April 2008 archive

I think we are taking a turn for the better!

After sleeping 14 straight hours last night, Reece seems to be doing so much better! Now I can’t say that out loud, because each time I do, Reece proves me wrong by throwing up almost immediately. You better not read these words out loud either, just so we don’t jinx anyone’s happy mood.

FYI: it is lunch time and we still haven’t had anyone erupt. Let’s hope it stays that way! Isaac even went to school today. Bryan might even make it into work. I likely still won’t leave the house, but you can’t have everything all the time.

Posted by Ily on April 30, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

Update * Two more flu victims

I found out today that Jenny Lloyd, who took care of Jason for a few hours on Friday got the flu too. Knowing how easy it is to catch this darn bug, I am thinking all her roommates must have it by now too!

I also have gotten a mild form of it. No vomiting and diarrhea, but I did get the fever and aches and a tinge of a queasy stomach, but no major problems. Fever I can deal with. I just sleep it off. That is not bad.

Micah seems fully recovered now. He is emotional only because he is dealing with grumpy tired parents who get too worked up when anyone makes a loud noise. I admit, any noise makes me freak out right now, I seriously think it is is vomiting at first.

Isaac is still perfectly fine. He plans to go to school tomorrow. I secretly am glad to have a place to send him away from the flu virus, but worried that he might end up with it after all and give it to all his friends at school and then we have singlehandedly started a pandemic flu outbreak at his school. I hope, hope, hope that doesn’t happen!

Our diet still consists of crackers, toast, Gatorade, ice cubes, Popsicles, and chicken soup. I have lost three pounds because of this modified fast. Bryan has lost 5 because of his illness and our wimpy diet. I hope the boys aren’t wilting away.

Reece has been sleeping a lot today. We have succeeded in keeping some stuff in him for a while and then just as we feel confident that he is keeping stuff in, he loses it. Poor kid. Ice and Popsicles are getting fluid in him though at a slow pace. I think that is what is helping him not lose it as quickly. He has only had three major episodes today. I hope this clears up soon!

Jason is still sick over at Melinda’s. Poor kid. Him having it for so long is making me think we are in it for the long haul with Reece. Melinda is being a trooper and miraculously is still doing well. As she put it, at least only her one son is sick, while I have had two sons and a husband get it. Frankly, I think all mothers have a touch of Superwoman in them when it comes to sick families. The amount of people sick doesn’t really change things much. Heck even Diane and Myrna, as sick as they were, were still helping with the efforts to clean up and comfort others. Diane couldn’t handle a pile of laundry that wasn’t folded so she was folding stuff even though she felt miserable. She even started cleaning table tops and moving furniture to vacuum under it. Diane let Reece help her clean and he was loving it. He felt special being in charge of the squirt bottle, how is that for comfort when you are sick?! Grandma Myrna was helping me clean up sick kids even though she felt awful too. Women just have a touch of the indomitable divine in them.

Posted by Ily on April 30, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

I love my Maclaren Stroller, it is more dependable than I am.

Thanks to the Maclaren stroller company for the XT Techno twin stroller. It rocks. It is a sturdy side-by-side umbrella stroller, lightweight, folds up smaller than most single strollers, and I used to think it was the Honda of strollers, but I now think it is the Mercedes of strollers. It has been my life saver on this last trip we went on.

We were excited to go on vacation to visit Utah to celebrate for the graduation of Julie (Bryan’s youngest sister) from BYU. After that we planned to fly on to Oklahoma to visit my family and have a fun time with them too. Then fly home. All this in 9 days.

Day one of our trip: Wednesday

First off, I forgot that a 6:05 am flight requires you to get up at 3:45 AM so you can get your family at the airport at 4:30 for check in and security and to get on your plane on time. I was planning to bring my new single stroller purchased exclusively for this trip so that I wouldn’t risk having an airline break my favorite stroller the Maclaren XT techno twin stroller. Then I realized the time of our first flight and how we were going to have to carry two sleeping little people, possibly three, I realized it had to be the twin stroller, my little single stroller wasn’t gonna hack it.

So off we go to the airport. Pushing two groggy kids in the stroller with a bag of coats hanging off one handle and a booster seat hanging off the other and Bryan wearing a stuffed backpack and pulling 3 suitcases, a toiletries bag, and two car seats and Isaac pulling the last suitcase and wearing a backpack full of kid entertainment.

