The good, the bad and the ugly (mostly bad and ugly)

{WARNING: This post contains graphic pictures, not intended for those with weak stomachs. Viewer's discretion advised.}

What a week this has been. I have never felt so ready for a week to end. And by end I mean Monday at 3:45pm this week will officially be over!

Sunday night the crazy week began. Jack came down with a fever. He had been pulling at his ears and I noticed dry blood in his right ear earlier that day. He would not eat solid food very well and cried when he nursed. I took him into the clinic the next morning. He had an ear infection and was put on antibiotics. He was fussy, wouldn't let you set him down, and was up every hour or two at night. Poor thing. All I could do was snuggle him and finally he would calm down and sleep for a little bit. But that meant, no naptimes for Mommy to get her stuff done. I guess the house will have to wait.

After I had gotten back from the clinic, I was hanging some laundry out to dry and found a spider crawling in one of my pant legs. It wasn't very big, but made me cringe to see it crawling up my pant leg. Oh how I miss my American dryer! I turned to go and take some laundry inside and looked up and see this guy lurking right by my door!

SICK!! Let me give you an estimate of at least 5 inches in diameter! Yes, the KING of all SPIDERS! My heart sinks. Of course I was home alone with my boys (these kind of things never happen when Broc is around!) Broc was taking a test- it's finals week. And this is me we are talking about, I can't handle things like this! I made sure my babes were safe inside and I ran upstairs to get my neighbor, knowing there was no way I was even going to take an attempt at that thing. My heart was racing and my hands were shaking as I told her of the monster that was lurking at my door. I told her to grab her bug spray and her camera. I showed her with my hands how big it was and I'm sure she was thinking, "uh huh, right- your exaggerating!" She came and took one look, cringed and opted to go find our neighbor Marley to take care of it. As she ran to get somebody, she found Broc walking home from his test. He borrowed a bug sprayer from our neighbor in hopes that would kill it.

(Yes, he is spraying the spider not shooting it with a gun.)

Just when you think it can't get any worse... The sickest and worst part happened. You can't see to well from the pictures, but this disgustingly huge spider was laying her egg sack right in that corner. It's hard to see in the video, but the spider was dragging the egg sack as she was running and little spiders were coming out.

Broc didn't notice it at the time but after he had knocked the spider down he saw two little baby spiders hanging right in front of his face. He looked down by the dead mother spider and there were millions of spiders running out of the egg sack! Yes a million little spiders that would grow up to be big giant spiders just like their mom. So so so sick. This is all happening right by my door. I literally am cringing as I replay this day. Broc tried his best to spray them all and I pray that they are all dead. (Is that a bad thing to pray for?) I was seriously traumatized.

The week continues on. Let's just say that antibiotics + sick babies = a runny poopy mess!! The pharmacy didn't have any acidophilus :(

On Wednesday evening Crew comes to me and says, "Mom, there is a big spider behind the TV". He calls everything a "big spider". I thought he saw a little house spider. I took one look behind the TV and saw what looked like a smaller version of the KING SPIDER. Note: home alone again! Since I was still traumatized from that awful experience I didn't even bother looking very closely at it. I just ran up to my neighbors (yes, I'm sure they wish they didn't live next to the girl who calls them for everything). So our great neighbors Paul and Kristen come down prepared for the worst. (It was only a day earlier that we found the KING SPIDER).

Paul attempts to get it with the swiffer and I am standing- terrified one leg on a chair one leg on the counter- seriously. What is going through my head you wonder? "I can't do this. I really can't. I am ready to find the first flight out of here. There are all of those baby spiders that ran, what if one of them is in our house, what if there are more? I just can't do this. Everybody has their weaknesses- well this is mine. I can't handle this. I can't handle being a single mom of two and dealing with these sick bugs."

Paul thinks he kills it after multiple blows with the swiffer and also is thinking it is a cockroach. Kristen, who is videoing the whole thing keeps saying, "guys it's not real, it's plastic". I'm thinking, there is no way that thing is plastic, #1 Crew doesn't have any plastic bug toys, #2 I just swept behind there and would have noticed a plastic bug. Before I am really sure if it is real or fake Kristen picks it up and chucks it at me! I scream bloody murder. Crew starts crying because he was scared that I screamed and could tell that I was scared. And it wakes Jack up- now Jack is crying, Crew is crying, and I am crying- from laughing so hard. Good one Kristen! Evidently, my downstairs neighbor heard the scream and came up to see if everything was ok. At least I have great neighbors who care about me!

Stupid plastic fly- oh how I hate you! You got us all. Still no idea where that piece of crap plastic came from. But, at least we all got a good laugh out of it. I am still wondering if this really happened. But then I watch the video and am reassured, yep this really happened!

Paul thought it would be a good idea to play a joke on Broc. So I did, but he pulled out his trusty flashlight first thing and started laughing- couldn't fool him. Where was he when I found it. He could have saved me some serious embarrassment!

Back to Jack, after a couple days on the antibiotic, Jack developed a rash. Well, now we know he is allergic to Azithromycin. Poor thing. And still not sleeping. I think one night I did not go to bed until 4:00 AM. Oh how I have missed my rocking chair. It would make these long nights so much better.

Some good came on Thursday when Broc got his grades back from his mini .... A!!! YAY! We splurged and celebrated with some REAL ice cream from the new IGA! Yes we have a real grocery store!!! Oh it was divine! (For those of you who are thinking, "ice cream- what's the big deal?" Well we are on an island where dairy products are scarce. And if you find them you pay a pretty penny for them! Just for the record, our freezer has been empty without ice cream for over 4 months!) I am so proud of this guy. He has worked so hard this semester.

