Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a tougher one than usual. As the title suggests I have severely depleted my chocolate supply, even relied on the ultimate comfort food, cheesecake thanks to Jeremy, and had to break out the tums on occasion. I have had hard weeks before so I am not sure why this one hit me harder. I am feeling less pressure since the carpet people called to say they couldn't come tomorrow but needed to postpone till Friday - gives me a few extra days to finish up all the painting.

Monday, Lauri didn't call me. So Robyn in tow we went to find her not doing very well. Took her to the ER where she was DKA with a glucose level over 600 and in acute renal failure. Was a tense hour or two while they asked about all DNR orders and who had power of attorney to make all these decisions etc. Lauri was throwing up blood (she waited till we got to the ER parking lot so only a little bit got in our car, have to look at the positive spin of things). Found out that 2 year olds and ERs really, really don't mix well. But they got her stabilized. Jeremy picked kids up for me after school, they did their homework in their car and Jeremy stayed for a few hours at night to get her settled into the ICU (no kids allowed through those doors). So a bit of a stressful day.

Tuesday was back to a normal day but with lots of phone calls to and from the hospital. Had stake meetings all morning and school meetings in the afternoon. My neighbor invited us to come use her pool that afternoon before it got too cold, in honor of her birthday. So the kids and I hurried to do homework and spent the afternoon floating around. The evening was spent figuring out assisted living options inbetween painting.

Wednesday was spent getting Lauri into an assisted living place. There were a few mistakes along the way. Had an apartment lined up which turns out was leased to someone else after we agreed to take it. So had to go chew them out a bit, see their alternative (a temporary room in the alzheimer's lock down unit), sign all the paperwork and then work with Lauri in the hospital to sign all the paperwork and the doctor to agree to everything. Figured we had a day or two to wash some clothes for her (everything from her place needed fumigation and laundry before moving over due to a bug infestation). Long, late day but figured things were getting better under control.

Thursday I got a call that she needed to be discharged that day. So Jeremy took the afternoon off to do kid duty while I hurried to get the necessities together and Robyn and I helped discharge her etc. Jeremy took kids to help move her bed and jazzy over. Another long night with kids eating happy meals.

Friday I took off to try to catch up on home - mowing the lawn, grocery shopping, painting etc. Huge relief to hear that my desperate attempts to finish the painting of the basement could slow down as carpet was delayed. So was able to relax that evening with the family at an elder's quorum BBQ. Kids had a great time racing around the stake center parking lot on their bikes, dirty, sticky, full of junk food and having a wild and great time.

Saturday the girls and I moved a bunch of stuff over for Lauri and went shopping for things like new towels, pillows, shower curtain etc. As a reward late that afternoon I took the kids to the pet store and Allison finally got her new hamster, Storm (called that because he is black like thunder except for a strip of white like lighting). Jeremy was gone for the afternoon and evening for a series of photo classes and a shoot. Meredith was coming for our date night so I had planned a night at the temple and a wholesale decorator place. Got a call as she pulled up that Lauri wasn't doing well by the home health nurse and that she refused to go to the ER. So I went down and took her to the ER. She had a temperature of 104 and a glucose of 360 by the time we got there - turns out she had pneumonia. So another night in the ER and she is admitted back into the hospital. Brought home some Bajio salads for Jeremy and I to eat dinner together at 10pm.

As I read this it sounds a little like a pity party on my part. I was just having a hard time figuring out how to get everything done. But she is moved over and services are all ready to start when she return to Jamestown. So I think things will only get easier from here on out. I am trying to have a better attitude about everything that has to be done to clean out her place, move over her mail, utilities, sell her place and furniture etc. As for the rest of the family:

Jeremy has been taking portraits of kids this week for his photo challenge and having a great time with it. He did a shoot with his friend's daughter who has down syndrome that turned out really neat. His cough is still hanging in there but I think he felt afraid to complain about it this week with so much going on. He has been sucking it up to take on as much kids and housework that he can this week. I know it stresses him out with his mom and he has tried hard to keep a good attitude about all the chaos this week brought. His work had a challenge this week to go meatless for a week - this was decided after I had planned the menu out for the week - so it was a bit of a challenge. His big news of the week is that he went to a golf tournament this week with his work. He never wins anything at those things. This time he won a putter from some pro. Then he won the grand prize of a golf weekend away in Las Vegas. Trying to convince him to take 3 friends and have a guy weekend away.

Spencer had to make a diarama this week showing the water cycle (of course it would be this week!). Jeremy helped him come up with a concept and Spencer was really good at working on it late at night to get it done in time as we were often gone in the evenings. He has been busy this week making rifles etc out of paper and tape that shoot paper bullets. They are quite a production to make.

Allison is thrilled about her new hamster. We got a boy this time and he seems much tamer and happy to play with her. She made out all her birthday party invitations this week and handed them out. So ready of not next Saturday 16 little friends will be here. I found a recipe for making lip gloss - vaseline and kool-aid mix. Hope it works. She is very excited about it.

Robyn has been really good at being 2 this week. She has done really good with everything that has thrown her schedule off wack but then she will do something like dumping a cup of water all over the hospital room floor - just because. Or deciding during the relief society movie that she needs to start 6 different movies because she doens't like the one she is watching. Or pulling all her hair elastics out on the way somewhere right after you fixed it all pretty. But she does it all with a big grin and lots of hugs and giggles!

Taylor seemed like he felt better this week but then during sacrament meeting he threw up. Jeremy took him home to clean him up and he threw up again. He has kept down some milk and toast this evening so hopefully he is on the mend.

Tonight we had some friends the Jorgensens and their kids over for dinner. We have been friends since Kate was my visiting teacher before I was pregnant with Spencer! It was a lot of fun to just hang out and talk. We all enjoyed making s'mores outside and now smell like smoke. It was a nice break.

Jeremy has been taking kids portraits and thought I would share some of my favorites below. Love to you all, Heather