Checklist:

• Check as much as we can… left with three kids, small diaper bag, and back-packs (check!)
• wheel kids through the airport to security, easy unload of stroller, quick collapse of stroller, x-ray everything, get back in stroller, reach gate. (check!)
• wheel kids down the “breezeway” to the door of the plane, unload and fold up stroller, get on plane. (check!)
• Reverse it all and get out of airport to the rental car pick-up (check!)
• They give us a Dodge Durango SUV instead of a mini-van… they say it still fits 7 passengers and is bigger than a mini-van to make us feel better… Yes it can fit 7 people, but not them and their baggage. Plus it is so high you have to vault into it and it GUZZLES the gas. Thanks Budget Rental. Forced to fit our three carseats in the middle row (doesn’t work very well), lay down the back bench and pile up our luggage in the back which fit easily in OUR mini-van (remember how the rental dudes say is smaller?) and thank heavens we had the small Mercedes of a stroller because another one wouldn’t have fit! (check!)
• Get to Grandma Coates’ at 9:30 AM (check!)

The rest of the day was fun with the cousins playing together, going to the park, letting the kids explore grandma’s house, and visiting with our good friends Mike and Nikki. I did happen to try to leave Mike and Nikki’s house without my purse and camera, but Mike ran after us down his driveway to get it back to me. I forget so many things. I will not mention how I forgot I had spare clothes for Micah to wear after his potty accident at Mike and Nikki’s and his meltdown while I tried to clean up him and his clothes and get them dry before we could go home, prolonging bedtime… overall, still a great day.

Day two: Thursday

Stuff into the Durango to go to a children’s museum in Salt Lake, use the double stroller for the littlest people (thank you Maclaren!), enjoy the morning, get kids down for naps and quiet time, the rest of the family goes down to Provo for Commencement for Julie. Have a great day.

Day three: Friday

Cousin Jason starts throwing up, poor little guy. More graduation to go to. We bail from Grandma’s early in hopes of keeping our kids from getting the flu bug. Drop the kids off in Spanish Fork with good friends Mindy and Greg Henry so we can go to graduation without them. Have a great time sitting in the warm field house yelling for Julie when she crosses the stage. Watch everyone else’s kids get the wiggles and get unruly, but we get to enjoy ourselves child-free. Aunt Jenny Lloyd was brave to watch Jason for graduation even though he was sick.

Dinner at Tepanyaki Japanese steakhouse for the adults, have an incredibly cool chef who cooks the food very theatrically in front of you and eat yummy food! Forget purse at the restaurant, dang! Go hang out with the Henry’s for a bit after and realize we wish they were our neighbors still! Pick up purse on the way home from the Henry’s.

Day 4: Saturday

Go wander BYU for nostalgia’s sake. Meet up with my old roommate Ingrid Flanders and reminisce and catch-up. Bryan attempts to hike the Y with Micah and Isaac- not fully successful. Still having a great time. Leave Provo, realize in Salt Lake that we were dumb enough to leave OUR STROLLER in the parking lot! ARGH!! I can’t live without my stroller! Cousin Katie came down to see us from North Ogden so we got dinner at CAFE RIO (the best!), chatted for a bit and then she and I drove back to Provo to get our stroller from Andy and Julie’s apartment because they were nice enough to go get it from the parking lot for us. Stopped to get BYU creamery ice cream and had a nice bonding time in the car. She is a great cousin!

Day 5: Sunday

Not many people sleeping the night before. Supposed to leave for Oklahoma today, but 9 out of 13 people come down with the stomach flu, 5 of which get to go to the ER for IV fluids, we spend the day cleaning and watching TV. Rearrange flight plans and just plan to go home the next day instead. Sorry to miss the other portion of the trip, but we don’t want to share the misery! Jason only had it 24 hours (but it comes back later, darn!), we are hoping that it will be the same for everyone else. Melinda and Doug fly home with Jason, they still haven’t gotten it, Isaac, Grandma Myrna, and I (Ily) are the only ones left in Salt Lake who haven’t gotten it. Grandma was sick with something else, she’s lucky she wasn’t vomiting too!

