Into Week Three

Week three was filled with highs and lows.  The start of the week was hard again, but it did start to get better as the week came to a close.  Although, today (Sunday) was plenty rough.

Monday, June 6
There wasn't anything really memorable about Monday.  Normal house cleaning, hanging out, nap time, getting ready for work and leaving.  That was Monday in a nut shell.

Tuesday, June 7
On Tuesday, neighbor John came over looking for someone to keep the kids overnight.  It was their wedding anniversary an their sitter had flaked out (at least that was his story.)  I suspect he hadn't arranged any plands and was just telling me a story to get some help - it's pretty common.  I told him I couldn't do it because I was working, but when I called Shane and mentioned it, he agreed to watch the kids.  He said he's a sucker for people celebrating their anniversaries.  Shane ended up coming home early because he was running a fever.  He still didn't cancel on John.  I left for work and Shane was home alone with six kids.  Those extra kids make me feel like my own are fairly mild.  I ended up at work very late that night, I didn't get home until one.  We were oversold and things were a bit of a mess.  I was exhausted.

Wednesday, June 8
I was dead tired from getting home so late - the kids were up before six.  I yelled at them to get back in bed - they were up again playing tag and screaming.  I drug myself out of bed at seven - the house was torn apart.  The kids had gotten into the pile of stuff in the basement that I had just sorted out to get rid of.  I was furious.  I got the kids dressed and sent them home at eight.
     Shane was still feverish and achy.  I suggested he see the doctor - he is anti-doctor.  He spent the day in bed or on the couch.
     I made toasted cheese sandwiches for dinner - Sydney learned how to make them herself and was very proud that she cooked the last few entirely on her own.  She's getting so big!

Thursday, June 9
Thursday morning Shane woke up feeling marginally better.  He drug himself into the office and went by he employee lab in the afternoon.  He tested positive for strep and had to go home.  It's strange to me that the hospital won't prescribe something for employees who test positive for contagious illnesses.  There was a bit of a back and forth with the local doctors office trying to get Shane into be seen.  Dr. K ended up letting Shane come in for the last appointment of the day.  He came home with a prescription and was wiped out for the rest of the day.
      That morning was a bit of an adventure.  We had plans to go on a scooter ride and picnic with a few other sisters in the ward.  I was planning on being at the meeting place at ten, only to discover that we were supposed to be there at nine!  I felt so bad that we were late!  We could have been there at nine if I had been planning on it.
     By the time we got to the trail-head, the temperature had dropped ten degrees.  It had also started to drizzle.  The area of the trail we were going to travel was closed due to flooding so we took a different route.  We went about four miles with our herd of children along the Poudre River Trail.  The kids were exhausted by the time we arrived at the park to play.  We had a small picnic and the kids played on the playground.  They seemed to have had a good time - I enjoyed the exercise.  Two of the sisters made the trek back to the parking lot to bring cars to the playground - so the kids wouldn't have to drag themselves back the four miles to the cars.  By the time we reached the playground we were comparing the trip to the Pioneers, trekking across the plains.
     When the kids were hungry for a snack that afternoon, Sydney made toasted cheese for everyone!

Friday, June 10
Shane was home again, taking his prescription and waiting to feel better.
    I got the kids ready for the day, trying to come up with a plan for something fun to do.  I called Janeil Padilla to see if they wanted to play - she was getting ready to take the kids to the dollar theater in Fort Collins - bingo - fun activity!  We loaded up the car,  invited Sydney's little friend Yajaira and her sister Brisa along and headed to the Padillas.  Shane came along for the ride - he needed to see an investor in Fort Collins to discuss some investment interest he has.
  We went to the dollar theater and watched Rio.  Ryan could not sit still!  He was all over the place!  I ended up texting Shane to come and get him.  After Ryan left, the movie was easier to watch.  When the movie was over the kids started playing tag outside the theater - Spencer promptly fell and scraped his arm and jammed his tumb.  An ice pack and some bandaids were required.  We took the kids to lunch at Arby's (yay for dollar menus) and then headed home.
   Sydney invited the girls to stay for a sleepover.  I took the girls with me to the Greeley Mall.  They played in the play place while I had my hair cut.  We went to Sam's club and bought next weeks groceries and headed home to make pizza.
     Shane ended up doing all the work for dinner.  The pizza came out great!  He added some fresh basil to the pizza sauce and it was tasty.  Penny and Mike Laspina came over and played cards with us and had pizza.  We've learned how to play a game called Hand and Foot - I guess it's popular in the ward.  We ended up with an entire untouched pizza and extra dough.  Penny fried up the dough into some fry bread and we had something similar to sopapillas for desert.

Saturday, June 11
Shane surprised us all by making scones (or something like them) for breakfast.  They were tasty.  We had strawberries, whipped cream, honey butter and cinnamon-sugar.  Tasty!
    We made a treat with the girls before we took them home.  They had a good time dipping rice crispy treats into melted chocolate and then putting sprinkles onto them.  We tried dipping bananas too.  They were tasty - but very messy.
     We took Yajaira and Brisa home and headed to Fort Collins for the "Taste of Fort Collins."  It's an event that you pay to enter, there is live music and booths with food, games and other items.  We had never been to one of these events.  After paying to get in, I realized that it was kind of like paying to get into BBQ Daze.  The event description said there'd be all sorts of things ranging from $1 to $8 - but they proved to range from $6 to $9.  You can't bring any outside food or drinks in.  I felt hustled.  We quickly spent all the money we had and were discouraged by the lack of free or cheap activities.  There was one area like a carnival - with carnival pricing.  We purchased one punch card and took the kids on a couple of rides.  Their favorite was these giant clear beach balls in a big kiddie pool.  Each kid gets into a beach ball, it's blown up and then closed.  The kids roll, run and tumble around on the the pool.  I almost forgot to mention the complete stranger who walked up to me, flipped me the bird and proceeded to cuss at me for some unknown reason, then stopped and walked away.  We could have stayed at the event all day/night, but I was ready to leave.  The heat and the crowd combined with the expense and energy required to maintain our family was too much.
     After the event, I stopped at the Fort Collins Goodwill to see what the store was like.  It was the largest Goodwill I've ever seen.  It was also the most disorganized - like a giant garage sale.  I was told the mess was the result of the giant sale event they were having that day - $.99 jeans and half off of everything else.  We found a few pairs of jeans for the kids and a couple of shirts.
     We headed home to have a leftover pizza for dinner, then put the kids to bed.  We all slept hard!

Sunday, June 12
I made french toast for breakfast this morning, it had been Sydney's request for few days in a row now.  While I had breakfast going I threw dinner into the crockpot - pot roast!  Yummy (it turned out great!) As a result of some morning drama - primarily revolving around putting shoes onto someone's feet - we ended up going to church late.  We were there for second and third blocks.  Sydney gave a talk on repentance during sharing time.  She did a really great job.  After church Sydney passed off two more of her Articles of Faith.  She's so excited that she's getting closer to having them all memorized.  Spencer was kicked out of class today and had to go to his dad's class.  He was being disruptive (I don't really know any details.)  He was really upset when he got home and had to take a nap - which is the standing rule regarding any child who gets in trouble at church.  We had our pot roast dinner, followed by a watermelon for desert.