Getting two kids ready for a Mormon Pioneer Trek reenactment is also not cheap, but I wanted them to have this amazing experience and so I choked up the cash.  It was indeed an amazing experience for Reagan and Cade.  They grew spiritually, socially, emotionally and physically. I’m so grateful to all those who put it together and made it happen.  It is no easy feat.  We went up to meet them at the end of their trek and I can’t put into words how neat it was to have so many people come up to me and say good things about my sons.  What beautiful testimonies they bore, how hard they worked on Rocky Ridge.  The greatest thing you can tell a mother is that her sons are praiseworthy.

As usual, my plans for, well for anything, never work out.  I planned on lazy, relaxing summer days with the kids, lots of time swimming at Derek and Penny’s pool, lots of time reading to the kids.  I planned to do a fun day trip somewhere in Idaho with the kids every week.  None of that has happened.  We’ve managed to fit in one day trip and a few swimming hours.  Our summer started crazy and has not slowed down!

The first week of summer I ignored the littles so that I could get Reagan ready for working up at Scout Camp as a counselor all summer.  The boy needed so much gear and scout uniform paraphernalia that we actually spent almost as much as he will MAKE this entire summer just buying gear.  And do not get me started on scout uniforms, their exorbitant costs, or the uppity ladies at the scout shop who tell you that it HAS to be worn a certain way with all these certain patches and badges and belts and no, you can’t wear that belt with that uniform and yes you HAVE to have those pants with that shirt and it can’t be worn with any other shirt, blah blah blah.  We won’t discuss how many times I have had to go back to said scout shop and deal with said ladies either.  We are practically on a first name basis.  I know where everything is now and could work there myself if it weren’t for the fact that my rebellious streak has reared its ugly head there and those ladies wouldn’t hire me.  They duck and cover when they see me coming now.  I am quite ready to be done with the whole scouting program at this point!  Love the values, hate the cost and arbitrary rules and regs. But, I have a little boy who actually cried when I told him the LDS church would no longer be doing scouts soon.  He has been counting the days until he could go on camp outs and earn merit badges.  Sigh.  So, we probably aren’t done, even if the church is.

Reagan spent only a week and a half at camp before we had to go pick him up mid week to bring him home for our stake youth conference and then Trek.  Alli came up with us and we made a fun day of it in McCall.

The Payette River

Can you see our Mountain Goat?

Paddle Boarding with Alli and Grandpa

Levi Flying/Paddling Solo

Playing at the pool with the cousins

Liberty and I walked out of Target one day and looked up in the sky to see this!

Ya don’t see that every day.

We got a hammock!

The Littles had a great time at their 3rd year of Farm Camp where they get to play with bunnies and goats and chickens and kittens and do science projects and climb trees.

We rented a bunny for two weeks and though I was initially nervous about it, it has gone fairly well.

Liberty has been in heaven.  She named this bunny while at Farm camp.  

Meet Cocoa

Stay tuned for more summer adventures!

At the end of my last post I said this blog would continue as normal after our winter plagues had finally ended.  But that was not to be.  Our bad health year has continued!  On April 18th, I was supposed to have a small routine laparoscopy to remove a benign cyst.  At age 26, the same surgery only took me a day or two to recover from and that was with a toddler and newborn! But this one was NOT the same.  They found two very large cysts instead of just one and the recovery was almost as bad as having a hysterectomy!  The end of April and much of May was a total blur for me and no blogging took place.  End of May craziness hit and summer has been non stop until now so here is yet another catch up blog post. (several, actually.  🙂

 

News Bulletin:
This blog could not be brought to you this winter due to the NEVER ENDING sickness that has befallen the Hymas household.  They have been quarantined until further notice. 

This is what I should have posted a month ago but couldn’t because I was too busy taking care of sick children and sick husbands. (just one husband) Rock really set the tone for our year with his trip to the ER on January 1st.  We haven’t had any more emergency room visits or rides in the ambulance but we have had at least one child and often more than one child home sick from school since the day they went back after Christmas break.  Just when I think I’ve got them all better, someone else comes down with something.  And Rock and I have not escaped unscathed either.  Since the middle of December we have had the flu-diarrhea style, the flu-stomach style, the flu-fever and aches style, pink eye, sinus infection, pink eye (Rock had it twice), colds, hives, coughs that will not go away, runny noses, congestion, soar throats, a pulled hamstring (Reagan from track) and to finish it all off (I Hope!) Rock has been sick for three weeks with Bronchitis and is now on the mend. I have started to feel like I am keeping a Petri dish instead of keeping house. The nurse at the elementary school and I are on a first name basis and I swear she thinks I’m neglecting my children. If I have to see the school name on my caller ID one more time I will shoot myself, if the nurse doesn’t first.

It is now February and New Years has faded into history, but here at our house New Year’s Day was quite the memorable day and it’s time I got it written down.

We usually miss the fireworks on New Year’s Eve.  We eat our finger food by candle light, talk about our favorites from the year and then we go to bed.  In recent years the older boys have wanted to stay up till midnight to experience that oh so anti-climatic switch over from 11:59 to 12:00 that leaves us non drinkers feeling somehow gypped.  This year I stayed up with the boys and Rock went to bed so he could get up bright and early and start his new year right, lifting weights at the gym.

When he got home from the gym on New Year’s Day, he was pretty worn out.  He mumbled something about doing heavy lifting with his legs and sat down to rest in his recliner.  He was pretty out of it so I gave up trying to converse with him.  He made himself some eggs at the stove and then sat down to eat them.  I asked him what his plans were for the day and he did not say, “Oh, I plan to pass out three times and spend the day in the hospital.” But that’s what he did.

Right as I asked my question he passed out with a bang as his head hit the floor.  I wish I could say that I kept a cool head and calmly tried to wake him up, but I didn’t.  I panicked, ran over to him and started yelling his name, shaking him trying to get him to wake up.  When he wouldn’t, I ran to the phone and dialed 911.  My brain could not make my fingers push the right numbers.  No wonder they teach you how to do that as a small child and make you practice it over and over.  By the time they answered he was coming to and I sheepishly told them never mind.  He laid on the floor for a long time too woozy to sit up.  Finally after about twenty minutes he sat up in a chair.  A few minutes later he wanted to walk over to his recliner so we tried that but he couldn’t get all the way across the room before sitting down on the couch and passing out a second time.  Panic set in again as I yet again yelled his name and shook him trying to get him to wake up.  And these were not peaceful passing outs.  They were jerky with twitching.  The scary kind. I was scared enough the kids were freaking out by this point. They’d come up to investigate after the initial bang from his head hitting the floor and were there to see me in all my glorious not-calmness.  Libby ran upstairs in tears wile I called 911 again.  I realize that they need to know your address when you call them, but until that moment, never having called 911 before that day, I never knew how nearly impossible it is to remember your address when you are in an emergency.  “My husband could be dying and you want me to spell Buttercup!!!???  I finally got the address out and she walked me through what to do and ordered an ambulance.  I am cheap enough I hesitated a little when she asked me if I wanted her to send one.  I saw huge dollar signs in my head and wondered whether I was just over reacting and should maybe just drive him to the hospital myself, but she convinced me otherwise and hung up.  Not 5 minutes later the ambulance arrived with a fire truck in tow.  As they were making their way to the door Rock, who had come to for a minute, passed out a third time.  I ordered Cade to the door so I could try and revive Rock again.  Five, maybe six EMT’s walked into our house with a stretcher.  They took over asking Rock lots of questions, most of which he couldn’t even answer because he’d forgotten everything he’d done that morning.  After examining him they decided to take him in to the hospital but told me they would  not be turning on their lights as they didn’t feel like he was in that much danger.  If he passed out again, however, they’d flip on the lights and break all the traffic rules, which, I was informed, I was not supposed to do as I followed in the car. I ran upstairs to comfort Libby, say a little prayer with her and send all the kids downstairs to watch some tv.  Oh, and to wake Reagan up.  Yes, he had slept through all the excitement and I felt terrible having to wake him up to say, “So your dad passed out three times and now we are going to the hospital. You’re babysitting.  Good morning!” I called my parents and asked them to come over and be with my frightened children while I went to the hospital.

Somewhere during all of this I had the presence of mind to think, “This is going to make a great blog post someday.” so I snuck Cade my phone and told him to go take a picture of the ambulance and fire truck in front of our house.  I didn’t feel like I could say to the EMT, “Could you hold on a sec before telling me about my husband’s diagnosis while I run outside and take a picture of your ambulance for my blog?”
So I dutifully listened to the EMT and sent Cade to get pictures:

This was another Sick Christmas.  All of us were sick at least twice this December with everything from stomach flu, regular flu, diarrhea, pink eye and a cough/cold that will NOT STOP.  Sickness notwithstanding, we managed to get through four choir concerts and an orchestra concert before school got out.