Heat, Sickness and Lincoln's First Party

This past week has been hot, so we didn’t venture outside too much. Monday was getting caught up on stuff around the house. I changed up our chore chart and added in two new chores so that the twins could start being a part of it. They have had to clean their rooms, put away their laundry, help set the table and help out wherever I asked before, but I thought they were ready to start with the others. I taught them initially how to do a quick wipe down of the bathroom and how to clean the main windows on the main floor. I did venture out to do my grocery shopping and picked up the nunchucks I ordered from Dollar Tree for Lincoln’s birthday party. At first, they couldn’t find them and then they discovered someone had put them out and four of them had already sold. So, they refunded me for the difference. Ellie and Jackson both had tournament games that night. Ellie was up first at 5:15. I brought her early and she got a chance to get in the batting cages before the rest of her team showed up. And thankfully we had a good breeze and then some cloud cover to help with the heat. Ellie had a great game. She had a triple her first at bat, got a short hit the second time and then got hit the third. She did a good job at first, then third and finally pitcher. Her team won, which meant they got to play again Tuesday night. We had a little bit of time before Jackson’s game at 8, but it also looked like there could be a storm rolling in.  I picked up some McDonald’s for the kids and we ate in the parking lot of the ballpark. The storm never materialized, but the clouds brought a nice reprieve from the heat. Jackson’s team ended up losing his game, but he had a good last game. It was fun watching him improve this season. His team got their medals, but parents don’t get too involved with this age group, so the only picture I got was outside the fence 😊.

Tuesday morning I had a doctor’s appointment-just a yearly visit. The exam lasted maybe 10 minutes and all she did was ask a few questions and the charge ended up being just over $300 since I was cash pay and our income was over $80000, so we weren’t eligible for any discounts. Crazy. I checked with Molly to see what the charge would have been at my dad’s office and she said $65. Back home, the kids got to enjoy doing multiple chores. We were under a heat advisory, so no one really felt like going outside. I put together Lincoln’s party favors and Jackson and I set up the new Nest thermostats that we got. He really wanted to do it all himself, but I helped out too. The only problem was that we had the air off for about 1 ½ hours since we also had to do some touchup painting around the thermostats and it had a hard time catching back up after the we turned it back on. That night, Jackson had football camp and Ellie had another softball game. It was a close game that was tied and we ended up losing. Ellie struggled because she was pitching when they scored the game-winning run, but she had just started pitching and it was the first and only run they scored off of her. But during the game we noticed that they had some replacement players on their team who were the same age as our girls. KBSA rules state that you can only get replacement players from the age groups under you. Their coach tried to tell us that the rules said in tournament play, you can get girls from the same age group as long as their team is out of the tournament. But we read that you can only play on one team during the tournament. It was brought to the attention of the president of KBSA after the game and they called that the other team had to forfeit the game and we ended up winning. We got a text about an hour after the game with that information and we would play again Thursday night. But they had already given them their medals and I had already taken the chairs and bat bags out of the back of the car and put away until next season.

Wednesday was another hot day so we planned a morning swim with Kristin, Annie and their kids. The kids swam and we had pizza delivered for lunch. Then we went to the movie theater to see an afternoon showing of Despicable Me 3. I didn’t think it was as good as the first two, but the kids enjoyed it. Lauren came home with us after the movie and she and Ellie got to hang out for a while. We actually didn’t have anything going on that night except Jackson’s football camp, so we I made dinner and we didn’t have to rush through eating it. We actually got to sit at the table and eat. Ellie ended up going out to the ranch with Lauren for a sleepover. They wanted to have a sleepover at our house, but Annie wanted Lauren to ride the next morning, so they opted for out there.  Without a game in the evening, I worked around the house outside and Andrew and the boys cleaned their bikes.

Andrew went out the next morning to ride too and brought Ellie home when he was done. I let her rest part of the day since she had another game that night. That morning, I had gotten ready to get on the bike trainer but wasn’t feeling the best, so I laid down for just a bit. I just got worst and ended up laying in bed all day. I could hear the kids and their friends going in and out of the house all day. The kids would come in a lot and I couldn’t get mad because most of the time they were asking if they could do something instead of just doing it. But I felt like I could barely move and if I thought about getting up, I would feel nauseous. I did get up later in the afternoon to take inventory and could tell that a lot of our snacks had been eaten. But I didn’t get up much because I felt weak and a little dizzy when I would get up. Ellie did come in one time with some leftover pasta she had heated up for me for lunch. I told her thank you but I wasn’t hungry, so she said she would save it. When I came out later, she apologized to me and told me she ate my lunch 😊. I did manage to get up late afternoon, take a shower and the get the younger boys some pb&j for dinner before Andrew took Jackson to football and Ellie to her game. Then I brought the younger boys for game time. Ellie’s team was ready to play, but it just wasn’t their night. Ellie had a good game. She had a great play at first where she got the runner out and made an awesome throw to third that was so close to getting another girl out. She only got up to bat twice and got a single and the next time she got hit and got to walk. They hustled to get another inning in hopes that they could come back, so they game went on longer than I was hoping. I was just wanting to get back to bed. But they weren’t able to come back and their season was done. So, then it was back home and I put off unpacking the car this time and went back to bed.

