What Goes Down, Must Come Up

5am on Saturday I woke up with the beginnings of some type of stomach ailment.  It brought all the usual lovely symptoms with it.  I missed our Stake RS Activity as a result, which bummed me out a bit.  Poor J didn't sleep well the night before, so he was amazing to take care of everything like he did.  I mostly laid in bed moaning in between watching bits of Lawrence of Arabia.  Talk about a movie that could use some serious editing.  I felt a bit better by nightfall, although my fever still had not abated.  When I woke up Sunday I felt better, but halfway through sacrament meeting my stomach started hurting again, and my back.  That was the weird part.  By Sunday night I couldn't stand up anymore because of my back.  It was really weird, because I felt like my appetite was coming back so it didn't seem like I was getting sicker.  I finally called the doctor and he said I was probably just having some back spasms, so pop a couple of ibuprofen.  That did end up helping.  Who would have thought stomach flu could bring on something like that.

I don't think it was actually stomach flu, or gastroenteritis for you sticklers.  I ate some pretty old mushrooms on my pizza the night before.  J only took one bite of them before refusing to eat anymore.  I stupidly ate a whole slice.  I really do hope it was food poisoning because then the kids can't catch it :)

It was so nice to be back to my normal healthy self today.  Especially with how gorgeous the weather was.  I was able to mow the lawn and get some good playtime in.  Loofa has been dying to go to the skate park forever so I rode them over on my bike.  We didn't stay too long because Fefe decided to end it all with a well timed soiling of the shorts.

When the kids came home from school we pulled out the sprinkler, something else they've been dying to do.  I didn't bother to put Fefe in her swimsuit because I figured she'd be a wus, just like her older siblings were.  But no, she dove right in.  After we came in she didn't mind running around in just a diaper.

The nakedness ended up being fortuitous at dinner time.  She's in this stage where she won't eat unless we let her feed herself.  We had chicken divan for dinner, which is a dish containing chicken, broccoli and a curry sauce.  She did pretty well while we were sitting there, but when J and I left the table she decided to have some fun.  Lesson learned, do not leave child unsupervised with saucy casserole.

Ephant and Brother B have been loving playing at the park lately.  I feel alot better about letting them over there now without me.  They are a little frustrated with how crowded it gets, especially with older kids.  Kick ball is all the rage right now, except for it is played against a wall.

So the following video is some clips of Fefe in the sprinkler, some playing aftermath and the afformentioned divan:

No Wii on Sundays

The kids are perpetually trying to figure out what to do on Sundays when they are not allowed to play the Wii.  What did kids do before Wii?  Seriously.   It is now almost four months since we got a Wii, which means they have no recollection of life before the Wii.  It is great to realize that when they grow up, Ephant will be able to tell the younger kids about the early days when we didn't have it so well, back before the big screen tv.  I don't think any of them remember a time when they couldn't pause live tv.  Luckily, life has a way of inflicting emotional pain no matter how great technology gets.  

Anyway, here is what we did this Sunday instead of playing the Wii (you need the sound on for this one):

What is That Smell?

When Ephant and I got out of the van Tuesday evening, after yoga, I noticed this terrible smell, sort of like burnt plastic.  My first thought was the brakes are burning.  I hadn't been driving with the emergency brake on, so I was a little perplexed.  I decided I'd take the van in in the morning just to check it out.  However, I had second thoughts the next day and decided to wait and see if the smell reappeared.  Eventually I decided the smell was coming from the garage, not the car.  The only problem was I still couldn't figure out what exactly was causing it.  Nothing appeared to have spilled.  My answer came when I ran out of hot water that afternoon.  I went to look at the water heater and noticed the top thermostat was a little distorted.  When I took off the Styrofoam covering the rest of it, it was pretty apparent there had been an electrical fire around the top of the thermostat.  J replaced the thermostats a month or two ago, who knows what happened.  I set up an appt with Sears to come fix it on Friday, that meant two days without hot water.  Thursday I decided I couldn't live without a shower so I gave the cold water a whirl.  Fefe usually hangs out in the bathroom, but as soon as I started shrieking, she decided it was too hostile of an environment.  The worst thing was it took longer simply because the soap comes off slower in cold water.  The next day I went running in the morning, but refused to shower till the technician fixed the heater.  The hot shower that day was one of the most blessedly joyful experiences of my life.  Every time I use hot water, the gratitude just flows through me.

