Cooking with Caitlin...

For your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy.

Sickie

"I don't feel good"

Poor Lila is sick. She woke up yesterday with a high fever and what sounded like a case of the croup. I don't normally feel confidant at diagnosing my kids, but by now we are old hands at recognizing and treating croup. Even Lila knows the drill, when she starts coughing like that she wants the humidifier on and to go sit on the front porch, because usually you get croup in the winter months and the cold air helps them breathe through an attack. 

None of our regular treatments seemed to be helping. After a very long night which I spent mostly sleeping on the floor under the humidifier with her, she woke up sounding even worse. Every breath was a struggle and her fever was still in full force. We decided that it was time to go see the doctor. So she and I headed over to the Instacare where we were recognized as soon as we walked up to the desk. The receptionist actually said, "Oh, you're usually here with hurt kids not sick ones...." Thanks to Jake and his many broken arms I guess.

We spent a couple of hours while the doctors did tests and took x-rays and the upshot is that Lila has an infection of some sort deep in her throat. They gave her a dose of steroids to open her airways and help her breathe easier, and started her on an antibiotic. Hopefully it will be a quick recovery. 

I think I've mentioned before, but Lila gets real chatty when she's on drugs. As funny as she is normally she is even funnier on mind altering substances. 

Last night after a pretty heavy dose of ibuprofen to bring down the fever she was feeling sleepy and just wanted to be cuddled. We were watching the t.v. and something made her laugh, which triggered a coughing fit. After it had passed she made a sad little moaning sound and said. "Oh dear, I can't laugh because I am sick... that just breaks my heart."

At the doctors they had to take two sets of x-rays. While we were waiting in the hall for the second set she was sitting on my lap. I thought she was falling asleep when she suddenly said, 

"Hey Mom? You know the people that help you?"  

Me: "Help you?"

Lila: "Help you to feel better."

Me: "You mean the doctors?"

 Lila: "Yeah, them."

Me: "Yeah."

Lila: "They are pretty great."

Me: "Yes, they are."

Lila contemplated the floor for a minute and then said, "They are also really good at sweeping. This place is really clean."

But my favorite moment came after they swabbed her throat for a culture. That's never a pleasant thing to have done and unfortunately all of my children inherited my gag reflex. At least I know to ask for a basin before they begin. Lila only spit up a little, and as I quickly wiped her face and threw everything away she leaned back in the chair, heaved a very weary sigh, shook her head and said, "The things you have to do for me."

Oh my precious girl, I couldn't agree more...

Fiber Fair!

The long overdue and much anticipated post about our girl's trip to Idaho and the Snake River Fiber Fair. Enjoy...

I am packed and ready to go! 

(The pink bag is yarn, the red bag is clothes and toiletries. I just thought it was funny that they were about the same size... and the pink bag was heavier.)

Caite and I laughed ourselves silly all the way to Pocatello, where we met up with Tiff and stopped for a picnic lunch. Then the three of us drove on to Idaho Falls and finally managed to find the right hotel and check in.

Caite trying out a Super-Knitter look! 

(By the way, she totally would have blended right in if in fact she had decided to wear it to the fair....)

Tiff had brought some yummy chicken salad and rolls for dinner, so we ate in our room while we played a game of scrabble. Then we went to a movie that we all wanted to see and knew our husbands wouldn't be interested in.  When we got back from the movie we went and soaked in the hot tub for a little while, then back to the room to get ready for bed...

Caite had the best jammies.

Here is the single photograph of me to prove that I was here. It's morning and I am stumbling about with my eyes closed trying to find my eye drops so my contacts won't pop out. Which is why Caitlin got the camera and the drop on me. Sad as it is, I am glad she took it. (P.S. Candice, I think this is humiliating enough, yes?)

We ate breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for the fiber fair!

Here's where things get a little sad. I was high on wool fumes and so busy feeling all the gorgeous yarns and roving, and talking to other spinners and knitters that I complete spaced the fact that I had the camera with me. I didn't even get a picture of the sign or anything. :( It was awesome. You'll just have to take my word for it. We spent the morning shopping and browsing at the 40+ vendor stalls. Then it was time for our spinning class! Beginning drop spindle spinning. It was... interesting. The teacher was a little all over the place and she had a 12 year old girl there as her assistant. Nothing is more guaranteed to make you feel like a failure than to have a child repeatedly telling you what you are doing wrong. I'm still glad I took the class. I am no good at it at all, but I can tell that it is something I want to keep trying to do. I really want to learn on a spinning wheel though... one day.