Friday morning, I eventually forced myself out of bed. I still wasn’t feeling great, but was better. I even convinced myself to work out and did some interval training on the bike and the treadmill. Then, running on adrenaline, got ready and loaded up everyone, including Alex, for Lincoln’s birthday party at Rising Son Karate. It was so awesome that we were doing this party because they take care of almost everything which was great when I wasn’t feeling well. All I did was order a cake, bring some juice boxes and party favors. The cake was dropped off soon after we got there and it was awesome. Lincoln loved it. The lady in charge, Twila, started interacting and doing some stuff with my boys as we waited for the other guests to arrive. She was so engaging and patient with them. Once everyone was there, she taught them some discipline basics of having class there, a short self-defense lesson and then onto Nerf gun shooting. They divided up into two groups and took turns shooting at different types of targets and had a lot of fun.

Then it was time to cut the cake. Lincoln had really been looking forward to this since he got to cut it with a samurai sword. They were all so impressed.

After the cake, it was time to open presents and then Lincoln got to break a board with his foot. Afterwards, he decided it wasn’t thick enough and he wanted to try a thicker one. They did sign his board for him to take home. The final event of the afternoon was nunchuck skills. Another favorite activity. She taught them several different sequences of moves. Then they all got to take home the nunchuck party favors. The twins used them to do their new skills at home. Overall, it was an awesome party and I think the boys had a lot of fun. I know Lincoln is already asking to do it again next year and the twins want one too.

Afterwards, we hung out at home and I rested again for a bit and tried to get caught up on some laundry before we headed out to Matthew and Kristin’s. Annie and the kids were leaving the next day, so we all had dinner together. The kids swam, played a little whiffle ball and kick ball and played with the kittens.

The next morning, they all begged me to go out to check the cows with them. I had planned to go for a ride and get groceries, but I also wasn’t feeling great. I went ahead and went out. We checked the cows, Andrew talked to his landlord, Herb, for a while and then we stopped by Andrew’s parents. Jackson worked a little bit on her security cameras while Ellie and Lincoln rode four-wheelers. Andrew had me join Ellie for a little ride too. But by the time we got back, I wasn’t feeling very good at all. Andrew went to the office and I laid down. I eventually called him to come back because the kids were constantly coming in and out of the room and I didn’t feel like I could rest not knowing where they were going and what they were doing. Once he came, it felt so good to just go to sleep. And I stayed there until evening. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed though because I was feeling like I was getting far behind on my household duties and I knew I had a lot coming up with getting ready for kamp and vacation. Andrew assured me that they would work on it. He said he was only going to clean up once, so don’t come out until the end of the night. They did empty the dishwasher and do a load of laundry and picked up the house a little. Ellie and Lincoln also got to go swimming at the Country Club for a little bit. Then Jackson and Lincoln went to the Movie in the Park with the Vincents.  Andrew then took Ellie and the twins to Dairy Queen. Jackson was a fan of the movie, but Lincoln and Alex weren’t.

I was feeling a little better the next day, but not quite there, so we didn’t go to church. Ellie was so disappointed. I think part of the reason Lincoln slept through the movie was because he was getting sick. When I told him to go clean up his room, he started crying saying he was so tired. I sent him to his room to sleep thinking that he may be getting what I had and then later he came downstairs with a fever. He ended up sleeping on my bed and I had taken the sheets off to wash them, so he was just on the mattress. He slept all morning and afternoon. Andrew ended up taking the others kids over to my parents when he went to the office because they were wanting to swim. While they were gone, I took advantage of the chance to put together kamp packages. With three going, it took a little bit of time. And then I went back and forth on how I was going to do Lincoln’s birthday package. He got up at one point and said he wanted some water. He seemed to be a little better and I didn’t think anything of it when he asked for some Cheezits. That is until the threw them up on my mattress. Andrew came home a little after that and he offered to clean up the mattress while I got Lincoln taken care of and the dirty clothes into the laundry. I was hoping it was just a one time thing, but then he did it again and didn’t quite make it to the bathroom. Thankfully it was on the vinyl floor and I got that cleaned up while Andrew did the toilet. Then I set him up in our bathroom. My dad brought the kids home later that night and we all went to bed. I stayed up late checking on Lincoln, but he was sleeping soundly. He did get up once saying he wanted to turn off the light in the bathroom and then I didn’t realize he had thrown up in the night because he closed the bathroom door. It appeared he got some of the floor before getting to the toilet-even though he was right beside it-and then just went back to sleep.