This week, we got Ben back for a little while. The inspection ended on Tuesday so he got to go back to his regular 7:00 to 4:00 schedule after a Wednesday morning stint as Mr. Mom. I had a dentist appointment at 8:00 that morning so he got to take Sydney to school and spend some time with Zack and Tansy.

On Tuesday afternoon, I went to a parent-teacher conference for Sydney. It was so much fun to see that she is excelling in all of her school work and to hear her teacher say she is a hard worker and a sweet girl. Sometimes I think I'm just biased, but my kid really is awesome!

On Friday, Ben came home at lunch to get some last minute errands done and to carve a jack-o-lantern with the girls. Zack was on doughnut duty while keeping a close eye on pumpkin activity.
Sydney actually designed the face. It looks a lot like the jack-o-lantern they carve at the Halloween party in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" except for the nose. Since she has watched the movie a couple of dozen times in the last little while, this was not surprising.

And, of course, Tansy had to be involved in the messy part. They loved helping Dad clean out the pumpkin.

On Saturday, we had to say goodbye to Ben yet again. He is off to ASBC, which is training for new officers. He will be at Maxwell AFB in Alabama for the next six weeks. He will home on December 5, right before Sydney's dance recital. Good timing, huh?

Sydney got to go to a birthday party for one of her friends from school yesterday. She got to wear her costume, which she loved. I'm glad because she wanted to be a pink dinosaur. Yeah, find on of those at WalMart. I had to make it and was worried she would be disappointed. I'll post pictures of all of the kids in their costumes next week. Sydney asked me after the party why Skye (her friend) was all black at the party. Apparently, Skye is blond like Sydney, but her mom had sprayed her hair black for her costume. Sydney didn't recognize Skye with black hair and thought she was at a party with kids she didn't know for the first few minutes. What's funny is that she had a good time anyway just because Sydney likes to have a good time.

Getting Sydney to the party was an ordeal. About three hours before the party, Tansy slipped on the stairs and hurt her foot. She wouldn't walk on it at all. This meant that I had to carry both Tansy and Zack into the building to help Sydney find the party and again to pick her up. And I'm six months pregnant. I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked.

Three hours after the party, Sydney started with a low-grade fever and a cough. So we are staying home from stake conference today. I think we can all use the rest. I know I can.

We've had a pretty slow week here. Ben in involved in an inspection on base and has been working noon to midnight every day since last Sunday. We are hoping things go well and the inspection ends on Tuesday like it is supposed to.

I have had a cold, so we haven't been able to go anywhere or do anything other than get Sydney to school and back. My kids are a bit stir crazy.

Sydney had her first school pictures on Friday. She was excited about it, but it wasn't quite what she expected. She really liked the Junie B. Jones books and thought that the "cheese man" was going to take her picture. Apparently the photographer was a girl who had her say "puppies" instead of "cheese." She assured me that saying "puppies" made her smile for her picture anyway.

Zack is cutting another tooth. He is one of those kids that gets one at a time, and one right after the other. He chews on absolutely everything, including me. Those little suckers are sharp!

Tansy keeps asking to take out the pool and go swimming. It has only been in the 40s and 50s here this week. Yesterday, I told her again that it was too cold. She looked at me and said, "I wear a coat?" Yes, baby. That will make it all better.

We are well! For the moment, everyone in this family seems to be healthy. It turns out that I was having a severe reaction to the eye drops I was initially prescribed for my pinkeye. I went in first thing Monday morning and got a new prescription. It feels so good to finally be able to wear contacts and eye makeup again.

On Monday, our Family Home Evening activity was setting up the few Halloween decorations we have. This is the girls posing with "Grandma Halloween" as Tansy has named her. Tansy is reallyexcited for Halloween. This is so funny to me and Ben because we don't think she even knows what it is really about. Just wait until the candy starts rolling in.

For most of the week, we just stayed home to let my eyes get better and so I could recover from the cold that I got as well. It was rough for a couple of days because I was so congested and couldn't take anything. I have done well with Sudafed during past pregnancies, but this time it did crazy things to my heart rate. It was 120 beats per minute after I had been laying on the couch for two hours. Not good.

Lucky for me, it cleared up enough that we were able to break in our new fire pit last night. It was only about 45 degrees outside with a cold breeze on top of that. But it was a lot of fun to roast hot dogs and marshmallows with the kids over one of Ben's amazing one-match fires. We had to do something to enjoy our one-day weekend.

