Where Did We Go?

So sorry to have disappeared for a few weeks!! First off the kids and I all got a virus of some sort that knocked us out for a good week or so. Then Sam had his bike accident (more to come on that). Then our computer crashed. Then our houseguest Liliana moved out. And we are finally back again. So, it has been a busy few weeks. And we have almost no pictures to show for it, either. Soon we will get back on the horse of posting every few days or so - promise!

So we tried to potty train Amy. It lasted about 3 hours before we ran into issues. Tummy issues. Then pink eye later that night. Then cough, fever, runny nose the next day. She went back and forth with subtle signs of illness for a couple days, so I finally took her in to the dr. Turns out it's a virus, which is something you cannot do anything for whatsoever. Great. Next day Sam and I come down with the same stuff. And it lingered for a good week. Not fun. But now we are all feeling better and ready for warm weather to come.

Speaking of warm weather, we have had some. Enough to ride bikes and want for more. On one such afternoon, Sam was turning circles on his bike and crashed. But this was no ordinary crash. When he stood up, his face was dripping blood. It is that awful moment every mother dreads when you know something is bad - really bad. Told him to go inside, dragged Amy and two bikes inside. I start to clean up the blood so I can get an idea of how bad the damage is. I look at his mouth and his teeth are not where they are supposed to be. Bad. Very bad. I call my two best friends on both their home phones and cell phones and of course neither answers either. Ugh. So I call the local dentist (who happens to be a son-in-law of the owner of the company Robert works for, so he knows us) and his office basically tells me there is little they can do for baby teeth that are knocked out. They said I could bring him in, but they would just pull the tooth which they said I could probably do myself. Ok. I try calling all 4 numbers again with no luck, so I grab some tissues like my parents always did when pulling our teeth and of course the darn thing won't budge. Thankfully a nursing friend of mine had just posted on Facebook a few days ago about the many uses of hemastats, so it was fresh on my mind as an option. I dig through my nursing bag and find the sort of clamp tool. I sit down and say a little prayer that I can do this. The combination of late afternoon exhaustion, stress, and the smell of blood he is breathing directly into my face is starting to get to me. I tell him that we both have to be brave and get him ready for me to tug. I finally get the tooth free and we are done. Sam was so tough, he really is a great kid! The one I had to pull was one of the big front teeth and the smaller one next to it I found later out on the road where he crashed.

Two days later he comes upstairs next to tears saying that his tooth was really hurting him. To see him in so much pain just breaks my heart!! So we head over to my friend's house so she can take a look and tell me what she thinks since she works for a dentist. She says it looked like it was starting to die and should probably be pulled. Oh, and that it would be around $200. IF we could find a dentist working on a Friday that is. We stop by the store and call the same dentist on our way home. They told me he was working on his last patient of the day and if I could come right then he could take a look. It was naptime and I had nothing with me to entertain Amy and no one who I could call to come get her. But the people were excellent and Sam was content watching Scooby Doo. All in all, it went well. They pulled the second big tooth. It didn't faze Sam at all and I was able to manage Amy in my lap pretty well. The X-rays showed that his permanent teeth have a ways to go, but they could move in faster since there are no baby teeth to push out. Or, he could develop callouses on the gums from going so long without teeth there and it could take longer. Who knows? And thanks to being friends of the dentist, he didn't charge us for the exam or X-rays and discounted the extraction, so we came away only paying $68, not $200. What a relief!!

This same week our computer crashed. We have no idea why. Amy turned it off and when I tried to turn it back on, it wouldn't work. We asked Uncle Jake to take it to BYU-Idaho to have them take a look and they said the hard drive crashed and that we have lost all of our files, music, and pictures from the last four years or so. Crap. So we bought a new hard drive to get it up and going again, but we kept the old hard drive in hopes that we can find someone who can pull our files and pictures off it still. That would really stink if we have truly lost everything. Good thing I didn't delete my old blog so we still have most of those pictures SOMEWHERE.

Apparantly we need to get our act together and start doing some smarter things. Like get started with dental insurance. And start backing up our files regularly. You know, the simple things you keep saying you will do and never get around to doing. And then stuff like this happens and you smack your head thinking "Why didn't I do that when I had the chance?" Oh well, live and learn.

This last weekend Liliana moved to Rexburg to start school. We are so excited for her in her endeavors and have loved having her in our home. Sam will miss his hide-and-go-seek buddy, Amy her swinging partner, and Mommy her silent, sneaky dish washer. But it will be nice to have our privacy back, too. Afer the first day she sounds excited about her roommates, two have served Spanish-speaking missions, and is relieved she was able to get in to the class she needs to apply for the nursing program.

And now we have finished that big adventure, we get to start thinking about and planning for the next one: the arrival of the next little Skousen!! Mommy is 30 weeks pregnant this week, so we are on the downhill slope! It is still up for debate as to how this little one is coming in to the world; hoping to convince the dr this week to let us try for a VBAC. If not, we may be shopping around for a new doc, who knows? So wish us luck for a calm week and open minds :)

Hopefully pictures (and more posts) to start coming again soon!!