A Few Photos

I do enjoy B&W photography, I really should do more.  Had fun with a couple photos.

Superbowl Sunday

Apparently American Girls are big fans of football.  Emma, you're awesome!

A Few Gray Hairs

Say hello to Skeeter, that is her nickname due to her massive reactions to mosquito bites.  It all started when we got that realtor sign, apparently a lot of things came with the sign.  Things were going well, the house was under contract, we had to run out to our storage unit, which was uncomfortably close to Utah Lake, or as we have come to think of it during the warm months of the year as Squito-ville

We knew she was allergic (its a real thing) so we were careful, but not careful enough.  The next day she had several bites (notice the bandaids on her arm, and the one on her neck).  Her eye was a little swollen, but didn't think much of it, expecting the swelling to go down. Clearly it did not (see the next picture).  I was helping with a youth activity during the morning, and came home to one-eyed-Sloan (that's her pirate name), and a crying Emma, she's definitely got the biggest heart.  But I must admit, I was a bit concerned too.  So we started to get ready to go to the pediatrician.

Surprise!  Amid the frantic events of the morning, we notice things were quiet, a little too quiet. Kid noise, check, air conditioner, check, birds chirping, check, refrigerator... nope.  We made the lovely discovery that our ice was melting, and our freezer defrosting.  Keep in mind our home is under contract, closing in a week, and a "working" fridge is part of the agreement.  

New plan, divide and conquer.

Rachel took Sloane to the doctor's office, bringing Emma along to reassure her that it's no big deal.

Cut To:

Doctor: "This is a real big deal, you watch it closely, and we have a huge shot of penicillin so she doesn't have to go to the hospital to be hooked up to the IV"

Emma had to go wait in the waiting room.

In the meantime, I stayed home to find someone that does same-day fridge repairs, and on Saturday.  Success!  The Fridge Repair guy was on his way.  

Cut To:

Fridge Repair Guy:  "In my whole career, I have never seen two different things wrong in one fridge, within the same repair visit."

Plus side, we could stop sweating it out over buying a whole new fridge.  Now we just had to keep an "eye" on Skeeter.  (snicker snicker)

A little sugar helped, but it kept swelling, pushing into her other eye, and getting more red.

Cut To:

Late night ER.  Sloane was a champ, she seemed un-phased, which was more than I can say for Rachel and I.  Needless to say, it took some time, they had to run some tests to make sure the infection was on the surface, and did not go into the deep tissues of her eye.  Sloane handled the CAT scan like a pro (unlike her parents), and we found out the infection was only on the surface, otherwise she would have been admitted for several days.  (Sigh of relief)  She was given Polly, her doll, a cuss-load of super antibiotics (which Target had to special order), and we were on our way.

It took three days just to get the eye back open, and then several more days to get back to normal.  Kind of a long time for a three year old to be a pirate.  Every day the kids came home from school and would ask if we could see her eye yet.  Emma used her own money to buy her a book and some stickers at her book fair.  I guess these kids do love each other.  

Aunt Alisha brought over balloons, and introduced her to Doc McStuffins, which was perfect, and Sloane loved it.  She is a big fan of Alisha and now Doc McStuffins.

  

But we are just glad to have our Sloane back.

Wild and Crazy

We have rapidly outgrown our house, so we figured it would be time to sell the joint.  So what did we do?

We got a fancy Realtor sign (a highly reflective one), which fortunately came with an awesome realtor, thanks Tom.  And we sold it.

We de-cluttered, crossed off a dozen "to-do" items, painted a few rooms, and had far more than desired late nights...

....packed up everything we own, friends came over, we did some work, (thanks for the help!), we partied too, took some breaks to energize (thanks Kickstart), forgot how much crap we had to move, good times had by all...

... hired Nintendo 3DS as a babysitter...

... and then we were outta there, onto our next adventure.

...whoops, I guess we forgot to buy a place to put all this stuff into.  To be continued...

Paradigm Shift

This stupid commercial has been somewhat of an inspiration for me moving into the new year.  Lame I know.  But it made me think about how much I like having a record of what we are doing, for ourselves.  Sometimes it seems joy is but a few small moments in a crowd of chaos and discouragement.  I don't want to forget that, nor do i want to forget where our family comes from, and how we got to wherever we are going.  

The Allison Diet

I think if I ever wanted to lose a lot of weight, I can just copy what Allison eats.  Tonight for dinner she ate one stalk of celery with peanut butter, was given two hostess donettes, but only ate one.  Way to save those calories Allie, rock on!

Christmas Cards

Twas the season for sentimental, meaningful, often bragging, but always uplifting Christmas Cards.  I am just glad our Realtor is tuned into our situation.  Thanks Tom Thompson, this one really made us laugh.