By the way, I'm up to 6 miles on my runs now.  Except for the waking early aspect, I'm really enjoying it.  It is amazing how much more fit I feel than when I was running just 3 miles.  I bought some new  running shoes to fit with my orthotics, but my foot still sits a little higher in the shoe than I'm comfortable with.  So I need to figure that out.

Friday night we had bingo at the kid's school.  I had to play cashier so I set the kids up with their bingo cards.  After the first game I went to check on them and they decided they wanted to come back and sit with me.  I thought it was because they wanted help, but it turned out Brother B had successfully won the first game without me even noticing.  They just love their momma and wanted to be with me :)  Sadly, we had forgotten it was Good Friday that day so the turnout was pretty bad. I imagine with how many Hispanics go to that school that quite a few of them are Catholic.

My big accomplishment yesterday was pulling out the washer and dryer so I could seal off the hole the mice are coming through.  It was a nice secondary reason to clean under them as well.  Turns out there was a pretty big gap where the dryer vent goes down into the crawlspace.  J wasn't too happy with my solution of duct tape.  He informed me that The Red Green show is just a show.  Hopefully the mice won't chew through the duct tape.

Since we looked pretty decent for church today I set up all my equipment really fast before church to get a quick family picture.  It is not the best picture ever, but it'll do until we have time to do another.  I ended up compositing three of them together.  Yay for photoshop!

There's Something in the Attic!

Yesterday morning, J and I woke up to a very strange noise, it almost sounded like a cat scrambling down the slide downstairs.  J ran down to see if he could figure it out, but it stopped right away.  This morning I woke up to some skittering noises and finally determined they are coming from the attic.  I listened to it for awhile, but couldn't decide for sure if it was mice, birds or something else.  We did have a gable vent put in with the new siding so it is possible a bird could have gotten in, especially with how many there are now that spring has finally shown its face.  We probably should just go up there and check it out, but with 2 foot thick insulation and no built in ladder it is a pain.  I told J that we should just toss Glen up there and let him take care of it, but we decided he probably wouldn't much care for the insulation either.  I did find mouse droppings on my laundry shelf, the stupid mice were scaling the teepee I had leaning against it.  The cat food hasn't been touched since the last dead mouse I found so who knows.  What surprises me the most is that Glen is not perking his ears up at all when he hears the noises above.  Maybe he thinks it is just another person living up there.

Speaking of the beautiful weather, we are going to have an early easter dinner tomorrow at Aunt J's so she can finally barbecue.  Supposedly it is going to be in the 70's the next couple of days.  We've let the kids run around outside today, even with it being Sunday, just so they can enjoy the sun.

Enrichment went great this past week.  Here is a recipe for a dressing that was a big hit:

1 container of strawberries ( ½ of the big ones they are selling at Safeway right now)
1 c. mayonnaise
½ c. sugar
¼ c. raspberry vinegar (only at Safeway)
2 tsp of poppy seeds

Hull the strawberries.  Place ingredients in a blender and puree.

I made two different spinach salads.  The first was just spinach and diced red onion.  The second was spinach, feta cheese and mushrooms.  Either one went great with the dressing, although I preferred the feta one.

I still love Ranch best, but it was pretty good combined with it.

For the babyshower game, I ended up buying some play-doh and making everyone sculpt a baby out of it.  It was pretty fun, but who are we kidding, the talking and food are the best part of the shower.

Speaking of the shower, when I was at Costco Friday morning to pick up the cake, Loofa really wanted to eat some.  I told him he couldn't because it was for the babyshower.  About 10 minutes later he said, babies are too small to shower.  I think he was hoping if he pointed out that inconsistency that he would get some cake.