Posting Photos

You may have noticed that the photo quality has been a little sketchy lately. I found I wasn't getting around to taking as many pictures as I don't seem to get around to downloading them and processing them as quickly anymore now that we're on the fly all the time. The blog posts had dropped off as a result so I finally gave in and am using my phone to take pictures of stuff and using those in the posts. I still haul out the big guns for important events but I decided that more posts without perfect photos would be better than less posts with stellar photography (if I do say so myself haha!) I can take pics and start the blog post right from the phone while I'm waiting for pick ups etc so it's pretty darn convenient!

...................and that's my PSA on picture quality :) You may now return to your regularly scheduled events.

Just another day...

Our girls are working on their espionage look, or their Grace Kelly look? I'm not sure but they're loooooooking good right???

Our semi annual clothing & toy exchange is coming up and I'm stealthily skulking about, gathering, matching up and pairing sets of toys, outfits, book series and all sorts of kid clutter! Our house is packed and we have to clear out this stuff that doesn't get used anymore! This lead to an argument about the Anne of Green Gables wig that I found with dust bunnies meshed into the bangs. Seriously? Untouched since that Halloween costume a couple years ago! there's no good place to store it easily so, yeah, buh-bye Anne!

Our poor baby boy isn't doing so good this week either! He went back to the vet for a recheck on his ears on Tuesday and got the all clear. He'd been limping for a few days and we figured he'd had strained something so I asked the vet to check it while we were there. Nothing she could determine at the free recheck of course, had to come back for sedation, xRays. We were hesitant about whether to bother, usually when we go, the verdict is "inconclusive- give him some rest and xyz pain med and $200". Buuuut you just never know and with that one leg not bearing any weight, we were worried he'd damage the good back leg. So I dropped him off for another visit yesterday. Turns out he has a condition called Panosteitis where the bones get inflamed inside and are extremely painful. There's not anything they can do to treat it except for pain medication. The upside is that it doesn't usually hit the same bone twice, it's only in the long bones and they tend to grow out of it by age 3. So he's almost got one year in and only 7 possible bones left it could hit. The vet said that some dogs only ever have one bout of it and he won't necessarily have it happen in all other 7 bones. Here's hoping for limited exposure to this!!! The poor guy is always restless, moving around often, trying to find a comfortable place to lay down. This is probably the first good sleep he's had in awhile!

Fair!

We  hit the fair this year! We missed it last year because it rained on the one day we planned to go. They were pumped to get in there this year and I had Teena to hang out with so I had fun too! Lovey was too nervous to go on most of the rides. She has never liked the sensation in her stomach from all the twirling and whipping around. Everyone else LOVED that of course so most of the rides picked were ones she wasn't willing to try. A couple of times she got on with her friend from school and then bailed just before the ride started. The first time that happened, the friend stayed on but got paired with a random boy who wanted on and she was NOT impressed. The next time Lovey abandoned ship, she got out too!

Lovey picked  a few rides she remembered liking from her last visit but they were too tame for her this year and the other girls were bored to tears (see Sweetie in the swing picture LOL).

Eventually she braved one of the rides by herself while the others were trying a different one and it wasn't as bad as she thought so she started going on the others but it was almost time to go home by then. She never did get on this one below. By the time she was ready, we had finished for the day! Maybe next year!

Honey's Cross Country Running Debut

Since Honey has been practicing for the 1K race coming up, I suggested she try the cross country team at school too. I wasn't sure if she would, or if she'd even be interested in it. One day she came home and told me she'd signed up. I said "You did?" She responded "well you told me to!". This instantly made me nervous. This could go either way. If she went and hated it, this was now going to be all on me! Luckily that didn't happen and I can now claim all the glory!

Her school had a meet with several other local schools at a park downtown and it was a mob scene. Kids and parents everywhere! It was hard to tell who was where or what the instructions were or where the course was. It was a pretty small loop so we only saw her take off and then again at the finish. It was divided by gender and grade. She started at the back of the pack but managed to pass quite a bit and was near the middle at the end and came in 35th place which she was really happy with.

I love the smile on her face here, so happy and proud!

and in other news today, Sweetie was working on her "treasure box". She has to bring in a decorated box of things about herself, things that are important to her and present it to the class. She wanted a picture of herself for the top of the box so we took this last night in her room.

She has caught my dreadful cold that wiped me out for 2 days but she's looking good so far! I spent most of yesterday sleeping and am pretty much recovered now. I'm crossing my fingers that Murray doesn't get it. He's got a half marathon coming up this weekend and will NOT be impressed if he gets this!!!

The Earring Saga- Continued!

So we broke the sink but found that missing earring right? Well the story does not end there. Sweetie tried to put the earring on the next day and the post was bent. When she tried to straighten it, the little glitter ball snapped right off! All that effort to save the earring and then we end up with it broken too??? She was so disappointed (not to mention us!).

The next day I took her to the store and explained that it had broken before she'd even had a chance to wear them once and they let her pick out a new pair! Whew! They didn't have the same ones exactly but she found something similar and hopefully not as fragile!

I tried to get a picture of the newly changed earrings but she was pretty busy!