Spend the day cleaning up after the the little boys as they throw up. Finally take them to the ER at 5pm. Too tired to carry them, thank heaven’s for the Maclaren stroller. I had given out, but it hadn’t! Push the younger boys in nothing but diapers through the hospital and ER with towels across their laps to catch the vomit, we must have looked crazy. Bryan had come with me even though he was still feverish himself and feeling miserable. I love that man! I couldn’t have done it alone.

On a happy note, they did well with the IV’s- Micah is such a champ and took it bravely- and we ran into Great Aunt Carla who was working in the ER that night as a social worker for trauma patients. We weren’t very traumatic, but it was nice to have her visit with us a bit. Both boys did better after getting the fluids, but Reece couldn’t hold anything down still the next day even. At least we knew he would be ok since he did have fluid in him. Isaac was still awake watching TV when we get home at 10:30. I think he watched TV all day.

Everyone sleeps this night. Wow, that was lucky.

Day 6: Monday

Isaac informs us that he fasted yesterday, he was very proud of himself. I am thinking to myself, whoops, we forgot to feed him! No one else had any appetite and he never asked for food so we never thought to give him much! What negligent parents!

Kids only allowed to eat popsicles, toast, ice chips, and sips of gatorade. Reece wanted a drink so badly… it was awful to keep him from drinking more than a sip. He cried a lot for more, but each time we gave him more than 1/4 cup of liquid, he vomited. It just broke your heart! Finally we had to make him stop drinking at 5 so we could have his tummy empty for the flight, we were determined to fly home that night!

Spent the day deep cleaning the carpet, disinfecting all doorknobs, light switches, sinks, toilets, and LOTS of laundry. It was sunny so during the breaks, we sat in the sun reading and playing games. The sun felt so good!

7:00 pm- Time to leave for the airport. We load the luggage, we load the kids, we start the car, we begin to back out of the driveway, Reece gives a terrible heave and all of what he had in him comes up. We stop, I am ready to give up. We take Reece in to clean him up, Bryan begins to clean up the car and car seat, I am thinking we are there for another night. Dang! We just want to be home! Bryan convinces me that Reece is empty now, nothing more can come up. Whatever. I am too tired to make a real decision so I go along with it.

We go to the airport. Dry heaves from Reece. We check all the baggage. He seems fine, miserable and thirsty, but fine. We get on the plane, more dry heaves, nothing comes up though. A long two hours later we carry a smelly, tired, uncomfortable baby off the plane, push him and his sleeping brother Micah in the Magical-never-give-up stroller all the way out of the airport and finally get home. We get home exhausted, but ready to rest.

Too bad we have no Gatorade in the house! A thorough search of the food stores unearths a bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling cider which gets us through the night to settle our stomachs.

Day 7: Tuesday – at home

Oh how nice it is to be home! My next purchase might just be leather furniture (the easy clean-up factor sounds appealing). Reece is still not able to keep anything down this morning. He woke up at 5:00 screaming for a drink. I gave it to him, he urped it all up. Spent some panicked hours giving him only sips of drinks and trying to get him to suck on ice and popsicles. He finally fell asleep again. It is gonna be a rough day!

As miserable as this all sounds, I still find myself chuckling at the comedy of it. Grandma Myrna told me yesterday just before we finally drove off to the airport that she marveled I was still smiling, she would be crying by now. I think it is the stroller that held me together. Thank you Maclaren! You gave us a stroller that has pushed us through some happy and some desperate moments. The Lord truly inspired those engineers who work for your company to make a good quality piece of equipment that would make life bearable for families like ours.

We did have such a pleasant trip at the beginning. If nothing else, the end brought the whole Murdock family closer together. Suffering together forges close bonds or something poetic like that.

Posted by Ily on April 29, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

9 years ago today

Some of you may always remember April 15th as the day taxes are due, but I remember it as the day I began the journey to cash in on all the blessings the Lord had in store for me. Exactly nine years ago today I was given a ring by the best man in the world as he asked me to marry him. I actually lost the ring for about 4 months. Yes, I had put it in a safe place so I wouldn’t lose it… so safe I couldn’t remember where. And believe me, I tore the house apart looking for it to no avail. But I finally found it last week and looking at it again prompted me to remember all the fun and exhilarating emotions that went along with our courtship.

