Set #3

 

Greg is starting a new job in a few weeks and while the pay increase will be fabulous the health benefits are a bit lacking compared to what we have now.  My children have always had problems with her ears.  Annabelle got her second set of tubes two years ago and while they have helped immensely, she is always fiddling with her ears and has gotten a few infections.  About a year ago they were able to remove one tube at the office, but they left the other in because it was still functioning.  I was a little concerned with her having the one tube in for more than 2 years so I thought I should go to the specialist before the insurance changes.  This was Thursday afternoon.  Needless to say the doc said that even though she isn't having many infections there was a lot "negative pressure" behind her tubeless ear and it could eventually cause damage to the bones behind her ear.  The ONLY day we could get in to get the procedure was today, the next morning.
Fast forward to this morning at 5:30am.  Yep, that is when I dragged myself out of bed and carried a sleepy Annabelle to the car.  We drove to Provo and waited and waited.

Once we made it back into the back Annie started to get a little sad.  She got really quiet and when the nurse came to take her from me she quietly cried.  There was no screaming or yelling in protest, but the quiet tears were enough to make my heart ache.  20 or so minutes later I was called to go back with her where I found her thrashing around (totally normal for anesthesia--I wish I didn't know that) and crying and coughing as she tried to catch her breath and scratch the IV out of her hand.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  She is doing fabulously.  No pain, no sadness (well, she is a little sadder than normal if someone takes her toys), no fevers.  She has no tubes and no more adenoids.  The doctor said that in her tubeless ear there was a lot of really thick fluid that would have caused a lack of hearing and only could have been removed by this procedure.  I am so glad I got Annabelle into the doctor this week, if I had waited we wouldn't have been able to do the procedure before the insurances changed.  What a blessing.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Years ago when I was a Freshman at BYU I remember vividly decorating my dorm room and making it my space (anything to hide the cinder blocks).  I decorated it with pictures and posters and little sayings.  What I remember most about it though was how it was totally symmetrical.  And my roommate's half of the room was totally asymmetrical.  Neither is better than the other, just that was how we liked to decorate.  I think about this a lot when I decorate my own house now.  On one of my shelf spaces my cousin had to really convince me to put the wreath to the side and the vase next to it-instead of 2 vases flanking the wreath.  It looks good now, but like I said, it took some convincing.  Most every other part of my house is symmetrically decorated.

Now to the point of this post: Annabelle has the symmetrical gene.  The other day she and her friend, Hattie, were decorating door hangers and this is how Annie's came out:

I didn't help her at all, I didn't even offer any help when I saw that she was going for symmetry.  Her friend, on the other hand, was like my roommate and her door hanger was completely asymmetrical.  Again, nothing wrong with that, just the way her brain sees things.  I was pretty impressed with Annabelle's door hanger-beautiful just doesn't cover it. Even Callie agrees and is always trying to grab it.  I have never really thought to look at the boys in this way.  I wonder which they would prefer.

Pinewood Derby

That's right folks, we had our first experience building and racing a pinewood derby car for Cub Scouts.  It was a fun and educational experience.  I wish I got some photos of Nathan and Greg working on the car, but these will have to do:

 

 Nathan and Greg decided to stain the car, instead of paint it.  The screws on top are the eyes and we put washers on to get the right weight.  Perhaps it was wrong to have all the weight in the front.  We are no experts.  Below is Nathan doing the countdown and pushing the button to go.  The announcer was REALLY into it and REALLY chatty.  But, I think the boys all loved it.

While Nathan's car was no where near the fastest, it wasn't the slowest either.  We have some pretty intense dads in our pack-one at least who has his own track in his garage-so we are just happy that the car stayed on the track and Nathan had fun.
Callie is everywhere these days so I wasn't able to stay and watch the races.  I hung out in the hall or a toy room, getting drinks from the drinking fountain (and getting soaked), or just trying to keep her from falling into someone or something.  It was a long night.  The best part for me was the yummy treats I made-chocolate carmel bars-they were so chewy and delicious I just had to eat a couple, and a couple more today.

 

 

Daffodils

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day.  I was outside for nearly 2 hours weeding around my gorgeous daffodils.  The kids were running around, they even asked to get out the swimming pool or to put water in the sand box.  It wasn't THAT warm, but to them it felt fabulous.  Callie came out and loved walking around.  I swear she can say "pretty flowers" and loves to look at them.  

Every year my bulbs come up in March.  I love the color and the spring feeling.  But outside right now it is raining and will most likely turn into snow.  It makes me sad that all of these beauties will wither away in the cold.  I had to take a picture just so I could remember how pretty they did look. 

St.Patrick's Day

Green milk.  Green water.  Green grapes.  Green toilet water.  Leprechaun traps.  How did it all start?!  A few years ago when I was an avid Family Fun subscriber we built our first leprechaun trap.  The leprechaun brought goodies and socks and turned our fridge green.  The kids LOVED it!  Thanks to that one day, and the school system which totally encourages the holiday, we are big on celebrating this strange and crazy green holiday.  As soon as the boys walked in the door they set out on making their traps.  Yes, that was plural.  This year Nathan, Ryan and Annabelle all wanted their own trap.  And a neighbor stopped by so he too wanted to make a trap.  Luckily the kids are getting older and I can just hand them a box of crafts and say "Go to town."  I had to intervene a little when they decided to put sticky tape along the whole bottom of their boxes.  I found some contact paper that made is quicker and cheaper.  I think that each trap turned out great and the kids were happy with their creations.

 

 

 

 Bright and early this morning the kids ran downstairs to see if they caught anything.  They were a little hesitant (afraid that they actually caught one) and cautiously peered into their traps.  This is what we found in the traps:

The leprechauns were not fooled by the chocolate money and escaped.  Luckily he had to use his hat to climb out of the trap, thus leaving it for our kids to find.  We must have had three leprechauns this year as we found three hats, one in each trap.  It was a fun morning with bags of goodies (green oreos, andes mints, green gum, and green gummies), and cereal with green milk.  Our after school snack will be green pudding and green pringles.  Grandpa is coming over later for my favorite part of this holiday: corned beef and cabbage.  YUM!!!  While it may be a bit of work to pull all of this off, it is a lot of fun to see how excited the kids get before and after the leprechauns come. Happy St. Patty's Day!