Quirky Girl

Ah, there is never a dull moment with this kid around! (o: The things she comes up with just keep us laughing. She is always inventing her own fun. The other day, she decided to do a little experiment with an empty 2 liter bottle. I watched her wash it out and take the label off and wondered what she was thinking of doing. A little while later she came downstairs from her room with the bottle full of water and several items inside floating around inside: a crayon, two silly bands, a few charms, a paintbrush, a mechanical pencil, some coins, a Squinky, and some other random little toys that could fit through the narrow opening. It looked like quite the project. Later that night she had added two markers which made the water turn a dark reddish purple color. I had to draw the line there as I pictured the bottle leaking dark inky water all over her lovely carpet. I teeter between being annoyed at times and just laughing at the things she comes up with.

I love my Nat. Life would indeed be boring without her! If you have seen the movie Ramona and Beezus, that pretty much describes my Natalie. She Ramona incarnate. I think that might be why I love that movie so much.

April Fools Fun

This is a simple enough joke to play, but the girls got a kick out of it. When I made their lunches for them the morning of April Fool's I mixed up what was in the packaging. So in the granola bar package they found teddy grahams. In their chips, they found a different flavor than it was labeled.

Then you sneak in a little message and glue the packaging back together! (O:

The Silly Dog Story

Once upon a time, I was doing the usual afternoon routine. Doing the dishes, encouraging the little persons in our home to do piano practice, homework, chores, etc. It was all very normal except for the never ending yapping noise coming from the front yard. Our neighborhood has a lot of dogs and some that like to bark, so at first I didn't think anything of it. But it didn't stop and it sounded closer than the usual barking noises. One of the girls finally looked outside and realized that the dog was indeed in our yard, on our sidewalk by the porch. I checked out the situation. It was a little dog, with no owner just yipping away and as I approached it, the yipping got more intense and very loud. Someone walked by on our sidewalk and the dog went crazy, like it was protecting our house or something. I apologized and explained it wasn't even our dog.

Now I have never had a dog. I don't know much about them. I think some dogs are cute, but I wouldn't say I'm a dog person. (Heck, I'm not even a cat person, but I have a cat.) Anyway, I wasn't really sure what to do. I tried to "shew" him/her away with no luck. "Oh well," I thought, "His or her owners will find it pretty easier if I just let it bark here for a while." I went back to my usual routine and mostly forgot about the dog. The barking kind of faded to the background. However, after about an hour and a half, I was starting to get annoyed. That little thing did not shut up that WHOLE time! I couldn't believe something could go on so consistently for so long.

I decided to head back out with a broom this time to scoot the little thing which had moved up to our porch. At one point, someone tried bringing something to our porch and just about got their hand bit off. It was getting ridiculous. That little thing would NOT budge. I had to push it's whole body weight. The poor little thing was so scared it peed on the porch - my feelings were annoyance and sympathy at the same time. I was at a loss so I called Bob* for ideas. He headed home and managed to get the thing off our porch, but it just went in our backyard and hid under the back stairs.

Our next idea was to start asking neighbors and making phone calls. Bob* took a picture on his phone and walked around to all the neighbors houses. I made phone calls using the ward list and my limited knowledge on people in the ward who had dogs. We had a few leads that all piddled out. No one knew someone who was missing a dog after all. Luckily, the poor thing finally got tired and stopped barking. We decided we did everything we could. But then as we watched the news, we realized it was going to get pretty cold - in the 30's that night. That dog was sure annoying, but I didn't have the heart to let him freeze to death. So at 11:00 p.m. the two of us headed outside with a flashlight, a broom and a box. Thank heavens the little thing didn't put up a fight like he had before. We got him in the box pretty easily and took him to the garage where it was lots warmer. We put in an old shirt, some water and a little cat food and hoped he would stay quiet during the night.

