Sick

Aaargh, everyone is sick.  Everyone but me.  And I feel like it's only a matter of time.  Ellie was the first one to get it.  Snuffly nose, congestion, fever, tired.  She handled it with her characteristic fortitude, pressing on.  She took care of herself.  Craig and I both thought she was too sick to go to church a week ago and we practically had to force her to stay home.

Then Brigham got sick.  He is a little less robust.  He's been dragging around the house for several days now, moaning that he is dying.  He said there was no way he could go to church yesterday, that he was dying.  He did get up and go to school this morning, wearing his sweatpants and poncho.  He says his greeting to everyone today is going to be, "I'm sick.  Go away."

Please please please don't let me get sick.  I'm so busy this week, it's crazy.  School, two meetings for my degree program, visiting teaching, Ellie's cross country meet, Brigham's yearly meeting with the school counselor, ward party....... this week is crazy.  Please don't let me get sick.  

Football Game

Yesterday was our school's homecoming football game.  Brigham's choir was singing the national anthem at the beginning of the game so we went to watch him sing.  Mac begged to stay and watch the game so we stayed the first period.  Mac was asking all the rules of the game.  He says he likes football.  I think we will go to the next game.   It was fun.  And Brigham did a good job singing.

My Statistics Grade

I heard from my statistics professor today.  I got an A on the final and an A in the class!!!!  I am surprised, I spent the whole time during the final thinking how hard it was and how I wasn't going to do very well.

I am so relieved and glad to have that stupid class over!!!!

Brigham's Lunch

Yesterday I found out that Brigham has been skipping meals.  Sometimes (often!) he doesn't make it downstairs to have breakfast with the family because he's sleeping in.  Yesterday he got home from school exhausted.  He said that he though part of the problem might have been that he didn't have breakfast or lunch.

This kid!  He doesn't eat breakfast with the family because he sleeps in.  Then he skips school breakfast because he's busy socializing.  Then at lunch time, he doesn't make it to the lunchroom in time to get lunch because he's doing whatever.  He likes to roam the halls with his ukelele, or else use the time to make up some schoolwork.

He always thinks that whenever he gets there is fine  He really doesn't believe in keeping to other peoples schedules.  He's kept a box of microwave popcorn to eat in case he misses lunch but he ran out.  And I don't want him eating microwave popcorn all the time.

We talked about it yesterday and I went to the grocery store and got him some things to keep in his locker, as well as some microwave meals to keep in the teachers lounge freezer.  I hope that helps.

What a kid.  

Pirate Escape Room

I have a bunch of assignments to grade but I'll just post this really fast.

Last week our family went to an escape room in Logan for Family Home Evening.  An escape room is this room where they shut you in and give you some clues that you have to follow to solve puzzles.  When you solve a puzzle or question, it gives you a code to unlock something that gives you another clue.  Eventually you get the code to unlock the door to find the treasure.

We had a lot of fun.  I got a little tense and starting barking orders at everyone, which Ellie didn't appreciate.  I had to calm down.

We didn't do very well with the clues, but eventually we were able to unlock the treasure chest.

YAY FOR ME

I finished my statistics course!!!!!  Yesterday I took the final, which was super hard.  I don't know what I got on it.  They have to scan it and email it to my instructor and she has to grade it and then email me the grade.  Which is because there is absolutely no better way to do this.  Oh wait, there IS. Anyway, I don't know what I got yet.  I had calculated that I had to get a 75% in order to maintain my A in the class.  It's funny, I remember Reese being here this summer and taking an online class and he was trying to calculate what he had to get on the final in order to get an A in the class and I was chastising him that he should do his best always.  Here I am doing the same thing.

I am SO GLAD to have that wretched class over with.  And now I have a whole two weeks to relax and watch Netflix before my degree program starts!!

And here is my new school picture.

Ellie's Cross Country Meet

On Wednesday, Ellie had a cross country meet.  Our family has not really been into sports that much, especially high school organized sports.  Ellie has been an exception.  Last year she begged me to do cross country and I let her, somewhat doubtfully.  I thought she would give up and quit when it got hard.

But she hasn't!  She goes to All the practices.  She tries really hard to get better.

This week I went to see her run.  The meet was held at home, at Westside.  It was so fun to see her.  I was so proud.  She tries so hard.  She came in 11th of all the schools that were participating.  She was disappointed that she didn't get a medal, but I wasn't disappointed.  I was so proud of her.

