Sickness and Band

Once again Alice woke up with an icky feeling tummy a week ago Monday. She was also coughing and sniffling with a runny nose so I kept her home from school that day. It was a very good thing I did keep her home because by the afternoon she was starting to get pink eye in her left eye! There was just a small amount of goop in her eye and the whites were light pink so I wasn't sure if it was the bacterial kind that would need eye drops or the viral kind. I went ahead and left a message at her doctor's office about it and a couple hours later the nurse called back and said they would send a prescription to the pharmacy for the eye drops. I didn't have to take Alice in, thank goodness! By the end of the day her eye was getting worse so it was definitely the kind that needed eye drops and I'm so glad I had them thanks to our awesome pediatrician! I'm going to miss having my kids see Dr. Hammer.

Anyway, I spent time cleaning the house and wiping down doorknobs, etc. while Alice rested. I kept Alice home on Tuesday because of the pink eye and even though she was on the eye drops for over 24 hours by Wednesday morning and could technically go back to school she still seemed miserable and her eye would still goop up so I kept her home again. And again, it was a really good thing I did because Wednesday afternoon and evening she just slept on the recliner in the living room. I thought she was just tired. Well, it was more than that. By the time I picked her up to take her to bed she was hot. Her temperature was 102.7! I can't believe I didn't think to check earlier when she was so unusually tired. I gave her some Children's Advil and Curtis and his dad came and gave her a priesthood blessing. I woke up at 1:30am to check on her and she didn't feel warm but I gave her Tylenol anyway. The blessing worked and the fever never returned. On Friday she was just coughing a lot in the morning, so much that she did throw up a few times. Alice ended up staying home all week from school. Thank goodness the weekend was finally here so she could have more time to get better. I did end up washing her bedding and Charlotte's just to be safe. Fortunately Alice is the only one who got sick (so far). I think my extra efforts to clean things and to keep washing my hands made a big difference because pink eye is very contagious.

This was taken Thursday so her eyes were looking better. Both eyes ended up getting it. It's a good thing they told us to put drops in both eyes from the beginning. She was bored so I let her play some video games.

During the week since I was stuck at home with Alice I used that time to get some deep cleaning done inside and yard work outside while she was resting. I filled our garbage can full of weeds, pine needles and branches.

One of my yard projects I did on Wednesday morning. Cleaning out this spot by the back door. I had already pulled some weeds out before I took this picture (as you can see in the bucket).

And here's the after picture. It looks so much better!

Charlotte went next door a couple times to earn money from Grandma so that she could buy a toy dog that moves and makes noises. One day Grandma didn't answer so I told Charlotte she could help me rake up pine needles in our back yard and I paid her 75 cents. Grandma had paid her 70 cents to fill a bag of weeds.

Friday afternoon I walked the girls over after Charlotte got home from school to Skyview to watch the Homecoming parade. Garrett was going to be marching with the band in the parade. We waited toward the end of the parade because Garrett wanted to walk home with us. I wasn't sure if they would throw candy out at this parade since it was a school parade but they did and the girls got lots of candy since there weren't very many people watching in the spot we were at. The parade circled the school.

Coming down Powerline Rd.

Garrett started out with a shaker instrument but then he said he would switch halfway and hold the banner. He doesn't like being out front like that but he did it because he had to.

Friday evening came and I signed up to help with concessions at the Homecoming football game. I didn't get to see Garrett's performance that night because we were so busy but that's okay because we were raising money for the band and it happened to be a lot of fun to do! Everyone there worked so well together. When I first got there I kind of stood in the back and just waited to see if someone needed something and I would grab it but later it got busier and I finally got brave and started a new line so that we could help more people. I really enjoyed doing it and would totally do it again! They got a picture afterwards of most of our crew and posted it on the band Facebook page so I saved the picture. After our shift ended I went and found Curtis and Garrett in the stands and finished watching the football game with them. Fortunately our football team won their game and it was their first win of the season too! It was a great night except that our other team BSU lost.

The next day I volunteered again to be a chaperone at the first band competition. We met at the school at 10am and didn't get home until 7:30pm. It was a long day but I enjoyed being with Garrett and getting to help. Skyview took 4th place in their division. They also gave out an award for the school that had the best boosters doing the most for their kids during the competition and Skyview won the golden cooler for that! I am part of the boosters so yay!

I actually saw him smiling while they were practicing. He's so handsome when he smiles!

During the performance I was helping with props so I got to be up close.

There's our band and color guard getting a professional picture taken after their performance. They did this last year but I never knew how to order a picture. I was able to order one this year at a booth they had set up. So I'll get a nice one but I wanted to take a picture anyway.

Meanwhile, Curtis had the other kids doing chores and homework at home and then in the afternoon took them to Boise to Simplot Hill just to get out and do something different. They had a lot of fun and Alice did really well. She did most of her coughing in the morning and by the afternoon didn't hardly cough at all.

Charlotte says she wants to come sledding here when it snows. We'll see if that happens!

It was a good day for all of us but Garrett and I were so tired we just wanted to relax when we got home. Garrett played video games while Curtis, the girls and I watched a movie on Disney called "The Call of the Wild" with Harrison Ford. It was good and Charlotte loved it. Alice slept for most of it.