Visiting Teaching and Strep Throat

This week has flown by (as it always does) and can be characterized by visiting teaching and strep throat. I spent 12 hours on Wednesday conducting visiting teaching interviews. It was a really great experience to sit down (or talk on the phone) one-on-one with the great sisters of our ward. They are all inspirational to me. We're having our annual visiting teaching conference on Sunday and I still need to put together my thoughts for a talk.

On Thursday morning, Emily complained of a sore throat, headache and a stomach ache. She stayed home from school and progressively felt worse over the course of the day. She finally threw up in the evening and we figured that it may be strep. Jack had also been saying that it hurt to swallow and we noticed that his already huge tonsils were even bigger. One side is starting to push the uvula (I have no idea how to spell that) over. But, he has always acted completely normal. So, I scheduled an appointment for Emily today and asked if I could bring Jack along too because I wanted the pediatrician to look at his tonsils. We come to find out that both kids had strep. Thankfully they are both on antibiotics and are already feeling better. Jack also has a rash that concerned the doctor a little bit, so I took him for blood work this afternoon.

The lab tech pricked one of this fingers and could barely get 2 or 3 drops out. He didn't flinch or anything. Then she had to try another one. She warmed his hand and then did it again. He didn't flinch the second time, but this time said "That hurted." He got teary-eyed when we got to the car and told me that he never wanted to do that again. We'll see what those results are. He snores like a grizzly bear at night, so we'll see if we can possibly get those monsterous tonsils out.

Easter Fun

We had a really fun Easter weekend! We went to the Church on Saturday morning for an egg hunt that my good friend Kirsten put together. She had empty milk cartons for them to decorate like a bunny and then read them a couple of stories. Meanwhile, Becky, my other good friend, hid the eggs all over the gym. The kids could then go find 12 eggs each. It was low key, fast and they all had a great time. (Thank you so much Kirsten & Becky for all of your hard work putting this together and making it so great!)

On Saturday afternoon, we dyed Easter eggs. This is one of those activities that we only do for the few minutes of stressful fun that it is. We now have 18 hard-boiled eggs in our fridge that may or may not ever be eaten!

Emily and Lindsey helped me fill Easter baskets last night and then this morning, all the kids had to find them. They had a fun time and were excited for the candy. I got them all dressed for Church and actually got a couple of really great pictures of them. We had a good day at Church (Jon was able to make it for most of it as well) and great speakers in Sacrament meeting to help us feel the true spirit of Easter.

Then tonight we had Beth and Jeff and the Rasmussen's over for dinner. There is always a debate between Jon and I about appropriate Easter dinner food. I feel that ham and potatoes are the best. Jon feels that a big pot of chili is the best. It's all based on the way we grew up but I think every Easter dinner I've cooked, it's always been ham and potatoes. This year was no different - ham and potatoes is was! Kirsten made a cute, yummy bunny cake and she let the kids decorate it. They loved it and we had a great time!

Jack's way of impressing girls

Jack really is a funny character and has a funny way of living life! He has a little friend, Brynlee, that he likes and has done a few things to try to impress her:

1. Whenever he sees her, he starts to talk about Star Wars. He was completely impressed the other day when he held up a Star Wars character and asked her who it was and she responded: "Obe-Won-Kan-Obe." The smile on his face didn't fade for a long time.

2. They were at a gymnastics class last week and the teachers had the kids take turns saying their name and what they wanted to be when they grew up. His turn came and he said "My name is Jack and I want to be a mailman." Now, who wouldn't be impressed by that?

3. At the same gymnastics class, he would wait for her to walk across the balance beam and then walk across a balance beam right across from it. He would wait for her to jump into the mat and then he'd jump next to her. When he walks across the beam, he looks like an old man. He hunches over and walks ever so slowly.

4. The other day in the car on the way to Indianapolis, I looked back and he had strung his gum across his face. When I suggested that he take it off before it left sticky marks, he told me he didn't want to take it off until he could show Brynlee. He must have wanted her to get an idea of what he would look like as an old man on oxygen.

Now Jack also has a little friend named Cecile. He and Cecile ride to preschool together and he's been known to tell her "my mom is going to make a million pies and I'm going to throw them in your face." Truly impressive! He also has started to save the top of pop cans because he said Cecile is collecting them. What a character!

Spring Break - Day Five

Wow - this week has gone by fast! Our fun activity of the day was seeing the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" at the dollar movie. It was a cute movie and the music was great. Kate always lasts for about an hour and then she makes every attempt she can to escape. Emily was the one who would follow her out of the theater (and often times into the next theater) and then bring her back. Jack and Lindsey always sit perfectly still, totally glued to the movie. It always reminds of the time Lindsey came home from preschool with a picture she had drawn. The question at the top of the paper was: "What Would I Do If I Turned Off the TV?" Lindsey's response and picture was: "Go to the movies and eat popcorn."

Spring Break - Day Four

We're down to the last few days of break - yeah! We took the morning to recover from our trip yesterday and all slept in, cleaned up, etc. When Jon left for work, I took the kids and we bought the DVD "Enchanted", went Easter clothes shopping and stopped at Rita's for a free treat.

