We're Under Quarantine! Again!

This time it's for real. Many thanks to those who have continued to check in on us - sending emails too - in spite of the lack of updates on our blog.

March took us by storm and we're still reeling. We lost a sweet nephew on the 4th and were out of town for a week supporting James's brother and his wife and their older son. (Our love and prayers are still with all of you!)

I also had an appointment scheduled to undergo Lasik during that time so it gave me an excuse not to have mascara running down my face.

We also had planned a trip to Europe with James's mom and sister, Bridgette, so we spent a feverish 3 days getting kids packed to stay with my mom and a quick evening packing for a 10-day tour of London, Paris and Rome.

Upon our arrival home last Wednesday, we discovered the true meaning of jet lag. However, in spite of being up for almost a full 24 hours traveling from Rome to Tucson and, consequently, getting to bed at midnight, James and I both woke up around 5:30am and couldn't go back to sleep so we got up at 6am. (Which is currently 3pm in Rome.)

My mom came by to pick the kids and me up to spend Conference weekend in Safford. I was so hoping for a big, "MOMMY!" when I opened the sliding door on the van but even what my mom had told me couldn't prepare me for the three sad, tired gunky-eyed, pathetic (albeit angelic) little faces that greeted me. The kids have been suffering from pink eye/conjuntivitis and who knows what else for the past week.

Bless my mom for continuing to drive my van so we could drop James's mom off in St. David and I could take care of them in the back. (It's a 2-hour drive to Safford and they had already driven over 2 hours to get to our house. Such sweet little troopers!)

Landon spent pretty much the entire weekend in my arms. He had and still has the worst of everything - pink eye and a deep cough. His little cry is so sad. Callie gave herself a black eye yesterday. (Still stepping. She's walking, but not walking. She loves to walk, but isn't quite stable for full-time bi-pedal activity.) She was heading toward one of the chairs in the dining room and hit the corner of her eye. Fortunately, her eye is okay, just a little black and blue swelling. As far as the illness, she sounds like my mom and me - very weak voice, but otherwise okay. Trevlyn still has a bit of pink eye and cough. James has what my dad and Aunt Lisa have - sounds like a combination flu/cold/malaise from Hades. And yes, I did wake up with pink eye this morning - gives new meaning to the term "family unity". But I think we'll all let Landon be the winner this go 'round. Poor little sweetheart.

And that, my wonderful friends, is where we are and where we've been. I will be putting together a post of our trip to Europe as soon as I can. Also pictures of Callie's black eye. (So cute, but I'd never deck one of my kids just to give them a shiner!)

Hope everyone else is doing well! I highly recommend staying away from us for a little while so you can stay that way! Now that we're home again, I'll try to keep everyone updated. Oh yes! And I also got a message that the last of our bathroom tiles came in last weekend so I should also have a bathroom update post soon too!