Halloween already???

Ah--another week has flown by.

Jenna decided to join Benson in the quest to become immune to all things. Unfortunately her sickness left her weezy and very short of breath--at 2 am.
Thankfully we have a nebulizer at the house. Unfortunately Jenna thinks that breathing treatments don't work unless I am holding her in the rock-a-bye.

Actually I don't mind. And Benson very courteously kept us entertained all day today.

The afternoon was really rough for Jenna with lots of crying and trying not to cough (but not worse than 2 am this morning...). Tonight she still has a fever but is feeling much better.


Austin finally got to have his turn for family home evening lesson tonight. He was thrilled to be able to cause his parents the joy of a face full of flour. The lesson: Stay away from the edge. Don't try to get close to things that aren't good. Everyone gave examples of things that could be acceptable but might be pushing a bit too close to the edge. Ex: drinking energy drinks--or for us caffeine in general, listening to bad music, not wearing clean white shirts to church...(we've been working on being presentable to pass the sacrament for Sunday mornings). The game is to try to cut the flour away from the penny as close as possible without making it fall...



You get the picture.

We are not ready for Halloween. I still have to make a witch dress to Jenna's specifications (and they are specific...) and a werewolf costume.

Any ideas on that one?

Thankfully Benson wants to be a knight which is a costume I could easily provide for the entire neighborhood.
And I am in charge of a first grade party.
Hmmm--everything has to be done by Thursday.
I hope we will be able to leave the house by Thursday!

oink,oink

Benson and I have been hanging out in the 'rock-a-bye' chair since Saturday morning. We have been told he has the classic swine flu symptoms going on and not to come to the office (surprise surprise!). Apparently the swine flu test has a very low sensitivity--only around 45% accurate, so much of the diagnosis is based on symptoms. The symptoms aren't too fun. Yesterday Benson was crying and crying because "everything except my feet" hurt. I finally had to get some ice packs for his arms which seemed to be the worst. This morning he woke up with a ghostly pale face (and fever) and puffy purple rings around his eyes. Poor boy.

Two of the neighboring school districts to our town have closed their schools because of wide spread flu outbreak. The kids tried to convince me this morning that they all need to stay home from school. Hmmm, tempting but I told them not to call me unless they actually have a fever. We can always hope for the best!

Dallin and Landon are done with football. Their team was third in the league. The first and second place teams are the only teams that came close to beating them. We are looking forward to some quieter evenings so we can enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it lasts.

Global warming among other things

"If this is global warming then I would hate to have seen it before!"

That was Landon's comment when we woke up this morning to ...

Snow

Not just the "is that frost or is it snow?" kind of snow but big fat thick wet flakes sticking to everything in sight. It didn't just snow for a few minutes but continued for the entire day. In fact we had to get the ladder out twice to clean the satellite dish out so we could watch conference today. It somehow made our conference-morning cinnamon rolls feel very festive.
Rustin and Austin and I also went to the Saturday morning session of conference at the conference center in Salt Lake. The other kids stayed home and watched Dallin and Landon play in their football game. (Thanks to my family who were all home visiting!)
We loved visiting our friends from Memphis--the Gibbons. Austin and Andrew were little buddies when they were tiny and they picked right back up where we left off. We really enjoyed spending some time with Austin by himself this weekend!

Now I think we need to head out to the shed and bring in all the winter gear. We should get some nice fall weather here next week but better safe than sorry!

Benson

Last night we all got to remember what we thought and felt five years ago when Benson joined our family.

Austin mostly remembers that Brother A. came over to baby sit at our house. Austin tried to teach him to play video games to no avail. They still have a private joke where Brother A says to Austin "you know, you're not too smart" and Austin says back "you know you're not too good at video games."

Dallin and Landon remember .

Jenna was barely walking (15 months) and was happy to share binkies with him.

I remember the night before the big day. I was completely exhausted from a pregnancy complicated with early labor and bed rest. I had gone into labor two and a half months early (30 weeks). I had spent three days in the hospital with the maximum doses of uterine-relaxing medicines pumping into my body. There was a moment when I heard someone's newborn baby cry next door and I thought "I really don't want to do this. That does not sound fun at all."

But then I had this little glimpse of Benson's spirit. Just for a second. And I felt peace. I really did. I felt sure that I could and would go through these hard things for that precious spirit. And I felt that having our fourth boy was of course the perfect thing.

So, that night before Benson was born, I sat on the couch downstairs and felt my rib cage stretch as his little foot pushed for more space (he was 9 lbs. 8 oz and 22 in.) as my belly continued to contract over and over again--as it had since those days in the hospital. I wondered if I would ever feel such a sensation again. I don't know how I could see through the discomfort but I recognized that it was such a unique blessing and experience. To know that I had a husband and children who were also ready and waiting for this baby was very comforting.

We are so, so thankful that Benson is who he is.