The Infestation!!!

     When your kids go to school, at some point or another, they are going to be exposed to lice.  The spanish word for lice is piojos.  I know that because it was a very common issue for sister missionaries in Argentina!   Well usually, when a child in one of my kids' classes is 'diagnosed' with lice, a letter is sent home to tell the parents.  So I was surprised to find out that, apparently, there has been quite the epidemic of lice going around the school and even children in my kids' classes have been sent home for it.
     I learned about the infestation from my a couple of my good friends.  One of them decided to take no chances.  Her children were cleared by the school, but just to be on the safe side, she still washed the entire family's hair with the special shampoo, threw out all their pillows and bought new ones, sprayed down surfaces-including the car interior-with lice killer spray, and threw out all their brushes.
     Today at church, my daughter Natalee brought her brush.  Mackenzie then began to throw a fit because she said it was her brush, not Natalee's.  Natalee showed it to me and I informed Mackenzie that it was indeed Natalee's brush and she knows her brush is purple.  Natalee had brushed her hair beautifully before church today so I knew she didn't really need the brush.  It was also causing a fight.  So I told her to hand it over.  She answered with this:
"No Mom!  I need it!  I only brought it so [my friend] could use it because her mom threw away all their brushes!"
     I'm sure my friend would be thrilled to know that despite all of her best efforts, her daughter is borrowing brushes from my children.  I did check my kids as well, and I am an expert on finding lice.  They were clear.  But it looks like we need a little edu-ma-cation in this family on the topic!

Bountiful Harvest

     Daren has worked hard the last few years to plant us a garden and every year gets better!  This year we have already started to get zucchini.  It's very exciting and I'm sure we will get tons and tons more.  We don't have a lot of luck on everything we plant, but always have a bounty of squash and melons.  Now, the girls like the melons, but they aren't as thrilled about the squash.

This is all Daren said they had to eat for dinner tonight.

This is how they looked at us:

     Actually, it was just Natalee and Mackenzie.  Kelsey fell asleep before dinner and Haylee ate hers right away and, what do you know?  She actually liked it!  She even took seconds, and I believe thirds.  All in all, she said she had eaten 9 slices.  Natalee and Mackenzie eventually choked theirs down so they wouldn't have to go to bed early.  They made sure to tell us how gross it was.  It would make no sense for them to eat it and then just keep quiet about their feelings, now would it?  They are going to be so excited to be eating from the garden all summer long!

Pre-Dentist Drama

     Kelsey had a dentist appointment yesterday at 11:00.  So a little after 10:30 we all headed out to the car.  I buckled Nathan in and Kelsey buckled herself in. (We were leaving a little early because we were dropping Nathan off at my parents' house and because Kelsey was just dying to leave!)  As I was about to get into my seat, I noticed that the cat was playing around with a huge tarp that was on the garage floor.  Daren had brought it in a week or so earlier when the wind had blown it off the hay and into the corner of the yard.  Not wanting to lose it, Daren brought it into the garage.  But since it was so big, he needed my help to fold it and we pretty much just forgot about it.  Since the cat seemed to be very interested in the tarp, I figured she had cornered something in it.  I have different feelings about the things she corners.  I don't want her to kill birds really.  There are some adorable Mojave ground squirrels (they look just like chipmunks except with a little bit longer tails) that like to sneak food from her cat dish.  I like the chipmunks.  I once saved a baby chipmunk from her-I still need to blog about it and post the adorable picture.  If it's a mouse or kangaroo rat, I just turn the other way.  I don't want to watch her take it out, but I don't want it living near my house either.
     Well, I decided to see what Rosey was playing with.  I was almost certain it was a mouse of some sort and I thought I'd help her get it out of the tarp so she could finish it off.  I just started flapping it up a bit from one edge but nothing was scrambling out.  So I finally gave it a big lift and whooshed it all the way off the ground only to find a snake underneath!  After screaming and jumping into the car and backing out of the garage, I realized I'd better find out a little more information before taking off to the dentist.  After all, my new little baby chicks are living out in the garage right now. (Well, they were!  At this moment they are stinking up my house but they will be back in the garage by tomorrow.)  I thought I'd better find out if the snake was alive or not before leaving it in the garage with my babies.
     The car was now backed out of the garage so I got out and looked around for something to stand on.  I put Rosey in the little dog cage so she couldn't interfere.  I finally decided to stand on the bucket with the chicks' food and I grabbed a long piece of wood and started to lift up the tarp.  The snake wasn't in the same spot anymore but as I lifted the tarp, all of a sudden a mouse ran out of it.  I was thinking, "How many animals does she have cornered in there?"  I then moved it farther and found a very alive, small to medium-sized snake.  At that moment I decided the tarp had to go once and for all and I flung it completely out of the garage.  It is obviously a safe haven for creatures that don't belong in my garage.  I realized at that point that I hadn't even thought about whether or not the snake was poisonous.  Luckily for me, it was not.  It was also not aggressive.  If anything, it wanted to get away.  I didn't particularly want to shoo it out of the garage, even with the stick, because I was afraid I would make it mad.  And the bucket I was standing on (while wearing shorts and sandals) wasn't tall enough to get away from it if it did decide to come for me.  It looked like a harmless gopher snake so I decided to just ignore it and hope that it would leave the garage on it's own while I went to the dentist.
     I moved the chicks into the small dog cage and brought them into the house.  I put Rosey out of the garage and left the garage door open just a crack (big enough for the snake but too small for Rosey).  When I got home, the snake was nowhere to be seen.  Unfortunately, the mouse was.  I put Rosey back in the garage.  I still haven't seen the snake or it's body so I assume it made it out safely.  I remembered afterwards that Rosey had caught and killed a snake just a couple of days earlier.  The girls had seen her carrying around the poor decapitated creature.  So I don't know why it didn't dawn on me earlier that a snake was a possible critter to find under the tarp.  It certainly brought a lot of excitement to my nerves for the day.
     And, of course, a lovely cell phone photo to go with my post. :)  The 7-Up bottle isn't there intentionally but I was glad it was by the snake so you can get an idea of it's size.

