It seems like the last 10 days or so have just been an absolute blur and that every other day we’ve had something big going on that has required a lot of preparation or organization. Its been busy, but at the same time we truly feel so blessed to have such good friends and family, and especially the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.
A few weeks ago I was able to accompany Branson to preschool to help out in his class. All the mothers of the preschoolers are asked to come and volunteer once a month and this has quickly become something I completely look forward to. It is so fun to be with Branson in his classroom and to see and participate in his learning experience.
Usually at the beginning of class I meet with Branson’s teacher for a few minutes and she goes over what we will be doing that day and then assigns me to an activity that I will be in charge of teaching. This month I was given a little packet of pictures and a little song that helped the kids learn rhyming words. The kids got to choose a picture and then we would try to find another picture that rhymed with the first picture. (Example: Cat and hat, or house and mouse, Dog and Frog). Then we would sing the little song to help the kids learn the rhyming words. I found that the kids quickly got bored with the song after a few minutes though, so I started having them do actions with the song to make it more fun, or to try to think of more rhyming words we could also try. It seemed to help them pass the time a bit better.
About two days after preschool though I noticed that Branson looked sick one morning. His eyes just didn’t look normal to me. Adam said that he’d been crying that morning though (when he didn’t get his way), so I just figured his eyes looked weird because of that. However, a few hours later I noticed they were starting to really goop which concerned me. I was supposed to take the boys up to Mum and Smurfs that afternoon where they agreed to watch the boys while Adam and I went to a Christmas party Adobe was having where they had rented an entire Theater for employees and their spouses to watch the new “Avatar” movie. I was completely stoked to go and so excited to spend the afternoon with Adam!
But when Branson’s eyes started to goop I began to realize that my day with Adam might not happen. Not knowing much about eye infections though (this was the first I’ve experienced one since becoming a mother) I got online and googled his symptoms and found out that he could possibly have pink eye. And although Branson’s eyes were not pink, I didn’t want to risk spreading anything around and so I took him to the doctors just to have him checked out. Sure enough, he had the beginnings of pink eye. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics and I ran home quickly to tell Adam that I wouldn’t be able to join him for the party and suggested he take Smurf (his Dad) to the movie instead. Smurfs brother had passed away just the day before and I thought that might cheer him up and take his mind off things a bit. So Adam called Smurf and was able to go and pick him up and drive up to Orem just in time for the movie. I was really glad they were able to have that time together.
My night on the other had ended up being pretty crazy. After running home to tell Adam the news of Branson, I ran back out to try to pick up Branson’s prescription for antibiotics from Walgreens, but unfortunately they hadn’t even received the prescription yet. However, after checking their printer they found that it was there but told me to come back in 15 minutes to pick it up. So I had to run back home to relieve Adam of babysitting duty (both Dawson and Harry-bob were napping) so he could make it to his movie, and then I had to wake up the boys, put them in their car seats and then run back out to Walgreens to pick up the prescription. The drive through line was ridiculously long though so I decided to run to McDonalds to pick the boys up a redbox movie since I knew we would be stuck home all night. Then back to Walgreens where the line was shorter, but still moving very slowly. I waited behind a van for what seemed like FOREVER before getting frustrated enough that I just turned around and parked the car and walked into Walgreens (leaving the kids in the car) to go and pick up Bransons prescription. After a few minutes someone came to the window and was able to get my prescription. “Would you like a copy of our privacy policy?” they asked. “Sure,” I said reluctantly, only to find that they had just run out of copies in English and would need to print me a new copy. It was about this time that I heard over the intercom, “there is a silver Honda Pilot whose alarm is going off in the parking lot.”
Greeeeaaaat! Yep. That would be mine. So, I looked at the gentleman helping me and just said, “Looks like I’ll have to get it another time!” as I ran out of the store to my car that seemed to be laughing/honking at me and all the chaos!
From there we ran back home, but both Dawson and Harry-bob seemed to be also struggling with something and were showing signs of crankiness. I could tell I was in for a long night. Dawson ended up teething all night and was VERY VERY needy. Harrison ended up being pretty cranky from being woken up from his nap earlier than normal, and of course Branson was fighting an eye infection and therefore every 5 minutes (literally) was crying because goop and or tears were coming out of his eyes. I ended up having to pause the kids movie, and clean out Branson’s eyes with tissues probably about every 5-10 minutes of the movie. It was NUTS.