And here is also a picture of Brigham serenading the runners with his ukulele.

Josh was a Cloud

Last Saturday we went to see Josh in a play.

On the first day of school, Josh brought home a flyer saying that the school was putting on a play with a traveling children company.  The children would try out on Tuesday, rehearse on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then perform on Saturday.

Josh was SO excited.  He talked about it every single day.  "When is the day I try out for my play?"  I had no idea that we had a budding thespian here.  I guess he's seen Brigham and Ellie in plays and wanted to do it himself.

They play was based on Peter Pan.  Josh and the other kindergarteners played the parts of clouds.  They were SO stinking cute!!!

If Its Not One Thing, It's Another

Okay, the good news is that Hayes is doing well and I am feeling better about that.  He says his goal for this semester is to get to bed by 10:30 and up early in the morning.  He says that he has been able to do that so far.  He says he's the first one to go to bed at night in his apartment and the first one up in the morning.  He says it's a different experience, being up in the morning before everybody else.  This is a side of Hayes we've never seen before!  He seems to be doing well and feeling good about his classes.

But if it's not one thing, it's another.  Brigham has really been worrying me for a couple days.  He's been on this new medication, Adderall, along with Hayes.  He's been on it for two months and it seems to be working good for him.  Since school started, though, he's been having trouble.  It only lasts eight hours and so it wears off about the time it's time for him to start his homework.  The past couple days he gets home from school, starts his homework, does it for 30 minutes, goes to move pipe.  When he gets home from moving pipe it's completely worn off and he kind of crashes and finds it VERY difficult to get his homework done.  He says it feels impossible.

The past couple days he's been very emotional and tearful, which is not like him.  He says he just wants to be like everybody else and be able to keep up and do well in school.  He says he hates the way he feels when he comes down from his pill.

He didn't take his pill yesterday and basically slept most of the day, didn't go to school.   He was very lethargic and wouldn't talk to us.  By evening I was pretty frantic.  I made an appointment for him at his doctor tomorrow.

This morning he woke up and seemed a bit better.  He got dressed and went to school.

Aaaaargh, mothering is too hard.  I don't know what to do to help my son.  I'm worried about  him.

Hayes's New Semester

I am a WRECK.  Yesterday I took Hayes back to Provo for his new semester.  He is excited.  He says that he's going to do better this semester.  I helped him check into his new apartment.  His roommate Jace was there already.  Hayes and Jace lived together last year in the dorms and he is a nice boy.  I'm so glad that he was there because if I had to leave Hayes there with a bunch of roommates that he didn't know, I would be an even bigger wreck.

We got his bike and all his clothes and things out of the van and into his apartment.  This apartment is  small and dingy and dark and it's already messy. And there was gaming equipment all around the TV with games like Call of Duty - I HATE Call of Duty and I told Hayes and Jace they weren't allowed to play it and they said they knew.  And there was a life size cardboard cut out of Bobba Fett.

I just hated to leave him.  He doesn't know how to take care of himself!  I've tried and tried to teach him to be responsible but he hasn't learned!  He's going to starve!

As I drove back home I realized that I should have at least taken him grocery shopping before I left!  He doesn't even have any food!

I cried and cried all the way home.

After I got home and the family was eating dinner, I called Hayes to see if he was okay.  He said he was at the grocery store, that he had biked there, and that all he had to pay with was a check because he had lost his debit card and the bank hadn't sent him a new one yet and the store wasn't accepting his check.  I panicked and asked him what he was going to do and he said he didn't know yet but that he would figure it out.

So all night long I was anxious.

This morning he said that he biked back to his apartment to get his ID to show them and came back and they still said there was something wrong with the check.  So he biked back to his apartment again to get another check.  And brought it back and they said they still couldn't take it.  So he biked back a third time and brought yet another check (why in the world couldn't he take the whole checkbook?!) and brought it to the store and they accepted it.  So he finally got to bring home his groceries.  He said the ladies in the customer service department were really nice and sympathetic and he told him everything that had gone wrong in his whole life and they gave him lots of sympathy.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH

This time around has been TERRIBLE.  I don't know why.  I don't remember having this hard a time last time I took him to BYU.  I just worry that things are going to go badly and he's not going to eat and he's going to run out of money.

Here are some pictures of his horrible apartment.