June 3-19--catching up

The short version of these weeks is this:  It's summer.  We do fun stuff, mostly swimming at the pool but also field trips to the zoo, blueberry picking, Kemah, the movies, learning new chores, etc.  The kids are super tan and super tired at the end of the day.  Me too :).

the longer version and a bunch of pics: 

Fri Jun 3--Brooke still recovering, Jack fever, no babysit swap

Sat Jun 4--Rain overnight cancelled our swim meet.  Emily gets her first fever, Jack still has a fever, Brooke is much improved.
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Sun Jun 5--Brooke wakes up totally recovered.  Dan takes Brooke, Candy, and Megan to sacrament meeting, our nephew Joseph is blessed. I stay home with the sick littles, we swap after sacrament so I can go teach my class.  Dan takes the well-kids to dinner with Ali, Jenn and Chris Roundy come over for dessert and chatting after dinner.​

Mon Jun 6--(Happy 3 months Emily!) Grocery swap in morning after swim team.  Brooke starts music camp (for learning musical theater).  I find a baby carrier on craigs list and buy it but have to pick it up in League City.  I take all the kids after grocery swap, pick up the carrier, and we stop at Kemah on the way home--carousel courtesy of Grandpa, dippin' dots ice cream, fun walking around.  We get home at 4:30 and Dan is home early so we take the kids swimming at the small pool for an hour.  Fun!  FHE (Megan teaches about being fishers of men and the 12 apostles)

​Tue Jun 7--I go running early.  Swim team.  Swimming and lunch at pool.  We're there after music camp, 11-1.  Laundry day.

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Wed Jun 8-- Swim team. I teach the girls how to clean bathrooms--they are each in charge of one for the summer.  We go to playgroup at the pool after music camp, 11-1.

​ Thu Jun 9--I swim laps early.  Swim team. I watch the Tracy's all morning (10 kids!) while Ashley is at a doctor appt.  Brooke has music camp.  Our a/c guy comes to do our summer checkup.

Fri Jun 10--Swim team--the van battery is dead so I get jumped to go there and back.  My primary class comes over for a waffle bar breakfast.  I get jumped and go Back to the pool 11-2 to celebrate one of my friend's bdays with all our kids.  I get jumped and head to get a new car battery installed at WalMart.  Brooke's music camp performance is in the evening, they sing chitty chitty bang bang, seize the day from newsies.  She had a vocal solo in one song and got to do a handstand on stage--her favorite.  Babysit swap.  Dan and I go to Taste of Texas to celebrate our anniversary, yummy steak dinner and key lime cheesecake dessert. 

Sat Jun 11--Last home swim meet.  Meg gets personal bests in breast and fly and swims 2 relays--her breaststroke is beautiful this year!  Candy drops 45 seconds and swims without touching the lane rope in freestyle.  No personal bests for Brooke but she does well too, swims a relay.  Stake conference.  Dan goes to priesthood in afternoon, I go to adult session.  we have a visiting 70, the themes are sabbath day and sharing the gospel

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Sun Jun 12--Stake conference. the kids are tough, I don't hear much :).  Dinner at Ali's after church.

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Mon Jun 13--Swim team.  Ashley goes to grocery store quick.  She watches all my kids while I take Jack for his ophthalmologist appointment.  He's getting new lenses (slightly different rx) and new frames (slightly brighter blue).  He is crossing a little more than our last appt so we also ordered rx goggles for swimming.  They haven't come yet.  I run to the grocery store on the way back to pick up the kids.  FHE (Brooke teaches about the 2000 stripling warriors)

Tue Jun 14--Swim team.  Ashley, Ali, and I take our kids to the zoo.  We melt in the heat but it's fun.  The kids love the splash pad at the zoo.

The Megans in June 2016 and Nov. 2010.  The monkey must be shrinking.

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Wed Jun 15--(Happy 36th bday Shad!) Swim team.  The girls clean bathrooms again.  Back to the pool for playgroup and lunch 10:30-1:30.  Megan piano lesson.  I go do a temple session when Dan gets home.  This was Dad and Sally's day to work in the temple.  I missed the 6 pm session so I did initiatories and went to say hi to Sally in the Celestial room.  She told me Dad was leading the 7 pm session so I went to the session.  Pretty neat to have Dad up at the front.  We've got the best dad.

