Home Sick

This week was nice, especially since it was basically Michael’s last week of his plastic surgery rotation (officially, his last day is today). Then he is mostly done with medical school. He planned one if his vacation months in April so that we would be able to get ready for the move, and then in May he has a course called ‘Preparing for Residency’ that only lasts a couple weeks until he graduates on May 16th! So, even though he is getting tired of the very early mornings he’s had this month, it will all be over soon. And then he will get to catch up on some sleep (at least for a couple days, until we start using the month of April for packing, cleaning, organizing, and figuring out all the details for the move). Right now I think the plan is to try to find a storage unit to store the majority of our stuff in Rochester for a year, and just take the necessities with us to Salt Lake, so I have been attempting to make lists of everything we own, separating things into one column for taking to Salt Lake and another column for storing until we get to Rochester, and trying to figure out which items we can leave behind. It is kind of hard to try to plan what we could possibly need in an entire year, but we’ll figure it out, I guess.

So, on Monday the Kearls watched our boys so Michael and I could go to the annual meeting that the school puts on about financial planning and buying a house for graduating students. We felt like it wasn’t the best use of our time – the portion about financial planning was pretty basic and we felt like we already knew much of what they said, and much of the buying the house portion was over our heads or did not apply to us. But they did hand out a good booklet on buying a house, which might be helpful in the future. We are still waiting to receive the packet of paperwork from Michael’s program in Salt Lake with his contract and the insurance information so that we can make some more accurate financial goals for the upcoming year. After the meeting at the school, we watched Enchanted with the Kearls when we went to pick up the kids, which was fun (even thought Michael now needs to borrow the movie to finish the second half of it since he fell asleep on their couch midway through).

On Tuesday Eli had his night out with Daddy. They went to the mall and got food from the Taco Bell dollar menu and then went to Barnes and Noble to read books together. Poor Michael said that he was falling asleep as they were reading, and it got to the point that Eli thought it was a game because he had to wake Michael up so many times as they read. But Eli loved it – he has been asking about when his night out with Daddy would be for the last couple weeks.

On Wednesday morning I had a group of girls and their kids over to make a playgroup schedule for the next couple months. We haven’t had a playgroup for a while, so I figured if I wanted to have it I would need to take charge. We got a schedule made and I am looking forward to taking the kids to the activities, especially to the ones we have planned at the playgrounds in the area once it gets warm enough out. After the planning meeting, Faith stayed and Amy came and we all had lunch together with all the kids. It was a lot of fun, even though the kids made it a little chaotic. That evening I took the boys to their swim lessons and Michael met me over there after he finished with his meeting at school so that I could go to the second half of the enrichment activity where they were making a bunch of baby quilts as a service project. I picked up Amy and we headed over there in time to help with cutting and tying a couple quilts. It wasn’t too late when we finished, so Amy, Faith, and I decided to stop at McDonalds for an ice cream cone (and some time out without any kids). It was fun to sit and talk, but then when we went to leave I saw that the brake lights were on on my car (I had driven Michael’s car, which I’m not used to driving, and must have turned the lights to the wrong notch – which was frustrating, because I was very careful to make sure that the headlights had turned off because Michael accidentally left them on the other day and the car had died). So, our jumped cables were in the van at home and there were none in Faith’s car, so we left the little car there and Faith gave us a ride home.

On Thursday, when Michael got home we headed over to pick up the car. We got there and realized that we had left the car keys at home and were quite frustrated that we would have to go all the way back to get them, until we realized that they were actually in my purse, so that was a relief. We got the car jumped and let it charge while we went inside and got the kids some food. Then we rushed home and I went over to my visiting teaching appointment after helping get the boys in the house.