For those who don't live in Columbus, Rita's is an Italian Ice place that is right down our street. Every year, on the first day of spring, they give free ices all day. It was pretty cold here today, but we ventured the cold twice to get some treats. Their new flavor today was birthday cake. It's not easy to imagine how a slushie ice can have a flavor like birthday cake and still taste good, but it does! It's a favorite treat of ours during the summer.

On another fun note, several of our friends had their Match Day for residency today. We were excited to hear that several friends are staying here in Columbus (at least for a year), including Beth & Jeff (Jon's sister), the Rasmussen's and 2 Larson families. But, it's sad to think of saying goodbye to others. It's exciting though to see them finishing up school and moving onto the next step of training! Great job all of you wonderful friends!

Spring Break - Day Three

Children's Museum of Indianapolis

We took a day trip to Indianapolis with our great friends, the Rasmussens, for a day of fun at the Children's Museum. It is the best Children's Museum we've ever been too and we had a great time.

We drove down in the morning (it's about a three hour drive) and stayed until closing at 5:00. Near the beginning of our day, we were in the main lobby and the local news channel was there for a story about things to do for spring break and interviewed Jon. He is quoted as saying about the museum "It fits in our budget and time constraints."

They have a great Curious George exhibit, Dinosaur Dig Site, Carousel ride, a big slide that everyone can ride on, a robots exhibit, a play area for smaller kids - complete with water and sand right next to each other, a real Mummy, blown glass with plastic replicas for the kids to play with, a science works area and even a parade to lead everyone out of the building, promptly at 5:00. The kids were all SO good - you'd never guess that between the two families there were 8 kids, some of whom had naps interrupted.

It was a fun day and we were happy to have a day to spend as a family and with great company!

1 - Kate trying to figure out a rotary phone, 2 - Kate giving Curious George a hug, 3- Jack going down the slide with his sunglasses on - he wore those a lot of the day, 4 - Lindsey digging for dinosaur bones, 5 - Emily at glass works with a completed project and 6 - Kate in a race car with Hailey and Brynlee.

Spring Break - Day Two

If you are a child in the Bowen family, today was probably the most boring spring break vacation day on record! Poor kids! They were SO, SO good though and I'm so proud of their attitudes. We did start the day with a fun activity of going to Kate's Mommy & Me class at the rec center and playing in the gymnastics room. The kids all loved it! (However, I forgot my camera)!

Then we came home and worked on laundry, had lunch and then they patiently played while I met with my visiting teaching coordinator. The word "Visiting Teaching" to Jack is like mentioning the need to have teeth pulled. (Whenever I tell him that we are going visiting teaching, he says "No, not visiting teaching!").

Then we found out Jon wasn't going to be home until late, so we ran to the grocery store and then took the van to Midas for a LOF. They were so patient waiting for that. Then we ate dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon, I gave them a bath and then piled them back in the car to head for a Stake training meeting. I was hoping the meeting would just be an hour or so, so I put them in the nursery and took a portable DVD player for them to watch a movie. Two hours after leaving them in the nursery, I picked them up. They had been so good and fended for themselves by coloring on coffee filters, writing messages on the chalkboard, doing every puzzle about 10 times and even making trips to the bathroom and drinking fountain. Lindsey even wiped Jack's bum!

I was so proud of them and it was such a blessing that they had such a good attitude about everything. Tomorrow we're headed to Indianapolis (about 3 hours away) to spend the day at the Children's Museum there, so they definitely earned that one. Anyway, we are very blessed with such great kids and I'm continually impressed by them.

Spring Break - Day One

This week is the kid's spring break, so we're trying to get work done and have some fun too. We started our morning with some good cleaning of the house. The kids worked on the toy room in the basement, Jon scrubbed the shower and picked up our room and I cleaned the bathrooms, dusted and vacuumned. As we were finishing up, I realized that I had yet fed our neighbors cat. (They have been out of town and I first told them that I wouldn't be able to take care of the cat - but somehow I ended up still doing it). I go to get the key and it's gone! We spend the next hour searching the house for that key and we just couldn't find it.


I called our neighbors on their cell phone in an attempt to find another key. Hours later, I finally met their sweet landlord, who had to drive to my house twice before we finally got the right key, and I was able to feed that cat. (For anyone who may think to ask me to care for their animals - think twice. I really don't like them and several have thought it better to die under my care than live through the week).


The rest of the afternoon was literally spent on the phone talking with different sisters in the ward and then as a reward, I took the kids to Graeter's for icecream. They had a great time and all left with little pink faces from running around and having a fun time.

Emily at the bottom of the slide.

Lindsey

Jack - sporting his Star Wars shirt that is about 10 sizes too big.

Kate enjoying her cotton candy ice cream cone.

Good, Restful Sleep

All of our kids have gone through the phase of climbing in to bed with us in the middle of the night. Jack is our child who currently does it. About the 1/2 the nights of the week, he leaves his bed and comes into ours. He always comes to my side of the bed and usually doesn't say much, but just climbs over me and helps himself to my pillow. On the nights that Jon is working, he still comes to my side and climbs over me to get to Jon's pillow. This morning this is how he ended up. Poor Jon - so much for a restful sleep!

