Saturday January 31

I would say that today was a highly successful day.

Almost like things were back to normal.

Dad if feeling good and enjoying getting stuff done on the house.

He is still hurting, but it is far less pain than he has been having.

It was a nice day outside, so the kids were able to be out and play.

They actually did some kite flying....

The cheating way, by holding it behind them on the 4-wheeler :)

They had a lot of fun.

Except little Elsie Bug.

Poor Elsie was still running a fever and had a pretty lousy night last night :(

But she was pretty chill even though I know she didn't feel good, spent a good amount of time on her bed resting, but perked up and worked with us later on in the day.

This morning we got the rooms clean, dishes done, laundry done....regular Saturday stuff.

Then we headed upstairs.

Still a bunch of stuff that needs to be done to be ready for drywalling.

All the kids helped.

Even Elsie chipped at some cement on the bricks.....which is something I planned to do, so she was very helpful in doing it :)

We cleared almost all the stuff out so they workers will have room to work.

Madi did a lot of sweeping.

Cassi and Porter pounded a bunch of nails that we on the boards on the outside of the existing house.

Everyone worked together and they were all super helpful, and it made me so happy.

Like I said, almost like we were back to normal!!!!

Later on the kids, except Elsie, went over to the Morgans house for a little bit before dinner.

Then dinner, and I had to make a grocery run.

It was a pretty great day :)

Now, if only Elsie would get better!!!!!!

Port is smashed between the big girls :)

I think he is pretty safe......

Friday January 30

It was a very nice day today.

I am so excited for the better weather, cause the kids want to be outside!!!!

It is so great when they are out running around verses being cooped up inside our little basement all together!

I sent everyone to school today.

Everyone was feeling good.

But I guess Cassi coughed all day :(

Darn-it!

But she feels good.

And as of about 8 tonight, Elsie was feeling really yucky....so I took her temp and she was 102.4 :(

Gosh dang!

I wish they would just be well!!!!!!

But on the other side, dad has been feeling so good the last couple of days.

Getting around and getting stuff done on the house.

It has been great.

I feel like when people ask me how he is doing, I can finally say things are going good!

It's pretty great.

*****

We had the framing inspector come today, but we did not have some of the papers that we needed to have handy, so he will come back on Monday.

*****

This afternoon Port, Dad and I went over to Stacia's parents house where she is getting stuff ready for a yard sale over there.

And we found some fun stuff for us :)

Port's fav was a new cowboy hat.

It goes really well with his camo fleece that my friend Cindy Peterson gave him.

He has been wearing it everyday since she gave it to him :)

Anyway, we brought Cannon home with us, and the boys played so good.

It has been a while since they have played, with Port being such a stinker with everything!!!!!

But they were so cute out there playing.

They requested I take some 'farm' pictures of them :)

*****

Katie Wells brought over a frozen meal tonight, unfrozen, so I heated it up and it was perfect.

Then later on this evening, Tiffini Cluff brought us over some cinnamon rolls.

Yumm!!!!!

We have been spoiled.

But now it is time for me to kick it back in gear.

I may have forgotten how to actually make my family dinner!!!!!!

Thursday January 29

So Elsie still had a fever this morning!!!!

Cassi's feet hurt, so I kept them home.

Porter went to Max's house so Vern could take him to school, because I had to take Dad to an early appointment.

It took a lot of convincing to get him to go over there.

And I was super surprised when he didn't give her any trouble at all about going to school.

Maybe she should take him every day!!!!

After Dads appt. we came home and got some work done at the house.

I will say now that I think he did too much and will be hurting tomorrow, but he was super happy to be doing stuff!!!!

Our insulation guy came over and filled in some holes before the framing guy can come and inspect.

Got that done, so we have the inspector scheduled for tomorrow.

Aaron came over again and ran a bunch of cable wires and stuff......he is spoiling us!

Cassi and Elsie were just fine today.

They played outside with Port, max and Graham for a long time.

It was good to get them outside!!!!

The girls would have been great to go to school......

So they will go tomorrow for sure!

Tonight the girls took a break from homework and played a little basketball with Port's little hoop.

We got most of their make-up homework done.

It is so much better to just go to school instead of  doing all the make-up work at home!!!!!

Wednesday January 28

So today was a pretty good one.

The electrical guy came back out to go over what they fixed up the other day.

He gave us a pass on everything, which was awesome.

And he recalculated the actual ampage needs and said that we do not need to run the 200 extra amps to the house.

But he did want us to run the wire so that in the future, if we decide to upgrade the amps, the wire will already be there and ready to go.

So that is just a few hundred bucks vs. thousands!

That is great news!

Even better.....we got the go-ahead for drywall!!!!!

Yay!

So tomorrow, our insulation guy, Marv and his guys will come and fill the holes that the wires are fed through with foam.

Then we can get our framing inspection done on Friday, and then the drywall guys come next week!!!!

YAY!

*****

Other good news.

Port finally passed off his sight words and has started bringing home his 'book in a bag's.

It is very exciting!

For a boy who did not know his letter, numbers or sounds hardly at all at the beginning of the year, he has come a long way.

Very exciting.

My baby can read!

He is getting so big.

*****

Elsie had a fever again, not very high, but over 100, so I kept her home from school.

I kept Cassi home too, mostly because she sounded so bad with her cough, and her feet are still hurting :(

But she had no fever, and I hope she is good enough to get back to school tomorrow.

*****

Dad had his dr appt with the surgeon today.

It went good.

Doc was happy with how he was doing and said he looked a lot better than he had looked at last appointment.

He said that he can do whatever he feels good enough to do, but he still needs to be smart.

We asked him about the super sensitivity happening in his foot and calf.

Nothing to worry about.

Things are gonna change.

And change is good.

Change might still hurt, but it is all normal and healing good.

He did say that the department called, asking about a return to work date.

Doc told them 6 months.

But he told us he thinks it won't be 6 months....but he wanted them to have a buffer zone.

6 months is a long time!!!!

But things are going uphill, so that's good.

*****

We got dinner again tonight from Erin Keller.

I have to say, getting different meals have given me lots of great new meal ideas!

*****

For YW, we made tied some fleece blankets to donate to the hospital.

It was a great activity, and I think the girls had a lot of fun.

Even better....we finished 8 blankets!

Not too shabby!

After Madi and I got back home, Holly Papa called me to see if I was home.

She came over with a few of the Laurels.

They had made a dinner for my family and a yummy apple pie for their activity tonight.

How sweet!

It will be perfect for tomorrow's dinner!

And I think I am on my own after that....

But with things looking up, in all areas, I think I may be able to handle it :)

Tuesday January 27

So.....

Elsie woke up with a fever.

And Cassi has been covered in hives all day.

And her feet have been very painful to walk on.

Weird....

The only thing I can think of is that she must have hives on the bottom of her feet, I don't know. 

seems weird.

Poor kids :(

As you can imagine, trying to get Port to go to school, when the girls get to stay home, was a tough job.

But with a promise of extra cotton balls to fill his prize jar, and a promise that he could come with me to take dad to his PT appt and get some lunch, he agreed to go.

*****

Aaron hale came over today and he and dad worked together to get the stuff done that needed to be fixed from our electrical inspection.

There is still the big whopper of needing to feed more amps to the house.....

That may prove to be quite spendy :(

Not good news, as you can imagine.

*****

After I picked Port up from school, we took dad and dropped him off at PT, then went and got some lunch and did some other shopping until it was time to get Dad.

Tonight, we did our FHE.

Last night got away from us.

I had the kids write Thank You on a bunch of blank cards so I can get started on my list of Thanks yous to write :)

They thought it was fun.

We had a yummy dinner brought to us by Michelle Burk, as well as a frozen meal from Serena Huff.

Michelle also brought a little basket for Cassi.

How sweet is she!

Alyson Woodland also brought by some popsicles for Cassi when she found out she was sick.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Monday January 26

I kept Cassi home today.

She had a fever and wasn't feeling good.

I already had a Dr. appt sched for her because she has had a weird little bump that we wanted looked at.

It turned out to be an infected lymph node, no worries.....

But she also thinks she has strep :(

She didn't do the test, because the antibiotics she put her on for the lymph node will take care of the strep anyway.

So yay, that's fun!

Not :(

*****

So we had our electrical inspection today.

There are a few things that need to be done before we can pass.

A few little ones.

And one big one.....like getting more amps ran to our house.

We need to get a hold of Idaho Power to see what that entails....

So kind of a bummer to not get that checked off the list yet....

But we are another step closer.

*****

Elsie had a really bad day at school :(

These kids!!!!

They are definitely having a tough time lately!

I picked her up early to take her to PT.

I had a good talk with her, and she rocked it for Katie.

*****

We were blessed again with another yummy dinner from Cindi Morgan.

So sweet of her to bring a meal out to us.

I also had Penny Anderson bring me a frozen lasagna today.

People are so great!

*****

So anyway.....I hope Cassi gets better....

And no one else gets sick!!!!

Sunday January 25

Dad stayed home from church today because he was hurting pretty bad.