On Friday I really wanted to get out of the house and go do something, so after dinner we met the Kearls at the McDonalds on National Avenue and let the kids play in the two-story play area there. The kids had a lot of fun, all except Katie who threw up all over Tyce’s lap (it was kind of a relief that Katie was already sick, because Isaac had been spitting up more than normal that afternoon and I had wondered if he wasn’t feeling well, but at least that way I don’t think we passed something to their family – not on Friday, at least). After stopping at Target to pick up a change of clothes for Katie and Tyce, they met us at our place and we put the kids down to bed so the parents could enjoy some games. I’m so glad that we have been able to find friends who are like us: people who enjoy to do things with the children, but are still willing to take their kids anywhere and do anything and are not ruled by the schedules of their babies. (If we could only do anything with friends when all of our children were awake, in good moods, and not demanding our attention, we wouldn’t have any friends).

On Saturday morning Michael had to go in and do rounds for his last call day at the hospital. I was proud of myself because I got up and made the kids a big breakfast of eggs and toast then deep-cleaned the kitchen, picked up around the house, and helped the boys clean up their room all by myself that morning. Michael got home around noon and put the other boys to sleep while I took Camden out for his activity with me (it was supposed to be his night out on Thursday, but we had to rearrange because of my visiting teaching appointment). I took him to the mall and we found some flip flops for the three older boys, and he had so much fun trying them on – he was taking little tiny, quick steps all around and acting really excited. (No, it’s not really flip flop season yet here in Milwaukee, but I’m hoping that it will be sometime in the next month or two). We took longer there than I had planned because I checked several other stores to see if I could find similar sandals that were less expensive, but didn’t find anything else. I was planning on letting Camden push one of those little kid-sized shopping carts when I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, but he fell asleep in the car so I dropped him off at home so he could sleep and went back out to get the groceries. After getting home, getting all the groceries put away, cutting up some chicken before freezing it for meals later on in the week, and having some dinner, the Hedgecocks dropped their boys off so we could watch them while they went on a date. The boys had un playing with each other, and then the Kearls came over and when the Hedgecocks returned we all played games together again. It was a fun night.

And Sunday went pretty well. This morning I made bread (I have just about resolved to be frustrated with somewhat flat bread from now on) and I made a cake for dessert (it’s really hard to make a cake while on fast Sunday and not be able to lick my fingers or anything). We went to church and the boys did well in sacrament meeting. Then, just before our Sunday school class ended we found out that Camden had thrown up. (Sorry, Sister Cook!) After cleaning up the mess in the hallway and getting all the other boys out of their classes and into the car, Michael took them home. The third hour of church was a combined lesson on genealogy that I stayed for. Afterwards I got a ride home with the Hymases and when I got home all four boys were napping and Michael had picked up around the house, put away the dishes, and prepared dinner (what a nice break to get home and not have to worry about any of that). He said that Camden had gotten sick in the car a little on the way home again, poor kid. Our home teachers came over to give us a lesson and then the Kearls came over for dinner. Michael made corned beef and it turned out very good. After dinner Michael had to rush off to his home teaching appointment, and while he was gone I did the dishes, cleaned up the water the boys splashed all over the bathroom floor while I was doing the dishes, out the boys in their pajamas, Tyce read them all a story, I cleaned up after Camden throwing up again, and they all went down to bed just before Michael got back. Then we played some card games and a round of Carcasonne. It will be nice after today that Michael won’t have such early mornings so we won’t have to cut our nights short so that he can get enough sleep to get up so early. We got to bed around 11:30 last night, and then Isaac woke up at 1:30am. I got up with him four times before Michael also got up and we finally got him back to sleep. The poor kid – whenever our boys get sick with a stomach flu (or whatever it is they have) I just give them Pediatlyte or Liquilytes to keep them hydrated, but no other foods until they seem better so they aren’t throwing up constantly. So, we ran out of the Liquilites last night, and we gave Isaac water, which did not make him happy. And then this morning Camden was very mad at me because I didn’t give him his cup of milk when he got up. I called a couple friends to see if someone would come sit with the boys while I ran to get some more of the Liquilites from the grocery store so I didn’t have to take sick kids out today, but instead Kim Morrison offered to go to the store and pick them up for me. That was so nice of her! So, now that we are all stocked up, we can hopefully kick this bug before it spreads to the older boys or Michael and I. Wish us luck and a quick recovery!