Tomorrow I am giving a talk during the Relief Society portion of our ward conference, and I'm not as stressed out about it as one might think. Given my track record I should be feeling nauseous just thinking about getting up in RS, but today my mind has just been on other things... A good friend's house was extensively damaged late last night. Her next door neighbor's townhouse caught on fire and though I don't know exactly what happened or the extent of it all, her townhouse is now unlivable. Apparently their roof caved in in their bedroom and a pipe burst so water poured into their house as well. I am just feeling sick over this trial happening in her and her family's life. I can't imagine having to leave your home with water pouring in and destroying all the things that make up your life. I hope that they are able to recover all those important things like pictures and mementos from their home. Of course the most important thing is that no one in her family was harmed and they all made it out safely. If you get a chance say a special prayer for my sweet friend and her wonderful family. It has truly put my Relief Society talk into perspective and I'm going to try not to sweat the small stuff when such a dear friend is going through something so big.

Saint Paddy's Fun

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Is that Irish food you're cookin, cause I smell Gaelic!

What's Irish and stays out all night?? - Paddy O'Furniture

Knock Knock. Who's there? Irish. Irish who? - Irish you a happy Saint Patrick's day!

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Well that's about all the St. Patrick's jokes I know. I hope you all are wearing the green - I got to pinch everyone in our house this morning! :) Quick update on us: Adrian is doing better, Sophie and Ben are still pretty sick with the flu, and Nina and I haven't gotten it - yay and knock on wood (hopefully the luck of the Irish will be with us)!!

Curse of the St. Patrick's Day Pajama Bottoms

We had a rough night last night or should I say earrrly this morning. Adrian has had a flu for the past couple of days and in his normal sickness style has also had a fever, but last night it got insanely high - 105.8!! He was unusually grumpy and sweaty so I had him take his temp and when he said it was 105 I just assumed it was 100.5, but no it was actually that high and I spent a few minutes trying different thermometers on him to see if it was just some fluke. Again, no I took my own temp w/ the same thermometers and his temp was seriously almost 7 degrees higher than mine. It was really scary and he wasn't make all that much sense either which was equally scary. So I called our doctor's office and got ahold of the on-call doctor, who also could not believe how high his temp was and also had me spend a few minutes checking with different thermometers. Once the doctor realized it probably wasn't that every thermometer in our house was broken he told me to hang up and get him to the ER or call an ambulance immediately.

So I called our wonderful neighbors the V.s and A. came over to sleep on our couch while I rushed Adrian to the ER. I was so worried. Adrian was uber-grumpy telling me he just wanted to go home and go to sleep. I told him he was out of his mind with a fever and too bad we're going to the ER. You can just tell how serious something is when the person is not reacting appropriately. I know, of course, that if it was me with that fever or one of our kids that Adrian would have been racing to the hospital, but instead he was grumbling about how I was crazy and he just need to go back to bed!! But we got to the hospital... They gave him lots of fluids and Motrin and the fever broke at the hospital. They did lots of tests and a chest x-ray, but it all came back that he had the flu, just a really bad reaction, and he was sent home around 6am.

AHHH... It was the most awful night. I didn't sleep at all, but I did get to read some of my book What is the What while Adrian was sleeping and we were waiting for test results. It was a good book to bring with, about the "Lost Boys" of the Sudan. It definitely helped me view this little trial with perspective when you think of what those poor families went through and the inhuman atrocities that happened in the Sudan. It is such a heavy book... (emotionally I mean.)

I came back home around 5am, Adrian was sleeping in the ER and his fever had gone down, so I thought that I should relieve our wonderful neighbor of our couch and try to get a little sleep. But alas, at 5:45 am Nina woke up for a feeding and didn't want to go back to sleep, Adrian called to say he was being discharged, and Sophie woke up complaining that she was hot and of course she also had a fever. UGH! So I sucked it up, got Sophie Tylenol and got everyone in the car to go get Adrian. It was quite the night/morning! I'm just grateful Adrian is alright He's doing much better now and says he's at about 65%, so I'd say that's great compared to last night. And on a side note Sophie and Ben have also developed this flu today. I'm just praying that it does not strike me and Nina at all... It could be one of those stories you hear about at La Leche League were the mom and nursing baby don't get sick at all even when the whole household does - I can hope!!

So why you ask is this post called "Curse of the St. Patrick's Day Pajama Bottoms"... Well (cue up spooky sounding music) yesterday and today Adrian has been wearing our green St. Patrick's day pajama bottoms and it was exactly 1 year ago today that I also decided to wear said pajama bottoms (Adrian and I share them) and I also went to the ER!!! - with kidney stones. I kid you not, one year ago today!! You might say its a coincidence, but we will from now on refer to it as the great curse of the St. Patrick's day pajama bottoms. Dun..Dun..Daaaaahhh!!

