How was your last two weeks?

I haven't blogged in a while, probably because we've had the craziest two weeks ever. Here's what happened in roughly chronological order:

• DMP's mom had a stroke and was life-flighted to MT. DMP left class and drove up to be with her, his siblings, and Papper.
• The decision was made to take Grandma off life support. It was sad and difficult, but made a bit easier because of her living will.
• I get pulled over the same morning and get two tickets- one for overdue registration, another fixit ticket for a dim back light. Awesome.
• Meanwhile, I'm holding down the home front- complete with non-sleeping babies, childcare issues and a whopper of a cold.
• DMP's mom passes away Thursday, Nov. 18. We are very sad and grateful that we know we are an eternal family and that we'll see her again. I'm posting a remembrance tomorrow.
• I make Cyndi stay and help me tell the girls. Birdy is immediately sad and cries, EJ listens to me with her "family home evening face" and then asks if she can play with Thomas. We later have much deep discussion on Heavenly Father's plan and other far-reaching philosophical and religious questions. ("Mommy, if a funeral is to celebrate someones life, why do we wait until they die?"
• DMP finally makes his way home on Friday. We are all very happy to have him back.
• Birdy complains of an earache Friday night. After a trip to the pediatrician we find out she has a bit of an ear infection and sore throat. Antibiotics are procured.
• Sunday, we all pile in Mom and Dad's Santa Fe (because it has 4-wheel drive) to drive to Salmon for the funeral.
• We arrive in Salmon, happy to see family and relieved to be out of the car (esp. DMP).
• We go to feed Bear his bottle and discover that the carefully packed bag full of formula, bottle nipples and liners, Birdy's antibiotics, other cold medicines for both the kids and me, are all still at the Applebees by I-15 in Pocatello.
• DMP and Papper discover that the gas stations and the corner store do NOT stock formula. The regular grocery store opens Monday AM.
• Someone (Papper? Kathy) has the owner of the grocery store on the phone ready to go open up the store so we can get formula when Kira saves our bacon by lending us some of Kadri's to get us through the night. There was much rejoicing.
• Monday is DMP's Mom's funeral. Enough said.
• We are eagerly anticipating driving home Tuesday. We wake up to a giant blizzard in the Idaho Falls area. The highways and freeways between us and home are closed with snow and 30-50 mph winds.
• Cabin fever sets in as the 5 big kids and 4 babies bounce off the walls. It was 20 degrees outside, so sending them out to play wasn't an option.
• Late Tuesday night my Mom and Dad call to let us know that their insurance policies on ALL their vehicles have been cancelled for no reason.
• Wednesday we wake up and eagerly await the go-ahead to drive home. We wait while Mom and Dad switch policies and get on the road at 11:30.
• EJ starts sniffling and coughing.
• From Salmon to Pocatello is like a big ice sheet. It takes us almost 2x as long to get home as it normally does.
• We get home late Wednesday night. There is much rejoicing.
• Bear starts sniffling (more) and coughing. If you are counting, that is now 4 of 5 of us sick.
• The car didn't get fixed yet and we can't get it registered until we replace the mirror that got knocked out a couple of weeks ago. I have to call Monday and plead for mercy.

It wasn't all bad, though. Folks in Salmon were so kind to us- bringing food and letting us stay at their house for 3 nights! Don, Nichole and Chris watched the kids so we could go see the new Harry Potter (on the $5.50 night at the Salmon theatre no less) Jenn let us stop at her house on our way home to stretch our legs and she even fed us. DMP's professors have been amazingly cool about rescheduling (and re-rescheduling) a test, excusing a quiz and etc. His classmates have also been awesome- helping out with taking notes and group project stuff.

In spite of the kids and cabin fever, it was nice to spend an extra day with DMP's family in Salmon. We got to spend more time with the babies and the nieces/nephews. Thanks to Grandma and Pappers friends, there was plenty of good food (cake!).