February 26, 2008

It's been a little crazy this week (again). Come to think of it, when is it not? As Bob Dylan once said, "Chaos is a friend of mine." Anyway, I digress.

Last Wednesday, Shaylee had "New Beginnings" for Young Women. Two of the young women made it into a value project and had a fashion show. I wish I had my camera! If you read my previous post about Aspen in the peak of "terrible twoness" that day, I was just glad to get out of the house--forget the camera! When Dennis said he didn't care who stayed home and who went, I immediately volunteered him to stay home with the kids--it's parenting, not babysitting, I reminded him. Anyway, the Young Women borrowed old prom dresses from sisters in the ward (yes, I donated a couple of mine), and then the girls got to walk down the red carpet and receive awards like "Best Smile" or "Sweet Personality." Anyway, it was a fun night, and Shaylee looked smashing in a long black sparkly gown. Funny thing: she wore the dress I borrowed from my friend to wear when we went to Broadway when I was 7+ months pregnant. Talk about stretchy!!!

Thursday night Shaylee volunteered to babysit so Dennis and I could go out to dinner. We were actually hoping to go to the temple, but Cynthia (our sister-in-law) was sick, so they couldn't keep Connor for us, and Shaylee isn't comfortable keeping him yet. So we went out to dinner at Porter's Place instead (with Connor), and that was very nice.

Friday night my sister Breezy kept Devin, Aspen, and Connor so Dennis and I could go to the temple (whoa!!! two nights in one week!). Anyway, Shaylee went to a hip hop dance class with her friend Alex. When we got back to my parent's house, I decided to feed Connor before heading home. We were sitting in the living room visiting when Aspen threw up all over Dennis. YUCK! That started a lovely weekend of her throwing up every hour. Unfortunately, Breezy came down with the same thing the following day--sorry Breezy!!!

Saturday I got to spend the day at home with two very sick children while Dennis took Shaylee & Devin with him to Logan for our neice Jessica Ashton's marriage to Terry Trinkella. Dennis took some beautiful pictures, but I sure wish I could have been there! Of course, that same day, our toilet broke, so while Dennis was gone and I was rocking two sick children, I had to call a plumber and have him come fix (actually rebuild) the toilet in our master bathroom. It seems to be working much better now (hurrah for Roto Rooter!). Unfortunately, the plumber was a smoker, and I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, so I still couldn't use that bathroom for a couple days until the smell cleared out (no, he did not smoke in my house, but the smell sure permeated!). Thank heavens for two bathrooms! Not having a toilet when someone is throwing up is a very bad thing. Luckily, no one else seems to have gotten sick, yet.

Sunday was more of the same. Dennis and I traded off for church (I went to sacrament meeting since I haven't yet convinced him to learn to play the organ and the bishop has yet to call me an assistant organist) and Dennis went to Elder's Quorum (which was good, because they split the Elder's Quorum this Sunday). That evening we spent at home as a family. We had a nice steak dinner with potatoes and homemade rolls, then we played Monopoly (and I beat Dennis!!!). Happy days for a hotel on Boardwalk--he owed me $2,000 when he landed on it, and that was pretty much the end for him--he'd already forced Devin into bankruptcy (meany).

So I canceled piano lessons yesterday because I didn't want anyone else to catch whatever Aspen has. We thought she was better--she was feeling better, laughing, playing, etc., but then she sat down with Dennis at dinner and threw up all over. Ugh. This morning she threw up again so we skipped dance as well (although I didn't tell her that!). My sweet neighbor Bryn brought us dinner last night (non-dairy no less--taco soup with salad and brownies for dessert--yum!), which was wonderful because I was able to catch up on folding some of the 10 loads of laundry we've done in the last two days. Being only 2, Aspen isn't very good at catching herself and getting to the bucket or the toilet; hence, we washed a lot of sheets, towels, blankets, couch cushions, clothing, etc. Lovely. It also gave her diarrhea, and she was adamant she wear her panties. Disgusting! I think we're mostly caught up at this point, hurrah!

Okay, so that was our week. I'll post pics later. :-)