Pandora's Jewelz

I want to give a good friend of mine a free plug on her new website. Her name is Lisa, and she makes the coolest handmade jewelry. I've been admiring her pieces for years. She finally decided to launch a website and start selling her art. You should check it out - even if you do nothing but admire!

www.pandorasjewelz.com

Looks Gross, Dunnit?

I have just been chastised by my sister Gwen for not posting about Olivia's injuries yesterday. So here we go, nasty pictures and all!

What you see here is a wound and a stitch on the back of Olivia's head. Nasty, huh?

And to put it in perspective...

So what happened? Well, about 4pm yesterday afternoon she was out on the back patio taking a break after school. Trixie was running around the yard like a banshee and ran Olivia's legs right out from under her. I saw her go down, and heard the thunk when her head hit the concrete. I ran to Olivia (who was crying by now) and checked her head. Yep - there was blood! Poor Kelsey broke down worse than Olivia did. Olivia was crying in pain, Kelsey was crying because she thought Olivia was going to die. My poor darlings.

Of course I called their doctor. He had just left for the day and the nurse wanted me to go to the ER because it was likely going to need stitches or staples to close the skin back together. THAT wasn't going to happen. I have been meaning to switch to a doctor that was closer to our new house anyway, so I got a referral from a friend and had switched doctors by 4:15. Fortunately, the new doctor is just around the corner - less than a mile from our house. Bonus for us!

The rest of our evening involved getting a single stitch in Olivia's head and a CT scan at the hospital to make sure there wasn't anything more serious we needed to worry about. According to the doctor this morning, Olivia has no further injury from her fall yesterday. However, the CT scan DID show that she apparently has chronic sinus infections.

WHAT?!

This actually makes perfect sense once I think about it. Olivia often wakes up with a sore throat and can't breathe through her nose at night. I assumed this was allergies, and I'm probably right. Being and under-medicator parent that I am, I have never really worried about it. She's not like Kelsey who was ending up with strep regularly from because HER allergies made the glands in her neck swell to the size of ping-pong balls. So, when we go in next week to get her stitches - or stitch rather - out, we'll talk about her sinuses and what we may need to do to help them stay clear.

And on the bright side, Olivia got to stay home from school today with a doctor's note.

Grown

I finally did it.

I took him to get his hair cut.

Isn't he just such a big boy?

And look, Trixie likes it, too!

But I didn't know he had a cowlick.

Haircut?

I think it's time. He's still cute, but starting to look overgrown. Don't you think?

And although this picture isn't haircut related, I just had to share it. He was feeding himself dinner the other night and smeared it in his hair of course.

But that's not the best picture of the bunch. That honor goes to this one:

I wonder what he was thinking right then? What I wouldn't give to be able to read the boy's mind once in a while...

Kelsey's Big Day

For some time, Kelsey has been waffling back and forth whether to get her ears pierced. Normally it's not something I would have considered letting my 5-year old daughter choose, but there are two things that have been in Kelsey's favor. First, she takes pretty good care of her stuff. Second, ever since school has started she's been self-conscious about her short hair and thinking she looks like a boy. I'm guessing it has something to do with some of the other kids. But regardless, I wanted to let her feel like a girl as much as possible. Maybe it's flashbacks from when I was 10 and my sister Beth cut my hair short and everyone thought I was a boy. Either way, I've been a softie and have been willing to get Kelsey's ears pierced. The only problem is that Kelsey keeps chickening out because it will hurt.

This past Friday she finally decided to do it. So off we went to Walmart. Apparently the only woman working on Friday afternoon that was qualified to do it was on break and wouldn't be back for another 15 minutes. We decided to wait it out. After about 30 minutes and JUST as we were about to give up and leave, she came back. We proceeded with the right ear piercing.

After 20 minutes of crying, screaming, wailing, clinging and (on my part) cajoling, we finally left the store with the promise that we would come back the next day to get the other ear done. So after an hour and then some, this is what we had:

In case you can't see what I'm talking about, there's no earring in her left ear.

After about an hour, the pain had mostly faded and Kelsey had decided she was ready to get the other ear done. So off we went to Walmart again, and would you believe that the woman had just gone on break again?? What were the chances? Fortunately, I had another stop to make in Oklahoma City across the street from another Walmart, so we set off for that one and got it done. Not even one tear was shed for this one! Nice.

Then, on Saturday I took Kelsey in for a haircut. She wants to grow her hair back out again and it was really starting to look like a longish boy-do so we needed to feminize the haircut. I think the lady did a bang-up job!

And look! She has an earring in the left ear now, too!