Here is our engagement story as recorded in the BYU Magazine several years ago. Scroll down to the “pop quiz in the math lab” entry.

http://magazine.byu.edu/?act=view&a=1640

What a fun adventure this has been so far. I will always have a fond memory for math and pop quizes thanks to my husband!

PS: As an interesting side benefit of getting our story published in the BYU Magazine, many friends of mine have found me by googling my maiden name and finding that story and subsequently using my married name to find our family blog after that. This has helped me rekindle old friendships and I love all the people who I have found again in this way. I love the internet sometimes!

Posted by Ily on April 15, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

Official Results

Official Results from the Beaver Freezer are in. They have them grouped different ways and I think this grouping looks the best. 5th place isn’t bad at all, right? Wait, it gets better. Notice that Ily’s swim time is the 3rd fastest, and my bike time, yup, that’s first place. I’m not competitive though. I’m also not looking that closely at the overall results. ;-)

Besides results, there are pictures too! “Here’s me biking”:http://www.backprint.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=bp%18%7EA&EVENTID=34029&PWD=&ID=48293792&FROM=photos&BIB=347, and “Ily raising her arms in triumph at the finish”:http://www.backprint.com/view_user_photo.asp?PID=bp%18%7EA&EVENTID=34029&PWD=&ID=48293096&FROM=photos&BIB=243. I think the expression on her face says it all.

Posted by Bryan on April 10, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

We are the champions! Beaver Freezer sprint triathlon 2008

Today was the day and we did it! We finished a triathlon as a team! Team Murdock Fever won no awards other than the sense of accomplishing a cool thing together. It was the best Super-date ever. It was fun training together, and even more fun cheering each other on. Overall, it was the funnest athletic experience I have ever had!

The swim was 500 yards and I am used to doing 500 meters (a tad bit longer). I didn’t take enough time off my 500 m swim time to seed me in a lane with swimmers my same speed so I ended up passing all three of them at the wall. I think I went a bit faster because of excitement too. I was one of the first swimmers out of the pool and out of the building running to the transition area and Bryan had no problems spotting me from there because my swim suit was bright orange. It fairly screamed “Hello I’m coming!” The first transition went great. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures of Bryan at this point because I was soaking wet and he was ready to run off to start his bike ride.

Then the bike ride took him out away from campus for 12 miles so I didn’t get any pictures of him on the course. Very lame of us to not have planted a photographer out there… When he was done, I again forgot to get a picture of him because I was waiting to be tagged and run off on my 5K.

The 5K was a loop around campus repeated 3 times. It was a bit chilly but there was no rain. I won’t complain at all about it. Bryan was tons colder on his bike ride than I was on my run so if I did complain, I would get throttled for sure! I ran more than half of it (hurray!). It was cool to run with the crowd and chat a bit with others and Bryan could cut across the middle and cheer me on from both sides of the course. He even joined me for a bit of the course which was very much appreciated.

We finished, it was great. We might even do it again some day. It was tough, but so worth the time and effort!

Posted by Ily on April 5, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 6 comments

Nice!

Isaac now has glasses!

Posted by Ily on April 4, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 3 comments

Let There Be Hot Water

Our house is getting to be 14 years old now and last year we had to start replacing all the original appliances. This year has continued in the same manner. Earlier this year we had to replace the spring in the garage door so it would even open again. This week’s repair is even more important than that, we had to get a new water heater. It started leaking this week. Not cool. Then it stopped leaking. Then it started leaking again.

We contemplated having Bryan install a new water heater with the help of friends, but then decided that since it was a gas appliance, we better let a professional do it since his install of a gas stove went ok… except that we kept smelling gas for a few weeks and ended up having a plumber come out anyway. For the record, the plumber said he did a great job, he just accidentally loosened one joint while tightening another and that is where the gas came from.

So we went and bought a water heater from Home Depot (the girl at the plumbing company suggested it to save some money) and set up a time for the plumber to come over. He came. He worked on it forever. Now we have a shiny new water heater in our garage to look at.

I keep trying to save up for new flooring and a new van, but thank heavens the van is still going for now and the floor is still bearable because our home seems to need much attention this year!

Wanna makes bets on what will go next?

Here are the choices:

Heating and Air conditioning
Dishwasher
Fridge
maybe a shower too

Person who wins gets a cookie mixed in my new bosch mixer and baked in my new oven and pulled out of the oven in oven mitts that have been laundered in my HE washer and dryer with water that was heated in our new water heater.

