Stay clear of us....

OK - update - The air quality test failed....3 times....We still cannot inhabit our basement. After the first failed test, one of my kiddos stopped up Kobe's toilet and let it run and run and run. We found the flood sometime around 3am. The water had to go somewhere right? Yep - right through the floor and into Sage's room. So, now not only was a lot of black mold found in her room after the failed test, but now she has a ceiling that was about to cave in from the heavy lake created on it. Well, we had the team there already, so we hired them for a "secondary" job and Sage now has no ceiling in her room anymore. Anyhoo - through all this they keep re-tearing out more suspected areas and now there is not a room in my basement that isn't missing some drywall. So - we finally passed last week and they were scheduled to come and start the putting back together part, and then.....well.....you are so not going to believe this.....Let me back up. Last Thursday I took Kalvin and Daisy to Urgent care because Daisy is just not getting better and Kalvin had been complaining of not being able to breathe and he had this horrible cough as well. Mind you, I have been horribly sick as well with a cough and well whatever the kids have been having. Fast forward....so we make it through the weekend, but Daisy is getting worse, so on Monday I took her to the dr. and he tells me she has RSV. Pretty scary, but we'll deal right. Then he is listening to me hack away in his office and starts asking me some questions about Kalvin, Daisy and my cough. I kid you not he then tells me to go straight to the lab and have some blood drawn on Daisy and turn in this culture he just took from her throat. He says, "Now I want you to go straight there. Don't run any errands and don't tell anyone at the lab why I am testing you OK". So I ask "huh?" Apparently he is suspecting we have whooping cough....yes... bordetella pertussis. An eradicated disease from the dark ages. He says he will call with the results and he won't call the CDC (center for Disease Control) yet, even though he is supposed to. Great right? I think he is nuts until he calls that evening to inform me that the bloodwork was showing we had whooping cough and the ENTIRE family was to be quarantined for 5 days and put on heavy antibiotics right away. I had to laugh because what the freakin' crap! Of course I would contract some eradicated disease right now. Well, Aaron freaked, so the dr. said after 2 days on the medicine and if he wasn't showing any symptoms then he wouldn't call the police if Aaron chose to go back to work. I freakin' kid you not...that is what he said. So, Aaron did just that! He also told me to expect a call from the CDC. Life is good, eh? The final results came back and were inconclusive, but he and the CDC are treatng Kalvin, Daisy and I as outbreak cases because of our symptoms and the blood tests. We have had to warn the school...well you get the picture. We are off quarantine, but still hacking away. They call it the 100 day cough and told us we could be coughing for another couple of months. Oh - yeah and Kalvin now has pnemonia to top it off!!!! So... anyone want to come for a visit? Just let us know! The pertussis, RSV and/or pnemonia will be on the house! teehee

The Drama Queen Turns 1

Well my little drama queen is officially a year old. I canno't believe how this year has flown by and my precious princess has grown soo much. At the moment Emma is still fascinated with "Charlie & Lola" In the morning our alarm is Emma babeling with her high pitch voice" Dadeeee come save me" or so wade likes to think she is saying. He rescues her from her Crib Dungeon, changes her diaper, makes her some milk and graciously holds her while watching an episode of Charlie & Lola. I love it!! As you know Emma is still army crawling, but she is as fiesty as ever, and yes Nana she has remained on the floor. Still in fact that she has found the dogs water bowl and food to be quite exhilarating. We are getting used to living here more and more everyday, so used to it, that it feels so surreal to be in a home with such a wonderful family. Harry and potter are doing just fine, minus the pooping and peeing every once and awhile. Though you might be quite proud cookie, I finally took out "The Shoe" and showed them who's BOSS!! Harry is now following me everywhere, I'd like to think it's because he wants to protect me, but somehow deep down, I know he's just a ladies man. Well we hope you are enjoying the good weather, in Cali and just know we love and miss you guys. So since you guys couldn't be here to celebrate Emma's Big Day, we wanted to share some pics of her and the "Big Moment" with her cake. Oh and hope you guys get to Fiji.