  

 After we were done we treated ourselves to dessert first at a yummy gourmet cupcake shop. Those cupcakes were so moist!

We ate dinner at a place Tiff had heard was amazing, and boy! She heard right. I had a grilled vegetable Caesar salad that was one of the best things I have ever eaten! After dinner we went back to the hotel for another swim and soak in the hot tub. We changed into our pj's and Tiff and I knitted for a bit while Caitlin wound the new yarn she'd gotten and read the Yarn Harlot aloud to us. (Another picture I wished I'd gotten, Caitlin put the hank of yarn around her feet to tension it while she wound it into a ball. It was too funny, but you can bet neither Tiff or I was offering to give up knitting time to hold the yarn for her...) 

Then, around 9 pm, the party got a little wild! Myra and Candice drove up to go the fair the next day and crashed in our room.

As you can see Candice was especially happy to be there...

So what, right? How much trouble can a couple of extra knitters cause?

Well, Caite really wanted us to play a silly board game and we were just in the right kind of silly mood to play it.... 

(I think the rest of the pictures speak for themselves.)

I know that Candice has a picture of me from this night, but as it is me after Tiffany drew a mustache, goatee and a rude word on my forehead with blue eyeliner I really hope that she makes the right choice and just deletes from her camera card forever.... please?

We also decided that we needed to yarn bomb something in the room. We each knit 8 rows in a different stitch and then Myra (because she was the closest) sewed it around the base of the lamp.

Looks pretty good, I think.

We are betting that it takes them at least one or two more guests in the room before anyone notices.

We spent the morning wandering the vendor stalls again and buying more yarn.

We sat around, knitting and gossiping and shocking Tiffany. We ate lunch by the falls and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. Tiffany and Candice both won a prize in the drawing. Tiff won a silk and merino blend (I think) roving and Candice won a ceramic yarn bowl. 

A Knitter's Two Thumbs Up!

It was a wonderful weekend and one that I hope becomes a tradition. 

We have to go at least once more so I can a decent picture of me there...

My Summer Vacation....

Okay Grandma, I posted! And just so you don't feel like you have to drive across town and harangue me again I promise that I will post every day during summer vacation. I usually have pretty good material to write about when I'm with my kids 24/7...

So far our Summer is going great! 

Huck and Elena are out visiting and Huck came over yesterday for some cousin time.

He and the girls broke in our new wading pool! 

Lila being cheeky.

What happens lately when I tell Evie to smile.

So of course little sister has to follow suit...

I think these two just threw water in each other's faces and then were upset about it. 

Popsicle break!

Lila kept trying to convince Huck that it was okay to sit on the swing...

They had as much water and sun as they could handle, then we came inside and made popcorn and watched Dumbo. 

Jake was pretty peeved with me that he'd missed all the fun so I left the pool up over night and when they got home from the Last Day Of School (that's how Evie says it, I swear you can hear every word being capitalized...) they headed outside and spent a good three hours splashing around.

Let's see, what else? 

Okay, we have a date for when we can expect an answer about when they might start on the house. (Clear as mud, I know.) June 13th. I am torn between wanting to start packing up so that as soon as they tell us who our contractor is we can say, "Have at it!" But I also don't want to be living out of boxes and away from our home for longer than we have to. So for now I guess we just start sorting through things and boxing up non-essentials, and keep possessing our souls in patience.

The kids are very excited for summer. Well, except Jake. His exact words were, "I can't wait to get back to school!" But I think he'll only need a few days to remember how nice a break can be. They really want to do  all our activities from last summer, the swimming day, library day, park day, etc. But I don't know how that will all work when I don't have a car. I'll just have to get creative I suppose. 

Evie's goals for the summer is to learn embroidery and not have to hold her nose under water.

Jake's goals for the summer is to play at Myra's a lot and to create a fusion of poker and chess called Pokerchess. 

Lila's goal is to be the queen of the world. (Her words, not mine.)

My goals are to blog everyday and stay sane. 

Ready?

Let the Summer begin!