Painter Man

Our next door neighbor had his house repainted. Owen loved watching him paint and spray the house. In fact, Owen was so happy to watch he even learned to say "painting" during this voyeurism. We explained what was happening and he became fascinated with the painting of the house.

So, while Adam was doing his morning routine in preparation for church, Owen and Caroline wandered into our bathroom. Adam was in the midst of shaving and applying the shaving cream. Owen was watching intently. He looked up at Adam and then at me and said, "Mom, Daddy painting his face." We busted up laughing! How in the world did he translate the meaning of painting the house to painting a face with shaving cream?! Owen may be a little behind in his abilities to speak (which are catching up quickly), but he definitely understands the concepts behind the words. He is one smart little boy!!!!!

15 Minutes of Fame

My sister, Jenny, had her 15 minutes of fame. Actually, it was more like 2 minutes of fame. The hair salon, Cosmo's, where she goes had a segment on the local news. She was called and asked to participate in the show and she said yes. The segment was on short haircuts or bob haircuts. They wanted a person with hair in every color. Jenny has red hair with the bob...she qualified! She agreed to do it and here is the link. As usual, Jenny looked great!

Mom-nesia

I signed Owen up for another session of the preschool classes through the city where we live. When he was signed up, I printed out a calendar of when the classes were so that I wouldn't forget. As the time drew near for him to start, I absolutely KNEW that he started the 26th, not the 19th.

Then, I got a phone call from his teacher this morning canceling class today because she has 2 sick kids at home. WHAT?!?! I thought his class started next week. Uuuuuuugggghhhhh! As I sheepishly went to find the class schedule print-out, I realized he missed the first week of class, not only for his preschool class, but for his sports class as well. He totally could have gone to those classes, but especially yesterday when all we did was stay at home. None of us even went outside until 5:00 when we waved by to his speech therapist. I feel bad that he missed his class because of me.

I guess it's just another case of mom-nesia. That's why I use a calendar and write everything on there so I don't have to rely on my brain. We can see just how far that gets me -- not very!

File Folder Fun

A while back I made these file folders that were suppose to help keep Owen quiet during Sacrament meeting. Instead, he wants to do them all the time. By the time Sunday rolls around and it's time for him to sit still, he's bored with the file folders. But, on the other hand, he knows all of his colors and can say almost all of them. Eventually, I'll do more of them. They're just a lot of work with coloring, cutting, gluing, lamanating, cutting, and then velcroing all of the pieces to where they need to be. It's totally worth it though. Seriously, when the boy is sitting on the couch voluntarily doing these file folders and learning, how could I not want to do more of them?





Owen starts preschool next Tuesday and I can hardly wait. We are just doing it through the city where we live, so it will be exactly like it was in the Spring. It'll will be on Tuesday and Thursdays from 9-10 for the next 10 weeks. The best part is I get to drop him off. His teachers are the same and everything. He loved his teachers last time, let's hope he remembers them and has just as much fun this time. Then, on Wednesdays, he has his sports class and speech therapy. Needless to say, he's going to be a very busy little boy.

Once he turns 3 (January), however, this preschool will be 2 days a week for 2 hours each day. Not that I am wishing away the time I have with my kids, but 1 hour is just short enough that I can't get any serious errands done, but just long enough that I am bored completely out of mind hanging around the center.

Hopefully, while he is in the preschool class during the winter/spring, I can get Caroline into a class and then maybe, just maybe, I might be able to take that chemistry class after all. Here's to planning it that way......

C'mon Can't It Be My Turn?!

The other day I had a special treat. I got to drive the beloved '66 truck. It was a hoot! Just to make sure everyone believes that I actually drove the truck, Adam took a few snap shots of me driving. Don't know if I'll have the opportunity again, but it was sure fun! (Yes, this is the order the photos were taken. No, I didn't change the order in which the pictures were taken.)

Cause for Celebration

This past weekend my niece, Gurrie, was baptized. It was such a great event. My sister, Mindy, came down, and my parents and sister-in-law, Kristen, came over from California. It was great to hang out with everyone as that doesn't happen very often.

Gurrie looked sparkling clean and did a great job - so did her Dad! We haven't had a baptism in our family in about 4 1/2 years. Now that we have had this one there will be one a year or every other year at a minimum for about the next 8 years with multiple baptisms in several of those years. My nephew, Carson, will be baptized on September 6th.

During the program of the baptism, my kids went and sat with their aunts, Mindy and Jenny. Jenny, along with her daughter, Jaymie, took care of keeping Caroline quiet. What I didn't expect was how she kept her quiet.

It seems Caroline became quite enamored with the necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earings that were adorning her cousin and aunt. So, what's an aunt (especially Jenny) and cousin to do, they gave those things, including the earings, to Caroline and let her entertain herself with them. Jenny put her earings into Caroline's ears, and gave her the bracelet and rings. Jaymie contributed another ring and necklace. Suprisingly, Caroline didn't pull or tug at the earings. We didn't leave them in very long, but had to snap a few pictures. Thanks, Jenny and Jaymie for keeping her quiet and giving us all a laugh.

While we had all three sisters of the family together, we took a picture. We haven't had just the three of us taken in about 2 1/2 years. So, we updated that picutre. (Me on the left, Jenny in the middle, and Mindy on the right). I love my sisters! There ain't nothing like the bond that sisters have. I honestly couldn't ask for better sisters. We are all different, but all are the same in so many ways. It's awesome.

