Bug Battles

February 12, 2012

The battle is raging. Jane came down with a stomach bug last week. Nasty, nasty business. From her perspective it wasn’t all bad. As she reported to Grandma Shelly on the phone, “I puked then I watched a movie and ate a popsicle.” Kate caught the bug yesterday. The tragedy is that she had to miss her Valentine’s Day party at school. For my little kindergartener that was a big deal. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen my Happy Kate quite so blue. Her teacher stopped by after school with a bag full of valentines from her friends. That little gesture went a long way to cheer her up.

February 19, 2012

You can see how well I am doing. But at least we won the battle with the bugs...for now.

After Kate missed most of the week of school because of sickness, Josh insisted on keeping her home on Friday to go to the zoo. He starts a new project with BCG on Monday. He’ll be traveling to West Virginia for a coal mining project. Before we get back into the fun of a travel schedule, he wanted to play with his girls. He took Kate out of school, we packed a lunch, and headed out on an adventure. We had a great day at the Fort Worth Zoo. The rhino was playing with his ball. The white tigers were about 2 inches from the glass staring right at us. We saw the interesting way gorillas eat grass. (At school Kate is not allowed to say that something is gross. They have to say that it is “interesting”. Well, this was so “interesting” that it almost made me puke.) The crocodile swam across his pond. The eagles were eating rats right above our heads. The condor spread his wings as we walked by. And the lion stood up and roared and roared and ROARED just for us! The Fort Worth Zoo is beautiful and Friday was a perfect day to be there. Thanks to Josh for bringing a little spontaneity to our routine.

I got a new calling in our ward, first counselor in the Primary presidency. I have never worked in primary before, so this will be a fun new adventure. It is interesting how the Spirit prepares you for a new calling. For the last few months I have really had a desire to work in primary. By the time the bishop called to make an appointment to visit with us, I knew what was coming. Thanks to a wonderful chorister, we got through today okay. It was ward conference. The stake was there to observe and we were just trying to figure things out. I’m doing sharing time all four weeks in March, so we’ll see how I feel about being in primary after that. ;)

We had an interesting experience a week ago. Our neighbors invited us to a fish fry at their house. It sounded fun, neighborly, and Southern so we decided to go. Well, it turned out to be a gathering with all their friends from church...and the Woodfords. I have invited people to church activities before, but I have never been the outsider. It is good to be on the other side every now and then. The girls did just fine. Josh and I did our best to meet people and not stick out too much. We ate some tasty fried food. By the way, deep fried mushrooms...mmm, mmm good. We had to leave a little early because the missionaries were coming over to meet with us. We didn’t tell our new friends why we were leaving, nor did we tell the missionaries where we had been. I think both sides did better in ignorance that particular evening at least. Good people. Good neighbors. Super awkward evening for a lot of reasons.

Valentine’s Day was a bit overshadowed by stomach bugs this year. My mom saved the day by sending me a valentine that I found in the mail just when I needed a little lifter upper. Then Josh took the girls disappeared for a few minutes after dinner. They came home with some lovely BRIGHT pink and purple daisies. Not natural pink and purple, but the kind that would catch a 5-year-old’s eye. They even had glittery sparkles glued to some of the petals. Kate proudly announced that she picked them out! I love them because she and Jane think they are so beautiful.

As I was tucking Jane in I gave her a big squeeze and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jane. I love you.” She squeezed me back and said, “Happy Valentine’s Day. I love you too. Will you be my valentine?”

It snowed here in Dallas. I took a picture to prove it. I’m glad to know it’s Winter. Somehow battling bugs seems out of place when the sun is shining and it’s in the 60s. It is Winter. I must remind myself it is Winter!

Wish us luck this week as we head back into consultant world. Coal mining should be interesting! That just reminded me of another cute story. Kate made a “last brthday presint” for Josh this week. It was a book.

page 1: bcg! bcg! bcg is fun!

page 2: bcg

page 3: still bcg

page 4: still bcg

page 5: grate! grate! still bcg!

page 6: the end

And in case any of you missed this, it is also worth a laugh: