Taking Care of Kids and a Recovering Surgery Patient

When the call came asking me to watch four grandchildren while their parents went on a cruise, I begged Glen to go with me. He finally consented. Jacob bought the airline tickets. Our trip was set.

Then came the gall bladder surgery, right before the trip. The cruise ship couldn't wait for Glen to get better, so off we flew, to Omaha, a mere 5 days after surgery. My patient was scaring me at the airport when he had to sit down every couple of minutes as we made our way from the screening area to the gate.

Thankfully, we had our nice neighbors, Roger and Kathy Jacketta, drop us off right at the terminal door and Jacob was ready and waiting to pick us up on the Nebraska end of the flight.

We got to Jacob's house very late and stayed up even later talking to Jacob and Laurie to get the scoop on what we needed to do to care for the children and keep them happy while their parents were gone.

Jacob and Laurie got a couple of hours of sleep before having to get up to catch their flight to Florida. We had a short night's sleep in the basement with Glen all propped up with the couch cushions since he wasn't feeling comfortable lying flat in bed yet. I heard someone awake far too early that morning which meant the babysitting had begun.

Any worries I had about the kids waking up to find us in the house and them not liking it were unfounded. The three older kids definitely know us, but I was worried about Logan being afraid of us and wanting his parents. He didn't even bat an eye when he saw us and went on with life as usual.

I quickly learned the routine of these two little boys. Logan loves to color every morning and Luke loves to eat at least two and sometimes three different kinds of cereal. But you must wash out the bowl in between cereals. No mixing of the milk with the change of cereal.

We got such a kick out of Logan calling us Mommy and Daddy all week long. He definitely knew we were Grandma and Grandpa, but his vocabulary is somewhat limited and we didn't mind. As soon as his parents returned back home, he quickly reverted back to calling them Mommy and Daddy.

Natalie begged us to go to the school to have lunch with her and Emma. Glen wasn't feeling up to that outing the first day, so I took Luke and Logan with me. They always like going to the school. Actually, Logan likes to go anywhere that takes him outside the house.

I got a picture of Natalie, but didn't get one of Emma. They are in the lunchroom at different times.

It was a real treat whenever Natalie sat down at the piano and played some songs.

Emma came home all smiles from school. She was carrying a pig in a small cage. It is their class pet and it rotates each weekend to the home of one of the students. How happy we were to know Mr. Snuggles got picked to live at Emma's home the weekend we were there.

Emma wanted to show us how she plays the violin. Looks like Glen is snuggling with Mr. Snuggles.

The kids watched a movie that night. Mr. Snuggles watched it with them.

Next morning Mr. Snuggles was hungry and Emma did a good job feeding him.

This was the sight I saw when I got done showering. As you can see, there is an adult "supervising" the children while I was gone. Logan was the culprit who dumped the cereal all over and the rest of the kids jumped in to enjoy playing in the mess.

After helping to clean up the cereal spill, the kids and Mr. Snuggles got all ready to go on an outing to the grocery store.

Many pictures were snapped of Emma and the pet pig because she needed photos to put on a poster and to glue into a book where the students tell of what they did while they had Mr. Snuggles.

After finishing her poster, the reward was popcorn and a movie!

The weekend was over and it was time to say good-bye to Mr. Snuggles when Emma put him in his carrier and hauled him back to school. So long, and good riddance.

The kids and I enjoyed the nice winter weather for a few days before it turned bitterly cold. We waited outside for Luke's ride to pick him up for preschool. The snowman on the porch is so cute, but I think the little boys are much cuter.

Stay tuned for the second part of the babysitting-in-Omaha story...

Quotes of the Week

"You must never feel badly about making mistakes," explained Reason quietly, "as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons."
-- Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

"Man imposes his own limitations, don't set any."
-- Anthony Baily

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."
-- Tony Robbins

Quotes of the Week

"Make a game of finding something positive in every situation. Ninety-five percent of your emotions are determined by how you interpret events to yourself."
-- Brian Tracy

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday."
-- Wilma Rudolph

College Kids Come and Now They've Gone

It was nice having Ben around during the holidays. His roommate, Benjamin Pingel, stayed with us a lot during that time.

With both Benjamins here, it made it convenient for the Dall sisters, Ginger and Jess, to come and visit. They were staying most of the time with their cousins in Farmington, so they were pretty close.

Rebecca wanted in on all the game playing. Dallas was working that day.

This was the BYU bowl game day where we were having a party in honor of that "special" occasion. It was the day we had to wait for hours for Glen to get done with all his gall bladder testing at the hospital.

Then, let the eating of the wings begin!

I already posted a picture of Glen eating some hot wings with the kids that day.

Here he is a couple of days after surgery tempting fate once again by eating some popcorn to test his stomach to see if he can tolerate his favorite snack any better now.

Fortunately, he had self control and didn't eat much and did fine on the small amount he ate.

Glen had come up from the basement to bid our son farewell. Ben was packing up the car to be off and on his way to BYU for another semester of school.

Farewell, son and friends.

It was great to have youth and vitality here while taking care of my invalid husband.