One more glance at our little box of heaven!

That "nice feel good" feeling quickly came to an end when friday rolled around. Crew and I were cleaning up his room. He was walking to go and throw some papers in the garbage, he tripped and fell right into the corner of the bottom bed post. I knew what was coming after a hit like that. I have hoped that this day would never come, especially here. But here it is. Crew's first laceration, and I'm sure it won't be his last.

Broc was at school studying (for a change!) I called him and told him what happened. After the experience we had at the clinic with Jack, I wasn't sure that I wanted to take him to the clinic. I think it was a deep enough lac that it could have used a couple of stitches, but I just didn't feel comfortable taking him to the clinic. Paul, had some steri strips and came down to take a look at it. We ended up doing surgery on the extra bed in Crew's room.

We got it cleaned out really good.

Then we applied some liquid bandaid and steri strips. Thanks so much Paul for coming to the rescue again! Hopefully he doesn't have too bad of a scar. Crew was a champ through the whole thing. He only cried when it initially happened. But just laid there and was so brave.

The pharmacy didn't have any ice packs so we used what we had in the freezer. After a few rounds of ice (well, frozen peas) and some Ibuprofen- no black eye!

Movies make holding the ice on there so much easier!

After he had held the frozen peas on his eye, he said, "now can I eat them?" And so he did.

What a week. After going on very little sleep and having a million things around the house that have gotten undone, I have to admit yesterday I was at my breaking point. I felt defeated and overwhelmed. But this week is almost over and there is some light to look forward to. Broc takes his comprehensive final on Monday. So at 3:45 PM I will have my husband back for a couple of weeks. I cannot wait! Then my Mom comes to visit on Tuesday!!! I don't think I have ever been so excited to see her face! Here's to a couple of great weeks up ahead!

Sunday

Sundays are my favorite day of the week! Yes, the mornings are far from ideal (at least at our house). It usually consists of rushing around trying to get everyone ready, fed, gather lessons/ manuals, books, scriptures, a diaper bag filled with treasures to entertain, and out the door thinking you still have 5 minutes to spare only to realize you are late again with a 15 minute walk to church. And this morning, Broc had set Jack down on the floor. Jack started choking and spit up. I went to wipe his mouth and half of a millipede came out! Gross. Luckily, the other half of the millipede was sitting on the floor where Broc had placed him. Seriously, one of the sickest things I have encountered. But once we get to church, sit down and listen to sweet testimonies, and fill our lives with some great uplifting words, it puts everything into perspective.

It is a lot of work to be a member of the church here. All of the stresses I have felt about my callings and the craziness of life, changed. I felt humbled as I sat among people who live a very simple life. A people who don't have running water in their homes- most members have to go and get many buckets of water from the ocean to meet their bathroom/ laundry/ dish washing needs. A people who rarely complain about what they don't have. A people who are so fast to offer to help you out when they really are the ones in need of help.

I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society with a sister named Cornelia. Saturday had been one of those crazy days when there just wasn't enough time in the day and I was feeling a little frustrated knowing that the only time I had to get together with Cornelia was during Crew's and Jack's naptime. That meant, the dishes and cleaning I would have normally gotten done during naptime would have to wait. And that also meant, that people would be coming over when I have dishes in my sink. I hate people coming over when I have dishes in my sink. But not having another option, I swallowed my pride and Cornelia came over. Our lesson was on service. We planned the lesson and then Cornelia said, "I notice you have a lot of dishes in your sink- let me wash them. I love washing dishes." I politely said "no thank you". She offered a few more times and after me telling her a few "no thank you, it's ok, I appreciate it", she grabs my arm and says, "sister, why don't you want me to help you?" My heart sunk as I realized that the lesson we were teaching the next day was on service. Everything we had just talked about she was putting into action and I was about to keep her from doing it. Reluctantly, I let her do the dishes. It was a huge help. It was about 5pm which is always the craziest part of my day, trying to get dinner ready, Jack fed, keep Crew entertained. And now, I had my dishes all done. I was humbled to say the least.

We taught our lesson and it went really well. Cornelia did an amazing job. She cannot read as well as she would like and because of this she is really uncomfortable to read in front of people. She is put down by others around her and because of this she is a bit closed off. She shared with me how bad she feels when her kids have to read to her because she feels that as their mother, she should be reading to them. She did an amazing job teaching. Her experiences and example touched me in a way that I will never forget. I realized that this is what life is about. It's not about being able to get everything done and having a spotless house all the time. But about learning from each other and looking for ways to serve others. As hard as some things are living here, there is so much I feel that I have already learned. Lessons that I would only get to experience here. It is days like this that make all of the work you do worth it. I am so grateful we get have this amazing opportunity.

It just gets better. After feeling so uplifted, we came home and got to spend the day with this guy! I think you can see how much Crew and Jack loved it too! Oh how I love Sundays!

Can you believe this little guy is 9 moths? Where did the time go?

We also enjoyed our amazing view from our front porch.

Crew watered the flowers and the "lawn".

Our neighbors gave their dogs a bath and Crew thought it was the coolest thing to help scrub them!

Jack, the stealer of all hearts! What a lover! Doesn't this picture just make you smile?!!

Later that night we watched the Easter movie, "Finding Faith in Christ" and got to share our testimonies with Crew. Nothing better than spending time together!

Hooray for Sundays!!

{notice Jack's top two teeth}