Shaunie recently headed north to her
tierra natal to attend the funeral of a great man, her Grandpa. She will post on that later. While she was gone, over a period of five days and four nights, we had quite the adventure here at home.
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| Gordon at the bus stop waiting for Evelyn. This is what happens when Dad dresses him. Khaki shorts, Star Wars shirt, Red Sox hat, blue hoodie, rad! |
After dropping Shaunie off at the airport, I took the little kids to the store and we looked at toys before going home to get Evelyn at the bus stop. It just so happens that the same day Shunie left, Jillian had her second-ever dental appointment. If you know Jill, you know she's a creature of habit. New things are to be avoided at all costs, especially when Mommy isn't around. Evelyn went back first, she marched straight in without any hesitation. Jilly, on the other hand, was nervous and clinging to Daddy like she was hanging off a cliff. The dentist, who normally doesn't allow parents back with their kids, thought it would be fine if I went back with her, so Gordon and Evelyn sat in the lobby with the nice receptionist and watched cartoons while Jilly marched toward certain doom. As it turns out, she says, "It wasn't that scary. And the funny toothpaste tastes like bubblegum."
Jilly being brave for the dentist. She has her ducky blanket to keep her safe.
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| On a separate note, the dentist looks very much like the toy fixer from Toy Story 2. |
Having narrowly survived the dentist, I made an executive decision and we went to In'N'Out for dinner. This was a good plan, except for the part where Jilly didn't eat any dinner. I thought maybe she was rebelling against Mommy's absence, but it turns out she just had a fever of 103.2, impeccable timing Mr. Virus (chickenpox). I gave her some medicine to reduce her fever and she went to bed a bit early.
The next day was easy, I was on spring break and only had to get Evelyn to the bus stop on time. I made her lunch the night before, set out the fixings for breakfast and made sure to set two alarms so I wouldn't sleep in. Mission accomplished. The morning was pretty low key, we watered the garden, played some games, I put off doing the dishes, and Jillian's fever had subsided. However, lunch wasn't a smashing success as I was informed that I had not made the macaroni and cheese "like Mommy makes it." Jilly didn't eat much and she started to complain that her body hurt. After we picked up Evelyn, Jillian's previous declaration was restated by her sister, "The macaroni is kind of weird. You didn't make it like Mommy." That night the missionaries were scheduled to come to dinner (another appointment made before we knew about the untimely trip up north). Of course, Jillian started to feel funny, perhaps my macaroni was toxic. I planned to just meet the Elders at Taco Bell since I didn't want to get them sick, and, let's face it, the less I cook the better for everyone. As the afternoon began to fade I found Jillian upstairs dipping Q-tips into water and putting them in her ear in an attempt to stop them from hurting. I looked in her ear and saw what looked like a dark spot with some white puss. Her primary classmate had an ear infection recently and I did the math: prior knowledge of a friend with an ear infection + fever + weird puss-looking stuff in Jilly's ear = ear infection. I called the urgent care folks and they agreed that she should come in. I have Jill some medicine to reduce her pain/fever and by the time we left, she was feeling pretty good. I figured we should go to the doctor anyway. I missionaries were nice enough to cancel for the evening while we headed to urgent care. At the doctor's office Gordon decided he needed to inspect his sister's throat.
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| "Jillian I need to look inside. Oh, you're okay." -Dr. Gordon |
As it turns out, Jilly just had some wax clogging her ear. The puss-looking stuff was wax that turned white after being saturated by the water that she had put in her ear via q-tips. They washed her ear out and I was just glad that she was fine. Poor Shaunie got about 37 urgent text messages while I was trying to figure things out. When we got home we ate our dinner, courtesy of Taco Bell, and watched The Empire Strikes Back. One of the funniest things I've ever heard is when the girls explain stuff like Batman or Star Wars to each other (inspired by my playing of Lego Batman or Lego Star Wars).
Jilly: Look, Yoda's using the force too, how is he doing it?
Evelyn: I don't know but he is.
Jilly: What kind of animal is he?
Evelyn: Hmmm, let's see. What do we got? He's probably...hmmm, let's see....he's probably a peroson that got really really old, and then, he shrunk.
Jilly: And he turned green.
Evelyn: And is ears grew long, and his hair grew out, because he was so old.
Saturday we slept in a bit, I got the kids fed and we were off to Evelyn's softball game.
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| Gordon inspecting the ants. |
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| Swinging for the fence. |
Ev and everyone on the team did great, they all got at least two hits doing coach-pitch. While Evelyn was playing Gordon and Jill kept busy by gathering sticks and making a "fire". We also played a bit of catch to stay occupied during the game. After it was over we stayed at the park for a bit so the kids could play on the playground equipment.
