Hello again! Welcome to week two of my blog.
A lot happened this week. Probably the most significant thing was
that I was really sick. However I will tell more on that later.
Now for the overview of significant events
this week :
1. A date at Dennys
Probably one of my favorite things this
week was that on Monday Seth and I went shopping for Christmas tree decorations
at the dollar store and big lots (tree topper) and then he took me on a date to
Denny's in Provo. I absolutely adore Denny's because it is a nice sit
down restaurant with a value menu! Also I think that their hot chocolate
is the best thing in the world. It was really nice to have a date with
Seth since he has been so busy that I haven't seen him a lot lately. <3
2. Decorating the Christmas Tree!
Although we put the tree up a while ago it
was looking pretty sparse with only white lights on it. Last year to save
money I made a whole bunch of origami decorations to put up, but they must have
gotten thrown away since we couldn't find them this year. So... yay for
the Dollar Tree! And also Big Lots for the awesome star tree topper.
Here are some pics of Seth with our gorgeous tree:
Another cool part
of Christmas decorating is that we were able to put out the Nativity set that
my mother in law gave us for Christmas last year. Seth's lighting
designer alter ego took over and he even added tea lights to the scene :)
3. Sick
Unfortunately on Monday night I got
ridiculously sick with the flu and stayed that way for the rest of the week.
It started with me vomiting up all of my Denny's, which I found
absolutely devastating. Then I got a fever. This is where the
title of the post comes in! I took tylenol to try to bring it down but it
didn't really do much. I am not supposed to take a lot of advil because of my
heart but I did finally take two pills of it the next day after I called my Mom
crying that I needed her because I was sick. The advil worked (it always works
darn it all!) and my wonderful Mother was shopping in Provo when I called and
so she came to my rescue. She brought gatorade and just let me lay my
head on her lap while we sat on the couch.
I don't care how old you are; when you are
sick your mommy makes it better.
The silly flu was really bad for the next
few days. I didn't sleep hardly at all until I finally asked Seth to give
me a blessing at 3 am on Thursday morning because I had to travel to Salt Lake
City for my 6 month heart doctor appointment that day. Luckily he was already
awake because he was pulling an all-nighter for school (more later).
I have a testimony of priesthood
blessings because I fell asleep right after and woke up on time feeling really
great! I felt fine through the entire day until late that night when the
fever came back. I am so grateful that I was blessed with that reprieve
so I could do the things that I needed.
4. So cold the car won't start
Another aspect of this week is that it has
been FREEZING!! It was so cold on Tuesday morning that our car wouldn't
start. Seth had to call his Mom to give him a ride to work. Luckily
our landlord came by to pick up the combined rents, since we are the apartment
managers, and he let us borrow a battery charger that plugs into the wall.
Seth threaded an extension cord through our (second story!) bathroom
window and charged the battery for about an hour after which the car started
again.
On a related note Seth has decided to try
using vinegar water on our windshield to try to ward off ice. He hasn't done it
yet but when I know how it turns out I'll report in a future post.
5. Sarah's birthday present -- finally!!
So Sarah's birthday present was
delayed twice because of a really bad storm that was pretty much nationwide.
However on Wednesday she finally got it!!
Yep. That is a Jack Skellington
messenger backpack. I video chatted with Sarah over skype as she opened
the package. She said she liked the bag, especially since it was
nightmare before christmas (her favorite Disney movie). Mom was even
happier than Sarah about the gift, however. I guess that Sarah's old
backpack has pretty much bitten the dust and she has needed a new one. I
didn't know that when I got the bag ( I just thought that since Sar loves jack
skellington the bag would be good)!
After she opened the gift I ended up
helping Emma with her math homework using the screen sharing function on Skype
(more later).
Once Emma and I were finished with math,
Sarah spent an hour or so showing off her new 3DS. She held the game
console screen up to the webcam as she played which, in my opinion, takes a lot
of skill!
I sure love her.
4. Remote math tutoring
Emma was struggling a little with her math
this week and my Mom was getting pretty fed up with trying to help her because
they are teaching a different method of solving the problems than the one Mom
learned in school. This made it so that even though they got the right
answer it was marked wrong because they didn't get it the way the computer
wanted her to.
