Memorial Day

Ben has pink eye. Tommy cut his finger pretty bad and slipped into the early stages of shock. I have some kind of stomach bug (the city I love has betrayed me), and Lily has a general case of crankiness. Happy Memorial Day!

In spite of all the sickness and craziness, we actually did have a great day. Ben went to the doctor first thing to get eye drops for his pink eye. Then we all met at the Waffle Window for breakfast. I again won the Best Waffle Award with the Rose City Waffle - rhubarb, strawberry sauce, and rose water. Yum.

Once our bellies were full we took off to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden to admire the beautiful flowers and terrorize the ducks. The kids got good and filthy there, rolling in the dirt, immersing their hands and feet in the duck water. I'm so glad I have learned that everything dirty can again become clean. Otherwise I guess I would go crazy.

As we were getting ready to hop on our bikes and go home Tommy cut his finger on my bike while playing with the wheel. Ya know, when you cut your finger there tends to be a whole lotta blood because of all those wonderful nerve endings. Luckily I always carry baby wipes and band-aids with me, but wow, there was a lot of blood. We got his finger wrapped up securely, but when I put him in his seat to go I could tell something was seriously wrong. For one, he couldn't finish a coherent sentence. For two, he was even paler than usual. For three, he said that he was sweaty and that his ears felt like they were plugged up. Down off the bike he came as I recalled the many first-aid classes I have taken over the years and started treating him for shock. It's kind of scary watching your own child slip into that. We laid him right on the sidewalk while I held his feet up with my knees and held his hand. It only took a few minutes before he stopped shaking and came out of his lethargy. I told him he would be just fine and that it was totally normal for his body to have a reaction like that. Poor kid.

We got home just fine, took baths, re-doctored Tommy's wound, and ate some food. We rested for a bit by watching Tommy's new favorite show, Mythbusters. Lily took a nap in our bed after Ben invited her to "play cozy". In the evening we attended a barbeque at the home of a member of our ward. It was fun, although we didn't stay too long on account of all the sickness. The kids went to bed so nice so that Ben and I can go to bed early. It really was a great day.

I learned today that you can have a lot of things go wrong during the day, even scary things, but that you can still have an awesome day with the right attitude. We spent the entire day together as a family. There was no whining. No complaining. No anger. No self pity. We just took each moment step-by-step, looked on the bright side, and enjoyed the majority of the day together. So that was pretty awesome. Definitely a Memorial Day to remember.