When we congregated back at my borther's house, there was four generations in the room - my grandmother, father, 4 of the 5 kids, and just about all of the grandkids. It was so neat to have this experience, especially knowing that it's not going to be like this for too much longer, my grandmother turns 93 (I think) at the end of this month.

Grandma and her newest great-grandchild - number 28 - Mylie.

Sadly, the weekend had to come to a close and everyone that traveled to here had to go home. Now, we are all back to reality. Thanks for the memories everyone. We had great laughs, good times, good fun, fabulous food, and wonderful memories made. What a weekend!!!!!

Rash Guard

Here are the couple of pictures I was able to take of what Caroline's little legs, and frankly the rest of her body, looked like. This rash was all over her back, trunk, legs, and feet when we left for the ER. After we were there for about an hour, spots appeared on her cheeks, nose, and even the cartilage of her ears were swollen and red.



Keep in mind, this is after the shot of Benadryl, the steroid, and 4 hours lapsing from the initial reaction. The worst of the welts were on the insides of her legs and they were about the size of the palm of my hand. I know she couldn't have felt very well. Poor thing!

I am happy to report that today the redness of the rash is gone, but you can still see where the worst of the welts were on the insides of her legs. They just looked like little bruises that are almost gone. Caroline is back to her usual twitness and that makes me happy to have my little girl back, regardless of how big of a twit she is.

Action v. Reaction

There's the law of physics that says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Today, we learned that law to be true.

I kept Caroline home from church today because when I put her to bed Saturday night, she was stuffy and was just an all around grump. When I got back from church with Owen (Adam took Owen to Sacrament meeting and then came home so I could go teach my lesson), Adam told me Caroline took a little nap while I was gone. Great! But, in the 45 minutes that I was home, she just wanted to sit on Adam's lap. So not typical behavior for her. I knew she had been cutting more teeth and with the stuffy nose, I gave her some children's Motrin with Sudafed (which she's had several times before). Adam changed her diaper and then put her in her booster seat for lunch.

I went to scoot Caroline up to the table so she could eat and, then, I noticed these horrible red welts on the insides of her legs, trunk, back, and arms. I immediately knew she was having a reaction to something, but didn't know what and it was getting worse. I put her pajama shirt back on, Adam got her car seat back in our car and off to the ER I went with her.

One shot of Benadryl, a steroid given to her orally, 3 hours at the ER, $150 co-pay, 2 prescriptions later we learned she is now allergic to Motrin (all ibuprofen products).

She didn't exhibit the usual allergic reactions to Sudafed and that is a highly unlikely source of the reaction. It is definitely more common - according to the ER doctor - to be allergic to Motrin than to the Sudafed. Never thought my kids would allergic to any drugs. And it's too bad we had to find out this way, but grateful it wasn't any worse than what it was.

Of course, I had to take pictures when I got home of her welts so I could blog about this experience. Just too bad that by the time I was able to take any pictures they were 1000% better than when I got to the ER. I'll post the pictures when I have a chance.

A Dream Fulfilled

Approximately 3 weeks ago, Adam's project ('66 Chevy truck) looked like this...

I love this picture with Caroline watching the truck go. Ahh, to see the life thru her eyes.

Adam couldn't figure out why the truck would start and then die about 30 seconds later. He put everything in painstakingly correct. He checked, rechecked, and triple checked the problems, but just couldn't find the problem. The carb seals had been replaced before the engine got pulled and the new engine put in. We had it towed over to a local mechanic's shop. They looked at it and found 1 problem, which was the ignition wires had rotten out in a place where Adam couldn't see unless it was up on a hoist. Fixed, that but now the sucker was jumping pumping smoke out the exhaust. Timing was checked, carb was checked again, everything was supposedly okay, but it was smoking like a chimney.

We had it towed back to our house so Adam could finish working on the carb issue, since that's what he thought it was. He bought a new carb for the truck and installed that on Saturday night (great date night, huh? - just teasin' you Love). It certainly paid off because Tuesday night Adam put transmission fluid in and started her up. It stayed started, no smoking and it shifted into gear. Great! Great! Great! Adam couldn't stand it and he had to take it around the block for the maiden voyage after almost 40 years of sitting idle. He got back and then took Onie with him around the block.

I called my Grandma and told her that the truck was running. She got a little choked up, but was so tickled that Adam got it running -- that was the dream of my Grandpa, to retire and then have all of these trucks to tinker with and rebuild. My Grandpa is not far from us, but especially when Adam is working on the truck.

Now, maybe a few of my projects can get done around the house. What do you say, Love? :-)

New Little Angel

Adam's sister, Rebecca, had a new little bundle of joy on Tuesday, August, 5th. Although in the NICU after a delivery of 6 weeks early, he doing well and so is mom. Congrats guys!

Thanks Love!

As you can see, I am straightened out...at least my blog is....thank you very much to my wonderful and incredibly smart husband. Obviously, I couldn't have done it without him. Thanks, Love!

Blog S.O.S.!

So you can see my blog is definitely looking pretty screwy. I downloaded a festive 4th of July background and now I cannot seem to get rid of it. I'm tired of it...sick and tired of it. I've tried changing the template, and as you can see I get a hybrid of the two. Can anyone help me. I swear I'll never do this again. I want my pretty backgrounds and colors, not the 4th of July ones any more. HELP! S.O.S.! Any one have any suggestions?