Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

We found some fellow westerners who miss mexican food as much as we do. The Smith and Cundick's came over to experience some of Brent's homemade tortillas and other stuff that we think are way better than what is available at the so called mexican restaurants here in town.

Our baby is blessed

Finally Marcus got a baby blessing. He is well over 2 months now and didn't fit into the fancy outfit that his Grandma bought for the occasion. :(
After church we went to Delaware Park (one of my favorite places here) just to take a few pictures of his big day.

A couple other BIG things happened at church. Brent started his new calling teaching prospective elders during priesthood, and I was released as Relief Society President. I feel like I am entering a new chapter in my life. Being RSP has been such a huge part of my buffalo experience. I have learned so much.

Like
how to navigate around a city with a map, an undependable car, and countless new addresses. . .

And,
how to have a little more empathy as I have worked with women that have completely different challenges than anything I have ever faced. . .

Also,
How I have to rely on the Lord to feel in for my inadequecies

And finally I have learned to love so many women all over this city!

I am so grateful that our church emphasizes strengthening families and I have a bishop who understands my need to have a little more time for my 5 children. I will miss the blessings that have come into my life leading in the ward relief society and appreciate the close associations I have had while serving with so many different women that have taught me so much. I wonder what will be next?

Losing Camille

Last night Brent and I planned to go out to celebrate another year down. After the usual kid's date night fare of mac and cheese, Brent told me he was going to ride down to the corner store and get them each a $.25 ice cream bars. The corner store is 4 blocks away- 2 blocks north, then another 2 blocks east. I heard some of the kids asking to go on my way upstairs to get ready for our date.

In a couple minutes the house got quiet and Caroline came up to join me. Ten or 15 minutes went by and we heard them come home. As they came in I saw Kennon and Savannah but NO 6 year old Camille.

"Where's Camille?" I said.

"Huh? Camille didn't come with us," they both said while I insisted in an increasing panic that "Yes she did, because she definitely hadn't been here with me!"

I hollered out at Brent who was putting bikes away the same question, "Where's Camille!!!!"

He didn't know. She had been in the living room when he left.

Ten seconds after that we had already interrogated the neighborhood and heard from a 12 year old boy that he had seen her race off toward the river, in the opposite direction of the store, right after they had left. ( Apparently they had pedaled in that direction initially to turn around.)

So Brent raced off down the block on his bike, toward the busy road that runs along 190. He was relatively calm, compared to my hysteria, figuring he would find her somewhere between there and the store. He found her a couple blocks later racing back home headed straight for him. She was smiling and hollering, "I went all the way to the corner store all by myself! Where were you?"

In the course of the rigorous pedaling in the cold wind, a large drop of water had begun descending out of her father's eye. As soon as Camille got close enough to see her "Crying" Father, obviously overcome to tears, who was hollering out, "Camille, we were so worried about you!", she immediately stopped bragging about her incredible journey, and began bawling.

This is when I came on the scene, driving up in the van. I picked her up and brought her home while she cried and cried. She had been "Jumped on by a big dog, and Why did Dad leave her?, and Why weren't they at the store when she got there?".

Finally she stopped crying and talking so I could explain to her to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! And then I explained to my husband to PLEASE tell me next time which children he was taking so I knew which children I was keeping.

None of my other children would've have ever done this, though I should've known this was coming with this girl. I lost her twice during the airport when she disappeared out of the bathroom as soon as she was done even though the rest of us were still in there. I couldn't get through to her then but maybe Dad's "tears" will do the trick.

We still went on the date and tried out a new restaurant, "Taste of Thai" on Hertel avenue. We shared the "Pud Thai" dish. I didn't want to blow my diet the first couple days and figured that sharing was a good way to at least portion control, since I was sure they weren't whole wheat noodles, and the sauce was definitely sweet. It was yummy food but then I have never tasted any Thai food that I didn't love. The service and presentation were also excellent. I told the waiter we would definitely be back. He said, "Next time order more food." What he meant was SPEND more then $11 dollars. Everyone around us had multiple dishes, and all were sipping something considerably more expensive than lemon water. But we left him a $4 tip, and how can he complain about that on a slow Thursday evening.

