Monday of this week was Martin Luther King Jr Day so we didn’t have school. I took Bryant to his 9am wisdom teeth extraction appointment in Kennewick. It only took about 40 minutes and $1450. Bryant assured me several times that the medicine would have no effect upon him, but I videoed him anyway. The funniest thing was he would open his eyes really wide and then they would go distant/sleepy/lazy. It was so funny. He was laughing a lot too and speaking Spanish. He said, “Yo quiero un bocadillo!” (I want a sandwich). With gauze in his mouth it sounded like he was saying “Hero un bocadillo!” You will be impressed with this part—I asked if he would like to call Mom. He said, yes. I asked, “What do you want to say to her?” He said, “I love you, Mom!” I then asked, “Is there anyone else you want to say I love you to?” He said, “Not when you’re recording!” Then I asked, “Is there anyone else you want to call?” He said, “Payson! I love you, Payson! And Nick (Zornes) and Talmage—great job! And Rebecca (Haertling) and Julia (Henry) and Cooper (Maughan).” I hope you realize that under the influence of “truth serum” he was revealing how proud he is of you and how much he looks up to you. It was also interesting that he would bring up Rebecca and Julia. I’ve always suspected he liked them, but would never admit it to us. He did some other funny things too, but I guess you’ll just have to watch the video. His facial expressions were the funniest part. He also did some of his impersonations of Goofy. I put my phone in the phone holder on the dashboard and pointed it at him and recorded him on the whole drive home.
Wednesday
night Rex walked into our bedroom at 1:30am.
He said he had been up since 1:00am and couldn’t breath. He didn’t want to wake us up so he waited
until it was really bad. I woke Bryant
up and we administered to Rex. I dressed
and Mom dressed Rex and he and I sat out on the back porch bundled in blankets
and breathing the cold air. It was a
pretty warm night though—about 40 degrees and some rain/drizzle. I held him on the porch for 1.5 hours and it
was so peaceful. He could hardly talk
because of the croupy, raspy voice and cough.
At about 3am it got to the point where he was struggling for breath. It was getting really scary. I went right inside and grabbed my wallet,
threw on some real pants and we loaded Rex in the car and I took him to the
emergency room. He was really struggling
for breath as we took him to the car. It
calmed down a little by the time we got to the hospital. I was worried it was COVID and with Rex not
vaccinated and having been a pre-mature twin with under-developed lungs, I
wasn’t going to take any chances in waiting.
I was surprised that the Emergency Room was empty and very quiet. We got right in and they took us back to a
room. Rex could hardly whisper and it
was hard to understand him, but he was breathing a little better. They never asked about COVID or checked for
COVID. They listened to his chest and
throat and he had some congestion in his chest and more up higher in his
throat. They gave him a steroid (drank
it) and a breathing treatment for 10 minutes.
It looked like he was vaping. He
didn’t like it (especially the taste).
It made a huge difference in his ability to talk and in his
breathing. We were at the hospital from
3:20am until about 4:45am and then home by 5am.
Rex was so wired from the steroid that he talked non-stop the whole way
home. I tried to sleep from 5am to 6am
but it was tough. Then I got up and had
to get ready and went to work. It was a
pretty long day. I only had a couple
hours of sleep and by 5pm I was pretty tired driving home from work.
Sariah was past the symptoms but was still on quarantine until Friday. One day she set up Specht’s badminton net in the backyard and the kids
have played on it every day since. In
fact, one night, Rex and Lyle were out there with headlamps playing after dark,
and the next morning they were playing with headlamps before it got light. I really like to see the kids playing
together. Bryant likes to go against the
little guys by himself. (We just
finished Come Follow Me and now they are all out there, Dad included, even
though it is getting dark.)
A lot of packages have arrived this week in preparation for
Bryant’s mission. Friday, I took Bryant and Rex and Lyle to a few stores. Rex and Lyle need new school shoes and Bryant
was looking for belts. We didn’t have
much luck finding shoes—in fact, I ended up ordering some off Amazon while we
were standing in Big 5 not having much luck at our third store. Bryant found a belt he really likes at Marshalls,
but it is braided and the belts on the missionary dress information aren't braided. He did get a reversible that
will probably work. Dad thinks that
anything made of leather (belts, satchels…) will be super cheap in Guatemala. We did a pick-up at Old Navy in the mall and
I deliberately took the kids in because they said they had never been in a mall
before. Once we were inside, they remembered
being there. Of course, Rex and Lyle had
to touch the water in the fountain. We
did make a stop at Barnes and Noble so they could see a fancy bookstore, but we
weren’t there too long. Bryant had to go
to the bathroom.
This week reminds me of Elastagirl—the need to be “flexible.”
The weather looked questionable Sunday night but when we
woke up to clear roads Sariah and Hyrum headed off to school in the car. Well, of course, the snow started and we didn’t
want Sariah to drive home in it. I made
arrangements for Damon to take the car to Specht’s building and for the kids to
ride the bus home. After school
activities were cancelled that day and there was a two-hour delay on Tuesday,
so I took them to the bus stop that morning.
By the time Sariah’s game rolled around on Tuesday afternoon she hadn’t
touched a basketball for two weeks. She
did well though (played 3 quarters of JV and sat the bench for varsity) and we
brought the car home after the game on Tuesday.
She rode with Dad in the car and Hyrum rode with me in the van. By the time we got home the hood was crusted
with freezing rain. The rest of the week
two-hour delays turned into cancellations.
Pasco had school on Friday but that was the day of the Chinook wind and
NFSD cancelled because the country roads were a mess with the fast thaw and all
the slush.
That would have been enough excitement. However, Sariah woke up not feeling too great
on Wednesday morning. That evening she
used one of our at-home COVID tests and tested positive for COVID. That night we turned the flood light on in
the back and watched the snow come down and anticipated a cancellation the next
day. The next morning Rex and Lyle were
out in the snow before Dad and I were out of bed. Thursday night Sariah tested positive again. I called and talked to her coach because her
team was supposed to play Friday and Saturday.
Then the fiasco began. With all
the different rules we knew that it would complicate things for the whole team. Home COVID tests are not counted so when the
team had to be tested Friday for the game, of course she tested positive. Long story short, the whole team is out through
the 14th and Sariah can’t go to school until the 14th. It’s finals week so it should be
interesting.
We had to double buckle on the
way to Zarahemla with 7 of us in the cab of the truck. It is such a great blessing to have the truck
though in winter weather. The van would
not have made it up and through Z this year.
There was plenty of snow and it was beautiful! The first thing Rex and Lyle do when they
hear we are going in the truck is to declare, “I’m not double buckling!” Rex and I double buckled most of the way
there. He wasn’t happy about it. We stopped in Yakima because Spechts had
Hayden with them and we met Dax and Jen at Costco to return Hayden. While we were there, we picked up two more
sleds. We had bought some plastic sleds
but the ones at Costco were the foam ones which is what the boys were hoping
for. After Hayden hopped out of Specht’s
suburban, Hyrum joined them so we didn’t have to double buckle after that.
The kids hit the sleds immediately
and were sledding until way past dark.
Lyle and Jhett stayed out the longest and ran the battery almost all the
way down on the headlamp. Fun times.
Wednesday night we left the propane
fireplace going and none of us slept great because we were too hot. Lyle and I made the trek to the bathrooms at
2am. I just couldn’t do the port a potty
when it was 10 degrees. It was quiet and
beautiful.
Thursday, we woke up to 6-8
inches of new snow and big snowflakes coming down—it was quite magical. The boys were out in the new snow as soon as
they could get dressed and they were kicking up the powder and loving it. Dax and Jen came up that afternoon so the kids
could play. They brought up their puppy
too. Actually, it was against Z rules
but it was too late at that point. Super
cute (growing) puppy. Dax has been
putting a lot of time into training him.
He kind of looks like a miniature St. Bernard so it looked like it fit
right in up there in the snow.
Rex on one of his many decents.