Thu Jun 16--I swim laps early.  Swim team.  I take the kids to the 50 cent kids movie at the new theater by us.  We go straight from movie to dentist for Megan, Brooke, and Candy.  Megan needs a tooth pulled and lost a filling that needs replacing.  We stop to order Jack's new frames (the girls wanted orange, Jack said "pink!", so I vetoed and chose blue).  We splash in cousins backyard and I do a quick swim lesson with my niece Whitney.

Fri Jun 17--Swim team (last practice!).  I meet Ashley at a blueberry farm near Conroe and we melt and pick blueberries with all our kids.  My fam got 7 lbs in an hour.  (you can eat whatever you want while you pick and then you pay by the pound for whatever you take home).  We share a big shaved ice.  We come home and take a lunch over to another friend's house and swim in their pool.  Dan's car got jumped to get home and we pick him up at the car repair place.  Babysit swap.  We get dinner at Fuddrucker's and go to the temple.  I forget my recommend for the first time and they call my bishop to let me in.  Dad and Sally and Carrie do the 8 pm session with us.  We grab dessert with them after at Carabba's--gelato, yum.

Sat Jun 18--(Happy 16th bday Juliane!) Divisional swim meet (like prelims), aka LONGEST MEET EVER!  It's at Kingwood Park high school, so at least we are inside.   Brooke and Candy did great, personal bests or close to it.  Brooke scored points for us in free and back.  It wasn't Megan's day, she looked tired and added some time, but still did well especially in breaststroke and her relay (of course the free relay at the end) placed 3rd.  We were at the meet from 6:45 am to 3:30 pm.  We picked up Dan's car from the repair place and headed to the pool for a pot luck goodbye dinner for some friends who are moving.  It was quite the gathering of mormons at the pool.  I don't think the lifeguards were sad when thunder ended the party at 6:40.  Home for bed.

Sun Jun 19--(Happy Father's Day and Happy 13th bday Hailey!).  Omelette breakfast in bed for Dan.  Church.  Dinner with Carrie and Dad and Sally at Shad's after church.  Dan had to speak in a ward at 2:10, so he missed dinner with us but ate at his sisters.  Home for bedtime.

Schools Out

Monday.  May 23.
We did grocery swap that day.  And when I picked the big girls up from school I realized Brooke was feverish and she was complaining about a sore throat.  So between Dan and I we got her to the minute clinic around 4 pm while Candy and Megan did swim practice.  She didn't have strep, but she did have a possible ear infection. We had the missionaries over for dinner that night and it was great to get to know them better. 
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So Brooke stayed home from school Tuesday.  It was my day to teach joy school, so Brooke hid out in her room and watched Netflix on the kindle while we had our lesson.  I got to ask the kids questions for these books they are making and their answers were so funny.  I asked Candy, "What does your Mom always say?"  Her answer:  "If you don't get a toy then you don't cry about it!".  Then I asked, "What does your Dad always say?"  Her answer:  "Get in your bed!".  Haha, you can tell she's been getting into trouble lately!  I went to my book club that night which was fun since I hadn't been in a while.

Wednesday I did a second swim lesson for the twins I'd taught the week before.  They both were terrified to start but were happy little fish by the end of the 30 minutes.  Brooke was home from school again that day.  Since I couldn't take her to playgroup, Ashley picked up Jack and Candy for me and took them to Discovery Green.  As you can see they had a blast. 

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While those two were at playgroup, I worked on assembling the all about me books for the joy school kids.  Brooke and Emily cooperated nicely and they both napped while I worked.

Candy's profile

I sent Brooke back to school Thursday (May 26).  I taught the last joy school lesson of the year.  And then right in the middle of nap time (around 2:30), the nurse called--Brooke was running a fever and not feeling well.  I picked up Megan then too so I wouldnt' have to run back.  We ran to the store to buy more ibuprofen and Megan mentioned how she'd been freezing all day--great (not!).  Sure enough, she had a fever too. 