A couple blocks down on Hertel we joined friends at Cafe Allegro to listen to Kristen and Jonas perform. Jonas is a dental student and Kristen is a classmates wife and also my friend. They really are talented, I love the music, and we would never be going out to listen to music at night with friends if it weren't for them. We haven't ever participated in the "hanging out on the town scene" before so it is nice to have a reason to go chill at a cafe and enjoy their wonderful talent. So thanks, guys and keep it up. But stay out of the bars. We like the cafe gigs best so we can bring our baby.

What's going on?

In Breaking news
As I write Brent is taking his FINAL final of 2nd Year!
Next week - on to third year with a short spring semester of clinics. Meanwhile he'll be studying for the boards coming up at the end of June. So happy to be done with ONE MORE YEAR!

He'll be so relieved if he passes all his classes, and I will be so relieved to not hear "I don't know if I am going to pass Removable" Ever Again. Good luck, Brent!

And after the boards. . . . . We have 6 weeks till he starts up again.

It is looking quite possible that the head of this family is finally turning into a FAMILY MAN. First . . .He eventually broke and bought the minivan.

And now he seems to have given up his dream of being a Harley owner while in dental school. He finally stopped looking at them online, deciding his Puch would do for a couple more years.

Now he's looking at . . .

SAIL BOATS! The kind BIG enough for a small family of 7 and OLD enough that they are in our price range. We all thought we might spend the summer cruising the Erie Canal.

MINOR PROBLEMS- Where does one store a sailboat? And how does one get it back to Washington in a couple years.

One other question? Can you get seasick sailing the Canal or Great Lakes? His wife once spent the entire day throwing up aboard a snorkel boat off the coast of Hawaii.

But he might just throw caution to the wind and get the sail boat. When else in life might he have the time and access to the Erie Canal?

In other news:
I've started my post baby diet. First I celebrated Cinco de Mayo in a big way with homemade tortillas and all the other stuff we have learned to make to go along with a fiesta because you simply can't find the good mexican stuff here in Western NY. But once that was over with I was ready to begin. I decided blogging about it was a wonderful idea. Then I am committed and know that everyone will notice what I put on my plate the next time we all get together. My goal is a loss of 12 lbs. so I can be back to pre-pregnancy weight. Sounds like a lot to me. Brent said, "That's great! But doesn't 130 sound a lot better than 140?" I made the stupid mistake of getting down to 130 once in married life and he has never forgot it. Get over it, Brent.

Here's the low down on the diet:

No sugar or honey
No refined starches like white rice, white flour , regular pasta
No potatoes

I will be eating lots of grains, brown rice, ww pasta etc. and fruits ,veggies, and nuts
I can eat all I want of dairy, oils, and meat but I don't concentrate much on that. I am not a big meat eater, and I won't be eating too many fats since I can't have the above ingredients that they are all in.

My goal is one pound a week so that means I'll be ready for a swimsuit by August. I know, I should've started a little earlier, but I was kind of hoping that the pounds would just drop off on their own like the first 17 did.

Exercise plan:

Take the kids to the park near my house. Run around for 30-45 min, giving Caroline an "Underdoggie" on the swing every time I go by and pushing Marcus in his car seat/stroller when ever I hear him peep. The last two days it has worked perfect. Today it's raining.

And the whole family is on the diet because I don't want to be cooking 2 meals every night.

On Tuesday night: We had homemade 100% whole wheat pizza with ham and lots of veggies, very light on the mozzarella. Everyone ate at least one piece without complaint. I thought it tasted fabulous.
Wednesday: Bean and Ham soup with modified corn bread (whole wheat, less oil, applesauce, and a little Splenda) Once again a success with the whole family.
Kennon asked me to make cookies for her class party today. I politely refused. There is no way I can make cookies and not eat cookies. My homemade cookie dough is just too tempting.

I went to Wegman's yesterday and got all the emergency items for when I feel a cookie baking urge coming on. I have them frequently. Diet soda, and a little sugar free this and that. Hopefully I won't need them to often because I know they are just empty things to eat but I need to be prepared so just in case.

I am really enjoying focusing on eating healthy. So far I haven't had any emergencies. But we are still only in the first 48 hours. I can't help beaming with pride so far though.

Yesterday In the Principal's office:
Camille had to visit the principal yesterday to register a complaint that the boys in her class keep trying to kiss her. She is really concerned about it because it keeps happening. She turns around to find them puckered up in her face. When she turned two of them down yesterday they decided to slap her instead. Poor girl. Parent teacher conferences are tonight and I am looking forward to hearing the whole story.

Next week Performing on Stage:
Savannah will be singing her famous, "Clawence" for the school talent show next week. It's a song about a girl who can't pronounce her R's and has a boyfriend name Clarence. She has been performing it since she was 4 and really couldn't pronounce her R's. It was much easier to rehearse with her then and so cute. Now it is all just a farce, but takes a lot more talent I guess.

Kennon had a hard time deciding which of her many talents she would exhibit but finally tried out with a piano piece, and easily made the cut.

The Hungry and Oppressed
Our hungry little girl recently thought she was going to starve to death at her Grandma Casper's. Grandma, noticing she was one of the chubbier ones of the bunch, decided that it might be due to a snacking habit, (where did she come up with that?) It might have had something to due with hearing, "I'm hungry Grandma" a zillion times a day. So we all ate 3 square (and quite small) meals a day. I was pretty famished myself. She came to get me one time after Grandma turned her down once again and said, "I wish I was a mom so I could cook food!"

And finally
What is there to report about Marcus? He will finally be blessed Sunday. Apparently the RS president has been too busy to attend Buffalo Ward the last two months. He no longer fits in the blessing outfit Grandma gave him so we will be making do with something else less traditional, but guaranteed he will be plenty cute either way. He just can't help it.

A tidbit from the trip

"I hate the new pool!"
I kept saying it over and over again the whole time we were staying at my mom's new house. I'd just get the kids bathed, hair fixed, etc. and they were pretty for the next event. Then I'd sit down and relax and feed the baby when suddenly there goes my soaked children running by in their swimsuit after an uncle or aunt had said, "Hey kids, who wants to go swimming!" (These adults either have no kids or only short haired boys and have no idea about blow drying and tangles.) So the whole week they were a ratty mess because I gave up on hair brushing. Not to mention the 6 pairs of underwear each everyday because I can't stand to put a used pair back on a kid. Then they always needed another hot bath after coming in. And you can't just run the water for 3 minutes in a tub that size. Ten minutes and it is still only up to their ankles.

But it wasn't until the Swimmer's Ear, started that I had a really good reason to hate the pool.
After 3 full days swimming in the 80 degree water Kennon came down with this the day before the wedding. She was feverish and did nothing but lay there Saturday through Tuesday. Her ear was so swollen inside the antibiotic drops couldn't even drip their way in to do any good. Finally the oral antibiotics kicked in and she was well enough to get out of bed and fly home on Wednesday.

What I learned? No matter whose wedding it is, and how inconvenient or costly it is to take your kid to the doctor out of state- just do it. I thought I was handling it because I talked to no less than 3 Doc's at the wedding and they all told me it would clear up on its own. One doc said I needed to rinse it out using a bulb syringe, another said to clean out the wax. . All of these remedies exacerbated the problem and maybe even created it in the first place. I really missed having my husband there to make the call on what to do.

This final episode of our vacation really wore me out. All I did for three nights it seemed was feed the baby, burp the baby, change the baby, get Kennon medicine, a drink, and drops for her ear, AND then . . . start the whole thing over again.

And this is all the time I have to write now, unfortunately. I am forced to do things in short spurts the last couple months. Life with a baby is so good, but sooooo different.

VACATION

Last Wednesday I loaded the 6 of us on a plane to WA state. Brent bought us all tickets to go home so he could pass his 2nd year finals. I made sure to have a serious nervous break down the night before we left so he would be plenty glad to have us gone the next 2 weeks. I think so far it is working and he is enjoying his peace and quiet. Right Brent?

(I asked him to blog for me since I was unable to for the last few days. I just got to my mother's house tonight. The first 4 days I was at his elderly mother's with the full time job of keeping HER from having a nervous breakdown. No time to stop to use her dial up to blog when you are constantly herding kids downstairs or outdoors. Well, apparently Brent has been too busy too and we have had a boooring blog lately. Sorry!) .

Everyone keeps sympathizing with me over the long plane ride with 5 children. I tell them that it was a breeze! The last time I flew my kids across the country we had no tickets and were hoping to catch all our planes standby. I spent most of the day running back and forth across the SLC airport hauling the maximum amount of luggage for each of us before I finally found 5 seats on a plane. I didn't even care that it didn't fly us to Buffalo. Cleveland was a heck of lot closer than Utah! Brent picked me up there when I refused to attempt to catch any more flights.

Tonight was interesting. Earlier this afernoon we checked into the Cameo Heights Mansion, http://cameoheightsmansion.com - a luxury bed and breakfast, for a 7 day stay. Amenities include a huge jet tub, fireplace, large flat screen TV with cable . . . all in our private suite. And a pool, hot tub, theatre and workout room on the premises.

Not to mention my kids favorite part -the hospitality bar in the basement stocked with ice cold sodas . . . and Grandpa says they can have one whenever they want! Yes, We are all enjoying the new and improved Grandma and Grandpa Fieldings. There are some serious perks to your parents opening a bed and breakfast. Too bad we have to work all week preparing for my sister Alainna's wedding and just can't simply relax enjoying the free room and board that would cost YOU $250 a night. For dinner we ate a yummy roast beef dinner with 4 other paying guests in the dining room. They were very cool about the family reunion we had going on at the same time. And we were very cool about the bottle of wine they enjoyed with their meal. That was a first for our dinner table.

This was the first time my kids had been here since it was finished. They were running around taking it all in when I noticed Caroline kept running by every few seconds becoming a bit frantic. She kept saying, "I can't get back, I can't get back"! It is taking her awhile to get her bearings in a home that is over 10x the home she is used to. I keep having to lead her back to our bedroom so she "can get back". We got the pretty pink room up in the very top of the house since we have all the girls and I guess also because I need lots of exercise. I hope we can all come back to earth after our spoiling this week. Thanks Mom and Dad!

This little girl

Ten minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner, this little girl says, "I'm hungry". Two minutes after we drop by your house for a visit this little girl says, "I'm hungry!"

I hate it when kids come to my house and start begging so I keep trying to shush this habit. The problem is all of you who immediately bring out the treats whenever she starts up on her dying of hunger speeches. And so this smart little girl keeps it up. Everywhere we go she comes out with suckers, pretzels, chewing gum, and lifesavers.

Yesterday I was checking out of TJMax and she saw the pricey large bags of Jelly Belly's and other gourmet candies at the checkout counter. She asked and I said no. "Too much sugar and we just had lunch." "But I'm Hungry, Mom!" The lady behind us overheard and after we bought our stuff, she tore the tag off the jelly belly's so she could buy them after we left, then handed the treat to a now smiling Caroline to tote out of the store with her.

Could everyone please stop nourishing my child? She really is fed three square meals a day and lots of other stuff in between. I can't imagine that she really is hungry. So please quit contributing to her expectations. She'll only want more and more and more.

Brent is worried that we need to set some limits for our almost 4 year old to gaurd her teeth and figure. This morning she came down at 8 a.m after her egg breakfast at 7:45 and said, "I'm hungry".
Brent told her we just ate and that "You can have some carrot sticks in a couple hours." As soon she dissapeared upstairs he went in the kitchen and brought out a bag of Fire Cheeto's for himself and proceeded to down the entire bag.
Are there any other hypocrites out there? I am always after my kids to not have any cookies before dinner when often I help myself to 2 0r 3 before and 4 or 5 after. I just keep reading about the rising childhood obesity in America, Brent keeps finding cavities in the clinic and so we keep cracking down to keep them healthy . . yet sneaking our own treats whenever we get a chance.

All in the family

One of the ways a dental student family can save money is by Using What You Got. Last week I visited my dentist (Brent) for a cleaning and my hairdresser(also Brent) for a highlighting. Isn't he diverse? During the Sat. morning conference session we opened the box to get started. It's kind of a tradition now. I get my hair highlighted every six months (Don't most other blonds go every six WEEKS?) during Saturday General Conference. After dumping the contents of the box out though we noticed it didn't contain the cap it usually does. For the first time I actually read the box and discovered that it read, "All over bleach blond look".

Whoops! I usually get a highlighting kit. Well, that was that. I myself was ready to call the whole thing off.

But, Brent . . . asked me if I had any aluminum foil. Then armed with my pastry brush, kitchen shears, and a narrow screwdriver he spent the next 2 hours foiling my hair. I thought it was a very bad idea since it was completely experimental.

Now I have to say- "Wow!"
I couldn't be much happier with the results. And it only cost $5 dollars for a box of bleach, plus a small roll of aluminum foil. Savannah even got to use the leftovers, so we wouldn't waste a penny. Hers was done in about 5 min.by just dumping what's left on her head. She had a little different results- horizontal streaks rather than vertical. But she's happy. She's been complaining that her hair has gone brown ever since we moved to a city that hardly sees the sun.