Today Ben started 12-hour shifts every day until he leaves again. There is an inspection on base that started today so everyone is working a lot. Ben got the noon to midnight shift. I think that would be preferable to the midnight to noon shift. Much easier to stay up a little late than wake up WAY too early. Maybe this is just a good way to ease us into him leaving again. It's only six weeks this time so it will be a piece of cake.

Right now, I am so glad that Ben is here. I am not having a great week.

Okay, it didn't start bad. On Monday, we had our ultrasound and found out that we are having another boy. It will be nice for Zack to have someone to play with when the girls decide to exclude him. He wasn't invited to their baby shower yesterday because he's a boy.

On Wednesday, I had my appointment with my OB/GYN. She confirmed that everything is great and normal and that my due date is still February 1. I also got a flu shot. My reaction was worse than normal and I felt like absolute crap for two days.

On top of that, my right eye became bloodshot Wednesday night. Since I have really bad allergies here, I took some Claritin and called it good. By Thursday afternoon, it was painful, swollen, and goopy. Yep. Another case of pinkeye! I got in to the doctor first thing Friday morning and started eye drops right away. I thought relief was in sight, but I have been disappointed. It is now Sunday morning, and it has spread to my left eye and steadily worsened in my right eye. In fact, I can barely open my right eye. I have to wash my eyes several times during the night just to get them to open again. Okay, enough about me.

Sydney had her first field trip on Friday. She was so excited to ride the bus. She said it was fun with her friends, but she got tired because it was so long. It was an hour of travel each way. They went to a place called Paradise Park in Lee's Summit to do harvest activities. She absolutely loved it.

While Sydney was off having an adventure, I took Tansy and Zack to get their flu shots. Tansy cried more about me putting her on the table than about the shot. Zack was already grumpy so it didn't seem to matter either way.

The weekend we have been watching General Conference. When Sydney is home, Tansy does not want to nap, even on days that she knows she needs to. I almost got her down yesterday, but she got distracted. Since I haven't felt well and wasn't hungry last night, Ben and the kids were eating cereal for dinner. Tansy started falling asleep at the table and ended up with a face and lap full of milk and Multi-Grain Cheerios. Poor girl. It cheered her up that I had some "new" pajamas for her though. I spent yesterday sorting through every article of children's clothing we own. So glad that is done. Everyone has warm winter clothes and the baby's drawer is full and ready to go.

I'm so glad that today is more General Conference. Now I don't have to find a substitute piano player for Primary. I'm just going to relax. . .as much as mom with three small children can. End of gripe session. Whew.

Last we spoke, Sydney had pinkeye. I kept her home from school on Monday to let her have plenty of time on the eyedrops. On Tuesday she went to school, then spiked a fever of 103 that night. So I kept her home from school again on Wednesday. Thursday morning, her temperature looked good and she insisted she was fine, so we went back to school again. That evening her temperature hit 103 again, she complained that her ears hurt when she blinked, and she went to bed before 7:00. So she was out of school once again on Friday and off to the doctor. She had ear infections and strep. I started her on her antibiotics right away, and she up and at 'em the next morning.

Good thing too, since WE WENT TO THE CIRCUS!

That's right. Ringling Bros. were in town, and I took the girls. We had a great time. I had never been to the circus before. Tansy was so into it. She would just watch everything, absolutely enthralled, and then clap as hard as she could. She didn't mind the s'more on a stick either.

Unfortunately, things would not continue so well for Tansy. Monday morning she woke up with pinkeye. The doctor who had seen Sydney had given us two refills on her eye drops so that I wouldn't have to come back for more for Zack and Tansy. We got her started on her treatment for her eyes, but Tuesday morning, she spiked a fever. She didn't start complaining about any pain until Wednesday and was able to see the doctor Thursday morning. On Thursday, she was so sick she wouldn't eat and wouldn't go anywhere without her new comfort object. See below.Yes, that is a box of chocolate cake mix. She even took it to the clinic. We got quite a few chuckles when people saw a sad, sick two-year-old clutching cake mix everywhere she went. Whatever works. It turned out to be strep and we got more antibiotics. Just in time too because on Friday, DADDY CAME HOME!

Sydney had a whole party planned. They made a yellow Welcome Home sign. We also had chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, blue candles, and sprinkles as well as balloons. I found out about all of this when Sydney was asking Ben his preferences on colors. The best was when Ben got home and the party got underway. Sydney had turned off all of the lights and wanted everyone to sing. I asked her what we were singing, and she started in on "Happy Birthday." She didn't get far before she realized that it was nobody's birthday. Ben suggested "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home." That may be the first time someone had blown out candles on a cake after that song.

