So, I didn't post last week since we were at my parents' house for my mom's birthday. I also don't think I have any pictures. I'll try to do better this week.

The most exciting thing that has happened to us lately is that Ben and I had the opportunity to file our first police report. This is a crazy story. We have had a consistent problem with parking in front of our building all winter. The main problem finally moved last week and we thought we were done with it. However, another vehicle that we didn't recognize started taking up a spot. After two days of this, we still hadn't seen who the driver was to talk to them. Thinking that it was a visitor since it had out of town plates, we decided to leave a note on the windshield, which read, "This parking is for residents of building E. Only one spot per unit. Please move your vehicle to the uncovered visitor parking." Ben put the note on the car at 7:15 a.m. When he left for class at 8:45, it was on our door step and the car hadn't moved.

Later that morning, the office manager called and I asked her about the car. She said she would knock on doors and find out who it belonged to. She called later and said that she didn't have any luck, but that she left a note on the windshield. I looked out the window and told her there was no note, but that I had heard someone coming in and out of the apartment next door although the tenant was at work. While we were on the phone, a guy came out of the apartment, got something out of the car and went back upstairs.

A little later, I came out with the kids to take Sydney to preschool. I saw the manager's note torn up and thrown on the ground in front of this car. I quickly loaded the kids in the van and locked the doors while I buckled them in. I felt that if this guy was getting so bent out of shape about moving his vehicle that I didn't want to be anywhere near him. After dropping off Sydney at preschool, I sat in front of the office for half an hour waiting for Ben to come home so I wouldn't be stuck on the stairs with my two sleeping babies if he came out to confront me. The office manager came back from lunch, and I explained the situation to her. The tenant had come home, so she went in to call her. However, they were watching from the window and the tenant called as soon as the manager walked in. The tenant drove to the office as Ben was coming home, so I followed him and parked the van.

Sure enough, as soon as we got out of the cars, this guy comes outside and starts getting into it with Ben. We took the kids inside just before he got in Ben's face and started threatening to hurt him and our family. When I saw this guy come within a couple of inches of Ben, I frantically called the office manager and told her what was going on. It didn't get physical and the guy drove away, but I was really rattled.

We spent the afternoon looking for different housing options, but with the short time we would be here and the fact that Ben doesn't have a job until next month, we are stuck. I called the office manager to see if the guy was gone, and she asked us to file a police report about this. We headed to the police station and ended up talking to an officer who was in our ward a couple of years ago. This was good because I was afraid that any officer would think we were leaving stuff out since it was such an unreasonable reaction to our note. Having someone who knew what kind of people we are was nice.

The office manager was assured us that he has left for good, but she said that we should let her and the police know if he comes back. The officer said the same thing.

Basically, despite their assurances, I have spent all of my time locked in my apartment, watching out the window for him. It isn't fair and it isn't fun, but it is temporary. We will have our orders next month, which will mean an end in sight. At least we got a new experience out of it, right?

What is up with Sydney? She is obviously sleep-deprived. She is the only one who is still suffering from this weird sleeping sickness. Yes, she is sleeping in Zack's car seat. Doesn't that look cozy.

Of course, that day had been very exciting. At preschool they had their Valentine's Day party and the wedding of Q and U. The flower barrette in her hair and the beribboned flower she is holding even in her sleep were given to her by her teacher for the wedding. She has the most fantastic teacher. Preschool is doing wonders for her.

Her amazing logic also tends to astound me. Last Sunday night I said, "Sydney, what do you want to talk about for our Family Home Evening lesson tomorrow."

She responded, "Airplanes."

"I'm not sure that's a great lesson topic," I said.

"Why," she asked.

"Because Family Home Evening lesson are supposed to be about ways we can be closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus."

"Well, we are on the ground and Heavenly Father and Jesus are way up in Heaven. If we go up in an airplane, then we are closer to Them."

See? You can't really argue with her. She stumps me all the time.

And, of course, there was Valentine's Day. Sydney and I made the candy ipods for her class. We made ten, so it took about an hour. She was really excited and glad that I made enough for her to have one.






Here are the girls showing off their Valentine's Day gifts yesterday. I think the sunglasses stay on better if Tansy is making this weird, bottom-teeth-in-front face.




















Zack had his well-child visit on Monday. We discovered that he had lost almost a pound while he was sick with RSV. Poor guy. Other than that, he checked out perfectly--big, huge 96% head and all.

I just read my sister Kari's blog, and she posted about a high councilman in her ward who spoke about how we don't share spiritual things in our blogs. She took the opportunity to share some feelings and taught me a very important lesson.

I just blogged about being released from my calling in the Relief Society presidency. I haven't shared any of the important lessons I learned from that calling. I had the opportunity to work with amazing, inspired women; a bishop who loves and works hard for his ward; and sisters who struggle more than I ever have and still move forward with faith.

I am married to a man who holds and honors his priesthood. I have neighbors who have assisted him in blessing my sick children, which has brought me peace and strength and helped their tiny bodies heal.

I have a strong, eternal marriage because of covenants Ben and I have made in the temple. I hope to encourage my children each day to strive for this.

I never want anyone to question my testimony of the Savior. He lives. He loves me. He loves you. He wants us to come to him, no matter where we are or what we have done. I know this is true, and I hope that I can make this a bigger part of my daily communication to help His other children know too.

So, I was released from the Relief Society presidency today. Round three of Enrichment Counselor has come to a close. I'm pretty sure I didn't do a great job in this calling, so I'm afraid it might come up again in the future.

The kids are finally well. However, there is a contagion going around our house that causes the kids to fall asleep in random places. I typically cannot get my kids to sleep anywhere other than their beds. This was taken Tuesday after Tansy loudly protested being in her bed. I can usually say, "Tansy, do you want to take a nap?" She'll respond, "Nap." And go to bed. This day it was "NO!" with vigorous head shaking and shrieking. Twenty minutes after setting herself up on the couch with her puppy and blanket, here we were.


On Wednesday night, it was Sydney's turn. I got home from an Enrichment activity at 8:00 and found her like this on the living room floor. The next morning, she didn't remember me putting her in her pajamas, taking her to the bathroom and putting her to bed.


And yesterday, knowing how I longed to have a complete montage of strange sleeping children, Zack kindly fell asleep on the living room floor. He had been happily playing with a sleeper, but I soon noticed it had become very quiet. Sure enough, he's in Snoozeville.



And I couldn't resist posting this picture of Tansy reading her favorite magazine. She seriously loves the National Geographic. She will sit quietly for the longest time carefully flipping the pages and occassionally pointing out something that strikes her fancy. She is also a big fan of the Reader's Digest.

Yesterday I made a run to DI. As I was looked for warm shirts for Tansy, I came across this Giselle t-shirt. It just so happens that Sydney has the same shirt. At $2.00, I just couldn't resist. They're pretty pleased. Sydney loves this picture. She asked me to write that.

In other news, I am working for the next few weeks. It is only 10-12 hours a week for three weeks, but it still is making things crazy. My boss was left in a lurch and needed some extra help hiring a new employee. She is super smart, so it's going better than planned.

Ben is now serving as the Elders' Quorum secretary. No rest for the weary, huh? He is also working so hard during this last semester. I don't know how he keeps going sometimes. At least I know that if we end up destitute, it won't be for his lack of trying. Just kidding. We are still waiting for dates from the Air Force, but we'll let you know when we know.

We began our week thinking that we were on our way to recovery. Tansy's RSV was improving slowly but surely, although she was still complaining about her head, eyes, and ears hurting. Lots of painkillers got her through. Thank goodness for modern medicine. Ben and I each got to go to the temple this week (on different days, of course, since no one wants to be around my kids right now). Things were looking up. I should never look up. I just trip over the next thing I didn't see coming.

On Thursday night, I was changing Zack's diaper and noticed that he was sucking in really hard under his ribs with every breath he took. I said, "Oh, no." When Ben came to see what was the matter, I pointed to Zack's stomach and said, "He has RSV."

The next morning we called to find out that our doctor was out of town for the next several days, so we all went down to Instacare. Zack had an RSV test, a chest x-ray, a rectal temperature reading, etc., and hardly even cried. We got lucky on the chest x-ray because they usually time the exposure for the big breath they take between screams. Zack was just hanging out. For those of you who have not had to have a chest x-ray taken for a small child, check out http://www.coneinstruments.com/CIproddetail1.asp?Product_ID=2770 for pictures of the restraint they use for babies. As you can imagine, Sydney and Tansy screamed. As they should.

The x-ray came back negative for pneumonia, but the RSV test came back positive. He's a lot worse than Tansy was, so he is on four breathing treatments of albuterol a day. That's what the cute mask is about. He starts out fine, like in the picture, then cries for a few minutes, then falls asleep. The doctor said that if he gets worse, we should take him to the ER because he would probably be admitted.

Tansy is still trying to completely get well. This is what happened when I ran away for some alone time on Saturday. Apparently, she was ready for her nap earlier than usual.

Through this sleep-deprived weekend, our next-door neighbors went out of town and forgot to turn off the alarm clock. Isn't that on everybody's list when they leave? Turn down the heat, make sure the oven is off, switch off the alarm clock. Just kidding. It woke us up yesterday and today at 5:30 a.m. They felt so bad when they got home and found out. Don't worry. They are fantastic neighbors and really look out for us. It was actually kind of funny trying to figure out what was going on while looking for other places in the apartment to sleep.