Blue Booger Sagas & Birthday Parties

I tried to get pictures for this post...it just didn't happen!

Last week Chloe came crying to me that her nose hurt...she is way behind on the whole talking thing & can't really communicate what is happening (thank goodness she's not my first & I'm really not worried yet...it will come EVENTUALLY!).

That night her nose started running like crazy. By the next day she had yellow & then green boogers and by the end of the day they were BLUE...like the color of Kid's Crest (and no...that's not what the problem was...just a visual).

She acted fine...just like she had a little bit of a cold that produced blue boogers. What to do...RUN to the doctor or let it run it's course?! I'm more of a run it's course kind of mom although I did put a plug out to my Facebook peeps. Many funny replies came back and then one friend really did ask his brother (a doctor) who said it was an M&M (okay we don't have any so I knew it wasn't that...but along those lines!).

So after letting the course run for 5 days I took action. Ellie had her yearly bloodwork last week and I got a call (never a good sign when you get a call back about the bloodwork is it?) & we needed to do it again. (Let me just pause for a minute and say how BLESSED I am that she is so awesome about doing those kinds of things! It didn't go so well this time either because they couldn't get a vein and after digging around in her arm with the needle for a minute they switched to the other arm.). I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and get the bloodwork done as well as get the drainage problem fixed at the Urgent Care (all the same place).

I should have known better...Monday morning...2 hour wait! I didn't have time to wait for two hours to even get back there so had to only kill one bird. While I was there I asked if they were able to extract things from noses...they said as long as they could get it, otherwise they send you to the ER (hmmm two separate co-pays).

Long story made longer...I took her to the ER today and they had fun looking up her nose & going to get other people to come check out this blue mass up her nose (I have a little scope thing at home and it really was pretty AWESOME to see!). Finally the doctor came in with a tube that they put up past the blockage and then it blew a little balloon at the end and he pulled. Out popped a little blue ball...not all the way though and the doctor was scrambling for something to grab it out with...I just looked at them like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" and said, "Just push on it from behind and grab it....like THIS" and I finished popping it out and grabbed it...a piece of chalk. GRRR That little booger! (pun intended)

I had forgotten that Austin put a pony bead up his nose when he was about 3 or 4 (thank goodness the hole was in the right spot and I could get it out by myself!). That is something I expected more from him...I mean have you SEEN the size of his nostrils?! I would be storing some awesome treasures up there myself! So I guess I began with a kid sticking things up his nose and ended with the same type of child!

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Ellie was invited to her friend Nicole Lewis' birthday party. Oh how the excitement almost rattled the very roof above us! We had to make a countdown chain so she would know exactly when the party was...every morning she would ask, "Did anyone take off a link?" (who wants to take off a link other than her I ask?!) She carried the invitation around with her and made sure that I let Nicole's mom know that she was INDEED coming!

The day of the party I was still dealing with blue boogers and Chloe fell asleep minutes before the party started so I ran her up the street and dropped her off. She had SOOOOO much fun & as each school-going child came home she had to re-empty her goodie bag and tell them all about the party. I hear a new "at Nicole's Birthday party" story about every hour or so. I guess I should really try and get play dates for her...I always did with the older ones. Oh don't pity the kid...she's out jumping on the trampoline with all of her siblings screaming and squealing at the top of her lungs! Not to mention she watched a chalk extraction today!

Brotherly Love

My brother Ross made a comment on one of my Facebook notes that had me in constant flashback mode!

There were many advantages to being the youngest...and to being a girl.

He was fun to torture...like sitting on the edge of the couch and yelling that "Ross hit me!" Knowing that he would get into big trouble & really he hadn't touched me...just bugged me.

Remember the 8 track tapes??? We went on many family trips & we often listened to MY choices of music...at that time I had three tapes: Engelbert Humperdink (I called him Engelbert Humpterdink), Lawrence Welk & The Sound of Music Soundtrack. We would listen to them over and over and over again. I told Ross that must have been my own form of Chinese Water Torture to him.

Chinese Water Torture...there's another flashback of being pinned to the ground with my brother holding a glass of water over my head slowly spilling it. Occasionally I was pinned to the ground with a loogie almost being spit into my face just to be sucked back up at the last second (a couple of times I think he was late in sucking it back in).

My friends were all in love with my brother...yet he was VERY shy & didn't really date much...mostly Girls Choice dances. Fast forward to after his mission when we would hang out a lot (all of his friends were still on their missions) and he would ask advice about dating & kissing girls. (I even set him and his wife up on a date!)

I loved that time after his mission when we would hang out. A few times he even went and picked up some take-out Chinese food from Formosa & drove it all the way out to Sky View for me and my friend...I think he even paid for it himself!

Ross influenced me a lot growing up...lessons on music...love of Far Side and Calvin & Hobbes.

People who see my son Austin think that he looks just like Scott...truth be told he doesn't look that much like Scott (Joslyn looks the most like Scott), instead he looks and acts a lot like Ross.

Austin is at the age now where my memories begin of Ross & I am feeling a little less guilty over my torturing of Ross as I see that sisters only have so many means available to defend themselves over these older brothers who just can't help themselves from teasing & pestering their little sisters!

Feeling O-L-D

Scott & I have been fairly lucky . . . we've always looked so much younger than we are (okay except in high school I didn't look like I was 12 or anything . . . I must have looked older then . . . otherwise there were some sicko guys asking me out & since I still know most of my boyfriends & they weren't sickos, I'm stickin' with my story!)

I used to get all kinds of looks when I lived in Boston . . . you know toting two kids around and pregnant with a third & they all thought I was 18! MANY times I heard, "OHHH God bless ya!" One time our friend took us along to the House of Blues for dinner & a concert. There were about 6 of us and after dinner (I never knew mashed potatoes could be yummy enough to NOT have gravy . . . oh believe me they can at the House of Blues!), we all went upstairs for the concert & I was at the back of the line. They let everyone in front of us in and then they made me go back downstairs and outside to get carded so that I could get back in . . . hmmm no one else had been stamped, but I was the only one sent back! I think I was 28 at the time & pregnant (not planning on drinking even if I did do that!). Scott has often been mistaken for a grad student instead of a professor. My latest was going to the temple with a friend & pregnant with my 5th child & one of the ladies thought I was there with the Young Women doing baptisms for the dead . . . let that sink in for a minute . . . pregnant . . . young woman . . . temple.

I haven't looked at our wedding pictures for ages & in fact the last time I really did I was shocked by how much we still looked the same!

Well friends . . . the time has come! I took a peek the other day with my friend Karen & we are lookin' MUCH MUCH older!

(see . . . I'm right . . . I don't look 12 there & I was 19)

I think I'm feeling MUCH MUCH older as well now that my oldest started high school this year . . . can that be possible?! Even crazier . . . in a couple of months my man and I will have been an item for 20 years! (and WOW do I still dig him?!) Next summer is my 20 year high school reunion (crAzy!).

(another thought . . . it isn't fair that men look better when they get older!)