More Family News

Well, I said I'd send out an e-mail last Thursday or Friday and when it came time to do it, I did not feel like it. So here it is, a little late.

Scrapbooking Project

Our forced week of downtime (if you can really qualify it as downtime) is finally over, I hope. Rob's Aunt L came in town to take care of things financially and while she was here C asked her to put together a scrapbook for D. So L bought $230 worth of stuff and then together her and I went to work. Really, she made decisions and I did the grunt work, but scrapbooking is mainly grunt work, so we were busy for 24 hours. And do you want to know why scrapbooking isn't cool? Because that grueling 24 hours of work produced 16 pages. I really do like scrapbooking, but it's a little depressing to end an hour or more of work to get one page. But anyways, there is a half interesting story here. I thought about the book Dad put together after Ruben died. Basically it's the funeral service on paper along with lots of pictures. Well, I told C that she should get a copy of the talks given at D's funeral and then she would have the option of doing a book like that. It's one of my most cherished possessions. When we picked up L from the Cincinnati airport, it gave us the opportunity to get it from home and bring it up. I showed it to C and she was inspired. Initially she wanted to make the scrapbook we were doing be almost all-inclusive and there would have been no way to get that done in a little over a day. But after seeing the book, she realized that she didn't have to use every picture because she could add it later to a book like that. ... And Aunt L, the scrapbooking queen, said, "That book is what scrapbooking is really all about. Not all the stuff that I sell." I told her I was going to tell Dad that he's really a scrapbooker and she said she was very impressed with the book.

The Funeral

The funeral was horrible. For as prepared as I felt, I hate funerals. The funeral was so rose-colored that it made me angry (it's so HARD to make me angry, after all). You shouldn't have to lie about someone just cause it sounds good or because it's usually said or whatever. And I cried because I was mad and I cried because I miss Ruben and I cried for forgiveness. ... And I'm still in the process of greiving, if you can call it that. Coping, maybe is a better word. It never occured to me that I would have a problem coping with the death of someone I didn't like and who wasn't a good person. But it would be "easier" in a lot of respects if he had truly been the great guy spoken of in the funeral.

In the past week C has attended 2 funerals (one here and one in UT), had thousands of dollars of support come in, community members have stocked her house with diapers and food, and she's had $55,000 worth of debt forgiven just like that. She has a clean slate now and still has a lot of major decisions to make in her life. I don't envy her, though I do like the idea of $55,000 worth of debt poofing into the air. I wouldn't mind our debt disappearing.

Fruit Salad Experiment

We came home Thursday and were looking forward to a weekend getting back into life and getting our house back in order. And then one of us has been sick everyday since we've been back. The night before coming home Miciah and Elijah both threw up and then we all slept until noon. We think that was food poisoning. Then that day I told Rob that I thought it was the fruit salad people gave us. He said, "I'll experiment." So then Friday and Saturday Rob was sick. What a dufus! As he says, though, "The experiment worked." All I have to say in response is you notice who stayed as far away from that salad as possible. Yep. Who's the smarter one? :)

Miciah is Sick

Sunday we all took long naps cause we are all still pretty tired from our week. Miciah and Elijah woke up really fussy and Miciah threw up again and had a fever and then didn't go to bed until midnight (dang naps). Monday my kids were so cranky I was wondering why we have kids anyway. Miciah had a fever of around 102 again before crashing at 8:15. That is an unheard of time for her to go to bed! Elijah was asleep not long after and it was nice to actually accomplish an early bedtime for our kids. Miciah was restless all night and ended up in bed with us before the night was over. She woke up at 7:30 am (also an unheard of time for her, at least unforced) complaining about her ear. Rob put some herbal stuff in her ear and laid her on the couch where she slept solidly until 11:30. She said her ear felt better, but she still had a fever. She was back asleep by noon and slept until 1:30. Miciah is NEVER like this. She so rarely is sick. So we took her in to the doctor and she has a double ear infection (funny enough, she was upset she had to go to the doctor. She kept telling us she wasn't sick any more and her ear felt better). To make things even more fun, one of the bottles of prescription medicine that Rob brought home didn't have the lid on tight so it spilled all over our kitchen floor and we have to go get some more. ... Seems like it's been a week like that.

We apologized to the preschool for Miciah missing so much school in a row. I guess you can't plan funerals or sicknesses. And I had our vacation planned well before either of those other unplanneds! :) We're still looking forward to our trip to California, though honestly right now all I'm thinking is that I have to get to the store, I have to pack, and I have to figure out how to entertain 2 kids for 7 hours of plane rides and airport sitting. It'll be nice to not feel so stressed out while I'm in California. Maybe it'll be REAL downtime. I could handle some relaxation and some good hugs and talks from Mom.

Oh, went to the doctor today for me and baby. The baby sounds fine. Ultrasound scheduled for April 7th. Hopefully we'll find out then if it's a girl or boy (I'm thinking it's a girl).

We love you all. Stay healthier and luckier than we have been!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and squirmy baby