When it rains, it pours...

What an interesting week it has been. Friday morning, Daddy left with the camping trailer (much to the girls' dismay) to help with Ride For A Child. Ride For A Child is a group of Candlelighters (support group for families with kids with cancer) riders who are participating in Cycle Oregon. Cycle Oregon is a 7 day bicycle tour with 2000 riders. Somewhere around 40 of them are part of Ride For A Child riding in honor of children who have been diagnosed with cancer. He'll be home late Saturday night or early Sunday.

The girls and Mommy have been trying to take it easy although we have had our busy times. Friday night, Grandma M (also known as Grandma BooBoo) called to invite us out for breakfast Saturday with her and her brother and his wife who were stopping by on their way through town (they live about 4 hours away on the other side of the mountains). I told her I wasn't sure if we'd make it and that it would depend on how the girls were doing in the morning. The funny thing is that Daddy was near their house with the tour.

We did make it to breakfast and then afterward the girls played at Grandma's while Mommy and Uncle Chuck went to visit Mommy's Aunt Lucile. She is not doing well. I don't know that she even knew we were there. She was diagnosed two years ago with ALS and it has taken its toll on her.

After that, we headed home for a nap before heading to Grandpa and Grandma C's for dinner. It was a wonderful mean and enjoyable time. The girls had fun playing and getting Grandpa and Grandma time.

Sunday was a stay at home day. I wanted to make sure that Rebekah got enough sleep for a full week of school. As I put the girls to bed Rebekah had a low grade fever. She didn't go to sleep very well. I wasn't sure whether school would be a good thing or not.

Monday morning, she woke up with a low grade fever once again. I debated sending her, but decided to go ahead. About 2pm, the special education teacher called and told me that Rebekah wasn't feeling well. After lunch she went back to class and laid on the floor and said she wanted to go night night. They took her upstairs to the special ed classroom and she had been sleeping off and all since then and she was running a 102 temp. So I headed up to school to pick her up. I managed to get there about 5 minutes before school was letting out so I had to deal with all the extra traffic. But I did manage to find a parking space. We came straight home and I got Rebekah some Motrin and put both girls down for a nap. Rebekah slept for another two hours.

We (the special ed teacher and I) decided that Rebekah would stay home Tuesday (which is not a regular Kindergarten day but a half day of "extra" help) and see how she was doing in the evening before deciding about Wednesday. So Tuesday, we all (Mommy and the girls that is) stayed home and had an easy day. Rebekah woke up fever free and had a good day. When I put her to bed, she was running a low grade fever again. I called the special ed teacher (like she had asked me to do) and we decided to see how she slept and how she seemed in the morning and consider sending her even if it was only for a half day.

Wednesday, she woke up and seemed fine. I sent her to school with a lunch (just in case). I called the special ed teacher and let her know that I had sent Rebekah to school. She said they would keep an eye on Rebekah and call me around 11 to see how she was doing and whether they thought she could stay or should come home. Well she made it through the day. Sarah and Mommy ran a few errands close to home, so that we weren't too far from home if we got a call to come and get Rebekah.

Again, Wednesday night when I put her to bed she had a low grade fever. Once again, I had to decide in the morning whether it would be wise to send her or not. She seemed fine this morning, so off she went to school. And again, she made it through the day.

Daddy called Wednesday morning not feeling well at all (and that is quite an understatement). He needed to be in Court that morning so he had taken a break from Ride For A Child and had some friends covering for him on the ride. By noon time, he was feeling a little better. He still isn't back to normal, but seems to be feeling better a little at a time.

Today seemed to have been a bit interesting at school. They had a fire drill and Rebekah did fine with the drill. When they came back in, she bonked one of the other kids in her class and that set off a nose bleed. So she went down to the office until they could get it stopped, which took about 10 minutes. She was saying she was hungry before it was lunch time, so they made the decision to keep her from PE and eat lunch early instead.

When Rebekah came home from school today, she wanted to eat. When I fixed her something to eat, it wasn't the "way" she wanted it so she threw herself on the floor and started her nose bleeding again. After getting the bleeding to stop (at least mostly), I put her down for a nap. She fought the nap, but definitely needed it and did eventually fall asleep.

Meanwhile, Sarah seems to be a little "off". She may be coming down with something. Today, while Rebekah was at school, Sarah and Mommy did some shopping. We saw a tractor cake pan and she has now decided that she wants a tractor cake for her birthday. Mind you, she has been telling me for two months or so that she wanted a Dora birthday cake. I told her that I wasn't going to buy the tractor pan today and that if she still wants a tractor cake in a few days I would consider buying it. We'll see how that works out. Tonight, she was telling me again that she wanted a tractor birthday cake. The other thing she wanted was Mickey Mouse plates. Her birthday is next week and we'll have a party the following weekend, so we'll have to see what she really wants.

We have a meeting scheduled with Sarah's new school for next Thursday. It sounds like she will be in class Tuesday mornings for an hour and a half. We'll know more details once we've had the meeting, but I expect she'll start soon. And, on top of that, Sarah will be starting speech therapy with Rebekah's therapist next week. It will make for very long days. After we pick Rebekah up from school on Monday and Wednesday, we will head to downtown portland for therapy for Rebekah and then Sarah. We will be done at 5pm and have an hour drive home (possibly more with traffic). Rebekah will be one tired puppy by the end of the day without a nap other than possibly a short one in the car.

I've been fighting a little something and I'm not sure if it is just allergies or actually a cold. So that has been fun.

Katie called this week and has strep throat, so she wasn't able to come at all this week.

Grandma M's house alarm went off this week and we got a phone call from the alarm company saying they were sending the police. That was Monday while everything else was happening. It was about the time that she should be getting home (she could have been home or it might take another hour), so I didn't know if she was home yet or not, but she wasn't answering the home phone, her cell phone, or her work number. Finally, a little more than an hour later, I did reach her at home. When she arrived the police were still there. Nothing was out of place. It appeared that the alarm that faulted had a battery that went from ok to dead quickly.

We've all been missing Daddy. The first several days he was gone, the girls would ask me several times a day if Daddy was coming home. I told them it would be a bunch of days before he would be home and that he was helping people. They talk about Daddy every day and they know he is in the camping trailer and helping people. Daddy has been calling at least once a day to check in. It has been an emotional week for him, being away from us and being plunged into the cancer world once again. Each cancer family has their own story and he has been meeting a few this week.

The first part of the week, we had temperatures in the 90s. The air conditioning has been very nice... We're still working out some of the bugs, but it is certainly better than we had before. Now we're going to have highs in the 60s and 70s.

Lately, the girls have been playing "going to the beach". "The beach" is in the girls bedroom and they will take their "beach ball" and their sunglasses, etc... and play in there. Some days, they will take naps in their "beach chairs" aka their beds. Now the bedroom has also become the "upstairs playroom at Grandma's house". Too funny!

Like I said, when it rains, it pours...