Russ and Mich Wettstein...and gang.

ok....so it's pretty obvious who the worst bloggers are. This is way out of my comfort zone and so I'm very proud of myself for figuring this one out on my own. Sorry it's taken so long for us to write. Our latest has been a bit like Aaron & Mandy's last week. Bouts of strep and other lovely viruses; potty training (which is still something I gross out over even with my 3rd child. But I am happy to say that we have officially been out of pull ups and without accidents for about 3 weeks now. Yippee!); major spring cleaning...including new paint in and out, staining of front door, carpet cleaning, etc. Amid all this, I continue to get larger in the abdominal region, much to my dismay. I don't know if I'll completely accept this pregnancy until sweet little Sophie is out of my tummy and into our arms. We are all getting increasingly excited about the little girl...yes even Max. It turns out that Max can be bought off (I told him I'd buy him a desk in exchange for a brother. Kind of frightening that that worked). And I'm thrilled that we have a room suited and ready for a girl to move right into. Looks like Max will be getting his own room and a new bed and Jane and Ava will share the queen bed in Jane's room. Ava is thrilled about the new living situation. She is regularly getting into Jane's big girl desk and whosits as it is and so I think that she believes that she will have full rights to the scissors and markers and other dangers that I am constantly confiscating from her these days. (One funny story concerning such matters is when I found her at the top of the stairs crying and holding Jane's craft scissors in her hand. She had cut the shirt that she was wearing right off from her little body and knew that she was about to get seriously busted. I don't know if she didn't like the shirt or just got tired of wearing it, there is no knowing with A. She is our adorable little manace.) Jane is growing into a young lady quicker than I can tolerate it. She continues to be our sweet and helpful oldest...which traits I'm relying on big time this summer when Sophie arrives. Max too is growing into a sweet little boy. I can hardly believe he'll be 7 next month. He's such a smart little buggar and is already reading at next years level. We're very proud of him for applying himself amid all the social time he gets at school with "his boys". Russ continues to deal with me and my grumpiness. I love him for that. We're busy as ever with work and school and of course play. We love you very much and are impressed with the patience your displaying while awaiting your departure to Fiji. It will come before you know it. Enjoy some of that California weather for me. It's so beautiful!! Ava asks for you regularly and is always excited to see Papa's truck in the driveway. You'd think that after a week she would figure out that you will not be waiting for us inside when we enter the kitchen. Thank you for the lovely postcards. The kids were thrilled to receive them. Much love and we'll do this more often now that we've figured it out.

Michelle (and fam)

Still here--find out Monday

Stuck in LA

Well .... folks we are here in LA for at least another week plus. It seems our papers have not even been presented for a work visa! So we have been walking fools as Mandy would say. We walk every day for at least 1 hour. Our P day was today, so dad did the laundry and he set me up to type. David has saved our mission and marriage-he said get another key board for mom so those darn nails won't ruin the computer....I love David. We walked to Studio City Mall up Santa Monica Blvd. Ate at little cute place called Clemintines. Onion soup like I used to make with roast drippings. To die for food. Dad and I are working on being the boss together and not killing each other. I personally am counting only arguments that can't be resolved in 24 hrs as a fight! Family pray for your father...

Sickos in AZ

Well while ya'll have been enjoying the snow we have had an ...interesting...last couple of weeks. My sister flew out with her friend who organizes homes and they did my house. So, pretty much think of turning my house upside down and shaking it. That is what happened. The day after they got here and their was lots of disorder....we found out that Kobe and Daisy had pnemonia. They were pretty bad off. Kobe was worse at first, but Daisy got pretty bad pretty quickly. It was scary for about a week, but they are doing much better now. Anyhooo...so, two days after the diagnosis, and much more chaos happening in every crook and cranny of my home....me basement floods. It was awful. I was hunkered down in this crawl space emptying a bucket that was filling with water every 1/2 hour or so, and the phone rings.....it was my Mom telling me about our sweet prophet. So, as I watched my sister and friend breaking their backs in my basement and not ableto help at all....I am supposed to carve out some time to grieve!!! Anyhow, meanwhile, Aaron is in the backyard pumping out the little lake that the rains were giving us, and poor Kalvin was being woken up every hour to crawl into the dungeon and dump out the water (his response when asked if he would be willing to wake up every hour to empty the bucket..."Sure, if I don't have to go to school tomorrow!) Is he a Wettstein or what! So, things are put back together and getting there. Kids are relatively healthy...well...not really but we are getting there, my house feels amazing and everything has a real home now, and we get the results of the air quality test tomorrow and hopefully they can start drywalling. Life is fun, eh? We love ya'll, and are so sorry for being so distracted the last couple of weeks. Thanks for blogging! Mandy