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.

Fun Run (Walk)

Saturday was the 38th Annual Harvest Classic Fun Run in Nampa and this was the first time any of us had participated. I picked up our shirts and packets on Friday evening. They gave us a bunch of coupons and some guests passes for the Rec Center in our packets along with our shirts and racing numbers and some Go Go Squeeze snacks. Saturday morning came and Alice says her stomach feels like throwing up. Uh oh. What are we going to do? Both grandmas were working at the temples that morning so they couldn't help. I just gave Alice some saltine crackers, which she ate half of one, and some water and she slept some more. I woke her up again when it was close to time to go and see how she felt. She got right up and changed her clothes. We decided that we would push her in a stroller so she wouldn't over do it. She continued to feel better through out the day. 

Before the races began they were handing out donuts and after the race they had Dominoes Pizza and Texas Roadhouse (baked potato and rolls) they were giving out. They had several vendors with tents handing out free stuff. We even got two bags of bagels from Franz Bakery. The girls got a new orange water bottle and sunglasses from one vendor. At the end they gave out prizes from a drawing and medals to the top 3 winners in each race in different age and gender categories. The girls also had fun playing on the inflatable obstacle course.

We all started the 2 mile walk race together but I told Curtis he could go ahead with Jack if he wanted to. Charlotte started to slow down early on and all 3 boys and Alice (getting pushed in the stroller) took off and left us in the dust. I stayed back with Charlotte. Pretty soon she said she needed to go potty. She went at home before we came so we thought she would be fine. Halfway through the race she needed to go really bad. There were no portable toilets except at the start line at the Rec Center. She was hurting so bad and kept saying she wished she hadn't come or that we had done the 1 mile race instead. Poor girl! Finally we came to the stretch of race where we were on the greenbelt walking path and were able to find a spot where we could go down under a tree and she would be covered. She was so embarrassed even though nobody saw her but me. She wanted to leave right after the race was done but she forgot about that idea when we did finish. Other than that little trial for her we all had a good time.

Waiting for the race to start.

Alice won 2nd place for girls ages 1-14 in the 2 mile walk. She can thank her dad and brothers for that since she was getting pushed in the stroller! 😂

Garrett also got 2nd place for boys in his age category (15-?)  and Jack got 1st place for boys ages 1-14. We were not expecting any of us to win medals and yet half of us did!

It was fun and we are glad we did it!

The girls had gone with me Friday night to pick up the race packets at the Rec Center and afterwards I let them use a treadmill for a bit, walk the track, and then do some rock wall climbing in the room they have in the weight room. It's great to see my girls so active and I want to encourage that.

Both of the boys are already struggling with grades in some of their classes. They had to get some stuff done Friday night if they wanted to go to the BSU game on Saturday after the race. My brother Stillman had 3 extra tickets that his family weren't going to use so he let us use them. We weren't sure up until Friday night just exactly who was going to go. It took some time, especially with Garrett but we finally set some goals of what they needed to do that night and what they had to wait to do on Monday. They both finished what they needed to and got to go to the game with Curtis and Stillman and his two oldest boys. They had a good time. 

While the boys were at the game I got a message from Ashlie that we had some packages delivered to our old address. I decided that the girls and I could go to Grandma's house to watch the game so we dropped by our old house on the way and visited with Ashlie and Jim and the new owner Levi Gilbert and his 3 girls. I was able to share some pears and grapes with both of their families since we had plenty more than we needed. The new owners seem nice. I also noticed since the garage was open that they had painted the inside walls and were basically turning the garage into a mancave, decorating it with stuff on the walls and a couple of chairs. 

Anyway, it was fun to watch the game with Grandma. The girls had a movie on downstairs while grandma and I did a puzzle as we watched the game. I also brought her some grapes and pears. Later Dad and Mom (Laverne) showed up for the end of the game. BSU's offense didn't do very well in the 2nd half but they did win the game! After the game the girls and I went to a birthday party for a friend of mine from our old ward. Her name is Laura Rovig. It was originally going to be at Lyons Park over by where Grandma lived but the weather was looking unpredictable so they moved it to their house. We were able to play a few rounds of capture the flag in their backyard but it was difficult in that small space. We also enjoyed pizza, cookies, visiting and playing board games (some of us). I was able to talk Curtis into coming over after he got back from the game and dropping the boys off. We had a good time with several of our old friends who were at the party. 

