Today is Monday and it is now early afternoon...and I am still alive...well barely! Last week went pretty much like normal. I was trying to get back into the swing of things after being gone for two weeks. Then Friday came along. Friday morning the relief society president called to ask if I could take over the funeral she was doing on Saturday morning at the church. (FYI, I am the second counselor in the presidency, and the first counselor was out of town.) She apparently had some awful flu virus and was in no shape to leave her house. I immediately agreed and anyway, I was already supposed to be helping out with it...so what's a little bit more work. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning and then planned on running all over that afternoon to buy the food for approximately 90 people that were going to be attending. Plus I had to prepare a meal for the same family for 7 people and have it to their house by 5:00. I know, it sounds like a lot but I usually have lots of energy and my kids are great most of the time so I knew I could handle it.
Unfortunately, right after I dropped off the babysitter, I started to feel slightly sick to my tummy. I thought maybe my blood sugar was just low and I needed to eat so I rushed home to make us all lunch before we went back out. I tried to eat the best I could but I just seemed to be feeling worse. I laid down on the couch for about 20 minutes and then exercised all my will power available to get going. Afterall, I did have quite a bit to get done before 5:00. First stop...Costco...to price out the hams. The smells alone were pretty difficult for me to endure (if you know what I mean). I just focused on breathing in and out and leaning mostly on the cart while I pushed the girls. Then we hurried out of Costco to head to Albertson's to price their hams. I barely made it through Albertson's and decided to head back to Costco. Of course on the way back to Costco I called Mark for emergency back-up help. I explained that I felt really sick and all the stuff I had to do...and I had no idea how I was going to be able to function. Well, needless to say, once back inside Costco...I had to turn right around and go back to the car and just go home. I was way too sick to be up and needed to be close to my own bathroom immediately.
I won't go into all the gory sick details...but then the fun began. Mark made it home and turned into a superhero! He cut up all this fruit I had purchased the day before and then headed back to Costco with Sydney to buy a ready made meal of sorts (since I had not been able to make what I had anticipated) and drop it off at the family's home. Then he came back home to take care of the kids and get them dinner. Now this is the odd part. For some reason...I started to feel just a little bit better...at least well enough that I felt like maybe I could attempt going back to Costco to get the food needed for the funeral in the morning. So Mark and I and the kids set back out to attack the grocery list. Somehow, I made it through all this and was mostly just exhausted by the end. I was also supposed to play for this funeral so I started to try and find someone to fill in for me...but couldn't get a hold of anyone on Friday night.
Friday night, I pretty much kept Mark up the whole night being sick and all. Then at 7:00 am I dragged into the shower only to get sick right afterwards. The reality was I couldn't really leave the house. Again I frantically called someone to play the piano for me. Finally, a sister in our ward was able to rearrange her schedule so she could do it. And all that food and prep work that needed to be done...well you guessed it...Mark left with Sydney to take care of everything. See he must have been channeling super hero powers that day! He was there from about 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 with two other women working on getting everything ready and then cleaning up afterward. I don't know what I would have done without him. Certainly I was in no shape to go anywhere. I guess Mark is sort of unofficially part of the compassionate service committee! But Mark didn't stop there. He came home, very tired I might add and took care of the kids and cleaned up the house. (Did I mention, I had Sophie at home with me...she pretty much ran all over and made messes and got into thing all day long!) Sunday, Mark continued to be Mr. Mom all day because I was still very sick. I hate flu bugs like that. I always want them to hurry and be over with.
Sunday night I was finally able to start drinking a tiny bit of Powerade and it has helped out marginally. I am still alive today...although pretty weak. I lost 4-5 pounds over the course of 2 days so I am just trying to slowly get my strength back. I am so lucky to have a husband like Mark to step in and help out last minute, even when it is sort of relief society work! I also appreciate those sisters in our ward who helped out with the music and the funeral for me so I could stay home from church and skip out on the funeral. And hopefully no one else in our family gets this stuff. It is absolutely awful!
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One morning we took some of the kids to this cave and hiked up and down LOTS of stairs to get down inside of it! It was pretty cool (or cold I should say...that cave stayed at a constant 40 degrees).
The kids loved playing down on the beach and collecting sea shells. Although the shells they were collecting were from these itty-bitty snails or something similar that would live in a freshwater lake.
On the Fourth, we headed to Paris, ID which is just one of those little towns for a parade! The kids loved it. They threw out so much candy. The parade went down one side of the street and back up the other...so the girls went with Grandma to stand on the other side of the street in the beginning so they could get even more candy!
We did lots of sparklers and set off some fireworks and then watched an amazing fireworks display that one of the neighbor cabins apparently puts on every year!
There are so many other things I wish I had taken pictures of! Actually, I was way too busy relaxing and having fun to haul the camera everywhere! One of the highlights of Bear Lake was going to Le Beau's for raspberry milkshakes and hamburgers and fries! I really can't believe I didn't get at least one picture of this...since someone went out at least once a day to go get a shake or fries from there. Le Beau's is a place like no other! Another fun part of the cabin was the hammock. The kids spent so much time playing in the hammock and I'll admit I thought the hammock was pretty cool. My last picture is a shot from the beach. That spec in the distance is the boat out towing the kids on the tube! Look at that water!
It was kind of sad to come home. Good bye, Bear Lake...we'll come again another summer to visit!