Kelsey Goes to the Dentist

Doesn't that sound like the title of a children's book?  :)

I recently bought a micro SD card for my phone so that I could transfer the pictures that I have taken onto the SD card, and then blog about them-you know, those cute surgery pictures I've been telling you about?  Well, it turns out that I haven't figured out how to transfer pictures, but I do know how to make sure any new ones I take are saved to the card.  So now when I don't think to take my camera with me, I can still take some cute pictures for the blog.  Thus, I have never before taken pictures at a child's first dentist appointment until now.

     Kelsey was so excited when I told her she was going to the dentist.  She's been with me to the other kids' appointments and she was so happy to have her turn.  She got dressed and wanted to leave right away.  She was disappointed when I told her we still had another hour or so.  We took a few pictures in the car of her very excited smile. :)

She wasn't quite as excited when the appointment started.  She became nervous but still cooperated.  Here she is about to get her x-rays done.

As soon as they moved the chair her excitement returned.  She loved going up and down!

She was amazing for the cleaning!  She really liked the 'straw' that vacuumed her spit.

Dr. Bang said that her x-rays were very good so she must have sat very still for them.

They gave her a mint green toothbrush and she got to pick a toy out of the treasure box.  They had lots of bracelets and rings and luckily, one last necklace, which is what she chose.  I wish I'd thought to take a picture with those things.  She was very happy with her prizes.  I'm SO glad she had a good experience with the dentist and she was so brave!

Mr. Mathwell

     Today I got to go see one of my very favorite teachers from high school, Mr. Maxwell (a.k.a. Mr. Mathwell, a.k.a. Dexter).  Well, actually, I guess we were the ones he called Dexter :)  He was a lot of fun and definitely made math a fun class.  He has always lived up in Walker Pass, about 30 minutes away.  My friend and I went and visited him once in high school, 18 years ago. (WOW! I'm old!)  Unfortunately, Mr. Maxwell has been having back pain for years now and has had several back surgeries.  So I went up to see him this morning and bring him a few things from town that he needed.  It was so great to visit with him and catch up on how everyone was doing.  I told him as much as I could about my siblings and their families but apparently there are a lot of answers I don't know.  Like, what Jeff is going to study at either BYU or U of U.  I'm pretty sure it's BYU.  I told him it was a lot of people to keep track of and he said he definitely agreed with that.  I also brought the calendars my mom made for 2011 and 2010 to show him lots of pictures of my brothers and sister and their spouses and kids.
     It was a great time walking down memory lane.  There were so many fun things that I hadn't even thought about for years!  He reminded me of the time that Debbi Page and I flirted with a substitute just to tease him.  I believe we left him an anonymous note that said, "You're cute" or something like that on it.  Of course, he told Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Maxwell figured us out.  I'll have to call Deb tomorrow and remind her of our silliness.  A fun morning/afternoon!

The Walking Game

     Nate is SO ready to walk!  As I was getting ready to write this post he 'brought' me the pancake mix.  He's obviously been in my kitchen cabinet.  It's in an old Goldfish bucket and he used it as a walker and slid it across the tile to the family room. :)
     Tonight Daren and I sat across from each other so that Nate could take a few steps back and forth between us for some walking practice.  Kelsey was watching but all the other girls were in bed.  Kelsey took a very late nap and so she wasn't ready to go to sleep when they did.  She started to look a little bummed and I was worried that she felt bad that Nathan was getting all the attention.  So I said, "Kelsey do you want a turn?"  She got a huge grin on her face and came over.  I was thinking that we would have Nate walk to her too but instead she jumped in front of me and started doing these little tippy toe steps over to Daren.  Then she laughed so hard when we clapped and cheered for her so she turned around and came back to me.  It was adorable.  Kelsey has such a cute giggle.  We did that for a few minutes then let Nate have a turn playing again.

The Proof

     Nathan has been standing by himself and taking a few steps here and there for a week or two now.  I finally pulled out Natalee's camera to catch him in the act.  I love the adoring look on Kelsey's face in the background.

He loves it when we all clap and cheer for him after he takes a few steps.

     In case you can't read his onesie, it says, "If you think I'm handsome you should see my daddy."  I loved it and had to get it.  First because he has such a handsome daddy, and second because he's such a handsome boy himself and Kelsey still calls him 'Nathan handsome boy' sometimes.