Olivia's wedding (7/28)

 

Olivia got married on Sunday and it was truly a beautiful day!

Kelli assigned herself a few too many tasks to do and was a bit frazzled (to put it lightly). She decorated, she catered, she walked the bride down the aisle... And everything was wonderful—the food, the decorations—but it was a lot!

I was glad that I volunteered my mom, Josie, and myself to chop vegetables for her. We spent hours chopping onions and tomatoes and olives! But I wish we'd done more (because, Kelli did so much). 

We should have showed up early to help set things up, but then—I suppose—we wouldn't have had the energy to help out during the reception. I ended up in charge of the live stream recording of the ceremony (so family members too far away to attend could still attend), so I sat right behind my sister, which felt a little too VIP for my station. 

Another one bites the dust

Technically she bit the dust over the weekend. And we thought she was getting better. But in the last couple of days she spiked a new fever and has been terribly, terribly sleepy. We took her SpO2 levels this morning and they were low enough (and her cough awful enough) that we decided to take her in as well.

They heard some wheezing in her breathing so decided to give her some albuterol. But even that didn't clear up all the noises in her lungs, so they gave her an antibiotic prescription as well. They considered giving her an x-ray to confirm, but since both her brothers were easily diagnosed with pneumonia the doctor decided her borderline case was likely also pneumonia.

So very fun times over here! Hopefully we will all get over this thing soon!

Pneumonia boy, part 2: Benjamin bites the dust

While I hopped in the shower this morning, Andrew started calling the pediatrician the minute their office was open. We'd decided last night that Benjamin's cough was (a) wild and (b) lasting far too long. He'd fallen ill on Thursday (the day I left) and had been running a temperature between 100° and 105° the whole week long. 

Everyone else who has had this sickness got really sick but then started feeling better. 

I was just barely feeling nearly 100% when I headed out for SLC, so I was fairly confident I wasn't going to be spreading germs. I was just sad to hear that Benjamin wasn't feeling well—and missed the sleepover at Grandpa's house because he wasn't feeling well—and then Rachel started feeling sick the following day (though she hasn't been as sick as Benjamin). 

Anyway, I was only sick for about a week...but I was almost better by the end of that week. 

Benjamin has made no apparent movement towards getting better. His fever was lingering, his appetite was down, his cough was persistent... It was feeling very much like Alexander (and those symptoms felt similar to Andrew because he was also prone to pneumonia as a child).

Unfortunately, the same storm that brought down all the branches last night before I got home also knocked out the power at various places around town. We were fine over at our house, but our pediatrician's office was without power. When Andrew couldn't get through on the phone he went over in person to see if he could make an appointment, but they were running on generators over there and weren't going to make an extra appointments until the power came back on. 

So we took Benjamin to the urgent care. 

A Library Miracle

On the way up to the airport on Tuesday my mom and I stopped at the Orem Public Library to say goodbye to Josie (who works there). She took us through the new art gallery where I got to see an installation by my friend (?) acquaintance (?) tutor (?) colleague (?) AshMae (who taught the "Mine to Tell" course I took years ago, who I've visited with at BCC events, who I'm friends with on Facebook but don't truthfully know that well in real life). The theme of her exhibit was stay-at-home parenthood.  

It was fun to run into AshMae's work there. 

More museum pictures

As I mentioned, I had a few pictures of our museum trip that I was expecting to come from other cameras, and now they're here!

Here's Rosie trying to balance both of her daughters while eating lunch:

Monday at the Museum

We sure were worn out by the time we finished cleaning up at the wedding and made the drive home. And then we stayed up until around midnight putting food into the freezer and cleaning crockpots and things!

My mom and Josie were very happy they'd taken Monday off work! 

Somehow Kelli apparently managed to make it up to Idaho to go to Bear World with her daughter Amy (which was likely a needed break for her as well...but which also sounds like quite a lot of work, so I don't know). We decided we also needed to see some animals, so we went to the Bean Museum.

But first we made a stop at my Uncle Bruce's office, where he gave us the grand tour of the inner workings of BYU's OIT and gave him some lettuce (because we are giving everyone lettuce these days; Kelli prepared way too much food for the number of people we had, but that's okay...I suppose it's better to over prepare than under prepare and there are plenty of people to share around the leftovers with).

Here I am with Uncle Bruce:

Friday visits

I didn't take a single picture of my visit at Grandma Pat's place...but that's okay because Andrew's extended family is really not into pictures. Last time we visited we made people take pictures, but that was for Phoebe to have a picture of herself with her great-grandparents. This time I didn't have Phoebe...so I didn't press for a picture (as much as it hurt the "must take a picture every time the family gathers" gene I got from my Grandma). 

