When it rains, it pours, right? Friday, August 29th, I woke up with diarrhea and a sick tummy and so did Alyssa. We cancelled Lena and Alyssa's play date, and then dragged ourselves thru the day. Alyssa threw up one time. I was full out asleep on the couch and woke up to see Alyssa standing close by with throw up coming out of her mouth. What a way to get the adrenaline going!!! I grabbed the bucket I had handy and we managed to keep the mess manageable. Poor Alyssa! Ladd came for lunch and brought bananas, crackers, and yoguart (among other things). We talked for awhile. Evidently, Ladd's team has been out performing all the other teams. Go Ladd!!! He's worried that might change quickly because ten of his top performers are wanting to transfer to other positions. After Ladd left, I started to feel a bit better, but Alyssa's diarrhea has gotten worse since then. At night, Ladd called me from Walmart, so I walked him through what I could think of for our shopping list this week. YEAH! I didn't have to go! He kept saying "hi" to people we know. One of them asked him where his date was, and he said he was talking to her! :) Usually, I can plan on missing several vital items when I go shopping. This week it was Tylenol. What a week to miss that one! I find it takes both Tylenol and IBProfen to get complete relief. My heel just feels overly bruised right now. Usually it takes ten hobbling steps for my foot to stop feeling so painful, so bruised, and so broken. I keep getting cramps in my calf, but I can't do much about them. And, wouldn't you know, my ankle feels like it's on fire when I step on my foot. Then, every now and again, I get what Dr. Rogers referred to as "Zingers." I suppose that could be my nerve causing havoc. But, boy! Do those zingers hurt. They remind me of that test I had at the neurologist shortly after Shalyn was born. He electrocuted me and tried to see how my nerves responded. Those zingers feel like zaps of electricity shooting through me. Not fun! Especially when they happen consecutively one after another!!
Yesterday, Ladd took all the kids except for Shalyn and Alyssa to Miles' baptism in Payson. After the baptism, they went to Sherilyn and Nate's new place they're renting in Spanish Fork. They had a potluck dinner, then went to the homestead in Mapleton to watch the first BYU football game for the season. BYU played Virginia. Evidently, the game was postponed for a couple of hours due to rain and lightening allowing all of them to play various games and talk amongst themselves. I stayed at home with Alyssa and Shalyn. I feel like I changed between 20 and 30 messy diapers -- some of them runny enough to roll down Alyssa's leg. I've tried to get her to eat bananas, but she's tired of them already. And, if it has any stringy parts or brown parts, she won't touch them. I also did the dishes and the laundry. I played a couple of games with Alyssa and helped her play with her kitchen and some playdough. I hobbled after her as best I could. She watched lots of TV! Shalyn's been eating, sleeping for maybe ten minutes, then waking up unhappy. So, I finally tried to feed her a bottle yesterday. She downed three ounces and was out for a couple of hours! Victory! Ladd got back with the kids between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Then he headed over to Chad's to play more games. I guess he hadn't had enough playing time.
Today, I stayed home with Alyssa and Shalyn again during church. Tomorrow is the Olsen reunion and I'm wondering if Alyssa will be well enough to go. I guess we'll see if I stay home with her for a fourth day in a row!!! At least these days have been quiet days minus Lena's hurrying and yelling. On Friday, while I was stuck in the Little Girl's room, Lena pulled Shalyn out of her pack 'n play three different times. AAAAGGHH!!! Lena says Shalyn is just so cute! I agree, but it's not a reason for Lena to pick her up when she's been told not to pick her up! And not to mention somehow finagling Shalyn out of that pack 'n play!
I have such helpers! I love watching Garrett helping Shalyn. This morning, he took a few minutes to take a pink sparkly headband off Shalyn's head that Lena had shoved on Shalyn and untangle it before placing it carefully back on her head. He helped get her dressed a couple of months ago when she was three months old. When I saw Shalyn, I took a few moments to check the size of the shirt and pants he'd dressed her in. Sure enough, they were 12 month old sized clothes! I chuckled about that one. And, then, a few babies ago, Garrett showed true talent in putting a diaper on the baby -- backwards. He did admit it was a bit hard to do. . . .
Ladd has been showing his love of experimenting in the kitchen lately -- taking advantage of me being laid up. He made meatloaf with pickle juice. It wasn't bad! I didn't even know he'd put pickle juice in until he admitted it. :) Then, he made enchiladas the traditional, hard way. He made pulled pork and chicken, then rolled up tortillas with some meat in them and cheese. He had a can of enchilada sauce that he put on some of them, but he decided he wanted a change on one of them, so he spread some plain tomato sauce over the top. James is so used to me tearing the tortillas up and mixing it all in together that he came in to ask me if they were really called enchiladas. :) Friday night, Ladd put some breaded chicken fingers with some hot sauce and BBQ sauce. He added chopped up onion, garlic, potatoes, and some cream of chicken soup over all of it. Then, he added jalepeno peppers with the seeds as a last gesture. He said it would've been better if the chicken hadn't been breaded. :) I love it when his plans come together! He's so excited and focused and creative when he's in the kitchen! And, the kids love helping him.
