Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving and illness

The last few days before Thanksgiving were pretty stressful for me. I had quite a few projects that had to get done. I had hoped to get my Christmas cards all finished and ready to send. We're half-way there. The envelopes are stamped and addressed, the letter is written, I just need to get the pictures and write to everyone. There was my haircut. I helped in Ben's class. He had a pretty noisy cough. It didn't seem to be related to anything, no mucus or gunk - just loud and barking. I took him to see my kinesiologist friend, Julie, and we got him taking some stuff to clear it. He stayed home on Tuesday, just so he wouldn't be an annoyance to his class.


One of the things I wanted to do was make apple-cider donuts to bring Thursday morning to Elko, so that my mother-in-law wouldn't have to worry about breakfast. After everything was packed, kids were washed and in bed, I stayed up late to make the donuts. I had made a quick trip to the store to get more oil and accidentally grabbed canola oil instead of vegetable. I'm also wondering if I left out a cup of flour, I kind of lost track when I was making them - lack of sleep? I mean I had stayed up late the night before finishing the embroidery on my m-i-l's grandkids sweatshirt. They were really doughy. I followed all the directions, but I don't know how hot the oil was, I didn't have a thermometer. So, the first 8-10 donuts were burned, bad. They were black within seconds. So, I turned down the heat and they started looking better. But, then I noticed they were absorbing the oil to the point that they were falling apart. I finished cooking almost all of them, but I was so frustrated with them that I threw the last bit of dough away. And needless to say, the donuts ended up going out to the dogs, because they just tasted like oil. I don't know if I will ever try donuts again, I'm perfectly happy buying them from the bakery!


We had a mostly pleasant time in Elko for Thanksgiving. There was good food, Bingo for prizes, lots of playing with cousins. My m-i-l got us a hotel room as our Christmas present. We stayed there Thursday and Friday nights. On Thursday, we took the kids down to the pool and they had a good time. It ended up being a little too cold for Joshua so I took him back to the hotel room. Kannon took the kids to spend the night with Grandma and I was asleep before he even got back! He did wake me up early, wanted to go see about a computer monitor. We did end up getting it, and I can say I'm really happy with it. It's a flat screen (of course, I guess all new monitors would be). And it just gives us so much more room on our little desk.

We also got some stuff at KMart - gloves, snowsuits, and shoes for the kids. When we got back to the hotel, Kannon took the baby to his moms and I did a workout with my sister-in-law. I did the elliptical machine and the treadmill and felt really good when we were done. Spent the day at the house. The kids got to sleep at the hotel with us that night. And I got to go to the movie again with the girls. We went to New Moon and I was kind of glad to be seeing it a second time.


Benjamin and cousin Mickale

When I got back to the hotel, Kannon was watching football with his dad. When it was over and we were about to go to bed, Sarah got sick. At this point the baby was being really fussy, too. Did I mention he'd been teething!? Got his first tooth on the 21st and his second one came in that day (27th). So, he was crying and Sarah was upset and gross. Kannon and I were doing our best but not being as patient as we should have been. It's always a little more frustrating when you are trying to be quiet and not bother the other people in the area. She got sick a few times and then all through the night I was up checking on her and feeding the baby. She had a fever all night. She didn't throw up again on Saturday, but I could tell she didn't feel good. I took Ben to the pool one more time, thought we'd meet up with his cousins. When we got done and back to our room, we found out they were going to go swimming with Grandma in about an hour. Kannon took off to play basketball and I stayed with the kids while they ate donuts and oj. Sarah was upset that she didn't get to go swimming, but I really didn't want her throwing-up in the pool! Later, I took her and the baby with me to go visit my aunt Peggy in Wells. She slept on the way there and they whole time we were there. She seemed kind of out of it again at bed time and I was worried about her throwing up again. Let me just say that I had told Kannon we should just go home - that morning! He really wanted to stay. Well, by bedtime Benjamin had a really bad earache. After a few hours of his crying Kannon said we were going home. That was more than fine with me. I mean if we'd stayed and left in the morning, we'd be bothering everyone else in the house with his crying. I knew we had a prescription pain ear drop for him at home, from the last earache he had. So, we left at 11pm and got home at 3:30am. Kannon had to stop once to sleep for a bit. I told him I wouldn't be able to stay awake with him, I was so exhausted. I did wake up the last hour and read to him from the Ensign. Sunday was better with everyone's health, but we did a lot of sleeping.



We got our family pictures taken at Olan Mills inside Kmart on Saturday and while we were waiting we let Joshua test out some baby stuff! He might find this under the tree Christmas morning!

Joshua had his first real food on Sunday, too! He's been trying to eat with us for awhile, now and I thought it might help him sleep longer. So we tried some oatmeal. He loved it, ate it all so fast. In fact, he'd get mad every time I took the spoon away to get more cereal. He also was determined to help and held the spoon with me for most bites! I'm not sure if that was the best time to feed him, though.
I started feeling ill around dinner time, upset stomach. I went to bed right after the kids at 8 pm. The baby was awake at 9, 10, 11:15, 12:30, and 3:15! I don't know if it was the food disagreeing with him or if he was sick like me. I was feeling nauseous the whole night and had other bathroom needs. Monday went the same way. And the baby was fussy and spitting up more than usual. Today has been better for me, but the baby is the same. At least he only woke up once last night. And Sarah, although over the flu stuff, now has a cough! Ugh - does it ever end!? I've always felt like we were a pretty healthy family, but lately it seems never-ending. I guess that's what happens as your family grows. Hopefully we can all be healthy for Christmas. I've worked hard on having things done, or scheduled, so that we can have a relaxing time together and really have the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts.

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