That night we also had a big owners meeting about the Auto Shop that Adam and my brothers are all in to discuss future plans of where we want to see the shop in 5 years. Adam tried calling me to include me in the meeting, but with the craziness going on at home I had at least 2 of the 3 boys crying most of the time I was on the phone and after only a few minutes had to politely excuse myself and hang up to take care of the kids. I just couldn’t do it.
The next day was a Saturday, thank goodness, because I had Adam home all day to help take care of kids with me. Ad mopped and cleaned bathrooms while I ran to Wal-Mart to do our big grocery shopping trip and to get last minute gifts for Christmas. Then we had a quiet night at home. Sunday Adam started feeling a bit icky and the kids all developed coughs so they all stayed home while I went to church by myself. Although I missed having them with me, it was sooo nice to just be able to sit quietly and listen.
Monday we had 2 funerals to attend. The first was of my wonderful neighbor across the street Ginger Pierce. Her daughter Kendra and I had become good friends in Junior High and the two of us were thrilled later to learn that both our parents had purchased property across the street from each other! So I got to know the Pierce family pretty well, and I’ve always adored Kendra. Ginger was always one of my favorite people and was just always so cheerful and happy. She was an amazing lady and I found myself weeping all weekend just thinking of her, Kendra, Dallas, Sterling, Brighton, and Ken. What an amazing family!
After attending Gingers viewing and shedding many tears for the loss of this remarkable woman, Adam and I needed to head up to Salt Lake for the next funeral of the day, that of Uncle Archibald Egbert, Smurfs only brother. Uncle Archie had been struggling with Parkinsons for some time and the symptoms of his sickness finally took his life. We were able to have a private meeting with him and the rest of the Egbert family where a prayer was offered and everyone in the family said their final goodbyes before closing the casket. Then the funeral began. As I listened to the stories that each of Uncle Archies 6 children shared I felt truly humbled and just came to respect the kind of man the Uncle Archie was. He had surely lived a life of service, love, and kindness to others with unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I left the funeral wanting to be a better person, and to someday be worthy of such special and tender remarks from my family.
Later that night after the funeral we went up to Mum and Smurfs house where we looked through old photos, looked at recent pics, and talked about temples. Smurf showed me his online library and even let me borrow one of his prized books, “The House of the Lord,” by James E. Talmage. I’ve started reading it and it truly is a wonderful book. We also realized that night that the other two boys were starting to show the beginnings of pink eye as well with a tiny bit of discharge in their eyes. So in an effort to thwart the progress of the infection we started them on antibiotics that night. JUST in case.
However, the next night was the Egbert Christmas party and even though the boys hadn’t shown any sign of pink eye most of the day we knew that they supposedly were still contagious for another 5 hours or so. So in an effort to not spread germs I once again ended up staying home with the boys. Adam was able to go up with Branson (who had been on antibiotics for 5 days and was no longer contagious). I had hoped though that around bedtime that I could get the boys to sleep in the car so that I could also go up and enjoy the party for a few minutes, but it ended up that Harrison was pretty stubborn and refused to go down. I took him and Dawson to Salem to see the pond lights and then drove around for a bit before finally giving up and just going up to Mum and Smurfs. Adam traded me places, taking Harrison and Dawson on another drive while I got to enjoy the party for a few minutes. Crazy times indeed!
Here are a few pics from the evening.
Brans got a basketball hoop and ball!
Getting ready for the adult white elephant gift game
Cam had just flown in from being in Austrailia for 2 weeks!
Cute Ashley reading to Jocelyn
Erica our Basketball and Soccer Star!
Sounds really crazy Sarah!! I'm sorry, I hope things are calmed down now. Did they give you regular antibiotics for the pink eye? My kids have had it multiple times, and we usually get antibiotic eye drops which pretty much clear up their eyes within a day. If they get it again you should ask for that so they don't have to have the whole round of antibiotics. The soap story was funny too, I haven't thought of using tobasco sauce, we use soap as well… but that sounds like a better idea.
We have some pants on fire at our house to. We've tried a number of tactics over the course of a couple of years and I think we're finally seeing some results.