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| "Dad! We made a campfire to stay warm!" -Jilly |
The kids were great the whole morning so on the way home from softball we stopped and got the fixin's for some root beer floats as a reward. We also got some gas behind this guy.
I told the kids that his car is called a Corvette and that it's a really cool car that goes very fast. Evelyn, after inspecting the gentleman gassing up his car, put two and two together. A guy that wears sun-glasses and drives a fast, cool, car, "must be a spy, like that guy in that show you love."
She was referring to the character Michael Weston from Burn Notice. Good eye Evelyn. On the way home the kids wanted to know how far I could ride my bike:
Evelyn: Could you ride all the way to Mexico?
Daddy: Yep.
Evelyn: Could you ride all the way to Nevada?
Daddy: Maybe.
Evelyn: Could you ride all the way to Chihuahua, Mexico (where I served my mission)?
Daddy: Maybe.
Evelyn: Could you ride all the way to China?
Daddy: Nope.
Evelyn: Could you ride all the way to San Diego?
Daddy: Yep. I did that before.
Evelyn: What!?
Daddy: Yep.
That night after dinner (frozen pizza...yep, I'm a great cook) we had root beer floats and watched Return of the Jedi. This of course resulted in impromptu light-saber fights, the dressing up as Jedi knights, and organizing the couch cushions in the shape of an X-Wing fighter. Rad.
Sunday was a more relaxing day, we just kind of hung out, relaxed, listened to general conference, and prepared for the big day. While I was trying to listen to conference/stay awake, the kids kept busy playing with play-doh. They made some pretty cool designs. For dinner Sunday we had broccoli, rice, and orange chicken (thanks to Costco, it wasn't very hard). This was hilarious because the kids kept commenting on my cooking (or lack thereof). Here are a few of the comments:
Daddy: These are the cups you are going to use the rest of the day.
Jilly: Why?
Daddy: Because there is no need to dirty more dishes.
Jilly: [Raises her hand as if to be called on] But don't know how to wash dishes?
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| According to the girls, the bucket here is a castle, and all the stuff in front of it is a zoo. |
Monday I had to get Gordon and Jill to our friend's house (who kindly agreed to watch them while I taught class), get Evelyn to the bus stop, and get my class all by 8am. The night before I made Evelyn's lunch, set out bowls of oatmeal (just add hot water!), put water in the kettle, and had everybody's clothes set out. I set two alarms and didn't screw up at all. We all had a filling breakfast and got to our respective destinations on time. I picked up the little kids after class and we went home for a nap (Daddy was up late planning his lesson). However, I had forgotten that I had a meeting that day at 12...oops! So I just brought the kids. They were bored, but so was I, meetings are a waste of time. On the way to the meeting and on the way home we got to ride the campus shuttle, the kids loved this. The bus was packed and I was standing, holding onto a rail, while holding Jillian's hand, and she was holding Gordon's hand. The undergrads really didn't know what do to about the fact that there were kids on the bus, so rather than offer us a seat, they stared directly into their iphones and pretended we weren't there. The funniest part was that every time the driver hit the brakes, we'd all lunge forward. Jilly thought it was like a game, try to stay standing. The student in front of her didn't agree so much, Gordon's head kept hitting her in the bum. But hey, next time, maybe offer a seat to the little kids.
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| Waiting for the bus after the "most boringist meeting ever." |
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| Luckily the bus was much less crowded on the way home and each kid got their own seat. |
We picked up Evelyn and soon after, left for the airport to get Mommy. We were all very happy to see her, and she was happy to see that the van and apartment were not trashed and each one of us had all of our limbs. By the time we got there, Gordon was so tired that he had fallen asleep. When we got home and Shaunie got him out of the car, he was so happy that he wanted to keep giving her kisses, but he was so asleep that he kept nodding off, cutest thing ever.
Though we missed Shaunie, I had a lot of fun with the kids. We played a bit of Lego Indiana Jones, watched some Star Wars, read some books, and played at the park. All around we had fun and we even ate some decent food (for one meal). I think next time Mommy goes out of town we'll be fine as well.
Ben is in Mexico and gone this Father's Day. We had carne asada tacos the night before he left. This post was a project Evelyn completed last week in school. There was a hand-drawn picture of Ben on each page doing some activity, and a sentence or list as well. I would have just scanned it, but the printer's not complying and it's eight pages long. So here it is, in all it's 1st grade-edited glory.
