Old man winter strikes

So I took Nash and Caleb to the pediatrician today for a follow up on Nash's ADHD meds. I took Caleb because during preschool it looked like his ear was bleeding. I started cleaning it out and for lack of a better description, it was like molasses that I got out (um..nasty). I figured it was either a fluke, or knowing my luck, an ear infection. Anyway, dropped the girls off to my mom at 4 and headed in.

I left the pediatrician's office with FIVE prescriptions! Oy! 1-Caleb's ear is infected. 2-Nash has a sinus infection. 3-Nash's ADHD meds were upped a dose. 4-Nash's meds for his wetting the bed was upped a dose. 5-Nash got a prescription to combat the insomnia his ADHD meds give him. I get back to my mom's to find out B has been asleep for about 30 minutes (about 3 hrs before bedtime). I get her home and she is not a happy girl - in fact, she's running a low grade fever! 

Ok, old man winter...I see how it's going to be. Game on.

Hunting Christmas Trees

This year we made the trek to Manti to hunt our own Christmas tree.  We haven't gone in a few years and to be honest I wasn't excited about going this year.  Not because I don't like going, but because I heard it was suppose to snow all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday.  I really wasn't looking forward to hauling kids up on the mountain in a snowstorm! 

We got to Manti late Friday night (like 11 pm kind of late).  We didn't leave until around six or so and once we hit Ephraim we stopped at Walmart because only 2 of the kids had gloves and 2 of them had boots so we had to make sure we had everything in case we hauled them up the mountain with us on Saturday.

We didn't head out until 11 am to go find trees.  Travis and I and Jamie and Robbie all wanted to leave to go up before 10.  No such luck!  We are always waiting on someone!  By the time we finally headed up the mountain it had started to snow and it was a whopping 14 degrees outside.

We didn't go too far up the mountain until we pulled off to park the vehicles and drive the four wheelers.  Yes, you read that right.  A snowstorm, 14 degrees and we are on four wheelers.  Only with the Bowns!

Lucky for me I had Travis to use as a windbreaker!  This was my view when Trav got off to stretch!

This is Travis waiting out in the road to flag down his parents to show them where we turned off the road.

Here they come

We found a tree first and Travis got to work cutting it down.

We found a second tree (for his absentee brother) as well.

Us with one of the trees we killed

This was my view on the way down the mountain

Tonight we got home from Manti and Travis put the lights on the tree before he has to head back to work in the morning.  The kids helped me decorate it.  It's funny because all the ornaments I've bought are snowmen.  We have to put all the ornaments the kids have made on it first and then we can add the ones I've bought.  I've decided I'm not so picky anymore - I like their little handmade ones!

BATC Fall Fashion Show 2013

My aunt teaches Fashion Merchandising at BATC.  For those that don't know, BATC students put together a fashion show each fall and spring.  They use clothes from local clothing stores and one set they design the clothes themselves.  They have kids anywhere from about 2 yr old up through high school participate in the fashion show.  My aunt called me on Monday last week and said, "I need a size 10 girl.  Is Sam a size 10?"  I told her just just so happened to be a 10 and would love to help out with the fashion show.  She actually ended up wearing a dress that was a size 12 but it was none too big!  She looked super cute and she did a great job.  I told Travis that the dance lessons have doubled as modeling lessons thanks to her quick ability to strike a pose and hold it!  When she was done on Friday night (the second night) she asked me if she could do it again in the spring!  I told her we'd tell Aunt Colette to let us know when they were looking for girls again!

Sam was excited that her cousins Sara and Sadie got to do the fashion show with her too.  Sara is a year older than Sam and Sadie is 17 days older.  The picture goes Sam, Sara, Sadie.  You'd never know Sadie was older than Sam!

This was the girls' "Rawr" pose!  Ready for the catwalk!

The finale walk through.  It was hard to catch the girls as they walked through so quick but I tried!

Medical bills keep coming

We survived Caleb's head injury (mostly ;) ).  This past week when Travis was home we had scheduled for Brooke to get another set of tubes (possibly a double set in each ear which would be sets five and six respectively).  Travis was all set to take her in and I was set to get kids to school, teach preschool, go to work and then get Sam to the BATC fashion show in which she was participating (you know, just another slow day here at the Bown house). 

Literally as my preschool kids started walking into the house I got a phone call from Travis.  Never good, right?  I was thinking that maybe they were done and he was making an extra stop somewhere before they came home.  Oh don't I wish that was the case.

Travis proceeded to tell me that while they were scoping her vocal chords (which I knew they were going to do to check for nodules on her vocal chords in an effort to explain her deep, raspy voice) they noticed her tonsils were bad...full of nasty pus, need to come out now kind of bad.....so, they took her tonsils out too.  I'm still thinking "Ok, no big deal, we've done this."  Then he tells me, "Well since she's 2 it's a lot bigger deal to take her tonsils out than if she was three or four.  So, I'll be spending all day and possibly over night here at the hospital with her so can you bring me some stuff?"  Say what now?  Was not prepared for that!