This was him the next morning. He was good and didn't make a peep all night. He didn't even make any messes in the box. We still weren't sure what to do. I got a hold of a nice lady at the local shelter and I ended up taking him (or her?) over. It was kind of funny how sad I felt dropping him/her off - I felt so bad for the little thing and was grateful that he seemed to figure out we were trying to help him so he stopped being annoying. Angela and I decided to make some signs to put up around the neighborhood with the phone number to the shelter. Ang was a good little helper. (o:

The lady at the shelter was really sweet and grateful. She told us to Friend the shelter on Facebook so we could keep up on the little dog's status. (They can only keep the animals for so many days, so we were a little worried.) The next day we got great news that the family either saw our signs or just called the shelter and came to pick up their little dog. Hopefully they got a tag to put on him/her so that doesn't happen again. (O: We were so glad that this little dog's story was a happy ending. It would have devastated the girls. They really wanted to keep it. Thank heavens it didn't come to that!

Natalie Gets High

For reasons I won't go into too much detail over, Natalie's pediatrician had some concerns about Natalie's kidney function. She wanted to rule this out so Natalie had to undergo a test that involved a catheter. Not fun. It was a procedure that required Natalie to be conscious, but parents could opt for the medication that would make her not understand what was going on and most importantly, not remember the trauma of it all. We definitely wanted that option and don't regret it. Ned* took some time off so we could both be there to help Natalie feel as comfortable as possible. We are so lucky to have a Primary Children's very close and were so well taken care of. They even called a few days prior twice to explain everything to me, give me some tips on helping prepare Natalie and then to give instructions regarding drinking, eating, etc. prior to the appointment. Nat was pretty nervous. I knew she would be - she gets worked up over things pretty easily, so I didn't even mention it to her until a couple days before. A promise of a new toy when it was all over motivated her to be brave. The nurses were very sweet and gave Natalie this cute doll to decorate while she waited in her room. Leave it to Natalie to add some realistic detail to her dolly. (o: I'm glad she was in good enough spirits to be silly! Once Nat got her meds, the fun really began. Within about 15 minutes Natalie was as high as a kite and making us laugh until we cried. Don't get me wrong - it is a little disturbing to hear your child to act like someone on hallucinogens - but in a hospital setting under a nurse's care, it is great comic relief. She would reach up in the air and swat her hands and say in slurred speech, "Why is the ceiling moving?" Then, slowly turn her head and say, "Mom, you have two heads." The look in her eyes was so funny - you could tell she was seeing some pretty darn funky stuff. "The walls have colors." "Where am I?" "The lights are floating." During the procedure was pretty traumatic. I think the drugs actually made getting the catheter even worse because Natalie was in no state to understand reason or anything we had talked about at home. It was so heartbreaking for Ned* and I. (Maybe we should have taken some drugs too!) But the wonderful benefit of the meds was that the only thing Natalie remembers is that daddy was wearing an apron with flowers. The nurse handed us aprons (because the test involved an x-ray) and the nurse was being funny giving him the flowery one to make Nat laugh. Look at my poor little baby. Trying to smile for the picture. (I didn't ask her to.) She was pretty loopy for a little while after and the nurses kept a close eye on her to make sure she recovered from the meds before we left. The great news is that the doctor found no problems with her kidney function. I am proud of my brave little girl and I'm so glad that is over with.

T-shirts

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

While shopping at Walmart for some new home necessities, I spotted this shirt in the men's department. I was in a silly mood and it made me laugh. I liked this "cool Yoda" shirt and pointed it out to the girls. Angela laughed, Natalie laughed, Sarah rolled her eyes. I told her I liked it enough that I might buy it. I like things that make me laugh. She didn't think there was anything funny about it. "But that's a boy shirt!" she pointed out. Plus, she thought it was dorky. Ok, I'm not arguing that. Then I had a thought and told her that maybe it could be the shirt I wear when I come volunteer in her classroom. Her face turned white - she was stunned and horrified. "No mom! That would be so embarrassing!" Oh dear, this only seemed to encourage my teasing. I don't know what it is, I couldn't help myself. I found myself buying the shirt within minutes of that comment. Sarah was seriously MAD at me for buying such an ugly boy shirt. Any time I bring it up (still) she gets freaked out. I haven't worn it to school yet, but when I wear it, she really pays attention to where we are going that day. Poor Sarah - we all get a big kick out of her hatred of my Yoda shirt.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