**************************************************************

UPDATE Wow, a new water heater makes a huge difference! We have had horrible water pressure for months in our shower and it is back to normal! I guess that old water heater was really needing to be replaced. I took the best shower ever today… warm water, the perfect amount of pressure… Wow, it was like a spa treatment on a much cheaper level!

Posted by Ily on April 3, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment

5 Little Monkeys

My friend Heather and I took our boys to the zoo yesterday and it was just glorious and fun. The weather was so perfect! The zoo wasn’t too crowded. The boys were even enjoying the moment rather than asking when they could go home and play video games. Micah wandered around singing animal songs and when we got to the crocodile he kept talking about how “Crocodiles eat monkeys.” We sing this little rhyme that goes

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree, teasing Mr. Alligator “Can’t catch me no you can’t catch me!” Along come Mr. alligator quiet as can be and SNAPS that monkey right out of that tree!”

He was very into the song yesterday and applying it to real life.

We even had our own five little monkeys with us because the boys were climbing on everything. It was great fun to let them run around the zoo and everyone came home happy. I love days like that in the Northwest. It seems like you get lots of gray days here and it really just makes you appreciate the sunny ones all the more. And yes, we have stayed home for Spring Break and are just loving the time vacationing here. We stayed home so we don’t get rain. If we left like we have previously, we would get lots of rain wherever we went to visit. Go figure.

Posted by Ily on April 3, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Trixie-sitting

Our friends Brian and Maresa Jackson have this great dog named Trixie and we got to dog sit her yesterday during the day. Trixie is a boxer/ pit bull mix, 80 pounds of energy, and great with kids. Reece loves her, tries to ride her occasionally, shouts out her name in joy when he sees her, and likes to steal her dog bed when we go over to her house. For a kid who is shorter than her, he sure is brave around her. The older boys like her too and so it was a treat for all of us.

First thing, we wanted to take Trixie for a walk because it was a glorious sunny day. I know why I don’t have a dog yet- you can’t push a stroller and hold a leash for a dog that big at the same time. We walked to the park. When we got there, I realized I had a dog leash to hold and had be diligent about keeping her from bounding away to see other dogs at the park. She is leash trained, but she still gets really excited about other dogs. Let’s just say 80 pound dogs are strong.

After that, we decided to keep her at our house. I guess the neighborhood cats felt threatened by her presence because they left a half eaten bird for us in the back yard that they usually try to invade even though we don’t want them- ewww!

After cleaning that up (where are husbands when you need them?) we played in the backyard a ton all afternoon. Reece chased Trixie, Trixie chased Reece, the boys all chased her… it was great exercise for all. They played more in the backyard than they ever have. it was great fun to watch all afternoon.

We did take a break for Reece’s nap time and the big boys and I cuddled up to watch a movie. Trixie plopped down with us Micah snuggled up with her for a bit. Pretty cute.

No trouble occurred until someone rang our doorbell and when we opened the door, Trixie shot out the door and started exploring the neighborhood. I chased her around looking like an idiot and she was hard to catch. A neighbor was out washing his car and had his dog, another boxer named Samson, tethered to a tree. Trixie kept wanting to go see him and it totally looked like she was fighting him. Turns out that is how they play, but I was panicked at the time! We finally caught her and dragged her back home where she was put in time out under the piano.

So the verdict on us getting a dog= WE ARE NOT READY! So many little things made me realize that I am not ready for a dog. Am I happy to dog sit for a few days? You bet. It is like having grandkids, you love them when they visit, but you are so glad you don’t have to deal with them all the time!

So I still like Trixie? Yes! Do I want a dog just like her? Maybe, maybe not… maybe something smaller would be better for us.

Posted by ily on April 2, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Family Newsletter

We got the family newsletter that Melinda put together. Great job, Mindy! It looks awesome. Ily and I have been having a lot of fun writing down our family stories on this website, but I’ve been wishing we could see more from everyone else. This is a great way to do it. And I’m going to guess that it’s, “The yolk of the egg are white.” If it were, “is,” why would anyone have to ask? Am I right?

Anyway, thanks for doing that, Melinda. Let us know the deadline for next month.

Posted by Bryan on April 1, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments