::ouch::

On Tuesday morning of this week I woke up feeling a little off--mostly I thought because Lucy had been up several times in the night.  That'll do me in pretty quickly.  Anyway I was a little sore on one side when I fed Lucy.  Kris went off to work and I got down to whatever it was I was doing.
About an hour later I started to feel really sore and hurt on the left side.  And I started to feel a little bit achey.

I thought the likelihood that I had a case of mastitis was pretty strong, so I emailed our Dr asked if I should come in for an appt.  She said yes, so I scheduled an appointment for noon that day.
We headed out to run some errands and as we drove around I started to feel worse and worse.  It started to feel like the whole left side of my body was on fire, and when we stopped at the office I realized I was really achey when I was getting the kids out of the car.

I kept feeling worse and worse as I was watching the kids at work and trying to get stuff done.  I left the boys there when I went off to the doctor.  While walking out to the car I realized I was super naseous and I was REALLY sick.

Kathy was flying in to watch the boys for us because on Thursday and Friday we had training for the whole office staff in Phoenix.  Anyway, I was supposed to leave to pick her up at 1PM.  I called her on my way to the doctor and told her that there was no way I was going to make it.  I felt so bad!

At the appointment I just kept feeling worse and worse, and it got to the point where the PA told me they didn't want me driving myself home.  I had to call the office and since Kris was still seeing patients Bryce came and picked me up.  I lay on the floor of the doctor's office with Lucy while I waited for Bryce to find the office--it was a while because he got totally lost.

I survived the drive home and collapsed into bed with Lucy.  Kris brought the boys home at lunch and picked up my antibiotics.  I've never been so happy to see a bottle of antibiotics in my life.

The babysitter came popping over at short notice to help with the boys, and Kathy arrived later in the afternoon so I was well taken care of.

The rest of that day I felt totally like a zombie, like I had a terrible case of the flu.  By the next morning though I felt a ton better, and by the afternoon of that day I felt totally like myself again.  I even made it to Phoenix for the work trip which involved getting up at 3:45AM to make the flight out there.

I think that was the sickest I've felt in at least 10 years.  Maybe ever.  I don't want to do that again anytime soon.  And it was just so crazy that it came on so fast and so hard.  And then went away so quickly.  Bizarre.  At the end of this week I felt like it had been a month since last Sunday.  What a weird week.

(Baby and mom selfies from a couple of weeks ago but too cute not to post.)

::::

This one is my favorite daughter.

::morning lucy::

When I was in Utah earlier this month I had to sent Kris home so he could go work and get important stuff done. I sent him some first thing in the morning photos of Lucy during the week just so he'd know what he was missing.

There was an underlying theme in the photos--she's dang happy in the morning. Much happier than me. I could be that happy if somebody fed me milkshakes at 2am, but no, I'm the one making and delivering the 2am shakes.

Good thing she's so stinking cute.





I saved the best for last.

::blackmail for later::

I was trying to take pictures of this cute little thing: when I looked across the room and saw this: loooooook at those rolls!! And this: Yes, he's sitting in the baby seat.

 Those pictures of Sandy are really terrible, out of focus and yucky looking. But the content I think could be pretty valuable to me at some point in the future. I think I'll hold on to them.

If you sit around in my house in a baby seat in your undies I will most definitely take pictures of you. Look out.

::recent sunsets::

We've had some killer sunsets in the last few weeks. The kind that make you gasp a little and then just keep watching until they finally disappear. The kind that make you pull over on the side of the road because you don't want to cause accidents, but you just have to keep taking photos or it will kill you.

The guy who we bought our house from made this big silly statement about how "You'll find your lives will start to revolve around the sunsets because of this house." And while that was pompous overstatement, it's true that our view of the sky from the house is fabulous and we love watching the sun set when we can and when it's interesting. Max took this one for me from our back patio--I could see it from the living room couch but I was just too dang tired to get up and take the picture myself. It's nice to have a slave. For this one I was on the way to the pharmacy to pick up some medicine for Kris and the sky kept getting more and more dramatic. It was gorgeous. I haven't edited these photos at all. And they're probably out of order but oh well.
I love the sky here.

::pianey::

When I was at Murphy and Laura's house in UT a couple of weeks ago I played their baby grand piano. Though severly out of tune it was still fun to play and it reminded me how fun I thought it would be to have a baby grand in our "music room."

When I got home I mentioned it to Kris.  He immediately got on Craig's list and found an interesting candidate.  I emailed the lady on Monday and we went to see the piano on Tuesday.
We were still very non-commital and just felt like we were shopping around for fun.  But the piano was great.  It's an old Baldwin from the 20's.  A lot of the interier mechanisms have been rebuilt in the last 30 yrs and all function well.  It's a warm brownish color.  It definitely has some cosmetic issues but they're not terrible.

Anyway, it was at an old person's house as part of an estate sale.  The house was so stinky and cat infested but the piano played in tune.


So I offered the lady managing the sale a good amount less, she accepted, I paid her for it on Wednesday and the movers brought it to us on Friday night.
It was quick and pretty exciting!

But, when it got into the house boy was it stinky and dirty.  It took a whole week of vacuuming, dusting, air filtering and candle burning to get it to the point where I didn't want to gag just walking by.  But now it's smelling fine and I think it looks amazing in our room.

Kris and I have been really enjoying it and I think both of us has played it every day since we got it--for a few minutes at least.  But Lucy doesn't like lying on the floor and listening while I practice.  She feels like she's not getting quite enough attention.
And I tell you what, it's tough to play a song with two hands while holding a baby who is also actively trying to hit the keys.  But I try.

We were able to give our electric piano away to good friends in the ward, so once it was gone we were inspired to fix up the music room and get it looking really nice.  We got a big ranchero style cabinet for the music books and got everything else arranged nicely.  I'm really happy with how it all turned out.  Maybe some of our kids will want to play piano now.  We'll see.

Oh yes, and it's extra fun because the piano I grew up with in the studio was an old Baldwin from the 20s.  Dad reminded me of that and I thought it made sense that I liked the piano so immediately.  It was like an old friend.  And now it's home!

::max the tonsil-less::

On Friday Max was lucky enough to get to go down to Albuquerque to get his tonsil and adenoids out.  He was very brave about it, Kris and I were pretty impressed with him.  It didn't hurt that he was comfortable with the doctor, who likes to wear Vibram toe shoes into surgery.

On our way down from Santa Fe the sunrise was gorgeous.  It was rainy and misty and there was a big double rainbow arching over the road. It was enought to make me glad we had to get up so early.

Also, the first thing that happened when we got of out of the car at the hospital was that Kris saw a nurse he used to work with at the surgery center in Santa Fe.  The surgery center closed a few months ago which was very sad, but turns out that a bunch of the nursing staff went down to this hospital in Albuquerque and got jobs.  So most of the people that worked with us had worked with Kris at one time or another.  And we were well taken care of.  The post-op nurse was especially sweet and gentle with Max.  It all combined to make me feel very comforted and made the whole situation much less stressful than it could've been.
The fact that we left Sandy home with our babysitter also helped a lot.

Max did well coming out of anesthesia, but I did feel bad for him.  I remember that feeling and it's just kind of creepy.  The doctor gave him a cute little fuzzy monkey before surgery, and when he woke up the monkey was the first thing he asked for.

He also did well on the way home, and was delighted to put together the lego set I got him as a reward for making it through.  He also put together Sandy's (because of course I had to get something for Sandy too.)
In fact, his energy was way up the whole rest of the day and he seemed really good, almost just normal--Kris and I were waiting for the crash but it never came that day.
(Sorry Sand for posting the doofy picture)  Sandy had a great time with the sitter and was very happy and content when we got home.


Max snuggling a humongous alligator that Kris got "for the office."  I have a feeling it's going to be a premenant resident along with it's twin brother whom Sandy is currently sleeping with.  Oy.


And of course Lucy needs a minute in this post--she wore her fox PJs to bed that night and was happy to do it.
And happy to spit and kick as much as possible.  In fact I couldn't get a picture of her feet where they were both in focus because she was kicking like crazy.

It was the next morning that the crash came.  Kris was gone early for a Young Men's fund raiser, and I had both Sandy and Lucy in my bedroom pretty early.  I was thinking that Max must've been still asleep and he must've been getting such great rest!  I finally went out to check on him and found him sitting in the living room watching a show and crying because his throat hurt.  Obviously I got him some pain meds and all improved.  Silly kid.

He's doing well today and I think given a couple more days he'll be back to his old self.


We're so glad to have this over with and behind us!  We've gotten some pretty big stuff done or started this summer, and this is not the least of those.  Just blow Max a kiss from wherever you are and it'll help him feel better.

::car washing dudes::

I can't really remember where this idea originated, maybe one of our babysitters?  But anyway, the kids love to make car washes.  They get out big boxes of hot wheels cars and then they ask me for every different sized bowl I have.  THEN they ask me for my basting brush and all the different little kitchen tools that might help.  They fill the bowls with water and sometimes soap (against my wishes usually).  Then they start splashing everywhere and cars get really sparkling clean.

The floors are always soaked and there are usually two or three sodden towels by the time they're done.  And Sandy is drenched.

These photos are from July. Usually Max is at school or someplace else important, so he doesn't get to join in the washing. This time, not only did he get to play, but he set the whole thing up while I was busy doing something else.


And he was the boss--do wash this car, don't wash this one.  That doesn't always go over well with Sandy, but sometimes.



While setting up, Max even added some soap. Which is really not too delightful for me, but for the boys it adds to the realism of the washing simulation.


It was a good washing day.

This photo is from back in May. Right after we got the squiddy pool toys that Sandy's using there. We thought they would make absolutely perfect car wash octopuses and so he requested a car wash immediately. As you can see this is serious business.   We used cake pans and muffin tins this time.


I'm hoping this someday translates to boys washing my REAL cars, but unless we can get some 5 ft rainbow squid I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon.

::weird boys::

These are my weird little boys that insist on wearing footies pajamas always. Even in the hot and sweaty summer. Just looking at them makes me want to swoon from heatstroke.


They were dressed for bed and having a movie night in this photo--maybe some Donald Duck cartoons, I can't really remember.

 And here are my weird boys eating lunch the other day. There are these magical straws that I get at Target for the boys. When they're put into milk, it magically becomes flavored. The boys love these straws. I think I had Max really believing they were magic for a while but he's just too dang old and smart for that now. Anyway, not only are the straws good for drinking and magic, but of course they're also great for bubbling.



I realized the light was cool and took a picture, then I realized that all my junk was all over the table. So I went ahead and moved it and got this much better scene.

I didn't even notice Sandy's delighted expression until Kris pointed it out to me later that day. Max is busy bubbling and Sandy is celebrating his already bubbled cup.

 My boys are so dang goofy.

::fuzzy caterpillar follow up::

Today we met up with the fuzzy caterpillar friend again--or actually maybe it was our fuzzy guy's younger brother or cousin. Not sure. But he rode into the house on Sandy's shoulder and the boys were over the moon delighted with him.

He was running circles around Sandy's neck.   Mostly on his shirt, but sometimes on his neck meat too.




When he would hit a patch of skin, peals of squeaky giggles would fly. "He's sooooo tickly!!"


See his squeezed shut eyes and wide open mouth in this one? So cute.

After a few more circles I sent the boys and their friend outside. They carefully replaced him back where he was found. I'm glad my boys are so sweet and careful with nature.



And in other news yesterday Lucy decided she was ready to start rolling over for real. She can totally do it on purpose now--back to tummy. But every time she pulls it off she's still really surprised and proud. It's so cute when she smiles super big and is so pleased with herself.



I love her little skirt.  Dressing her is so dang fun for me.  And it's lovely that she's too young to have opinions about what she's wearing.