As of late

It seems like lately I can't buy five minutes to sit down and blog. I keep thinking that today will be the day, but then it's gone before it began and I am too tired to stay up another minute to write.

But now I have some time...

It's Friday night and three of my four kids are through the wash and rinse cycle and now lounging on the couches while iCarly entertains them before bed. The fourth is busy blogging herself. Ryan is at the hospital with his dad, who is not doing so well.

We were supposed to be up in Strawberry right now, hanging out with our Brown cousins at their cabin, playing games, eating the delicious-looking cookies I bought today on my Sam's Club run, and getting excited about a day in the snow tomorrow. We were all packed and fully loaded, ice chest and all. All the kids were in the suburban and we just said our prayer and kissed Ryan goodbye for the weekend. Afton was picking out the first flick for the car ride while I dialed my sister-in-law to see if they were already on the road.

Apologetically, she told me they weren't going tonight after all, and thought that we'd already gotten the word hours earlier through our husbands. Um, no...

So even though we were all super sad and I was frustrated that I'd spent the better part of my day readying our family for our weekend getaway, I can't really be mad. It was just a miscommunication in the midst of a crazy day and hour to hour changes in Bob's diagnosis. Ryan's dad went back to the ER today (he's already been there once this week, not to mention his various doctor visits) after a really horrible night last night. He's on home dialysis now and seems to be in the late stages of renal failure now based on all the challenges he's been having. The last few days have been particularly difficult, though, and they are hoping that during his hospital stay that they'll be able to regulate his chemical and hormonal levels and get him back to normal. He's not only suffering from incredible sleep deprivation due to his night dialysis and all the discomfort that brings, but they think he was over dialysized causing his sodium to be at critical levels, which is contributing to acute anxiety attacks on top of everything else. We are praying hard for him and hope that the doctors can work some magic.

So Ryan and his siblings are at the hospital with their mom, keeping an eye on their dad. Everyone is tired and worried. Hopefully Bob can get some rest and get stabilized soon.

Shifting gears...

As of late (since I've been slacking on the posts)...

Ryan and I celebrated our 39th birthdays on Jan 4th and 8th. For our birthdays, we went shopping for new ski jackets and scored some sweet ones. We took Barrett & Afton with us up to Utah from Jan 5th - 9th to ski a couple days and attend my darling cousin, Amanda's, wedding in the Salt Lake Temple. What a great week we had up there. I need to post about that trip separately with the pics and details, but it was too much fun! The girls had a fantastic time (except for their last run on the last day when they both had good wipe outs), and so did we.

Afton had her first practice this week for her new basketball league, and she's super excited about that. She's on a co-ed team so I'm hoping she hangs tough. She's our little jock for sure - can't wait to see her out on the court. I also signed up all three girls for softball, which will start right after basketball ends. Easton wasn't at all interested in playing t-ball. I'm not sure what to make of that. On the one hand, I'm secretly thrilled since I hate t-ball and that would have made our crazy ball season life even more complicated, juggling four sets of practices and games instead of just three. But on the other hand, his insistence that he never wants to play baseball came as a huge shock to both Ryan and I. Who is this child we named Easton (after the Easton baseball no less?) Doesn't he know that not playing baseball is really not a possible outcome we ever contemplated? After all, he has baseball genes and baseball blood that runs thick and strong. For real? Never ever wants to play? We debated it with him for quite some time.

Me: "Easton, everyone in our family plays ball."
Him: "Except me."
Me: "No, even you. You will have a blast. All your sisters play ball, your dad and I play ball, your grandpas and grandmas played ball. Your cousins play ball. Everyone plays."
Him: "Except me."
Me: "Why don't you want to play, Bud?"
Him: "I just don't."
Me: "Well, maybe next year when you are six you'll be ready and want to get out there and play too. We'll keep practicing at the retention basin and get you ready for next year."
Him: "In case you forget next year, I still don't want to play. Never ever."

Oh my. And while I know that he is only five and could very very likely change his mind, he seemed so insistent. Never. Never ever. Hmmmm....

We dutifully attended four parent teacher conferences this week too, and a I squeezed in a day trip to Park City for some meetings (going back again next week also). All the kids are doing great. All three girls got straight A's and their teachers had such kind words to share. Ryan went to Easton's conference Tuesday since I was out of town, and they were generous in their praise as well. He's still having a few issues to work on, but half day kindergarten is treating him well overall.

And we finally de-Christmas'd the house this week. Well, almost. We still have to pack the naked tree back in the boxes and hoist it up on the shelf, but all the ornaments are off and packed away, as are all the rest of the house decorations inside and out. I know it's January 14th already, but that still isn't my record. We made it to the 20th one year. Truly, I thought I'd be all undecorated by New Year's this year since I had the week off between Christmas and New Year's, but Rowan's sick stint and hospital stay threw quite a wrench in those plans. Then we were just so busy the next couple of days, then off to Utah and been working ever since we got back. My visiting teachers came over on Wednesday to my still fully-decorated house. I was a little embarrassed, but they kindly suggested that I could just keep it up through Valentine's day now and call it our Love Tree. Good idea.

Not sure what else of significance I've missed posting about. Oh, I guess I totally missed blogging about Christmas. That's a biggie. Might not happen at this point. Hopefully I'll get our ski trip up soon. Life is crazy busy. This coming week will be no exception. Ryan and I are speaking in church a week from Sunday and both of us are teaching that day too (Relief Society and Deacons). And I'm prepping for a class I'm teaching at the Stake RS Women's Conference a couple of weeks later. I have a zillion thoughts all over the map with three topics in the works. I hope they all come together.

Finally...I managed to squeeze in a couple of runs this week. I've got a race two weeks from tomorrow and I've been slacking. Slacking for good reason, I suppose, but slacking nonetheless. Rowan's sickness, then I got sick, then work, Utah trip...Weds and today my runs were both slower than I'd like, but at least my lungs and legs didn't forget how to run.

OK, now I've reached the point where gravity is winning the battle with my eyelids and I'm bobbing and weaving at the laptop. That's a sure sign I've gotta hit the hay.