All of the kids are loving having their dad home. Even Zack likes to scoot after him and sit on his lap. We will definitely enjoy the next four weeks having our family back together.

Okay, this week I can actually remember some things that happened. Zack had his first physical therapy appointment a week and a half ago. He doesn't roll, crawl, pull up, or cruise. He just scoots around on his bum, so his doctor wanted to have him evaluated for the delay in his gross motor skills. This learning table is the fun part of therapy.
There are less fun things he has to do. Poor guy. He hates this thing so much. I tried using Dum Dums as a bribe to get him moving. Now he just cries at the sight of a Dum Dum. Maybe I should pull out all of the cookies and candy and scar him for life toward junk food. Hmmm....

It was Homecoming Week in Knob Noster, and Sydney's school is part of the Knob Noster School Districs. They got to dress up every day. The first day was pajama day, the day Sydney had been waiting for. I didn't know. When I picked up Sydney from school, she didn't run down the sidewalk like she usually does. I asked her what was wrong. She burst in to tears and said, "It was pajama day, and I didn't have any pajamas!" I explained that I didn't know, that I hadn't gotten a note. It turns out that Sydney had decided to go through her backpack by herself on Friday, took out the note, and left it on the floor in the office. I found it Tuesday night so she was able to dress up for the rest of the week.

This picture is from Wacky Wednesday.

This picture is from Panther Pride day on Friday. The colors are orange and black. Those are panther paws on her cheeks.

Things were all well and good, until PINKEYE!

We got a note from the nurse at the beginning of the week informing us that pinkeye was going around the school and that parents should not bring their children back to school the day after they have been sent home with pinkeye. I knew it was just a matter of time. Sydney woke up with one red eye yesterday. Since she has been struggling with allergies, I waited to see if it got worse. At about 1:30, I noticed that her eye was starting to get goopy.

I called the nurse triage line and was told that a nurse would call me back by 3:00. She called right at 3:00, asked a bunch of questions, and told us to go to Mediquik in Warrensburg. On a side note, I really hate have to wait around to ask permission to take my sick child to the doctor on the weekend. Anyway, I get the kids ready and loaded in the van and drive the 12 miles to the clinic only to be told that they don't take appointments after 3:30. It was 3:38. I was so frustrated, I just started crying. When I called the triage line again to see if there was another clinic I could go to, she said she could put me back in the system and a nurse would call in about an hour. I explained that I had already spoken with the nurse and just needed to find out about another clinic. She said I would just have to wait so I hung up.

I drove home with a very sad little girl who didn't understand why I hadn't been able to get her eyedrops. I called back when we got home and spoke to a very helpful guy who actually looked stuff up for me. He explained that was the only clinic and it was open until 6:00. I told him it was only open until 4:00 and not accepting patients after 3:30. He apologized and said he would try to get that information to the right people.

So we headed back out to Warrensburg this morning. The clinic opened at 10:00 so we were waiting outside the door at 9:54. Sydney got the first appointment. While we were waiting, a little boy from the class next door to Sydney's came in with pinkeye. When the doctor walked in our room, he looked at Sydney and said, "Uh oh." He also informed me her tonsils are huge. I told him it runs in my family and that I am planning on having everybody get their tonsils out for family reunion next summer. We finally got the eye drops. He even gave me two refills so that I could treat Tansy and Zack when they finally get it. I think the worst part for Sydney is the fact that she can't go to school tomorrow. Here's hoping that we're over this by next week!

I can't even remember what went on this week before Friday. That is because a few minutes before 7:00 that night, Ben walked in the door. It was a total surprise for us. I was in the office working on the computer when I heard the screen door open in the kitchen. I shouted down the hall, "What is going on out there?" When I got to the kitchen, Ben was standing there. I immediately burst into tears and just hugged him for a while. He hadn't told us about coming because the people in training did not get Friday off like most other people in the Air Force this weekend. However, his teacher got through the material as quickly as he could and dismissed class at 11:00. Ben drove straight here.

We have had a blast. On Saturday, we drove to Sedalia to have a yummy breakfast at Perkin's. Best pancakes ever. We hung out and played with the kids until that evening. My friend Roxanne had agreed at the last minute to take the kids so that Ben and I could go out to dinner. We finally found our yummy Mexican restaurant. So good!

I felt like the silliest person at church today because I just couldn't stop smiling and would get so excited any time someone who ask about Ben and how long he's here. Today is actually our seventh anniversary, so that makes it even better.

He has to head back to Texas Monday after lunch, but even having him for a couple of days is worth it. Best anniversary ever!