Week in Review

Here’s a brief summary of the past week.

Saturday 14th- Jeff did interviews for new ophthalmology residents all day today. He had to drive to the hospital at 5am in the morning and didn't finish until late afternoon. He started the 2 hour drive home around 5. We talked on his way home. He called me while driving again around 9:30 and told me the car had stopped completely. Long story short, he was about 20 miles outside of home and had to call a tow truck. Tow truck shows up, drops the car off at a mechanics, and drops Jeff off at home around midnight. Sunday comes around and we don't have a car, carseats or even a ward list. I was supposed to substitute teach a primary class & was a no-show. I felt pretty bad, but there was nothing we could do. We enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home, I taught the lesson I had prepared & we watched the first presidency Christmas devotional. Sunday morning I could hear the boys singing, “Jingle Bells” When I went out to see what they were up to, this is what I found. Here’s our version of a “one-horse open sleigh” Jacob pulling Caleb in a laundry basket with a belt attached through the basket and onto Jacob’s waist. I thought it was pretty funny.

Monday 16^th- Jeff was actually able to start doing surgeries again this week. It’s taken an entire month to get the OR back in operating condition. There was a mechanic who was supposed to fix the humidifier, back during the second week of November. Well, he left it on full-blast after fixing it and it ran all weekend. On Monday morning, when they walked into the operating room it was just dripping with water. They had to run all sorts of tests and throw away almost half a million dollars worth of equipment because of sterilization rules. It was a pretty unfortunate experience- especially because it cost Jeff an entire month of surgery. I’m pretty sure they’re going to adjust the schedule and we’ll probably be here until at least mid-March.

Poor kids have been sick throughout the week. Matthew’s had a whole week of it. It’s so sad to have a sick baby, Matthew just wants me to hold him all day and he just doesn’t act like himself. I’m definitely ready to be done with it; especially since we don’t have a washer & dryer in our apartment.

Tuesday 17^th- we got our car back today. It sure is nice to have a car! It was a pretty expensive fix, but fortunately it wasn’t too serious- just the clutch. Hopefully this one will last us for a while. I’m grateful that Jeff is close enough to walk to work.

Wednesday 18^th- we decided to make some decorations for Christmas. We made some snowflakes and some ornaments out of paper the boys had painted. Then I remembered when I was young, how some friends and I would make “claw fingers” out of paper. I don’t know if anyone else has done this, but I used to love it. I thought this would be a fun thing for the boys, so we sat in the living room together while I folded paper. When I was done, they each had a full-set of ‘claws’ to fit on their fingers. They were pretty excited! I did start to wonder if it had been a good idea when I heard Caleb asking Jacob if he was ready to fight. They’ve been pretty good with them though, and it brings back fun memories.

Thursday 19^th- we had all been cooped up way too long! The sun was shining outside and it was a semi-warm day near 40, so we bundled everyone up and went to the little playground just down the road. I think everyone enjoyed getting out to run around for a little while. Matthew was happy to have a little freedom outside and had fun swinging, going down the slide, and just playing in the bark. Jacob and Caleb loved it as well. We weren’t able to stay out real long before Matthew’s little fingers started to freeze- he won’t keep anything on them, and was crying. So we headed back from some hot chocolate and popcorn, but it was a nice break from our four walls for a little while!

Friday 19^th- they were predicting a pretty good snowstorm for our area. Sure enough it started snowing around 8am that morning and snowed throughout the entire day. By the time the storm was over we had about 8-inches. The boys were pretty excited, and I’m kind of excited that we’ll probably have a white Christmas- it’s been a while. It is nice to have 4-wheel drive though! The boys really wanted to go play in the snow, but with Matthew still sick, I didn’t want to take him out. Jeff got home a little later, but brought back a couple movies, so we had a movie night at home together.