Those benches at church don't do any favors for him either....

AND....per usual....the kids were not very good.

And when it came time to go to class, I had both Elsie and Porter crying and throwing fits.

Cassi didn't want to go wither, but I got her to go.

I felt bad about Cassi, I should have actually taken her home.

She woke up all itchy, and after sacrament meeting she was still all itchy.

I think she is getting a little cold of some kind, and for some reason, I have had it happens couple times with Elsie, but hives break out.

Weird.

But she went to class anyway, and I worked on getting the little ones to class.

There were all kinds of bribery and threats going on :(

After about 15 minutes of total bawling, and even his teacher trying to get him to come with her, Port looks me in the face and says "okay, I'll go".....with the bravest little look on his face.

I was proud of him, because I know he really didn't want to go.

So I took him to class....thank goodness for such a sweet teacher too :)

Then Elsie bug cried and cried, I finally talked her into going in once they switched to sharing time.

So she missed class, but at least she went when I had to go to YW!

Ahhh!

I am glad they finally went, and I almost caved MANY times.....

It would have been so much easier to just drive them home.

But that would just make next week harder!

Anyway.

After church, Porter wanted me to take a picture of the kids again in their little playhouse under the grape arbor.

They wanted to pretend it was in the 'olden days', So I did a vintage-y picture too :)

And that's why they aren't smiling.

Anyway, I thought it was cute.

They are super proud of their work in there :)

Saturday January 24

Yes, I made the kids clean again today.

And everyone was grumpy because it was such a late night last night.

But we got a lot done.

We even got some cleaning done upstairs.

Monday is our electrical inspection.

Fingers crossed!!!!!

Brent had to fix up the rest of the wires into the breaker box.

It amazes me the things he can just do :)

He was hurting pretty bad after that....maybe too much standing?

His sciatic down his leg is hurting him more today than it has been the last few days.

But he says that the super sensitivity has gotten a bit less....or maybe he is just getting used to it.

I am anxious for his dr appts this coming week.

I moved stuff and cleaned up so the inspector can get around and see what we have going on up there.

Cass played at her friends house, but once she got home, the kiddos played outside for a few hours together.

No fighting.

And it was heaven!!!!!

We have been watching a lot of 'Fixer Upper' lately!

Love me some Chip and Jojo :)

Well, they fixed up the play area under the grape arbor.

And they did a great job, if I do say so myself.

They put in new (pallet) flooring.

Added a retro tire toy box :)

A beautiful dining room table....

And topped it all off with beautiful center pieces.

I thought it was pretty darn cute.

Just my style :)

Jojo would be proud.

And Cass found me a heart in all the grape vines.

I love hearts  <3 p="">

Cindy Peterson brought us some yummy dinner.

And I think it was the best lasagna that I have ever had!

And I wish I would have hid her bread, so I could keep it all to myself!

It was very sweet of her to bring me dinner.

She has also picked up a lot of slack for me in YW....she is super awesome.

So grateful for her!

Friday January 23

It's my man's birthday today.

He woke up to Cinnamon rolls in bed, per Elsie's request :)

He opened his present in bed too.

Then we got the kids ready for school and got them there.

We had made plans with the guy who took our bunnies, for him to bring his billy goat out and leave him here for a little while, so we can breed our ladies.

So he brought him out, and he also bought Hulk and Thor and s'mores from us.

So now we just have the girls.

It was bitter sweet to get rid of Hulk and Thor, but I don;t think they would do too well with having the billy goat in there.

I think this is good though.

We know who has them, and I think they will have a great life :)

So now we have Red Beard here for at least the next month or so.

Then 5 months from now, we should be having baby goats!

Then we watched a movie together :)

Once the girls got home from school, we did a few things and then we got ready and headed out for dinner at Red Robin.

And afterwards we stopped off at Krispy Kreme cause they had the hot and ready doughnut sign on, so we got free donuts :)

We planned to watch a movie and started a couple that we had recorded, but turned out to be not very appropriate :(

Seems like that happens more and more.

So we watched a new 'funniest fails' show, which is kind of like funniest home videos.

It was after 10 when we finally got the kiddos to bed.

I think it was a fun day for him.

I couldn't end the night without expressing some major love for this man.

I hope his day was a good one and that he knows how much his family loves him.

He deserves so much more than we can give him.

This man.

He is my rock.

He is my everything.

And these last 5 1/2 weeks have been the hardest ever.

He's the one that always fixes everything for me, and now there is nothing I can do to fix what he is going through.

Except love him.

And boy do I love him!!!!

He is brave, he is strong, he is smart, and he is handsome.

MY tall dark and handsome.

