A Big Day

There is so much to today it is hard to find a place to start.

Yes the laundry dried over night.

I had to get the kids up at 7 am, 4 am Utah time, because I am getting nervous that they are going to be too tired for school which starts on Monday. It was hard, but we did it. It was especially hard since we were up several times with Oliver in the middle of the night. His ear hurt.

So this morning I used an old tiny broom to sweep off our driveway. A lot of dried leaves had collected, and I don't want to be a negligent neighbor. I felt very accomplished. Then I walked inside to the amazing smell of pancakes! It was heavenly. Jamison was continuing his fantastic tradition of Saturday Morning Breakfast.

He had a bunch done, when the stove quit working. It is a gas stove. He walked outside to a small shed, where the propane tank is and the needle pointed to empty.

I really couldn't believe it. Our stove is run on a propane tank like the barbecues at home! And they run out right in the middle of cooking a divine breakfast! And then you have to call a propane delivery guy to bring you more propane. And then you can't find your Brazilian money and you have to drive to an ATM for cash. And then about an hour later, you want to get back to cooking, but you realize your son has the very worst ear infection you have ever seen with your 9 years of being a parent.

So on to Oliver. It was so bad is cheek and neck were swollen. He didn't want to eat or drink. It was horrible. I had suspected he had one last week and when we saw a doctor he said it wasn't bad and probably wouldn't amount to anything. But it did amount to something very, very bad!

And then we have to try to find a doctor. And then I can't go with him because I don't speak the language. And Jamison hates doctors. I took the other kids to the school science fair, and Jamison and Oliver went to the hospital. Then they had to switch hospitals and take a taxi to the children's hospital. They cleaned it out, and gave us some prescriptions. I am grateful that he will be OK. ANd I am grateful between Jamison's broken Portuguese and the doctor's broken English that they could communicate.

It was scary. It reminded me of how helpless we felt when Grace was eight months old in Japan and she had the worse fever of her life and we went to the hospital and couldn't communicate.

I hate feeling helpless.