Today I’m doing one of those glamorous parenting jobs: staying home with a sick kid. Today’s sick kid is Christopher. Poor dude has had a cold/cough and today added puking. Not sure if it’s just phlegm (he’s definitely the puker of the bunch) or if he managed to catch a 24-hour bug on the side, but here I am at home. I think it’s a good time to catch up on my blog.
When you last tuned in, we had just driven 20 hours across the Midwest for a vacation in WI. Our 
week of vacation was great although with all the drive-time I was left wishing for about 2 more days. We did manage to catch up with some friends, enjoy a picnic lunch (or two) and check out the Big Cat Rescue in Rock Springs, WI. We celebrated grandma Laura’s 60th birthday and visited with both sets of great grandparents. The boys did sparklers for the first time and hung out with cousin Clara. The drive back was mostly uneventful. They boys rode great, and with the exception of some severe indigestion from a gross meal in Nebraska, I did alright too. A few days before we left WI we got a call from the neighbors that we had water running across our sidewalk and down the street. The good news was that they had called the city to shut off our water. The bad news is that meant we arrived home without any running water in the house. Turns out the best decision of the entire trip was taking one extra day of vacation from work in order to catch up when we got back–getting the water turned back on ended up being the first thing on the list.
When we returned to Utah I started doing some serious car shopping. We’d recently decided we’d commit to driving Jason’s Honda Pilot until it died by the side of the road, and sell my CRV while it still had some value left. Turns out Jason is too tall to sit in a CRV with a sunroof so my original choice of a certified used CRV didn’t work out. We went back to the drawing board and realized for another $1000 we could buy a brand new CRV. It still seems absurd, but on 8/18 we bought a brand new 2017 Honda CRV. It is awesome. Now the plan is to pay this bad-boy off…keep it for 10 years…and then probably let the boys drive it. I’m going to enjoy it for a good long time before we hand it down. We sold my old car to our cousin. He was driving a 25 year old pick-up truck so it was a great deal for both of us.
The rest of August and the beginning of September is all a blur. We had Jason’s annual work picnic, the Midvale Harvest Days Parade, a family reunion, the beginning of the canning season, Jason had 
oral surgery (2nd phase of his dental implant), the boys took a trip to see the total solar eclipse, and William started school. That’s right we officially have a kindergartner! I also discovered that I cannot reliably spell kindergarten–I had to take his first day of school picture twice due to my mistake! William seems to be enjoying it there so far. He only had a few tears the first week, but quickly came home with the names of two new friends: Owen and Max. He does miss going to Debbie’s (daycare) quite a bit so we’ve been plotting to arrange some play-days there on his days off from school. He’s in full day kindergarten. It is a dual immersion English/Spanish program so half of the day he learns in English and half in Spanish. Jason says after 3 weeks William already knows more Spanish vocabulary than he does. If he continues this program all the way through HS I believe he will officially earn a Spanish Minor by HS graduation. He’s having fun learning some new words, but also likes making up his own Spanglish. “Mom–did you know ‘man’ in Spanish is ‘man-o’?” Keeps us laughing as usual. I think most of the curriculum (so far) is stuff he already knows–Debbie prepared him well. Jason has also been spending time almost nightly helping William read beginner books. He’s getting better at it all the time!
Along with the laughing, the boys can be pretty challenging. Today Christopher is home sick, and I’m just hoping I’m not the next to be puking. Andrew was sick with a fever for about 5 days mid-August and earned a trip to Instacare where we learned it was tonsillitis (and basically over by the time we took him in). Carrying a sick baby for days messed up my neck and shoulders and I made several trips to the chiropractor to get it straightened out. Now we’re all coughing. William has managed to stay relatively healthy, but I almost killed him last night after he didn’t finish his dinner and proceeded to lose his ever-loving-mind because I wouldn’t make him a chocolate milkshake. Fun fun fun. Here’s a picture of them looking angelic. I’ll make sure to post some angry crying ones in the next edition. 🙂
The rest of the month includes more canning from the garden, trips to the dentist for 2 out of three boys, Andrew turning 18 months old, and hopefully a whole lot of NOT. BEING. SICK. I have a feeling with William in kindergarten we’ll be lucky to be healthy all winter. Wish us luck!
S.~
PS: This blog was finished a week later when I finally had the chance to add pictures. Turns out Christopher did have a 24 hour bug, but thankfully it resolved quickly and his cough is getting much better. William kept us on our toes by puking Friday night–but I think in his case over-indulging on chocolate shake may have been the cause. The following weekend was great! I got to do some fall clothing shopping for the boys and spend an entire day in the house by myself while Grandma Marion babysat Andrew and Jason took the two older boys on an adventure to see the lava tubes. Thus a blog that is FINALLY finished!