dead meat."

He texted back that he would get a ride home, but ended up riding his bike.  I felt awful.

While I was fixing dinner, and Ryan was testing his limited patience with supervising homework, Maddie quietly slipped away and took a nap in her bed.  We tried to get her up for dinner, but she didn't want to.

Then she started throwing up.  Again.  And again.  She threw up the two kinds of anti-nausea meds we tried.

This is seriously the worst flu bug we have ever encountered.  I don't know what to do.  There isn't much we can do besides keep her hydrated as best we can.  Every time I think they are better, I am wrong.  This is the 3rd go 'round.  I think that Annie was a sympathetic "puker" last time, so I hope that doesn't happen again.

Find a happy place

I was hoping today would be better than yesterday, but it was not.  Today was hard.  Both Annie and Maddie had the stomach flu again, despite the anti nausea medication.  I am tired.  And worried. 

So on that happy note, I thought I would share my cherry blossom pictures.  I took them on Monday.  This is my attempt at finding my "happy place."

Spring in on its way. 

Adventures

This has not been one of our better weeks.  The twins have not "bounced" back from their flu bug like they usually do.  They haven't wanted to eat much, or drink a whole lot, or do any of their usual activities.  So, they haven't colored on the table, or scooped out laundry detergent, or dumped all the Barbies, Polly Pockets and all their clothes and accessories on the floor.  On the other hand, I've been sitting on the couch and holding my pathetic children on the couch for much of the time.  They are too tired to even sit upright.  While we haven't been making a lot of messes, I'm not exactly keeping up with anything.  There is a literal mountain of laundry in the laundry room waiting to be washed and another that needs to be folded.  If I try to go do something, I hear, "I miss you, Mommy," which is code for "Please come and hold me."

Today I took the twins with me visiting teaching this morning, and when we got home Maddie started complaining that her tummy hurt.  She was squirming and writhing, and then started throwing up again.  (So sorry, Rachel!  I didn't know we were sick....)  Even after we had clearly exhausted her stomach contents, she was writhing and crying that her tummy hurt.  So I called our doctor's office and they were full up for the day.  Same story for the other two local clinics.  So then I called Ryan, who called a friend who is a PA, who called me and then talked to someone else and a half hour later, I got a call from our doctor's office saying they would see Maddie at 3 pm. 

I am so thankful for our friends and our (church) ward. 

Long story short, I got anti-nausea medication for Maddie.

Ryan and I had set up a babysitter for tonight.  We were going to go out for dinner and then a parent meeting for our school district.  I thought we would be cancelling and so had done nothing to fix the messy house situation that had developed.  Ryan convinced me that as Maddie was done puking and was just being a blob, so we could still go out to dinner.

I made a half-hearted attempt to pick up the living room and kitchen, and made the kids dinner.  Just the ones who would be eating anyway.  And while Ryan was running to the store with Annie, our babysitter was dropped off by her Spanish speaking mom who was interested in looking at our house and asked, through her daughter to see the house.

Say again? 

Oh dear. 

So we looked at our cluttered living room, dish covered counters in the kitchen, luckily the toy room was clean from disuse, the twins' room carpet was rolled back so it couldn't be barfed on and one mattress was on the floor in the living room, Emma and Elizabeth's backpacks were dumped right inside the door so you had to kick those out of the way to see Emma's drawers not pushed in, and the crowning touch was the mountain of laundry on my unmade bed.

See, nice house, right?

That's Just Mean

I think spring is mocking me.

LTTMMSE

Ok, my life can be a little dull.  Little things make me excited.  There is this feature over at Twinsomnia called "Little Things That Make Me Stupid Excited" that I am stealing for the moment.  This is just a list of some of my favorite things right now, in the spirit of the "Favorite Things" posts I did for Emma and Elizabeth.

One

Downton Abbey.  For anyone not familiar with this show- it's a BBC series set in England before and during WW1.  It follows the Crawley family and their servants, and their many stories.  I didn't discover it until after the first season aired on PBS, but watched it religiously during the second season.  I am ridiculously disappointed there will be no new episodes until next year.  Sigh. 

Two

Raw tortillas.  I found these at Costco after being alerted to their existence by my sister-in-law, Blair.  Oh. My. Goodness.  They are so much better than any other kind I've tried.  Do yourself a favor and buy some.  They take all of 2 minutes to cook, and are fresh and delicious anytime.

Three

Ghiradelli's dark chocolate.  Need I say more? 

Four

This is our book club selection for this month.  Admittedly, I am about 40 pages from the end of the book, but I am really enjoying it.  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is written in a letter format, and so took me a couple letters to get into, but hooked I decidedly am.  In post-WWII England, a writer exchanges letters with residents of Guernsey island (located in the English channel) about their experiences during the German Occupation and forms a bond.  There is humor, horror, romance and history all wrapped up in this story, and I am eager to see how it ends.