Little Dancer

Kate has decided she likes to try on several different dresses each day, especially the short-sleeved summer ones. The other day we were in Target and she saw a leotard and just had to have it (at least that's what I tell myself because I thought it was so cute too). She has a Tumbling Tots class on Fridays that she just loves, so she proudly wears her leotard to that now. She is definitely a girl and loves things that are pink!

Fun Baby Quilts

I have a favorite baby quilt pattern for cute, fast baby quilts. There are 2 colors of minkee and 2 cotton prints and that's it. I made the pink one for a sister in the ward that I visit teach and the blue one for a friend in the ward. It was the first time that I put minkee on the back too and I really love it. It's so soft and makes the quilt so sweet. Anyway, with all the snow last weekend (and a slower Relief Society week), it was fun to have some quilt time.

"I Color Myself"

Kate is always a joy during Family Home Evening. Tonight I was telling the kids the story of the Brother of Jared and they were all listening so well. Kate first kept getting in the fridge and bringing in the 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk. Then, she found something else to do. She used a Sharpie to color her arm. When I realized what she had done, I asked her "Kate, what did you do?" She responded: "I color myself." It will take a few days for this to disappear. Scrubbing in the bath only lightened it slightly. What a kid!

Fun FHE idea: I told the story of the Brother of Jared and used peppermint mentos to represent the 16 stones that the Brother of Jared collected. The kids loved it and especially loved the minty treat!

Watching Dad dig us out & Mom's Restaurant

Yesterday was the snow...today was the shovelling! Church was cancelled because of hazardous driving conditions. The news last night said that it was the worst snow fall in 100 years. Wow! Jon has today off, so he was able to dig us out this morning. It took quite a while and most of the kids went out with him to watch. I looked out the window to see Kate sitting in a camping chair happily watching her dad shovel.

When you're the 4th child, the chances of finding matching mittens is one in a million. Good thing she doesn't care!


Last night at dinner time, in order to make eating leftovers sound fun to eat, I told the kids that they were coming to my restaurant and I would take their orders. They loved it and laughed when I treated them like they were eating at a restaurant. Well, then this morning, I asked Jack what he wanted for breakfast. His reply was "Aren't you going to take my order?" Then during lunch, he commented, "I eat at this place every day because the food is so good." What a funny kid!

Oh What Do You Do In the Springtime, When All The World is White!

We are experiencing one of the worst storms in Ohio since we moved here 6 years ago. It started snowing yesterday morning and hasn't really stopped. From the looks of it, we've gotten between 2 and 3 feet, plus it's really windy, so there are huge drifts of snow. Now, 2 feet of snow is not a big deal in Utah, but to the people here, life must stop. Jon had to be at work (there is no such thing as a snow day for a doctor) at 9:00, so he worked for almost an hour digging out his car. He had to dig a trail for the tires of his car to go down our driveway. He made it there safely, so hopefully he'll be able to make it home.

So, the kids and I have been filling our day with inside things to do. Emily & Lindsey got their homework done. The three big kids have been working on melty bead projects. I finally put my Christmas dishes away (a goal I've had since January 1st and it took all of 5 minutes). Kate and I took a nice nap. We've watched "The Sound of Music" (a great day for a 3 hour movie). And, the kids ventured out in the snow. They didn't last very long because the wind is still so cold and kept blowing snow in their faces. So, hopefully we'll play for awhile and the rest of the day will pass. Hopefully we won't have to turn to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - truly, one of the longest movies ever made.

Thankfully, we have plenty of food, heat, milk and pop, so we're great!

The second 1/2 of Kate's diet

This morning, there was another few moments of silence while I was putting laundry away, so I went to find Kate. She had helped herself to a Diet Coke that was in the fridge. I swear that I hadn't opened it yet, but when I tried to get her to show me if she could open a can of pop on her own, she couldn't. So, it's a mystery to me if she got it out and opened it herself or if it had already been opened and she just carried it to the table to take a drink. All right, time a for a little V8 juice in the fridge!

Fun Wall Hanging

I haven't really completed very many projects since the fall because of being so tired, but I'm gratefully feeling really good and have a lot more energy. So, I finally completed this March/April wall hanging. The kites are paper-pieced and then I sewed the ties on once it was quilted. It's so fun to hang something up on the wall.

Are sweet tooth's genetic?

I will openly admit that we eat way too many sweets and treats at our house. The cupboards have such a wide variety of color and sizes to it though, so it's not all bad. Well, Kate is one of the worst. She has figured how to push the chair over to the counter, climb on the counter and get into the candy. The other day, I caught her after she had done this, found a giant chocolate bar, unwrapped it and taken a couple of bites. When I told her to give it back to mom, she crawled under the kitchen table and just laughed. Long ago, I discovered that when the kids are awake, moments of silence usually mean trouble!

You know you're married to a doctor when....

...you go to the cupboard to get some crackers and you find them clamped shut with medical scissors. It's good they have so many uses! I'm sure we'll have the freshest saltines on the block!