One very nice dental student family, Rachel and Ryan Nielson, delivered us a homemade meal sometime in the last month. We talked them into staying and enjoying the delicious chicken pot pie, poppy seed salad and strawberry shortcake with us. Here we are enjoying their dessert along with some of Brent's homemade ice cream.

Then we roped them into staying and participating in a rousing game of Jeapordy for family home evening. It was so noisy! Everyone yelling at once. We were pretty sure they went home glad that they are going to dental school without the 5 kids.

Marcus's One Month Birthday

Caroline thinks that Marcus is the "Beautiful Sun" that her father expressed his gratitude for in family prayer one bright sunny morning this week. She came over and kissed him right after greeting her brother "Hey Beautiful Son!"
Caroline insists on being called the babysitter. Her duties include throwing away every single dirty diaper (a full time job with this kid) and fetching everything else a mother might need while sitting on the couch ALL DAY LONG! A drink, burp clothes, telephone, remote, book, etc.

It is wonderful to have 4 full time babysitters.

He's our first baby that likes a pacifier! Which translates to way less crying! Even
Camille can keep him happy for over an hour sitting by him and popping it back in his mouth over and over and over. . .


And they all beg me to take him to bed with them every night so they can lay by him for an hour and hold his paci in his mouth.

Savannah is especially good at this and sometimes it really is great to be able to go brush teeth, change, etc and then go get the baby after she has been snuggling him in her bed.

I think we really did it right, having our kids the way we did. Thank Heaven 4 little girls. And also for a beautiful "sun" !

This has probably been one of my happiest months as a mom ever.

Almost a week

Almost. . . But I just heard from an uncle living in Brazil that he actually logs onto my blog regularly and I thought I better catch up and not disappoint loyal viewers -especially important international ones.

I forgot to mention this before . . . (and forgot about it for a second myself just now when I sat down rather to quickly to play with the kiddos on the wood floor and had a very nasty greeting to remind me.) I didn't even bother to comment on it before because after giving birth in the fashion I did recently I now consider myself an extremely tough woman - one that wouldn't bother mentioning that she did a little thing like crack a tailbone. ( Who really knows if a tailbone is really cracked anyway- has anyone ever had that kind of injury x-rayed? I think it is mostly just self diagnosis.)

2 weeks to the day of giving birth last month I took a big fall in our basement - and smack right on the tail! (Kennon thought she would rearrange the basement the day before and turned what was once my walkway into a surprise -an obstacle course!) With a basket of laundry in my hands there was no way of breaking a very hard fall once my legs went out from under me. I laid on the cold ground screaming until my husband came down to rescue me. By the intensity of my screams he figured I must have pulled the washing machine over on myself. He was confused to find me merely covered with soiled laundry and wondered what the emergency was.

Let me just say that the tailbone is one of the last things you want injure right after delivering an almost 9 lb.er. It has extended my usual swift recovery.

Another headlice update:
Kennon had a long dark haired school friend over for Sunday lunch. She volunteered to make brownies for dessert with blond haired Camille. We all enjoyed them with ice cream for dessert.
Then, the friend went home and Camille and I had brownie seconds to reward ourselves after doing the dishes. Camille suddenly screamed out and started pulling out a long dark hair from her mouth. Seeing me in mid bite she cried out, "Mom be careful! HEAD LICE!

I think I am okay though since I heard in Indonesia mothers pull them from their children's hair, and then bite them in half to kill the little buggers.

Last night we celebrated April 1st in traditional buffalo style -Pizza and Wings! First time we have ordered buffalo wings as a family actually since we moved here. I was feeling like a big greaseball after enjoying the tasty meal. About 10 p.m. just as Marcus should be winding down for the night he started getting really crazy. Up until he was fed a diet of straight grease he has been an excellent night sleeper. Last night he was up grunting, burping, spitting, and tooting till 4 a.m. The poor little guy was seriously uncomfortable. It had to be my dinner, don't you think? I have never noticed my diet affecting my nursing baby before, but after missing almost an entire night of sleep I am a believer. Good incentive to trim the fat and lose some pounds.