And speaking of shirts, this is a very cute, one of a kind shirt Natalie owns that can't be found at any Walmart. For one of her school assignments, she was supposed to design a T-shirt that advertised a mystery book she read. She read a Magic Treehouse book called, "Day of the Dragon King". On her shirt, she wanted to draw a dragon with fabric puff paints. I found a picture on google of a cute dragon and gave her the paints. I swear I did not draw a single line on this shirt. I could not believe how good it turned out! What an artist! This is now one of her favorite T-shirts to wear. I wish I had one my size. Guess I'll just have to wear my Yoda instead. (o:

Keepin' It Interesting

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

Apparently, moving to another state wasn't enough excitement for Angela. She had to throw in a little excitement for us just before we were about to head to Kim and Mike's for our last family dinner together. As we were getting ready to leave, Angela said she thought there was a bead in her nose. She "thought" she had a bead in her nose. Hmmm. She said she stuck it in, but it didn't come out. Five year olds do this?? I thought this was a stage we had passed already. I looked in her nose and couldn't see anything. I looked on the floor where she was standing. I figured it would be somewhere down there and I could show her that it just fell out, then give her a lecture and be done with it all. But no bead. Something was bugging her in her nose, I could tell. So I got a flashlight and looked again in her nose. There was something purple and shiny in there and it wasn't pretty boogers. It was way up there. I was heartbroken. Really? Our last night with our wonderful friends would have to be cancelled so we could go to the ER? I said a silent prayer and was determined to work on it before giving up. I instructed Ang to blow her nose. Nothing. We did this several times. "Harder" I'd coach her. I pulled her nostril in different directions hoping it would help. Still nothing. I called the on call doctor to find out what to do next. I had to leave a message.

Then I had an idea. I believe it was one of those tender mercies an answer to a silly prayer that I might get this bead out of my daughter's nose so I could have some much needed closure with one of my best friends. I got the idea to push down on the bone just below the bridge of her nose while she blew. After just two tries - it came out!! I was never so happy to see an object fly out of my child's nose! Just then the doctor called back. She was glad to hear the good news and said she would definitely have told us to go to the E.R. because it can really cause big problems having beads in your nose.

Now we could enjoy our evening! But Angela got the "NEVER PUT THINGS IN YOUR NOSE" lecture all the way to dinner. (I don't know if you remember - but Natalie had a similar incident and lecture over the summer when she stuck a Lego piece in her ear! My kids should be beyond this stage - what the heck?)

From Blog Favorites Sept.Oct.

Mysterious . . .

From Blog Favorites August/September

We've had some mysterious things going on lately. A few nights before I took these pictures, Kyle* came back from some bishopric business with a couple in our neighborhood and found several of these red and blue army men all over his car in the driveway. We laughed about it and wondered what the reason for it was and who it could have been. Then the next Sunday, as we were leaving church Tony saw me with my camera (the bishop had asked me to take some pictures of the young men in the ward) and he asked me to come over and take some shots of his truck. And guess what was all over it?

From Blog Favorites August/September

Hmmm - it looked like the work of some of the young men and young women in the ward. (Tony is the young men's president.) The next day, we got a bigger army guy with a parachute and a message asking us to return his men. Apparently, this was the captain coming to rescue his battalion. (o: I have my suspicions, but none of the youth has fessed up.

From Blog Favorites August/September

It sure gave us some good laughs. Man, I'm going to miss these funny things...

From Blog Favorites August/September

From Blog Favorites August/September

Cute Phoenix getting a kick out of this prank. Sarah LOVED this too. I think she was filing the idea away in her brain for later!

From Blog Favorites August/September

Thanks mystery army pranksters for making us smile!