Finally

I finally feel like I've recovered from the last week, except for still feeling sick that is. It actually all started not this past Friday, but the Friday before. Daniel and I had invited some of our friends over for dinner and what I thought would be a nice fun evening with some friends turned out to be a house full of people. As it turned out that same day one of the men that Daniel's dad works with in Liberia was in the US and came over for dinner. Since there were a lot of people who would want to see him they invited a few couples over to have dinner with him. All that combined with the fact that there are already 7 people living in this house made it over 20 people at the house for dinner. It was a fun, but busy night. We were able to see a bunch of people that we haven't seen in a long time and catch up with friends, but it was definitely a house full of people.

The next morning my parents came over for a while to celebrate JoAnn's and Daniel's birthday. It was great to see them and to be able to spend a few more hours with them. I cannot say enough how great it is to live so much closer to family and friends. For Jo's birthday my parents got her an adorable little bike for her to ride and she loved it.

It's a little Dora bike that has a bunch of buttons that make noise when you push them and she kept riding for a minute and then stopping to push the buttons. It was pretty funny. The other funny thing was that the driveway sort of slops a little when you get over to the side by the lawn and right where it slops there are a few trees. Every time she got going over that way she wouldn't be able to stop and would always end up in the grass headed right for the trees. I don't know why I thought it was so funny but I laughed every time.

Here are my parents with both the kids.

On Saturday I was determined to make a cake that I could eat since I need to avoid not just milk and soy, but also eggs, wheat and nuts since Isaiah seems to react when I eat those and then nurse. So I did a little research and found a recipe for a wheat, soy and nut free vegan chocolate cake. I felt a little daring and made barley flour chocolate cupcakes. I was pretty excited since it actually wasn't bad. I will say I would never choose this over a regular chocolate cake, but it was definitely a suitable substitute until I can eat wheat again.

On Sunday the Buchers got together to celebrate all 5 June/July birthdays. Not everyone was here since Daniel has a sister in Alabama and a brother in California, but 3 out of 5 of his siblings were here and his Aunt and her family also were there. So once again there were well around 20 people at the house. Although it makes for a very busy house, I love getting everyone together. All 6 grandkids were able to spend some time together and it was so fun to see JoAnn play with her cousins without being shy. Here are the 6 of them.

I wish I had a better picture, but this is Daniel's cousin Caley playing with JoAnn and Isaiah. His aunt had to have surgery and they live in North Carolina so the whole family stayed at the house this week. I think both JoAnn and the girls liked to play. They spent a lot of time together. The girls and their dad headed back to North Carolina today since one of them starts school on Monday.

Monday was JoAnn's actual birthday. We didn't do much since we had already celebrated it the previous two days, but we did let her have more cake after dinner and giver her the presents from Daniel and I.

Tuesday I took Isaiah in to County Health to get a shot that he is behind on. While I was there they offered me a Tetanus shot, which it's been about 9 years and I wasn't sure when I would get the opportunity to get one for only $5 again, so I also ended up getting a shot. Then later that day we drove to Cincinnati to meet a couple that we went to college with and their kids. We were going to go to a Reds game, but Daniel fortunately looked at the weather report and saw that it was supposed to rain. In order to make sure we at least saw each other we decided to meet a little early at Dave and Busters to eat. We ate, hung out and played games. It was fun and their oldest daughter is about 6 months older than JoAnn so it was fun to see them play together. They have meet a few time before, but I wasn't sure that JoAnn would remember Izzie since they hadn't seen each other for a year. I don't think she did at first, but it didn't take long before she warmed up to her. Tanya and I sort of hung back with the babies while Daniel and Aaron played games with the older girls, but at one point the girls decided that they wanted to go on a roller coaster simulator while their dad's challenged each other to an air hockey game so Tanya and I strapped the girls in and started the ride. It took about 30 seconds before JoAnn was screaming for it to stop. I couldn't stop laughing because she was the exact opposite of Izzie who loved the ride. JoAnn is actually trying to get down in this picture.

By the time we left the restaurant it was pouring outside. So, we ended up just skipping the game, saying goodbye and going back to Indy. Which, ended up being just fine since on our way home, Isaiah was pretty cranky. At first I thought it was because he wasn't feeling good from his shot. By Wednesday I realized it was probably more than his shot since he was acting like he was actually sick. By Thursday night, I felt like I was getting sick and by Friday night I realized I was for sure sick. It isn't anything too bad, but I do have a very sore throat and a cough. I can't be sure since he can't talk yet, but I think it's the same thing for Isaiah. So for the last couple days I have been just trying to make sure this cold doesn't turn into anything more serious for Isaiah. Now for the next few days my goal will be that we don't get Daniel's aunt sick when she comes home from the hospital either today or tomorrow.