My day

This morning
. . . I was Playing around with colors , titles, and templates. (which is a lot of fun btw) It all started with Marcus ruining the past blog name, "5 buffalo gals and their future dentist" (which I liked a lot btw). Still haven't hit on The One yet. (Savannah just noticed the change and told me it's embarrassing and she hates it. And then she noticed this comment and . . . that's even more embarrassing)

This afternoon
. . . Marcus weighed 10 lbs. 1 oz at his 3 week checkup (which is more than the average weight gain). He also has a cold. The Doc said to stop bringing him out into large crowds. So we are back to hibernating for the next 2-3 weeks.

Tonight
. . . just wondering where another day went. I keep tring to find time to finish the new drywall Brent hung up but first I need to manage simple chores like getting the laundry out of the baskets.

Millions!

We didn't get any easter pictures this year, but honestly I don't think it's a big deal. I wasn't as organized as other easter's. No new dresses for the girls, and no bunny ears for our baby bunny either so there wasn't much to photograph anyway.

Not to mention that Easter here usually means snow and thus indoor egg hunts. So no chance catching the kids tiptoeing through the tulips discovering eggs.

During dinner Saturday night the girls started pestering us to have our egg hunt before bed that night.

Savannah's argument was brilliant,
"If we do it tonight then tomorrow we can just celebrate the true meaning of easter."

How could we argue with that?

We decided to go ahead with it and maybe they could have most of the candy gone by dinner the next day and would eat their vegetables. So at 7:30 when we should have been giving children baths, brushing teeth, and putting them to bed we were down hiding eggs throughout the downstairs while the kids waited anxiously upstairs. I think this is the first year we haven't at least alluded to an easter bunny.

Last year I was in big trouble because I only chose two different candies and one of them was strawberry whoppers. Yuck! - they really ruined easter. This time I had lots of expensive tasty stuff. By 8:30 the girls had found all of their eggs after lots of hunting and hinting. And somehow we were able to tear them away from their candy and calm them down enough to get them to bed by 9 p.m.

Easter Sunday was the first Sunday back to church with the whole family. Brent and I came early and sang with the ward choir. It was a good meeting. We all really love our ward. Later on that day we went to have Easter dinner with a family in our stake that I won't mention so we don't spoil their future fun. Dinner was wonderful and we had a great family discussion afterwards and shared our feelings about Easter.

So far we had been extremely successful about devoting the day to celebrating the "true meaning of Easter" as had been our daughter's greatest wish the night before. But at this point things got a little more exciting as we joined them in their family's traditional game for the holiday.

We were all handed a brown bag and then the hostess started passing around a large basket filled with plastic eggs. Everyone opens their egg, shows everyone what they get, then you dump the egg out in your bag.

I went first and got . . Chocolate. Brent several turns later shook his and we all heard some coins. . . $.75 cents. Then Savannah found a dollar. Next turn around . . $20 dollar bill! Then Camille found her own $20. When Brent pulled out a golden egg and hit the jackpot. . . $50 dollar bill we were all laughing hysterically in disbelief! The easter bunny doesn't leave anything but candy at our house and sometimes an easter dress if I thought to catch the after easter sale the year before. I continued to get pure chocolate as did all the other people playing the game which included an older single guy, and two other graduate student couples. Caroline was running all over the room boucing off the walls with joy showing everyone the $1 dollar bill and the handful of pennies she had found, hollering,"Did I win? Did I win?"

My family took home over $100 dollars. It was an Easter like no other. There is nothing like someone handing you free money to bring a huge smile to your face. Along with the leftover pot roast, hordes of chocolat, and the cash, they also gave us a video, "Millions", to watch with the family. We watched the movie the next morning since Brent and the kids were still off from school.

It was actually a story about two young boys who find a bag filled with tons of money and how it almost ruins their family's lives. It ends with the younger boy taking it out in the middle of the night and burning it. Strangely later that afternoon I was starting to feel somewhat like we were living in the movie.

First of all:

Camille was driving me insane since the moment we got up wanting me to drive her to the mall to spend it, looking online bawling about how she didn't know what to buy, and just falling apart demanding that I give her ideas.

Savannah on the other hand was feeling No Where Near as generous as the day before. She had found $32 and Kennon only $1 in her eggs. Right after the game Savannah had handed Kennon her $10 dollar bill. But by Monday afternoon they were fighting again and Savannah was demanding the $10 back.

Caroline had lost her money and was accusing me of stealing it.