Five

I love these guys.  The twins haven't bounced back from this weekend's flu bug very well and so we've been spending a lot of time snuggling on the couch.  While I am getting next to nothing done, I am really loving it.  I love the feel of their soft cheeks on mine.  I love watching them while they sleep, even if my leg is numb.  While a not-small 3-year-old isn't quite the perfect size to hold for any length of time like a newborn is, those 3-year-olds can give hugs and kisses and say, "I wuv you Mommy."

Emma

Emma's favorite things are:

Food: Crepes with powdered sugar

Dessert: White cake with chocolate frosting

Movies: Nanny McPhee and Harry Potter 1, 2, & 3

Book: Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan (The next book doesn't come out until this fall and we've already had an argument over who will get to read it first.), and the Harry Potter series

TV show: Electric Company

Part of School: Math and SEEK (a before school science enrichment program)

Friends: Amerie, Kaylie, Leandra, Nathan, and her sisters

Thing to do: Read (duh)

Place to go: Home

Drink: Milk

Emma is so much like me in some ways, and so unlike me in others.  She is smart, loves school, and is a total bookworm.  She is confident.  She is warm-blooded (must get that from her father).  Emma likes to "trick" and tease people.  She found out that her teacher hates snakes, so she brought a fake snake from home to "get" her teacher, to the amusement of the whole class.   

Elizabeth

This morning after I got Emma off to her SEEK program, I sat down with Elizabeth eating her breakfast and started asking her some questions.  Here's a little bit about her so one day I can remember this nearly 7-year-old girl as she is now.

Here are a few of her favorite things:

Food: Fruity Cheerios (This may have been influenced by what she was consuming at that particular moment.  We have Daddy to thank for this "treat" breakfast cereal.)

Dessert: Brownies

Movie: The Little Mermaid

Book: Curious George's Dream

TV show: Curious George and Wild Kratts

Part of school: Recess

Friends: Eliza, Ashley and Elijah

Thing to do: Have fun with family

Place to go: On a walk

Drink: Lemonade

I am blessed to have Elizabeth in my family.  She is forever energetic and enthusiastic about everything.    She has yet to learn to "play it cool" and I am glad of it.  If she is happy about something, you know.  She loves the indoors, the outdoors, climbing, singing, cooking, dancing, playing with her family and laughing.

Luck o' the Irish

The leprechauns didn't have as much time to make mischief in our house before St. Patrick's Day as they usually do, due to Annie coming down with the flu the night of the 16th.  It was kind of a long and restless night, so Ryan and I didn't jump out of bed Saturday morning.  Maddie and Annie crawled in bed with us, which was fine by me.  Until Maddie started throwing up.  So a lot of yesterday looked like this:

(Complete with the "barf bowl.")

And this:

Grandma and Grandpa "Skyped" with us in the later morning hours so Emma and Elizabeth could tell about what those silly leprechauns did.

We had green banana pancakes, which Elizabeth helped make and flip.  Elizabeth loved using the green milk to help color the pancakes.  Originally Elizabeth wanted green eggs and ham, but since I was fresh out of green ham (or ham of any color), we had green pancakes.

We made whoopie pies with green mint frosting the day before St. Patrick's Day, so we were able to enjoy them in spite of mom's lack of energy that day.  Yum! 

I did make corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and Irish Soda Bread for dinner.  The Irish Soda Bread recipe was courtesy of Pinterest and pinned here.  Emma very proudly made her first dessert all by herself, which was a chocolate pudding pie in a pre-made Oreo crust.  It was good!

Annie spent pretty much the whole day resting.  At about 3 o'clock Maddie started feeling better and sat at the table with us to eat dinner at dinner time.  Unfortunately it was short-lived, and we stayed up until 11 pm with her, dealing with dinner's reappearance.  While that was going on, Ryan and I tuned into the PBS Create channel and watched Ireland travel shows.

While yesterday may not have quite the Saturday I was hoping for, I still feel pretty lucky.  We spent the day as a family and I got to hold my usually very squirmy and active 3-year-olds for long periods of time.  I really enjoyed the cuddles.  I also got to read a Magic Tree House book with Elizabeth, and listened to Emma and Elizabeth practice the song they are learning in Primary for Easter.  Life is good.

Leprechauns

Those sneaky little leprechauns made mischief in our house again this year for St. Patrick's Day.  They carried our dining room  table into the living room, turned our chairs upside down, messed up the couch and chair cushions, rolled back the rug, turned the milk green, and turned as much stuff as they could upside down.

 Even the cereal boxes and refrigerator magnets were upside down.

The leprechauns made the kids' trap in their bedroom look like something had been caught, but it was only a stuffed animal and a note in green lettering saying, "Nice Try."

They did leave us some "gold" covered chocolate coins.

Hair do

Elizabeth wanted her hair done in a bun.  I have found it tricky to get her hair to stay put in a single bun, but I've had more success doing two.  As I was in the bathroom working on Elizabeth's hair, Maddie came in and asked for her hair to be "wike Biz-iss."  While I was twisting Maddie's hair into two buns, Emma and Annie came in and asked for the same thing for their hair.

Happy Birthday

My (oldest) baby turned 9.  Nine.  NINE years old. 

Wow.  I'm amazed that she has gotten so big.  And smart.  And she's such a good helper.

We kept the birthday festivities low-key this year- we just spent the day as a family.  (After our extra-early church due to daylight savings time starting.  Ugh.)  Emma got to choose what we had for lunch and dinner.  We enjoyed an afternoon movie, opened presents, and generally had a nice day.



Certain sisters were having a difficult time watching someone else opening presents:

(Seriously, it was killing the twins.  How come Emma got to open presents?)

Emma asked for Kraft macaroni and cheese for lunch, and crepes and sausages for dinner. 

Cake time.

We had fun taking silly pictures.

Ear Piercing

Emma has been pestering us to get her ears pierced, so yesterday we went to the mall.  Before we went into Claire's, we had a little discussion about finishing what you start regardless of how much it hurts.  She was quite sure she was ready for this.

 Waiting for Mom to fill out the paperwork.

Does anyone remember those great, big metal "guns" they used to pierce ears with?  They don't use those anymore. 

Ta da!  Done.

I felt a momentary twinge when she got her first ear pierced.  It was a similar feeling to the one I get when I witness any of my girls getting a shot.  I have a hard time watching any of them getting hurt, whether for immunizations or vanity.

Emma was so excited about her pierced ears.  She's been swinging her head and telling everyone we met about her new earrings.  It's so cute.

Feels Like Spring

Yesterday the weather was amazing.  There was a sunny sky and wonderfully warm temperatures.  After church we wanted to be outside and soak in those rays.  Elizabeth, Annie and Maddie decided they wanted to soak up more than just some rays of sunshine. 

Ryan wanted to clear out the garden area.  The girls got a little carried away turning over the dirt. 

I love the dirty little toes. 

Ryan took advantage of the sunshine and fired up his grill for the first time this year.  (And talked with his mom and dad on the phone.  What a nice guy.)  He was using our house phone as his time piece and didn't realize that we don't change the time on the phone to account for DST and back.  He actually started the chicken at 3:30 and then "yelled" at me for letting him start it so early.  (I left church early because I was sick and dead tired.  If he wanted to fix dinner and do it early, who was I to complain?)  So when we were asked to go to the park at 4:15, since dinner was already done, we left it to go play until dinner time.  Ryan got to play frisbee with some other guys, and I got to sit and talk to some other moms.  When I wasn't pushing kids on the swings, that is.

I can still get dumped

I had dinner plans with a friend of mine.  Her husband was out of town for the week, and Ryan offered to watch two of her kids (one would be at karate) and all of ours for an hour so we could go out.  It was one of those days and I was looking forward to leaving the craziness for a bit.

About an hour before it was time to leave, I got a call.  Her husband's conference had finished early and he was about a half hour from home.  

"Oh, well then I guess you probably want to hang out with your husband then," I said.  I tried to be a nice, supportive friend, and not give any heavy sighs or sound horribly disappointed.  Add a little falsely happy voice and sell it, girl.

"Yah, guess so."

After I hung up the phone, I felt dumped. 

Ryan was late coming home from work.

Pout, pout, pout.

Elizabeth was having a hard time settling down and doing homework.

Grump, grump, grump.

Ungrateful family members complained about their unexciting dinner.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.

(I know.  I'm so mature.)

Fast forward to the next day.  I saw my friend at the library for story time.  During the craft portion afterwards, I asked how her evening had gone the night before.

It hadn't gone that great.  She was disappointed we hadn't gone out.

Shut. the. front. door.  What?

"Oh.  Well, I was trying to be nice and let you off the hook so you could hang out with your husband."

"You agreed so quickly, I thought you had something else you wanted to do," she said.

"Nope.  I only left the house once yesterday to take the kids to school in the morning and I had nothing else going the whole day.  I spent the evening in a very bad mood."

When Ryan got home, I told him about that conversation.  He laughed us and called us silly girls, which I guess we are. 

PJs

This morning the kids just would not get dressed for school.  This is how I took my girls to school:

Good thing it was pajama day at school.  hehehe!