The plumber comes today to fix the sink. Being down to one functional bathroom has been a bit tricky the last few days, especially for those brushing their teeth all over the house and forgetting that they can't spit in that sink anymore! Gross!

Lots of dancing action lately on the Wii! Just Dance 4 is giving us a workout and improving our dance moves! Look out Jagger!

Ear We Go Again!!!

Ugh!!! Ears are our downfall this week! 

First, I took Checkers to the vet as he had really begun shaking his head almost constantly. We thought he might have gotten an ear infection but since they do t do anything or give antibiotics when  the kids get them, we thought it would clear up. The vet looked at me stunned when I asked her if that would have happened. "Are you talking about your kids' ears and your dog's ears...!?!?!?" Ummm uhhhh, no of course not cuz apparently that would be idiotic. (That last part might have been just in my head...)

So once a day we have to hold him, squirt cleaner into his ear canals, massage for a couple minutes to work it in well. Then I have to clean it all back out with cotton balls. Twice a day I need to jam the long nosed bottle of medicated drops down inside each ear and squeeze out 4-5 drops (which I can't actually see coming out and have to guesstimate that I'm applying the right amount of pressure to release), and more massaging. He fights us a bit less if we double team him and the bottles are warmed a bit first so they're not completely cold. 

So that's one situation. 

Next, we went shopping today for earrings. Honey had a $10 coupon for Claire's and Sweetie is able to change her earrings tomorrow but had none to put in. Honey couldn't find 3 pairs she liked so she and Sweetie shared her coupon and the buy 2 get 1 free deal. They decided to spend the extra and get sterling silver so they wouldn't have problems with the cheap metal. Yay! Lovey found some that she liked and everyone was happy. 

Happiness is a tricky thing. It can disappear soooooo fast! Sweetie decided to clean the new earrings so they'd be ready for tomorrow might. Unfortunately, she knocked over the bottle of peroxide which somehow bumped her brand new sparkly turquoise earring and send it....somewhere. We shook out the bath mats, we swept the floor, rumbled around in the drawer by the sink and we removed everything from the counter. Murray used his high power flashlight trying to catch a glimmer...nothing. The last option was the sink. It could have fallen down the drain. Sweetie was extremely upset and the tears were flowing. We examined the drain pipe and it has one of those U bend/trap things that looked like you could take apart! Maybe it was stuck on the little cap! Maybe it is. We'll never know because we couldn't get the thing open despite a few efforts with various wrenchy type things. 

So that was that. No earring retrieved but maybe more caution will be employed in future near open drains! (highly doubtful)

Well then Lovey decided to change her earrings to the new ones purchased today. She came to find me when she felt something hard and lumpy in the hole. "Mummy, I think the back of my earring got stuck inside the hole!"

That didn't sound good, or very likely so I took her to the vanity mirror to investigate. Oh dear heaven, there was something black and chunky in there!!! Holy crap! IS it the piece of metal that somehow got sucked into the hole and wedged there?!??? How would I get THAT out without a handy bout of unconsciousness?!?!? I decided to see if I could pull it out, but there wasn't much to grab onto. Luckily I remembered my tweezers and disinfected those. I almost had a hold of the piece protruding when she noticed I had tools involved and started screaming. We'd now been poking and pulling and disinfecting the spot for awhile and it was sore. I was worried about leaving it in but there was no convincing her to let me try much more. Instead I poured rubbing alcohol on the front and back, cleaned the studs off got them back in and put polysporin on and called it quits for now. We're hoping it is just some dried blood and will keep on disinfecting the site every day and watch it carefully. 

And if anyone (not naming any names... *cough*cough*Nanny) knows how to open that darn trap thing in the bathroom sink drain pipe, give us a call!! Sweetie is pretty sad that her $18.75 earrings are half gone!

Here are a few of the tools of the trade today!

*UPDATE*

Murray didn't give up! He was back at the plumbing tonight and managed to get the cap off the trap! There wasn't anything in there unfortunately. In a last ditch effort, he unbent a coat hanger and put it down the drain to see if it might have gotten stuck on the way down but no luck there either.

Except for some bad luck. The jiggling from the coat hanger caused the pipe to snap, although upon closer inspection, it looked like a section had already weakened and rusted away prior to tonight's activities.

But, all is not lost! Actually, all is found! He happened to look in the drawer beside the sink (previously inspected to no avail) and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring! We are not nearly as excited about the $200 plumbing bill. Nanny, cancel the trap order, can you come install a new pipe instead???

But all is not lost! Actually all is FOUND! He happened to look in the (previously briefly inspected to no avail) drawer beside the sink and spied something glittering in the beam of his headlamp! Sweetie will be so thrilled that he found her expensive earring. We are not nearly as enthused about the $200 impending plumbing bill. Nanny, please cancel the request for a trap opening and update us to "pipe replacement"???

On a brighter note, Honey had a lovely day, got some new earrings which she did not lose and found a great book to read in the latest pile from Grammie.

My highlight of the day was being able to dig some of that gunk out of Lovey's earring hole before bed tonight. The cleaning, disinfecting and polysporining seems to be working.

Must go look up that plumber's number...