Kennon was keeping a tight hold on HER cool ten bucks.

By evening I had threatened to go burn the cash just like the movie so I could get my happy family back. It doesn't take millions to bring out the greed in this family.

Warning: If you live in the same city as I do this post is going to make you start scratching your head

Probably the worst things we faced when we moved to this city was living near people who are frequently infected with head lice. I don't know if it is all big cities or just this one, but we had only been in the ward a couple weeks when it was discovered that one of the dental student wives who teaches primary had caught it from a sunbeam. The whole primary was checked and a couple more kids were sent home. Several times that first year we spent primary hour going through the kids and teacher's hair. Some families when they were sent home didn't come back for several months. They complained that all the kids in their neighborhood had it so even if they picked it all out of their kids hair they were just going to get it again. To them it was hopeless, and they had just determined that they could live with it, "So we couldn't we all just get over it and let them come back?"

NOOO!

Both Savannah and Kennon have a couple kids in their class who are constantly being sent home with lice. The nurses have flagged kids and check them routinely. They all are from the same neighborhood -a government project. Kennon said kids will just dissappear after they are selected to visit the school nurse and then you won't see them for several days. No one announces anything but everyone knows . . .because they also send a note home warning parents that there is a head lice case in their class. Savannah said one time they had a substitute who didn't know the rules though. After getting a report from the nurse she announced, "Mary has head lice! Who in here plays with Mary?"

A year ago in February we attended a 2nd grade play at the school. One of the"flagged" students, a cute little girl with long blond hair had been assigned to stand next to Savannah for the play. To my horror, in several scenes they posed back to back intertwining the blond hair. Now that is a an excellent way to share the lice!

As soon as we got home we started in checking Savannah's head. Now that we mentioned it she said that her head had been really itchy lately. It didn't take long to have our fears confirmed. At 9:30 Brent ran out to buy lice shampoo, sprays, etc. I and continued to find lots of nits(eggs) and one very LARGE bug. I really shouldn't have started screaming when I saw it- but it was so much bigger than I thought it would be! Getting hysterical was a bad move. Now Savannah was terrorized and screaming too.

Well . . . we found HUNDREDS of nits and lots of red bites on her head. For three days I did nothing but let them watch movies while I picked new nits out of Savannah's hair and drowned them. Head lice shampoo isn't enough. It doesn't kill every single one and they will have laid dozens more eggs in just a few hours. I continued to inspect all her sisters too. Caroline was the only one with anything and it was so easy to spot since she was 2 and still hardly had any hair. I found two nits and a tiny bug.

The really sad part was 2 weeks before this discovery Brent's sister Lisa had visited us with her daughter Katie from Washington. Savannah and Katie had slept together in the same bed one night. Along with the school, I called Lisa first thing in the morning to share the bad news. To make a long story short, Katie did have head lice, they couldn't get rid of it for several weeks after that, and that is our last Casper visitor since. We on the other hand beat the lice in a three days and I continue to check them everytime they sit next to me. It was so gross but not hard to get rid of at all if you make it #1 priority for 3 days. Definitely not as big of deal as some ward members had made it seem.

Well. . .Last weekend we had a sleepover. Kennon was finally allowed to have over her best friend. What was I thinking?

At the beginning of February Kennon had wanted to have her over for her birthday party but just days before she was sent home from school because of head lice. Now almost 2 months later Kennon assured me that they hadn't taken her to the nurses forever so she was totally clear of lice. When she first showed up both Brent and I were dying to have a lice check but knew that would seem pretty rude. So we didn't and she spent the night. (in Savannah's bed). The whole time she was here I was a little uneasy and made sure to wash all the bedding the next morning.

Tuesday night we were talking to the older girls in their room and suddenly Kennon said that she wanted to tell us something but she was too afraid because her mother was going to be so mad. Finally she fessed up that her friend had been sent home Monday with head lice!!

So we are spending Brent's spring break doing frequent head lice checks (SO FAR NOTHING)and are pretty determined to not allow any more sleepovers until we get back to the SAFE ZONE- WASHINGTON.

Worth Every Penny Of It!

The cost of this little gem was well worth getting Kashann, all the girls, the NY state police, and just about everyone I know off my back. I guess the constant pressure worked. I have to admit though that not having Kennon or Savannah in my right armpit while I drive is pretty nice. I'm sure they'll agree.