Hello Everyone,

First of all, happy belated birthdays to Benjamin and Daddy! Benjamin, I wish I could say I thought of you at 5:22 PM (2:22 PM CA time) on the 23rd, which is the exact time you were born, but alas, I was in the throes of caring for sick kids and I did not catch the moment. However, I was aware it was your birthday and now you are officially of Missionary age! Wow! Can you believe you are actually 19? I imagine for a boy, that is such a momentous, anticipated age. Do you remember being a little kid and thinking how grown up the missionary elders were? I remember being startled at 19 when I realized that the boys MY AGE were now on missions. And now all these elders seem so young... I read about your day in your email and I'm glad it was a good one. You continue to be an inspiration to me and I couldn't ask for a better brother.

Daddy, happy birthday to you, too! I know it was your birthday yesterday, and after I sent off my email last night, I felt bad that I hadn't mentioned it. But my internet connection went down again, and so that was that. Did you have a good day? Did your soccer players realize it was your birthday? I must say that you are definitely the youngest 57 year old that I know. Actually, when I mention my parents' ages to my friends, they are all shocked that you are both so young. I guess I must seem old or something! I just hope and pray that I am as energetic and productive and active as you are when I am 57 years old.

Anyway, now for a long and boring update. We seem to have Internet access again. For several days the connection would come and go randomly (mostly go). I even called the cable company to try and get someone out here, but today it has been working almost continuously all day, so maybe it has magically fixed itself.
Ok, so I should give some highlights of the last week. Brigham and Moses got sick last Wednesday morning, both of them throwing up. And of course just one day after I finally finished all my laundry, including blankets and towels! Oh well. That part of the illness only lasted a few hours, though, and by the afternoon they were feeling better. However, by evening Brigham developed a fever and a cough. I left Ben with the boys and went to my exercise class which we have started back up. Our previous teacher couldn't do it anymore since Wednesday nights were like her only night she could spend at home, so I have been nominated to be the instructor. I think it went well and hopefully people will keep coming!

Brigham had a really rough night that night, waking up and coughing so hard that he actually lost the muscular strength even to cough anymore. He just kept letting out these really pathetic-sounding groans as he tried unsuccessfully to cough. Poor little guy. Needless to say, neither he nor I got much sleep that night.

I had kept both boys home from school on Wednesday, and they stayed home on Thursday, too. Brigham battled a fever and cough for a couple of days. On Friday he seemed better, so I sent him and Joseph to school. However in the afternoon he was feverish again, so I guess I really shouldn't have sent him... It was a special day at school, though, because their teacher was being evaluated for her state license and the boys got to stay an extra hour, eat a sack lunch they brought, and even have rest time on blankets they brought from home. They both wanted to go, and it was so fun packing their little sack lunches-- I believe this was the first time I have packed them a school lunch.

After school I took them to Burger King to play at the play place (we only bought drinks since they had eaten lunch), but Brigham quickly began not feeling so good. After a while he just lay down on the bench and told me he was too tired to play anymore. So we went home and I bought "Batman Begins" from Comcast On-demand and we spent a quiet afternoon at home. In the evening Ben came home from work, also feeling pretty miserable. My plan was to have Mosey and Brigham stay home with Ben and go to sleep, and I'd take Joseph on a "date," since he had been cooped up inside so much the past few days. But by the time we were ready to go, Brigham really wanted to go, too, and so I took all 3 boys. We went to Dairy Queen for ice cream sundaes and then grocery shopping. Fun date, huh?

Saturday I went to a Stake Relief Society enrichment meeting, which was a series of classes on relationships. They were very excellent and I came back feeling quite renewed. However, poor Ben was still feeling awful and so the boys had sort of had the run of the house and it showed... I attempted to clean up a bit and then the boys were just at each others' throats having been inside all day, so we decided to take them to the park.

Have I told you about Joseph's obsession with the rock climbing park? There is a park up the road from us that borders onto the Rock Creek lake. There are large coral rocks that line the northern bank of the lake, and there is a cat that has lived there for some time. People leave cans of cat food out for her and she seems to be doing quite well. I always see her when I go jogging. Anyway, Joseph has discovered this cat and is totally infatuated with her! We went to the park last Wednesday and he was wearing his batman cape and hood. We went to see the cat and she just stared and stared at Joseph. I told Joseph that the cat must think he is another cat because his batman hood has ears that look like cat ears. So anyway, every day Joseph has been begging to go back to the park so he could see the cat again. We did go a couple of times this last week, but only saw the cat once. I think she hides in the rocks during the heat of the day.

After the rock climbing park, where we did successfully see the cat, we drove out to a park on the intercoastal waterway where there is a boardwalk leading out through a mangrove forest and ending on a beautiful area of open water surrounded by mangrove islands. It would have been so nice if it weren't for the darn sandflies!! There are no mosquitoes this time of year, but the sandflies were awful. They are these eensy weensy little flies-- smaller than gnats almost, but they bite! You might not even notice one bite, but when there are dozens landing on you and biting you all the time, they get very, very annoying. Luckily they do not leave any lasting welts. So anyway we practically ran down the boardwalk to the end, looked at the beautiful sunset for a couple of minutes, and then ran back. The boys all fell asleep in the car on the way back, so it was a successful outing.

Today I woke up with a terrible sore throat. I have the most irritation-prone tonsils ever! There have been countless times when I have just wished and wished I didn't have tonsils. When I get allergies, my tonsils are most affected. Sore throat-- same thing. So I've been pretty sick today with my throat feeling like it is swollen half-shut. I stayed home from church and slept a little while, but woke up with a pounding headache and couldn't get back to sleep. Ben took the boys to church (and got them ready, too-- thanks Ben!), and stayed after church nearly 2 hours for 5 baptisms. Can you believe it? And these are new members, too, not children already in our ward or anything. The missionaries are doing really well here.

So anyway, here it is Sunday night. I've straightened up a bit to be ready for cleaning in the morning, although there is still a big mess of toys in Mosey's room which I will tackle first thing tomorrow.

Ok, I will attach a few pictures from this past week if my Internet connection holds up. My camera is at the shop now, hopefully getting fixed, so I've had to dig out my old Kodak EasyShare. Man, it is tough to go back to that camera! No zooming capabilities, no way to adjust any settings or anything. But it's still ok and is enabling me to practice with natural window light, which I am getting more and more intrigued with.

All right, that's enough for tonight. Have a good week everyone!