Sickness, Potholes, and a Bread Machine

There's a lot to catch up on! Landon's back went out, so he was home 2 days, Lauren had back to back viruses that kept her home from school 4 days, went to school 2 days then stayed home 4 more days, Emma had the flu and was home for 5 days. I took the girls to the doctor and he confirmed that they had the "official flu" and there's nothing to do but treat the symptoms. Emma also had a blood test which showed that in addition to the flu, she had had mono within the previous 4 weeks, which explains why she had been so tired ever since the beginning of January. The good news is, everyone is well again!

I had to complain a lot about all of the care giving chores, but that's just in my nature (to complain). Landon says I "baby" the girls, which means it's all my fault that I get burnt out when they're sick. I made this tuna fish sandwich one day for Lauren when she was sick. She had seen it in the Family Fun magazine and asked me to recreate it for her. Maybe Landon has a point...

This is me, "babying" the sick baby... So you may have heard about the pothole incident. I accidentally hit this pothole on the way to dropping off Emma at school last week. When I turned into the middle school entrance, the drivers' side wheel had separated from the axle and turned perpendicular to the car. In other words, my wheel came off. I was in my pajamas and fleece robe with scarf (see previous post for pictures), so Emma took off for the building and let me fend for myself. I refused to exit the vehicle, because of how I looked, so a nice man came over and directed traffic while I tried to get Landon to come rescue me. The man said, "if it makes you feel any better, I don't have a shirt on under my coat!" That made me feel better and a little creeped out at the same time.

I only had 6 minutes left on my Trac-phone so it was kind of stressful. Landon showed up, I got in the truck, he went into the school and called a tow truck. I drove him back to his school, went back to the middle school and waited for the tow truck. When it showed up, I didn't get out of the truck, but waved the guy to come over to me so I could pay him and give him directions. Lauren was asleep at home, so I was getting stressed out. Luckily I had thought to leave her a note in case she woke up (she didn't actually wake up until 9:45am, after going to sleep at 5:45 the night before! 16 hours!).

Anyway, it's already a long story, but in the end it cost us $169 to replace the axle and get it aligned. (This was 2 weeks after a previous $313 car repair!) I can't sue the city for the bill because they were never informed that the pothole existed, so they can't be liable. Whatever!

Emma bought herself a bread machine with some of her birthday money! This was her first loaf...a sweet loaf with raisins, orange peel and almond flavoring. It was tasty! She made a regular white loaf last night to go with our dinner. She loves it! It's giving her an introduction to bread making. She can see what the process is, how important the right temperatures are, and the appropriate wet or dryness of the dough, and she can also make dough for shaping rolls or pretzels. I think it's becoming a lost art and I'm excited she wants to learn about it.