On Sunday, Alice seemed to feel good again but then again she woke up yesterday (Monday) morning saying her tummy felt sick and she still had a cough and sniffles from the weekend so I kept her home from school. I'm so glad I did because by the afternoon I discovered that she was getting pink eye! I called the doctor's office to leave a message and about an hour or two later they called back and said they would send a prescription for eye drops to the pharmacy. Yay, I didn't have to take her in! Our pediatrician, Dr. Hammer and his nurse Rayann, are awesome! Usually I would wait to see if her eyes would get worse but I'm so glad I got a jump on it because by the end of the day her left eye was swelling up and more goopy than before. She woke up this morning with both eyes glued shut by goop. After the first dose of eye drops, she did not like it and is scared each time. I told her it was okay and that she would get used to it. Now she's home again and watching movies. This is the first time she has ever had pink eye and I don't think Charlotte has ever gotten it either. I washed both girls' bedding yesterday to be safe. I know I'll have to wash Alice's again but she needed some clean sheets.

Since Alice has been sick the last two days I've used it as opportunity to get some bathroom and kitchen cleaning done. They say she's no longer contagious after 24 hours of using the eye drops so hopefully she'll be okay to go to school tomorrow. 

This was Alice on Sunday. She wanted to wear the pink bow in her hair and told me to take a picture so she could see it.

Garrett has been busy working on a world map project for one of his classes. He's tracing the map onto paper from a map he happened to already have at home. He's really enjoying it. He'll come home from school and turn music on (from the Zelda game) and work on it for a long time. 

I didn't get a picture but last night for a family activity we decided to make a race challenge to see how fast our whole family (except Alice) could pick the pears off the tree in the back yard. My mother in law is going to can them so we picked them for her. We got 3 buckets and I think 2 grocery bags full of pears. We just kept about 10 for ourselves to eat fresh. The challenge was to see which prize we would win as a family if we picked them in a certain time frame. We missed the 1st time frame (10 min or less) but finished in the 2nd time frame (10 to 20 min) at about 13.5 minutes. It was a fun way to get the work done. Our reward was getting mini chocolate pies and donuts. I didn't get pictures because I was busy working and then I was busy worrying, about Alice. Jack was nice and used his own money to buy Alice a toy stress ball to help her feel better.  She liked it. I just hope nobody else gets pink eye!

September Fun!

Garrett had his first marching band performance of the season. He's once again in the pit. He was disappointed about that because he wanted to march with the snare drum but at least he's doing some different percussion instruments this year.

It was hot that day so fortunately they didn't have to wear their uniforms, just the band t-shirts.

They have another game next Friday night (Homecoming) and their first competition the very next day on Saturday. 

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend (Sept 3) we woke up early (5:30am) to go see the Spirit of Boise hot air balloon launch. Unfortunately, they weren't able to launch into the air because of wind conditions but they did inflate them on the ground at least. It was still awesome to be so close and this was the first time we had ever gone to this event. I've been wanting to do it for years and we finally made it happen. After the launch, we took the kids out to breakfast at KJ's (formerly JB's). It was fun but Curtis and I were so tired by the time we got back we laid down on the bed immediately and took a 2 hour nap!

Jack was given a frisbee from an activity at school and ever since he's been addicted to throwing it. He's really enjoying it and is really good. We like to go next door to my in-laws to throw the frisbee because there are less trees in the way.

We were doing it on Sunday after church so that's why Charlotte is wearing a dress.

There's Jack.

I recently discovered that our public library has some fun kits that we can check out that have activities and books in them. I decided to try one out and the kids enjoyed it.

She's using a magnet design board. You use a magnet to pick up the pieces inside and move it to a spot on the board. She built a house.

They had several of these shape boards where you fill in the pictures with shapes made out of plastic or tangrams. Of course she picked the one with the horse and barn.

I have been letting Charlotte go to activity days in our old ward because our new ward wasn't doing anything. Our new ward has only done one activity since we moved in. I also take her so that we can see old friends again. They recently painted shirts, which took two days to finish. I love the creativity shown on Charlotte's shirt.

It's a holiday shirt (New Year's, Valentine's, Halloween, Christmas). She added dots on the sleeves for fun and I told her those could be fireworks for 4th of July.

Some days I just want to take pictures of my cute kids. I love that Alice likes to wear skirts. She looks so cute in them!

Charlotte was invited to a birthday party already by someone in our new ward. I thought that was so nice of them to include her! It took place at a place called Urban Air Adventure Park in Meridian last Saturday so I went with her and stayed to watch. There are lots of fun things for them to do such as trampolines, rock wall climbing, mini golf, etc.

Running on a trampoline.

Ninja course

Climbing hill - climb up and slide down.

Rock wall climbing.

Getting ready to do the sky ride (I don't actually know what it was called). She would start high on one end and basically go down a zipline but it wasn't always a straight line. It would curve around and then come back to where you started.

Doing the ropes course. She had so much fun at this place that she wants her birthday here. Well, we'll be in Washington by then but maybe they'll have something similar. We'll see.

After getting back with Charlotte from her party, Garrett really wanted to go thrift store shopping to look for things for his costume. He's going to be Link from the Legend of Zelda video game. So I took  him and the two girls. We looked at D.I. first and found him a belt. I also picked up some new Sunday clothes for Jack because he had outgrown his. He's growing so fast! Anyway, then we went to Savers. I found another pair of pants for Jack there but that was all. Then we decided to check out the Halloween store since it wasn't far. The kids had fun looking at everything. They have a lot of scary things there but it didn't phase my girls (thank goodness). We didn't buy anything there but Alice wanted a picture in front of this display. On the inside it had vibrating floors.

My first Relief Society lesson was on Sunday. Over the past couple of weeks I spent a lot of time listening to the talk it was about, which was President Nelson's "The Power of Spiritual Momentum" and I said lots of prayers. I also went to the temple with my dad, Laverne (mom) and Grandma last Wednesday. I wanted to increase my spirituality so that I could follow the spirit when teaching the lesson. I listened to the talk and other talks on Thursday while I worked on apples. But I decided on Friday I better spend time preparing the lesson because I didn't really have anything written down yet at that point. I stressed over the lesson ALL day Friday. I tried to break it up with a nap in the morning and a walk later but my mind kept spinning in all different directions thinking of different ways I could do this but then I also worried about leading a discussion and whether my questions would be good enough for adults.  I went to bed that night not feeling good at all about my lesson. I spent all day thinking about it and didn't make much progress. I wasn't able to work on it again until Saturday evening and again Sunday morning but finally I was getting things written down. I ended up with over 3 pages of notes for my lesson. I was shaking when I first got up there but after awhile I got more comfortable with teaching. The ladies in our ward are good with talking and we had lots of participation. So much that I only got through half of my lesson, but that's okay! I feel it was a great success. I ended the lesson with a song "Peace in Christ" and it really helped people to feel the spirit. My mother in law told me she felt it and that she loved that I played the song at the end. I have received many compliments on my lesson saying that I did a great job. Lets hope that next month it will be a little easier to prepare.

I was so relieved after church I just wanted to relax. That evening we did go on a walk on the greenbelt near our house to show the kids the tree swings we found a few weeks ago. They loved it!

Ever since then Charlotte keeps wanting to go back to the swings. I signed our family up to do the Harvest Classic Fun Run on Saturday and so we have been going on several walks this week to prepare (at least with the girls). There was an option to do 1 mile walk/run, 2 mile walk/run or 5 mile run. We are signed up for the 2 mile walk race. Charlotte wants to go back to the swings every time we walk now but we decided to walk different parts of the path instead. We'll let her go on the swings again, just didn't want to do it every time. I'm looking forward to the race on Saturday. It's the first time we've ever done it and we all get a t-shirt and prizes for participating. 

Here are some pictures from our walk we went on last night. We found a couple of goats. It's things like the swings and animals that make the walks much more enjoyable for the girls.

This guy was cute!

Of course now Charlotte wants a goat.

There's the long straight path we walked. Now heading back that way. This is the south end of Stoddard Pathway.

And I just want to post one more cute picture of Alice. I had braided both the girls' hair the day before. Charlotte wanted to keep her braids in a 2nd day. It looked a little frizzy but not too bad. Alice's hair was coming out more so I told her I needed to do her hair. I didn't have time for braids again so I put them up in pig tails and she loved them! And she was amazed at how fast I did it.

One last thing to end this post. This morning I was able to go to the Meridian Temple again with Dad, Mom (Laverne) and Grandma and my great aunt Joyce. We did two sessions back to back. That's the first time I've ever done more than one session in a day. We had to hurry after getting done with the 1st session though to make it in time for the next session. It was so good to see the temple sessions filled. Last week the one session we did was very small. I'm so glad I was able to go again today. The temple is peaceful and it feels good to do ordinance work for our ancestors. I made a goal that after school started I wanted to try going to the temple once a week now that all kids are in school all day long. It helps that I don't need to drive any kids to school anymore. They all ride the bus or walk. My in laws work in the Boise temple on Wednesdays so I'm thinking of switching off going to do one every other week.

Joyce, me and Grandma