Were there 8 days in last week?

Last week seemed very long to me. Are you sure there were only 7 days in the week and not 8?

Robert received the wonderful opportunity to drive a truck across the country to Pennsylvania for his work last week. He left on Monday and was to fly back on Friday. Lucky guy, he gets paid to see a lot of the country. As he was getting ready to leave Monday morning, Rachel mentioned her ear hurt, but then she seemed okay and was fine the rest of the day, but had a slight fever. That changed as evening approached. She became quite whiny and then began to cry and said her ears hurt. I called my father-in-law to come over and give her a blessing, and then had to find someone else to also come over. Our home teacher was also out of town, so I called a neighbor and friend. Her husband wasn't quite home, but she got ahold of two of her brother-in-laws and they came over also. She also sent over some Oil of Garlic for me to put a few drops in Rachel's ears. That night we all slept pretty well.

I did make a doctor appointment for Rachel for Tuesday so I took her. She had an infection in both of her ears. Poor girl, no wonder she wasn't feeling good. I know the blessing had a lot to do with her getting sleep the night before and thus allowing me to also get some sleep. I tried the Oil of Garlic and I do think that helped some, but Rachel threw a fit any time I tried to put some in her ears. I had to do it while she was sleeping. She also decided that she didn't like the medicine, so I ended up hiding that in some strawberry milk.

Tuesday also brought a worsening to Michael's cough. It began to sound really croupy. I decided that I needed to keep him home and try to get it better. I took the girls to school, but then we chose to not go exercising the rest of the week. The kids also got to watch movies during the day, which I don't normally allow, but it did keep them calmer and hopefully helped them to get the rest they need to get better. I even missed scouts on Thursday because the kids just weren't feeling better yet and we were supposed to go to Boise on Friday to pick up Robert so I needed them to get better.

Thursday night was pretty fun. Because we had no school Friday the kids asked if they could sleep in the Living Room. I said that would be fine. They brought out their blankets and pillows and made "beds" in the Living Room. I sat in one of the chairs and read to them for quite a while before going to bed myself. I did have Rachel and Micheal asleep with me in my bed. Even with Robert gone, there was no danger of me having to sleep alone in a cold bed. In fact, I suffer a bit from claustrophobia and I still had that problem with only 3 of us in bed, instead of the 4 that we have when Robert is home.

I woke up early Friday morning and when I checked my phone I had 3 text messages from Robert. It seems that the cab he had arranged the night before to pick him up was almost an hour late and he ended up missing his flight. The lady at the check-in desk was very nice and arranged for him to get on some later flights, but unfortunately he would have quite a long layover in Phoenix. So, instead of getting in at 11:15 a.m. he would know fly in at 11:15 p.m. That meant no trip to Boise with the kids. They were very disappointed and so was I. I had to re-arrange my plans because I was also supposed to be having my niece and nephew come over to stay for a while on Friday. After getting off the phone with Robert, this is how I found Lindsey:
I know she wasn't sleeping like that when I first came out. I don't know how that could ever be comfortable, but she stayed like that for almost 30 minutes before she woke up.

Well, as soon as I could safely say that other family members would be awake I began making calls to see what I needed to do to get Robert home. My parents said that they would watch my niece and nephew over night for me. Robert's parent's said that my kids could sleep at their house so that I could go to Boise and pick Robert up, so that is what happened. Of course, Robert's flight also got in almost 30 minutes late. By the time we got home it was 2 a.m. and we were tired. Robert had been up for 25 hours with only a small cat nap on one of his flights.

Saturday we got up fairly early so that we could go to a niece's baptism. We all had to be ready by 9 to get there. It was so nice to see Rylee get baptized. Taylor has some wonderful cousins who are setting such good examples for her. She is so excited to be baptized this summer, just like her cousins. The service was wonderful and Rylee looked so happy. Afterwards we had a family lunch and it was nice to visit and to let the cousins play and visit. Michael just loved having some boys to play with! My mom was really great and took over for me at Bountiful Baskets. We met up with her on our way home to pick up our basket.

Saturday evening we all got together at Robert's parents house for dinner and more playing for the cousins. Just before bedtime my brother brought my niece and nephew over to my house. Jboy and Hbear are going to be staying with us for a little over a week. Jboy is Michael's age and they both need boys to play with, so this should be good for them (I hope). Hbear is 14 months and I get the wonder experience of changing diapers again. With all of this fun playing it is harder to get them to bed at night, though.

I am looking for ways that we are blessed when Robert leaves for longer periods of time. The first time he was gone I found a better bed time routine. This time I learned that I am watched over even when he is gone. I have friends and family that will help take care of me. I knew this before, but this time it was made evident by wonderful men who will come at a moments notice to help give a blessing when Robert is gone. I know that we will be okay, even when he has to leave and be gone. I am so blessed to live in such a great community with so many wonderful people.