Technology to the rescue! Emma and I
were able to have two virtual tutoring sessions this week using Skype. I
shared my screen and then used my graphics tablet to write in Microsoft One
Note. Emma did all the work, I just asked her questions, usually
"What should I write next?"
I had so much fun doing math with Emma.
I love spending time working on something together! I called back
on my own on Thursday night to see if she wanted help because I enjoyed the
Wednesday session so much. I am kind of hoping Em might let me sit in on
future homework sessions as well :) Emma is a smart and fun girl!
Here are some screenshots from the math
marathons :
5. Seth pulls an all nighter
So Wednesday night was crazy for Seth.
He literally stayed up all night to finish school projects. I don't know
how he functions.
6.
Train ride
Since Seth was giving a presentation
when I needed to go to the train station on Thursday morning and he was running
spotlights at work when I pulled into Provo that night, I ended up calling my little
brother Joe to give me a ride.
I am so grateful that he was willing
and able to make time to help me. Otherwise I would have had to walk and it was
cold so that would have been awful!
Here are some pics from when he
brought me home from the train at 6:30pm on Thursday. The first two are so bad because my arms are
too short to take good two person selfies!
For the good pic I finally had Joe hold the camera. He is such a great brother!!!
Anyway the train to Salt Lake left
at 11:50am and Joe gave me a ride to the station. I love riding the train. I feel like I am on an adventure every time,
and I don’t have to worry about getting in accidents which relieves a lot of
anxiety for me. I took some pictures and
even a video to document my train adventure.
One thing about the train is that I
was surprised how crowded it was on the return trip to Provo! I have never before been unable to find a
seat right when I got on the Frontrunner, but this time was different. I ended up holding on to a strap thingy and
standing in the isle for two stops until enough people got off that I could get
a seat. I was happy to see that a lot of
people were using the train; because that means fewer cars are smogging up the
valley!
To get to Primary Childrens from
Provo you take the frontrunner until Murray and then transfer to the Red Line
University Trax. Trax drops you off literally
50 feet from Primary’s front door. This is a lot closer than if you have to
park in the parking structure and walk in. Did I mention there is no worry
about finding a parking spot J To illustrate I have included a photo of the view
from the University medical trax station.
7. Heart Checkup
The hospital was fun. I love my kid hospital. I have been to adult hospitals for my heart
and they are awful! Even when I am just going for a checkup I always end up feeling
anxious and upset. Primary Children’s is
very different, however. Everyone is
smiling and nice, the walls and ceiling decorated with colorful artwork and
there are fish, toys and xbox games in the waiting rooms. Not to mention lollipops and crayons in the
exam rooms! I have standing permission to use the crayons to decorate the paper
that goes on the exam table because they have to throw it out after each
patient anyway. How cool is that? Here
are some pics to show you what I mean:
I was very careful to wear one of the
masks that the hospital puts in the lobby and to sanitize my hands before and
after touching everything because I really don’t want already sick kids to get
sicker because I went to my doctor’s appointment with the flu. I thought about rescheduling, but it takes so
long to get in to see Dr. Yutman (her schedule is packed!!) that I decided
against it. Oh well. **sigh**
Even so everything checked out great
with my heart, although Dr. Yutman did prescribe a daily dose of baby asprin as
a preventative measure because I did have a few isolated episodes of atrial
flutter since my last visit. She also re-iterated the ban on caffeine and over
the counter cold medicines. I told her about the fever and that the Tylenol wasn’t
working. She understood but told me to be really careful in how much advil I
was taking. All in all, however, I am doing great. Whew!
That is pretty much it. I was sick again yesterday (Friday) and just
slept so nothing much happened. Seth was
wonderful as usual and even did the grocery shopping by himself. He bought me root beer which is my favorite
soft drink since I can’t drink caffeine because of my heart! Hopefully I will feel better this week, and
it should be less stressful for Seth as well.
Until next time!
Love,
Whitney Ann