Am I a lunatic with 3 heads??

I just did my huge, once a month shopping trip. I probably already mentioned this, but I'm a lunatic and plan all my meals a month at a time. Then I do one major shopping trip (usually to Costco and the normal grocery store) and then a few quick runs back to the grocery store through out the month for veggies, milk, etc.

Well, every time I do the major shopping trip the check out clerks and the poor people in line behind me look at me like I have 3 heads or something! Does no one else shop like this?? Every time people ask how many children I have - my guess is that they look at the amount of baby food and kid snacks I'm buying and guess I have 14. A months worth of baby food IS a lot, I admit, but I like having it all in the cupboard. After my major shopping trip I feel relieved; my pantry is all full again and I get to post my new list of meals on the fridge. So call me crazy, but my big shopping trip makes me happy. Sorry if you ever get behind me at the check out line though... :)

Silly Show, Fun Night

I had the pleasure of having a girls-night over here last night with a few friends to indulge in a guilty pleasure - America's Next Top Model!! And we watched the first episode of Australia's Next Top Model too!! Its one of those shows that you watch, but only tell other people you watch if you think they might too!! :) It's a little like admitting you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer!! ;) Well I'm just going to out myself - I've watched every season of ANTM! I really can't intellectualize why I like it, but I just do. I guess its all the drama and human-ness behind the scenes. The group dynamics are almost like a sociology experiment. I also find the process that goes into those glossy fashion mag pictures so interesting. The one who I'm pulling for this season is Brittany. Doesn't she look like Joni?!

Anyways, it was tons of fun to watch and chat into the wee hours with such fun and wonderful friends. I love you girls!! I feel so renewed after getting together with girlfriends. It really is so important to laugh, talk, and share. Thanks girls!

A few random things learned this week.

Here's just a few tid-bits I learned this week:

1. Do not eat flaming hot egg rolls.
2. After eating a flaming hot egg roll and burning the roof of your mouth off, do not eat tater tots later in the day.
3. One talks like they have cotton stuffed in their mouth for days after burning off roof of mouth with flaming hot egg roll and then eating tater tots later in the day.
   
4. Nina will probably be at some level of sleep training FOREVER. (Well maybe not forever.. It could be teething or maybe tummy troubles, but our little sweetie-pie is still not a happy sleeper-pie.)
   
5. Snow-days, shmoe days!! (There was not even snow on our side-walk and yet school was still canceled)
6. I Spy Spooky Mansion Deluxe computer game is wonderful for 7 year olds and horribly frustrating for 3 year olds. (learned on our snow day)
   
7. I cannot buy the right amount of food for enrichment night. We seem to always be off, but hey I don't think anyone in my house is going to be sad that I took home a half pan of mint brownies. (We had our RS Bday celebration enrichment tonight - I think it was a success. We made lots of tied fleece blankets for a local hospital's NICU, and those who came seemed to have a fun time chatting and tying blankets.)
   
8. An 8x8 frozen pan of chicken tetrazzini takes at least 2 hours to cook. Should have know this one already, but after 1 hour at 350 expect frost to still be on top.
9. The Green Turtle is not a lovely place to eat with children when your chicken tetrazzinin is still frosty - even if they have commercials on the radio about how kid friendly they are. (Little did we know its a sports bar!!)
   
10. Best to walk out of restaurant with your 3 kids when you realize neon beer signs are the main decorative statement.
    
11. Cheeburger Cheeburger is a lovely place to eat out with kids when your chicken tetrazzini is still frosty and you do not want to eat in restaurant with neon beer signs as the main decorative statement.
12. Cheeburger Cheeburger serves their kids meals in paper model cars - thus making it THE BEST to Benjamin.
13. Basketball is THE BEST to Sophie, and she would rather skip than run during her games.
    
14. Creating random polygons is not as simple as it sounds - ask Adrian. (But his term project and presentation are over, so yay!)
15. Creating random list of things learned in 1 week is simpler than creating random polygons.
    

Ben's Stunts

Benjamin should have been wearing his "I do all my own stunts" t-shirt tonight at dinner when for the 2nd time his fell out of his chair and gave himself a bloody lip. I couldn't believe it when it happened again. I told Adrian that he's going to have lips like Angelina Jolie if we don't do something. So we brought up his much loathed booster seat again, with the promise that he could decorate it with Star Wars stickers. Let's hope that it keeps him in the center of the chair and not falling over the edge. Good grief!!