Since you can't return to school when you got sent home with a fever for at least 24 hours, I had all 5 kids home on Friday (May 27).  Brooke woke up that day completely recovered.  Megan was fevering but did ok when her ibuprofen was working.  We had to pick up some flyers for stake conference from the print place and it is right by costco, so we walked around costco a bit and had hot dogs for lunch there.  We all needed the outing!  Having everyone home made me a little nervous for summer--but we'll find a routine :)  Our sickness cancelled babysit swap that night since we were supposed to host.  So we put our kids to bed early and Dan and I watched a movie.  It rained like crazy Friday night all night.

Look--all 5 kids fit just fine in the giant cart!

Megan was still fevering on Saturday, but it was Chloe's baptism day, so we gave her meds and got on our way.   We left our house at 8:45 am and drove to Shad's church.  It was a great baptism service for Chloe and another little girl.  Dad spoke and did a great job.  He mentioned that it had been 11 years to the day since your baptism.  Pretty cool!  Here's Shad's kids and mine minus Emily.  Jamie and her crew came too, they just got there a little later.
 

The 8 year old cousins in their white dresses.

After some refreshments, we all loaded up and headed to Shad's new house on Lake Conroe.  Dan and I hadn't been there before and it's awesome!  Traffic was nuts getting there because after all the rain on Friday the feeder road on part of 45 was flooded (right where we needed to go).  But eventually we all made it safe and sound.  The lake was halfway up Shad's back lawn, his dock and everything were totally underwater, we could just see the tops of some lights on the end of the dock.  Because of the high water the lake was closed to motorized boats, but that didn't matter--we still had a blast.  My kids played in the hammocks set up outside, they jumped off the submerged dock into the lake itself and we all went out and swam in the water some too.  We played cards and had lunch and dinner and talked and laughed.  My family headed back home around bedtime.  Within minutes all 5 kids had passed out.

Megan had played hard despite not feeling great on Saturday, but by Sunday morning she was not doing great.  So with Dan at a ward conference, I sent Brooke and Candy to church with cousins and took Megan to the Minute Clinic.  She had double ear infections and a bad sore throat, but again, no strep.  Our Sunday was quiet after the doctor visit and we talked with the kids about what they wanted to do on the holiday.

Emily getting her Sunday morning bath (May 29)

Our kids list for Memorial day went like this:  pancakes for breakfast, bowling, swimming, make home made ice cream, eat hot dogs and watermelon, hang up the hammocks Aunt Jamie gave us, and have joy school graduation.

We hit most of them!  After our pancakes, we took the whole crew to the grocery store.  We got what we needed for ice cream along with our groceries for the rest of the week.  Megan was still feverish, but the antibiotics seemed to be helping a little.  We went bowling at a brand new place near our house and it was a blast.  All the kids loved it and you should have seen Jack's ear to ear grin when he knocked the pins down.  It was so fun. 

 

Bowling is pretty exhausting...

Hammocks hung!  That's Brooke on top (Megan's in it too but was hiding) and Candy under them.

We came home for lunch and started our ice cream and hung the hammocks.   We had a hamburger and hot dog dinner with the Tracy's and the Ashcraft's (our Bishop and his fam) at the Tracy's house.  As soon as dinner was done, we all headed back to our house for joy school graduation at 6:30.  It was adorable and crazy (10 adults and 21 kids among the 5 families)
 

A few of the 21 kids that were with us for joy school graduation--the hammocks were a big hit!

Candy getting her diploma (which is what Tyler was doing one year ago on May 30)...

Our class of kids and mom-teachers

Megan was STILL running a fever Tuesday morning (good grief!), so she was home with me again but Brooke was back at school.  I watched 2 extra kids all morning this day (a girl Candy's age and boy Jack's age) and they put on swim suits to splash and play in the baby pool and sprinkler outside.  Megan was tortured by me all day (meaning I told her she wasn't allowed to do anything but sit and rest and she glared at me all day), but her fever finally broke (see, Mom is right!).  Candy and Brooke did swim team til thunder cancelled practice.  After dinner, Brooke came up to me and complained about these itchy mosquito bites on her chin.  As I looked closer I thought WOW!  She got eaten alive!  She has bites EVERYWHERE!  It took about 2 minutes for us to realize she didn't have 150 mosquito bites, what she had were hives!  Poor kid.  So benadryl for her and bed. 

Emily is still cute--this is her on Tuesday (May 31)

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So on Wednesday, Megan was finally 100% and back at school.   Dan worked from home because they had their end of year awards in their classrooms in the morning.   Brooke was not feeling great and didn't want anyone to see her hive-covered face.  We told her she could just come to Megan's awards with us and go to her awards after and we'd take her home. 

Candy and Emily in their matching dresses on wednesday (jun 1)

Megan's classroom award was the "Honey Bunch" award for being so sweet to everyone in class all year.

Megan and Mrs. Renfrow

Our whole fam (poor Brookie's swollen blotchy face!)

Brooke's teacher Ms. Eakin and the 3 kids awarded the "fantastic friend" award for always being friendly and kind to everyone. 

It was a fun morning for the big girls.  After their awards I took Brooke home to rest (since Dan was working from home) and I took my 3 younger kids plus 2 of Ashley's kids plus cousin Luke to a splashpad for playgroup.  It was threatening rain, but it held off and the kids had so much fun.  Megan had piano after school and swim team got cancelled again for rain. 

Thursday morning Brooke was feeling a bit better and asked to go to school for the last day.  Dan worked from home again because of heavy rain.  I dropped off the big girls and I took the little ones to say hi to cousins around 10 am.  At 11:20 the school nurse called--Brooke was miserable and had a fever.  So I came and picked up both girls.  I talked with the nurse a bit because Brooke's hives were so bad now that her feet and hands were swollen and she wasn't wanting to walk.  She recommended that I take her to see the doctor.  So I got an appointment for 1 pm and dropped Candy and Megan for an end of school party at the Tracy's and put Jack down for a nap at home (yay, Dan was home again).  Emily and Brooke and I headed to the doctor.  My regular pediatrician wasn't there, but the on-call ped was Dr. Bergman--she was on the Willow pool board and her kids grew up with all of us lifeguarding and doing swim team and stuff.  So I was glad to know her a little.  At this point Brooke was making me really worried.  She had a fever, the rash was just worse, and she could hardly walk down the hall to the exam room.  Dr. Bergman spent a while talking with us to try to figure out what she was reacting to.  We realized that she didn't have hives, what she had was called "erythema multiforme" which is an allergic reaction that is much worse than hives and can have some pretty serious consequences if it continues for very long.  She sent us downstairs to have some labs drawn (we had to have a wheelchair for Brooke) and we came back upstairs to wait for the results.  The results were not conclusive, but in the time we'd been there it seemed that Brooke was responding a little more the zyrtec I'd tried, so she recommended we continue with  zyrtec, benadryl, and ibuprofen/tylenol for the fever.  It was a long, sad afternoon for Brooke.  The only thing that felt good was for me to rub her swollen feet and legs so I did that as much as I could and we kept going with the meds.  I had her take an oatmeal bath to help soothe her burning skin and it did help some.

Brooke slept soundly last night (yay!).  And this morning she was able to put a little more weight on her feet.  I gave her more zyrtec after breakfast (you can only give this once a day) and she asked to take a nap.  After an almost 3 hour nap this morning, she came out walking easily, ate a normal lunch (after not eating much since Tuesday), and has been playing happily since then.  I'm so relieved.  The welts on her face are fading and her limbs aren't as swollen.  So I think we're through the worst of it.
 

So it's been a pretty quiet (boring if you ask Megan) first day of summer.  We've let Brooke rest (and Jack too, he started running a fever last night!).  The other kids have played and although we didn't get rain overnight or most of the morning, it's raining now--we may cancel swim team again!

This is Emily napping this morning.  I need to get more pics of her smiles--she LOVES to be talked to these days and has the cutest happy grin.