I managed to teach preschool and get Caleb to school.  Travis called his mom and asked if she would be willing to get the boys after school.  I went up to the school after teaching preschool to let my math kids know I wouldn't be pulling them that day.  I checked Sam out of school and headed home.  My mom stopped by to pick up the stuff for Travis and then headed out to the hospital.  I got Sam ready for the fashion show and headed to town.  I stopped at Walmart because she needed some black tights to go with her outfit for the fashion show.  Sam had to be at BATC by three and by the time we got out of Walmart we had to head to BATC.  Sam was bummed because she didn't get to go see her sister.  I got Sam dropped off and then headed over to the hospital myself.

My poor baby girl had an iv in her foot still when I got there.  They had been pumping her full of fluids all day long.  When I walked in all she wanted was her mama.  I sat in her bed right next to her with my arm around her and she didn't let me go for several hours.  They finally released her at about 5:30 or so that night.  Once we got her released we headed to my in laws to get the boys.  Meanwhile my aunt was kind enough to call me and let me know she would take Sam to dinner with her and her girls.  We got the boys picked up and stopped at Shopko to pick up some prescriptions.  Travis then took the boys and B and headed home while I headed over to BATC just in time to help Sam get dressed.

Sam did a great job in the fashion show and I think she loved every second of it.  She did the show again on Friday night and we took B with us so Travis could watch Sam strut her stuff as well.  Sunday was the most difficult day for B and yesterday was a little better.  She wasn't too thrilled about getting dropped off at daycare today, but she managed.  I'm just crossing my fingers that neither of the two sets of tubes in her ears are clogged at her follow up appointment in two weeks.  And in case you are counting, that makes sets 18 & 19 of the ear tubes at our house.  Why don't I have a reserved space at the hospital yet??

"Every boy needs a staple in his head!"

I don't remember who it was that told Caleb "Every boy needs a staple in his head!" but I was like "What?!  NO!"  And visualized myself smacking them upside the head!

On Monday this week I sent the boys down to bed around 9:30 pm.  I'm quite certain Caleb went down and started jumping on his bed so he could see up on his brother's bed (Caleb's bed is a full and Nash's is a twin so there's room to jump on Caleb's bed to see).  I was on my way downstairs when I heard screaming.  I ran the rest of the way to the boys room where I found Caleb laying on the floor.  He was laying on the floor next to his bed but right in front of the desk they have in their room.  This desk really probably is more hazardous than not and likely shouldn't be in their room.  It has sharp corners and screws in it.  Now combine that with my boys and it's amazing we haven't had a hazardous disaster before now.  I picked Caleb up and asked where he was hurt.  He put his hand on his head and pulled his hand away to reveal a palm full of blood.  Not good.  I carried him up to the bathroom and sent Nash next door to grab my girlfriend.  My girlfriend came over while I was applying a cold, wet washcloth to Caleb's head.  I asked her to look at his head and tell me if she thought we should go to the ER.  She told me that it looked just like her daughter's (Emma's)  only not quite as long and hers got three staples in it.  Well, that made up my mind for me.

Amy left us her cell phone so the kids could stay home and call if needed (it was 10:15 by now, mom was sick, Travis was at work and I didn't want to haul all four kids to the ER).  I loaded up Caleb and left.  I tried to stop at the urgent care on the south end of Logan, but they close at 10 pm (how convenient).  So, we continued on to the ER.  Lucky for me it wasn't too long of a wait out in the main waiting area.  Unfortunately for me, we didn't leave the ER until just after 1 am thanks to all the other people also visiting the ER.

The PA came in and said, "Oh!  That's an easy fix!  We'll just get that numbed up and put one staple in it and you'll be good to go!"  Then the dr. came in and told me the same thing, but he added "Hopefully we can get to you within the hour.  We're really busy."  I thought he was joking.  Turns out, he wasn't.  Eventually the nurse came in and put some numbing agent on a cotton ball and stuck it to his head.  Then she took the corban wrap and wrapped it around his head until he looked like Rambo.  The numbing agent had to sit for 20 minutes so we were back to waiting.  After about 20 minutes the nurse came in and re applied more numbing agent - goodie!  Another 20 minute wait.  Finally, the PA came back in.  By this time Caleb had finally fallen asleep.  

The PA took our the staple kit.  The stapler looked like one of the white out tape things.  It wasn't big and didn't look anything like a stapler.  He kind of squeeze the cut back together and then stapled Caleb's head.  (It might not look like a stapler, but it sounds like a stapler and when you know it's going into your kid's head it kind of makes you sick.)  This woke Caleb up immediately and he was not a happy boy.  Poor kid!  So much for a double dose of the numbing agent!

We were finally released to go home and walked back into the house at about 1:30 am.  We have to go back after 10 days to get the staple out.  Hope our visit on that day isn't nearly as long as the original visit.  And yes, we're rearranging the boys' room this weekend so we don't have another incident!

Before the staple:

With the staple (and no, they didn't shave his head at all):