Customer Appreciation

Last Thursday our local electric company (which I found out is part of a co-op which is why they're nicer to us that your electric company probably is) hosted a customer appreciation night at their facility. Ben had to work late, so the kids and I loaded up and headed out to the festivities.

We got there, picked up our free T-shirts and balloons, and posed for this picture.

Just after we took it a local TV reporter for the cable news channel asked to interview the girls. I gave my consent and they answered some questions. If it's ever broadcast, they will email me and I'll post the link here.

The next thing to do was to hit the booths and entertainment, of course.
Olivia was pretty good at this one.

Kelsey did better when she stood a bit closer.

And while the girls shot their water guns, Connor watched.

Then the girls picked up some balloon animals from the clown.

Kelsey got the poodle...

... and Olivia the sword! Not really an animal, but oh well.

After a few more information booths and freebies (water bottles, footballs, mail openers, etc.) we moved on to the Backhoe Bowling. This required another signed consent form for Mommy and safety equipment for the girls. They took it very seriously.

And Connor watched from the stroller.

So what exactly is Backhoe Bowling, you ask? It's where the girls use a backhoe to knock over some safety cones. You can see Olivia here...

... and Kelsey here.
And what was Connor doing through all of this? You guessed it - watching from his stroller!

And while Kelsey was waiting on Olivia she tried a Lemonhead. It was a mite sour for her.

Finally we made our way over to what the girls had really been waiting for: Bucket Truck Rides.

We weren't sure if Kelsey would be tall enough - but looky there! She just made it!

Then we got in line. And waited. And the girls got tattoos. And we waited.

And while we waited I let Connor out of the stroller.

He wandered. A lot. Olivia followed him around while I kept our place in line and waited some more.

When it almost our turn it was time for Connor to get back in the stroller. He wasn't too happy about that, but I pacified him with animal crackers.

And then it was our turn! The girls got geared up. Again, Kelsey took it very seriously.

And then they went up for a ride.

Way up!

When it was over they hopped out of the bucket...

... made their way back to me...

...and talked about how cool it was and totally worth the wait! By then all we had time for was to grab a free hot dog and hit the road to get Daddy from work. What a fun day!

Ills, Thrills, and Frills

ILLS

It's cold season again - time to pull out the Vicks VapoRub! Fortunately, the only one that has gotten much of anything so far is Connor. Poor little fella. And rather than give him cold medicine, his dad and I have been slathering his little footsies with Vicks VapoRub day and night! It's done wonders for my sinuses, too. I've also done what I can to fill him with vitamin C. In addition to red bell peppers, I've been feeding him oranges. I love good Clementine oranges (which, by the way does NOT include the pathetic bags at Wally World!) and they are just now coming in season here. I got a bag the other night, and Connor will eat two in one sitting! More, if I would let him. Which I won't. The diapers I'm getting are bad enough without letting him overdose on the things.

THRILLS

Last weekend we had a swap and shop activity in our ward. Ben and I started off our date night there right as it started, and do you know what I found???? A Kitchen Aid counter top mixer! So of course I snagged it right away and got Ben to take it to the car. Later that night I received a call from the sister who had donated it letting me know that the mixer worked perfectly fine, but there was one little thing wrong with it. The lever on the side (see the picture below) that was supposed to lift the bowl for mixing had not worked for some time. She generally propped it up with a pan or something to get it just the right height.

Tuesday I finally got to try it out. My adult life has now been divided into two major time periods: Life Before Kitchen Aid, and Life After Kitchen Aid. WOW. I made some french bread in there and... WOW. And then of course I had to try some pumpkin muffins. But of course, I had to try my hand at figuring out how to fix that lever. So I unscrewed the base from the top and gave it a look. This is what I saw:

See that white plastic piece in the middle there? It was broken. So I called the company who referred me to a repair center in Dallas, and within about 10 minutes I had ordered the part for $7.25 + shipping. Yesterday it arrived. Then, just using these tools...

...I took out the broken plastic piece...

...and replaced it with the new one. And now, of course, it works perfectly. I love being a "handy man"!

FRILLS

Some of you may remember the bathroom renovation project we tried to do before we moved into our new home. And some of you may also remember that we had some unexpected problems and that it took a lot longer to finish our "little project" than we expected. However, a couple of weeks ago Niel and Julie came up for a visit with their kids to help us get it finished. I have been meaning to give you the final pictures for over a week now, but I kept forgetting. But today is the Big Day. Presenting... our new bathroom!

And just for the record, one gorgeous thing about the bathroom that you can't see in these pictures is all the beautiful texture on the top half of the wall - courtesy of Julie! (I love having a talented family!)

Things That Make You Go "Hmm..."

I think my dog might be spoiled.

Really spoiled.