Monday I took Rocky into to be put to sleep.  The kids all knew to say good-bye in the morning and I thought it would be very emotional.  But kids all said how he will feel so much better and happier when he stops hurting.  I think it made it a lot easier on them.  When I got to the vets I had warned them I might need the gurney but he just hopped out of the van I had had to lift him into and was eager to walk around.  I started feeling extremely guilty but the vet assured me that it happens every time when the adrenaline hits at the vet.  But a few minutes later as he just laid on the blanket for them while continuously dribbling out pee I felt less guilty.  He just licked their hands while they gave him a shot and laid his head down and was gone.  He was often a pain but we have loved having him as a member of our family over the year.  Robyn wrote me a letter for school explaining how now she needs a puppy to take care of because every family needs a dog love your lonely daughter Robyn.  We are mean parents because we said no.

This week sickness seemed to haunt our house.  Allison and Jeremy spent last weekend with a cold.  Taylor's nose turned into one big scab from being wiped so much.  Every time you would clean him up or he would rub his nose it would start bleeding.  Allison started feeling better by Monday but then Monday night Jeremy put off taking Nyquil so he could stay up with a Robyn who was throwing up everywhere.  After lots of "events" he tucked Robyn into bed and went into a Nyquil coma.  Then it was my turn to wake up as Robyn kept throwing up everywhere.  For example one time I woke up to find her on the toilet yelling for me because she couldn't get up because of diarhea but had thrown up all over the walls, floor, towells etc.  Or when she was running to the bathroom with her throwup bucket and tripped so everything went all over her room.  Just a tough night for a little girl with amazing stomach storage capacities.  So Tuesday and Wednesday was spent with Robyn nibbling crackers and feeling miserable.  Then I caught a bad sore throat/cold that laid me out for a bit.  But the power of tons of sleep and chocolate should never be under-estimated plus having amazing visiting teachers/friends who bring me Kneaders.

So this week was a little bit on the quiet side around here.  Friday night and Saturday while Jeremy did solo parenting, I got to attend a special needs conference.  Lots of long meetings but also some great nuggets of information I needed about what I can do to help Taylor.  Jeremy spent the weekend spraying off chicken poop from everywhere in our yard (we have had lovely spring weather this week and the chickens have taken it upon themselves to christen every available surface with poop), cleaning and selling the RV and introducing the kids to the movie "Kelly's Heroes."

This week Taylor had an appointment with neurology.  His battery for his VNS implant is dying so he has to have a same-day surgery to replace it.  It should happen within the next few weeks and should be a fairly simple 1 to 3 hour surgery up at Primary's.  Most of his nose scab thanks to copious amounts of neosporin has healed up.

We told Allison that she had to pick one instrument to play for next year and she decided to stick with piano.  So this month will be her last month taking viola lessons.  We would have gone through the end of the school year but in April her rehearsal schedule for her play starts getting pretty intense.

We have had some lovely spring days lately.  Last Sunday we left sickies behind to go to the park.

And we had to "mow" our lawn for the first time as the wheat Allison planted for me grew.