I told him today, on his 36th birthday, that he looks exceptionally sexy :)

So, Happy birthday to the love of my life.

Thursday January 22

Drew and Heather stopped by today.

They hung out for a little while, helping clean and Drew did more framing in some odd spots in the old part of the house that needed it.

It was so nice of them to come by and help out more.

They have done so much for us already!

Thanks, guys!

We really appreciate you.

*****

Cassi went with the a couple of her friends to the school ski night.

She won't get home until about 10:30 or so......

I have been a little nervous about sending her up on a bus...you know...without me :)

But I am sure she is having a great time.

Just hope she isn't super over-tired tomorrow!

*****

We had dinner brought to us by Amy Packer tonight.

Brent was curious why people are bringing dinners again.

My RS pres, Kirsten Arnold came over the other day.

She brought a treat and asked what they could do to help.

She said there are so many people asking and wanting to help us in any way.....clean my house, do my laundry, watch my kids, make dinners.

I said you can't touch my laundry ;).....but I won't turn down a meal!

So it seems as though they have set up meals for us for a few days.

Which I just love.

And I am very grateful!

Honestly, that is one thing that I have had a hard time keeping on top of.

Well, actually, I have a hard time keeping on top of a lot of things.....

But food, well, people HAVE to eat.

So I do feel bad about people bringing dinners, cause I know I can do it.

But man, it has been so nice to have one less thing to worry about.

People are good!

Wednesday January 21

I ditched out on Young Womans tonight.

They went ice skating, and were gonna be gone for a longer period of time than normal.

I felt bad leaving Brent with the little ones for that long with him not feeling good.

His foot and calf have gotten so much worse....highly super sensitive.

Tingling and electrical pangs.....

Kind of like when your foot is dead dead asleep and you are trying to wake it up, and it is in that between phase while trying to wake up that is super sensitive.....

That is what he tells me it is like all the time.

But maybe that is a good thing.

Maybe it means that things are healing and coming back to life.

Who knows.

I just know I feel bad.

I feel bad I can't fix it for him.

I feel bad that we can't find anyone to tell us exactly what to expect and what it is gonna feel like and give us an accurate timeline of when it will all heal!

Anyway....So after dinner (which was so sweetly brought to me by my friend Allyson Gozart), I took Madi to the church and took Cassi to Avery's house for an hour.

Then I came home and dad and I helped the little ones with homework.

I got the little ones in bed at a good time, because last night was a rough one.

Elsie woke up at 4, and didn't go back to sleep until 5:30.

Please, oh please don't start that again Elsie!!!!

Many rough nights in the history of Elsie Rose!!!!

When Elsie was awake, of course Cassi woke up.

Elsie woke up because her hand was numb.

That happens at least once a week with her hand or her foot.

So I usually rub it for her for a little bit and then she goes back to sleep.

But last night she just would not go to sleep.

As I was rubbing her hand last night, I heard Porters door open and little footsteps head into my room.

I told Elsie that I would be right back.

I knew where Port was going.

For the past 3 weeks or so, sometime in the middle of the night, he runs out to my bedroom, and falls asleep on the floor next to my side of the bed.

So I went and tucked him in (on the floor) and told him I would be right back.

Anyway, that is how the night went until I finally promised Elsie some extra kindle time in the morning if she would JUST GO TO SLEEP!!!!!

So she went to sleep :)

I hope tonight is a better night for all.

Madi had a fun time ice skating.

She hurt her bum....

The last thing I told her when she left was not to break her bum!

I am sure she will feel better after some sleep.

Tuesday January 20

Dad is getting stir crazy.

More than stir crazy....

He had to get out and do something.

Aaron was over again finishing up some odds and ends.

We needed to pull an old wire out of the floor upstairs which was in the basement ceiling.

Well, Brent wanted to pull the wires in and out.

And he did.

He did a great job :)

He was hurting a bit afterwards, but he felt good about getting stuff done.

Later on we went out and fixed the chicken water line....which broke the other day.

I just supervised to make sure he wasn't doing too much.

And he did a few other things.

I think it was good for him though.....but he is hurting tonight :(

*****

Holly Papa brought us some dinner and I made it up for our family tonight.

It was super yummy.

The biggest hit.....the limes :)

We have started a new 'incentive program' with Porter to help with the going to school, and the acting out that has been happening.

We are filling a jar with cotton balls :)

So far so good.

Anyway, he was promised a cotton ball (by dad) if he ate a lime....I think that is misuse of the incentive jar ;)

Just kidding....I wanted him to taste the lime too for a picture, of course!

It was worth the cotton ball!