Kate's blessing weekend

This weekend was a good one...a crazy one, an exhausting one but a very good one.  We were fortunate enough to have several family members come in to town to stay with us. Tyler's brother Jacob arrived on Thursday night, then it was his parents on Friday morning and finally my mom arrived after some car trouble was resolved around 3 on Saturday.  I can't even remember what we did on Friday morning. Tyler and I tried to make a plan and I remember being a little frustrated while doing it. :) Then we went to Costco, picked up the carpool kids and then had a pizza barbecue and a movie (Mega-mind).  It was a late night but a pretty fun one too.

The next day is really a blur to me. I can't remember at all what we did except attend Grant's choir performance.  It was really good. Grant had some good parts and I was happy to see him be so enthusiastic in his roles. 

Joshua had been teething all weekend with a fever, drooling and lot's of waking up at night screaming. Poor guy...and poor everyone else. On Sunday morning Tyler and I were extremely tired from being up with him and Kate.  About 7 we decided we had better get showered before the kids started waking up.  Just as soon as I got out the door though I heard my mom yelling for us.  I went in to see what she needed and saw that the tank on our toilet in the boys bathroom was gushing water into a garbage can. It cracked. So we had to clean that up and turn the water off to that toilet.  Then Spencer started calling up to me that he had a nose bleed all while Josh cried for a "bobba" in his bed with a fever.  After all that was sorted out I jumped in the shower only to have to jump back out because there was a big black spider in it. Tyler came in to the bathroom and thought we had another leak.  

Finally we made it to church and once we were settled in our row at church we looked over at Josh and what was just a small nickle sized rash on his face was now all over his face and bright red along with a sandpaper rash on his chest and back. Ian Child's a Physicians assistant sat in front of us with a look that seemed to say um...he's got a problem guys. Josh wanted desperately to be with his dad and the time for the blessing was quickly approaching. We tried repeatedly to get him to go to the other end of the row to sit with a grandma and finally he did so just as the blessing was to begin.   Kate was awake for he whole thing but was very quiet. Miraculously Josh was quiet too.  Once the blessing was done though Tyler had to take him out because he started screaming. 

I sat there torn as to what I should do. I felt bad for Tyler having to be out in the hall during such a nice testimony meeting and while his family was in town yet I felt some sort of obligation to bear my testimony since it was my daughters blessing day.  But honestly I was so tired and my mind was so frazzled I wasn't even sure I wanted to bear my testimony. I much preferred just sitting there. After a while I made up my mind that I would do it and then 3 or four people went up in a row and sat on the stand. I thought if they ended with a few minutes left I would get up. They ended up going about 20 minutes over so I scrapped that idea and went out to the hall to offer Tyler some help while Grandma held Kate.

In the hall we decided Josh should go home and get some Ibuprofen. So Tyler took my mom, Josh, Kate and I home.  My mom had to get back home anyway to wrap up a power-point that was due at work the next morning that a co-worker didn't finish. Once we got home we fixed a little lunch for my mom and Josh before my mom had to be on her way. I strapped him into his high chair next to my mom as she ate so I could go in the next room to change Kate and feed her. My mom asked me to come back to where she was and watch Josh.  Is he going to the bathroom she said?  I walked into the room and noticed his hands and feet were turning blue and he was acting really cold and shivery.  I knew what was happening from his other seizure even though it looked different.  With my frazzled tired brain I stood there in disbelief...how was this even happening. How could it when I wasn't prepared...AGAIN.  I didn't have a car, or a car seat. I had no power to really help Josh and it was so scary.  All I could do was pray and try and come up with a plan with all the different variable s to consider. 

Tyler had the car with the car seats so I called him quickly and told him to run to the car and come home. He did and took Josh to the ER.  Everyone else in the meantime was at church partially aware of what happened. My mom and I were going to follow behind after I fed Kate except we discovered not long after Tyler left that we had no car seat for Kate.  So we decided my mom should go to the hospital to be with Tyler and tell the Doctor's what happened.  I then texted Jacob and asked him to come back and take me to the hospital and bring someone to watch Kate--thinking Tyler gave them his car keys (He took Josh in the van so his car was still in the church parking lot.) Jacob didn't realize he drove the van and thought I had the van at home and that he just needed to get there to watch Kate. So Tim, Maryann's husband drove them to the house and dropped them off.  Once inside we all discovered we still didn't have a car. And we didn't now if anyone would know that Grant and Spencer were still at church. Plus my phone was dead and it had Maryann's contact number in it. Lucky for us the whole crew showed up just a few moments later Grant and Spencer included.  My mom came back in the van and picked Kate and I up while the other's prepared the last few things for the post blessing lunch. When I got into room three where Josh and Tyler were I was very happy to see Josh and even Happier that he wanted me to hold him.  I brought his green blanket and he immediately bunched it up and rubbed his face on it. The total ER time was bout 3 hours. We learned that he had a Fever seizure and were given a lot of contradictory advice as to how we should handle it in the future in light of his history with SVT.

We were released to go and came home.  We opened some presents for Kate from Maryann and My mom. Maryann gave Kate a rattle, her first baby doll :) and two really cute shirts and a ruffle bottom denim skirt. I can't wait to try them on her.  My mom brought some Marie Osmond dolls that she bought awhile ago for when I had a girl. They are so pretty! Just like Kate. 

After that we cleaned up and started google hangout with Wendy, then Kyle and Desirae and Finally Grant and Spencer's dad.  During the calls we had strawberry milkshakes that Tyler made. They were so delicious!

We did a little more talking, cleaning up batch putting kids to bed and finally somehow ended up in bed.  We had to wake up every three hours to give josh medicine and I had to feed Kate. So not an awesome night of sleep.

Through it all though I have had to just keep praying to do the next thing. It got to the point where I just couldn't think anymore. My brain felt fried.  So I prayed and then I was able to do a little more till it got fried again. Over and over and over.  I realized that this weekend was a blessing in so many ways. Of course being with family and blessing Kate was a blessing...but the hard parts too. The exhaustion, the broken toilet, the scary ER visit. All these things forced me when I didn't want to, to step outside of myself to help someone else.  I ended up with a few pictures of the weekend and felt certain they would show the tension on my face, the stress and exhaustion I was feeling. But they didn't. I looked peaceful and happy and I have no idea how that happened...because I sure didn't feel it. 

We are so grateful for our family and loved being with them even though it was not a perfect weekend. Thanks for all your help and love.