The Flu Strikes Again

We've been pretty healthy this year, and I have been very grateful.  But I just knew we wouldn't make it through the whole winter without getting something.

The germs caught up with our family this week.  Very, very early Sunday morning (think middle of the night), Maddie came over to our room to tell us that Annie was throwing up.  (Annie and I did not go to church on Sunday.)  On Monday, Maddie had problems with the "other end."  

Yesterday morning, Emma didn't look particularly chipper, but she wanted to go to Marimba, so I sent her on the bus, and then dropped Elizabeth off at the usual time before depositing the twins at preschool.

I was home all of 25 minutes before I got a call from the school nurse.  Emma wasn't feeling well.  I asked to talk to her- just how bad was she feeling?  If I picked her up, she'd miss the other Wednesday activities, namely SEEK and Activity Days.  Emma was quite sure she needed to come home.

So I changed out of my pj pants and put mascara on, and picked Emma up from school.

20 minutes after we arrived home, I got another call from the school nurse.  Elizabeth wasn't feeling well, and wanted to come home.

Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh.  I laughed when the nurse called the second time.

As it turns out, Elizabeth was moderately sick until just after lunch and was fine again.  Emma was stuck on the toilet for much of the day and night.  

And again today.

You can tell when Emma is really sick.  If she isn't reading, she is truly sick.

Freezing Rain

Just took a couple of pictures of the freezing rain aftermath.  

Where Are You, Sunshine?

I think January is my least favorite month of the year.  It's cold, and gloomy, and the days are still short, and the only thing we have to look forward to is.... nothing.  We haven't even had a decent snow storm.

Today, we were really tired of staying indoors.  Ryan put all the bikes in his truck, and we caravaned down to the high school parking lot.  The bike riding only lasted about a half hour, by which time everyone's fingers were frozen, but at least we played outside, right?

The Half-Way Mark

Ryan is officially half-way done with his Masters degree.  It's funny- some people go on about online degrees being easier than traditional schooling.  Ryan might disagree with those people.  I would too.  This is generally the view of my spouse these days when he's at home.

I spend all day waiting for him to come home, and then I don't hardly talk to him when he gets home either.

Only another 6 months to go.

Baptism

Tonight Ryan had the opportunity to baptize one of his students from school.  Cheyenne's family has been recently reactivated in the church, and Cheyenne decided she was ready to be baptized.

 Elder Free (the tall missionary in the middle) is now serving in the Tri-Cities, but got permission to come for the baptism.  Elders Johanson and Sedlechek were also excited.

Cheyenne was nervous about being baptized in front of everyone, so Ryan went into teacher-mode....  And we all got to watch the baptism.

Pillow Projects

 I've been having fun decorating our window seat with different pillow covers.  I made this "Give Thanks" pillow for Thanksgiving.

 And this jingle bell pillow for the Christmas season.

Sometime during the month of January, I thought it might be time to move on from the Christmas bells, so I attempted making one of those ruffle pillows.  I scavenged from my dresser drawer this well used t-shirt.  T-shirt material won't fray, and it's free!  I cut it up into many strips, ruffled them, and then attached those to my pillow cover.

The ruffle pillow took a bit longer than I thought it would, but then, it seems like most craft projects end up that way.  

Don't look too closely at my rows of ruffles.  It looks like I was a drunk driver for the first few rows, until I figured out what I was doing.

A Baby Shower

My friend Rachel and I threw a baby shower for Sarah.  Sarah is expecting baby #5, but every baby is a reason to celebrate, right?  It was a pretty low-key baby shower and pot luck.  

 With the table out in the front room, the kids had a picnic on the floor of the kitchen.  This was most of the kids.

Delay

This morning at the dark and cold hour of 5:45 am, the phone rang.  Ryan stumbled downstairs and didn't quite make it in time to get the call.  He brought the phone back up to me so I could check the voicemail.  (I feel relatively certain Ryan will never learn how at this point, although I've tried.)  The message told us that school was delayed two hours due to icy road conditions.  While I do appreciate the automated system that calls us now, rather than trying to remember the number to call their special school closure line, by golly, I do not appreciate the early hour the calls come.  

It's a tad ironic that the call that you can sleep in comes waaaaaaaay before I need to get up on a regular day.

And, just in case you didn't get that call, this sign was out:

That white stuff you see in the picture is actually melting ice, not necessarily snow.  We had quite a lot of freezing rain on top of the half inch of snow, but by the time the elementary school started at 11 am, the roads were fine.

Triplets?

The youngest three girls took a bath tonight.  As I was sitting there watching them, I noticed how close in height they all were sitting down.

Pudding

The kids wanted to make dessert, and decided on pudding.  However, we were a little short on milk.  We got a little creative and used some left over egg nog.

Egg nog and vanilla pudding.  You will never guess what dessert tasted like.

Friends and Art

Yesterday we finally returned the favor and visited our friends Kyle and Suzanne.  They took us out to decorate ceramics while we were there for the day.  The kids loved it.

The hardest part was leaving them to be fired.  I think the items were purposely left for ransom, so that we will come back and visit again. :)

Eggs

Tonight we attempted to make a poached egg, just for the fun of it.

Nailed it.