We met at Grandma Pat's senior living center. It was my first time going there and—man!—that place is nice. Like, I had heard stories (it's jokingly referred to as "the cruise ship") but I was seriously impressed. 

Her apartment is darlingly decorated. The amenities are plentiful—a pool, a gym, a games room, a theatre, a post office, a store, a bistro, a restaurant, a bank... You name it, they seem to have it! 

And all the staff were so friendly! 

I was, as I said, seriously impressed. 

Grandma Pat took us to lunch at the bistro (us = me, my mom, Grandpa Frank, Uncle Matt, Aunt Becky, and Aunt Nicki). The food was good and it was lovely to get to visit with everyone!

Getting to Utah

I haven't really taken very many pictures yet this trip, but I have had a few wonderful visits!

Andrew dropped me off at the airport rather than making me ride MARTA (like I make him do). My anxiety tends to go through the roof when I travel, so I was having a frazzled morning with lots of wonderful tummy aches (not that he was planning on putting me on MARTA, anyway). 

Not having to navigate the airport with any children in tow was certainly different than...you know...dragging a number of children through the airport. On the one hand, it was lovely. I didn't have to worry about whether anyone was going to wander off or leave anything behind or pee their pants or sit down and cry and refuse to stand up and walk again or...you know...whatever. 

On the other hand I had to stand in the regular, ordinary TSA line with everyone, rather than being put in the expedited line for those who need assistance, so that process took much longer (but I was all by myself so it wasn't all that bad).

My flight was delayed by about half an hour, but after all the news about cancelled flights this past week I was just glad my flight was going at all. I had never experienced Delta's system of assigning seats...when you get there...that was weird. They put up passenger's names on a screen—just the first two letters of your last name, followed by the first letter of your first name—with your assignment, but you have to read the list quickly because the screen will change and cycle through several different slides of other information before popping back up again for—in my opinion—an absurdly short amount of time.

My seat was 39F (the window seat in the very back of the plane) and I was in zone 8 (the very last zone to be seated) and ended up very near the end of the line because I was helping another girl figure out what seat she was supposed to be in (because the app on her phone hadn't updated to tell her which seat to be in, as mine luckily had since I didn't figure out the seat assignment chart until later). 

Random tidbits

While I was busy in primary, having a pioneer hoedown during music time, President Biden dropped out of the election, which was some pretty good news. 

Grandpa came over for dinner...and to bring back the kids' car seats, which we forgot to take out of his car when he dropped them off on Saturday. We had homemade pasta, which was delicious. 

In less good news, a faulty software update caused practically every flight to be grounded over the weekend. More than 5000 flights were delayed. Delta Airlines was particularly hard hit.

Rosie and I both have flights out to Utah—on Delta—later this week for Olivia's wedding. We're crossing our fingers everything is ironed out by the time we need to fly.

*****

Phoebe can be a real riot. Here are a few stories from her this morning:

Phoebe: Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom…

Me: Mmmm…

Phoebe: Wake up. 

Me: Momma is still tired. 

Phoebe (tickling me): What is this?

Me: That’s my armpit. 

Phoebe: It is so pokey. 

Me: Thank you. 

Phoebe: And you have yucky elbows. My elbows are so smooth. Your elbows are so yucky. Disgusting. 

Me: Thank you. 

Phoebe: Will you hold me? I just want to hug you!

Me: Yup. I can hold you. 

Phoebe: Hold me with your yucky elbows. 

Me: Mmmmhmmm. Wait until you get older…

She still has perfectly soft baby skin. But that will change, I'm sure.

Rachel is 17!

Somehow—almost impossibly—Rachel turned 17 today. 

She (and Miriam) had a game night with friends last night (so it was like a birthday party but without her having to be the very center of attention, which she doesn't particularly enjoy) and Rachel woke up to a flurry of texts from her FSY friends. 

Later in the morning she and I solidified her schedule for next school year. She'll be doing a full course load at BYU-Idaho and is particularly excited for a sewing class we found—Apparel Construction 1. 

Grandpa brought the kids home around noon. We opened presents soon after they arrived. Phoebe has actually been pretty okay with birthdays this year. I mean, the first few were upsetting, but she's realized that her turn is coming and rather than being upset by the ongoing anticipation she's chosen to be increasingly excited for when it's her day.

When she wandered into my room at midnight—soon after I'd finished wrapping Rachel's presents—she said, "Oooh! Are these presents for me?!"

"No," I said. "They're for Rachel."

"Oh," she said, slumping. "Okay."

She perched right beside Rachel the whole time: