I think I can, I think I can...

WHEW....

It has been a rough couple weeks around here. All the excitement started the first weekend of October. We went to a cabin in McCall with my family to spend some time together since Sage had just recently come home. Saturday morning Madison started acting very lathargic and clingy. By late morning she was running a 103 fever and was just feeling awful. Poor baby! She ran the fever all day and all night (it was a looooong night for Mommy!) She had the fever for 24 hours and we were finally able to get rid of it. The next couple of nights were rough too but thankfully I have a wonderful hubby who helps! Tuesday the 4th Jason headed out of town for the next 8 days and that afternoon the boys came down with the fever. I happen to have the best parents ever who came over for dinner to keep me company and help with the boys. Madison was used to having a lot of attention and being with me so she was pretty clingy but the boys needed me since they were sick. It can be a long day with 1 mommy and 3 clingy, sick 3 year olds...My mom graciously stayed the night to help and thank goodness she did! I was up with Cam most of the night and she had Blake. Blake felt much better the next day but it hit Cam pretty hard. So the next few nights were still pretty rough for us. Finally got Cam feeling better and had one day of everyone doing better-then the colds hit! Madison and Blake both got runny noses, coughs, more fevers and just not feeling well. So we had some more rough nights. I had 9 nights in a row with an average of 4 hours of sleep. Thank the Lord Tuesday came and with it Jason came home. That night I got to sleep alllll night and he listened for the kiddos. Madison got over it pretty quick but Blake just wasn't doing good. Wednesday (12th) night we had a pretty scary night wth him waking up and not breathing well at all. We are used to this with Cam but it was completely new for Blake and very scary. I took him in first thing in the morning and the doc said it was pneumonia. He said we caught it early enough that we should avoid any hospital visits! Praise the Lord! We had another rough breathing night which the doc said was normal but he has finally started feeling better! Poor guy - made me so sad.

In the middle of all this is Jason crazy transmission problem with his truck. He has had the worst time of it! His transmission went out on our last camping trip of the year, we were still and hour and half from home. Brian and Sheila saved us thankfully but it was a MESS! Jason has been on the phone and the internet ever since trying to figure out the best quality but also cost effective fix. Really looooong story short...it's been a headache. First the tranny place shipped him the wrong transmission. Then the transfer case people shipped the wrong transfer case. Then no one returns phone calls and gives him a hard time with the returns and shipping out of a new the CORRECT tranny. Jason has a hunting deadline for getting this thing fixed that he has talked with all these guys about. He finally gets them to ship out the new one and they PROMISE it will be here by Friday (14th). Jason double checks with the shipping company and they say it will be in Boise on Friday but not to our house until Monday. Jason has to go back to work Tuesday so that won't work. So he decides he will bite the bullet and just go pick it up himself. BUT the shipping company says it won't be ready for him to pick up by close Friday so still can't have it until Monday. So Jason decides he will pick it up at the next closest place....Salt Lake City, Utah. So Thursday, my parents offered to watch the kids so I could drive to SLC with Jason and make a little date out of it. We got a hotel and planned on going out to a nice dinner when we arrived around 6pm. Sounds nice doesn't it. Instead we got 3 hours down the road (in Brian and Shiela's truck by the way) AND THEIR TRANNSMISSION BROKE. No joke. There we are on the side of the road, going to pick up a transmission for our current disaster and the next tranny breaks. We spend the next 3 hours waiting for tow trucks, making phone calls (Brian and Sheila are STILL our friends!) and rides to the car rental company. Dan Stieneke lives in Twin Falls and very graciously came and saved us! One up side, we got to drive around in a super plush ride! :) We traveled on to Utah, got stuck in a couple hours worth of traffic (at 10pm go figure...) FINALLY made it to our hotel at around 11:30. Needless to say we went straight to bed. Got up at 6:30 in the morning to pick up the tranny and travel home. There is so much more to this story than I even have time to tell. We got home safe, Jason put in the new tranny and is still being plauged by problems. Poor guy! He left yesterday morning (10.24.11) to go hunting got 2 hours down the road and had more big problems with his truck. Thankfully one of his good friends gave him a ride and he is making due. His truck is sitting at home waiting for the next battle. This is been so unreal! I am just praying that Jason can get the last few kinks out of it. The bummer is that most of the problems have not been Jasons fault, there have been a lot of wrong or bad parts. Oh well...character building right??