Surprises All Around

We had a couple of unplanned surprises this week. On Wednesday, Hallie took the kids up to Partridge Creek to enjoy the outdoor playscape (good thing they went when they did--the more stormy spring weather returned for the latter half of the week). 

Landon attracted himself some company. 

As she sat and chatted with the other moms there, she began to notice how many of the little girls had earrings. Then she saw Claire’s across the way and made a spur of the moment decision to get Eliza’s ears pierced. She chatted with Mike about it before just taking Eliza to the store. Mike didn’t have any major objections (although he’s been a bit reluctant to subject his kids to body modification since Landon’s circumcision, but that’s another story), so Hallie and the kids made their way to Claire’s.

Eliza had no idea what she was in for. There was only one employee at Claire’s, so it took a little while for her to get prepped. By the time she actually got her ears pierced, a crowd had formed around the cute little curly-haired lass. She cried like she has when she has received shots, but a lemon sucker seemed to take her mind off whatever those big people were doing to her wee ears.

Steady. . . . Steady!  

The final result

Not too much later, her attention was drawn to other things. She and another little girl came across a small dog who seemed as infatuated with them as they were with him.

We sent Mike’s mom a lemon cake for her 29th birthday (OK, the anniversary of her 29th birthday, and OK, a replica of a lemon cake). We hope it smells even better than it looks!

It's supposed to look like a slice was taken out so you can see the lemon cake. Well, they tried anyway.

The other big surprise of the week (and not a pleasant one) was Hallie’s visits to two emergency rooms on the same day (Friday) with severe stomach pain. She was almost beside herself Thursday night with the pain, and the first ER didn’t really do a whole lot for her. She didn’t get home until close to 4 AM. Mike had an appointment in the morning, so he had to leave for a while, and Priscilia was able to come in while Hallie continued to suffer. Hallie eventually went to Sara’s to rest and from there to another hospital’s ER, where they were able to reduce her symptoms a bit (morphine and Vicodin work wonders). Mike tended to the kids in her absence on Friday and pretty much through the weekend.

To complicate matters, both of the kiddos were sick with colds. Eliza has not slept through the night for a couple of days. Mike took the kids to church for the first session of General Conference, which allowed the little ones to burn off some steam while he listened to the talks. Good stuff. We ended up staying home to watch the other sessions, which for us is unusual, actually. Our cultural hall (the gym/overflow area behind the chapel) doubles as the nursery, so the kids actually enjoy having the chance to play with the toys while the grownups have the chance to concentrate on the talks. It doesn’t always work, but we try. . . . 

Anyway, on Sunday, Mike made egg soufflé and monkey bread, so we had some yummies for brunch/lunch. Poor Hallie only got to taste little bits due to her stomach issue. We hope all three of the sickies get better soon and that Mike stays in the clear!

We received some news relating to working at Milton Hershey School that has tempered our enthusiasm for the houseparent job. We're going to have to regroup on this one. On the upside, our local friends seem really happy at the prospect of keeping us around, and we may not have to scramble to get things situated here for a move.