Good Things Come to Those Who Procrasti-Wait

I mentioned our camera woes, previously. The other day I picked the camera up, and voila, it opened! Sometimes procrastinating and doing nothing will produce results!

Here is a photo of Willa from yesterday. She is very into holding the keys and pretending to lock/unlock the door, opening and closing the door, and saying bye-bye to pretend that she's leaving. She also loves me to open and close most doors and say bye-bye. Or, last night in the bathtub she laid down in the water and she wanted me to say "night night" and close the door. She thought it was really hilarious.

You can also see that she has begun dressing herself. She loves her pink swim shoes and prefers them to every other shoe available. Yesterday I tried to put two different pairs on her and almost had success, but as we were leaving the apartment she spotted the pink shoes and immediately tried to pull off her beautiful little gold ballet flats. They say you should let children win these types of tussles to give them a feeling of self-control. I don't want her to have a feeling of self-control. I want her to know that I am all powerful.

The Adventures of Balloon Hand

On Monday morning I got bit on the thumb by a gigantic black hornet. It hurt like the dickens! Honestly, it felt how I imagine a small animal bite would feel. Overnight, my thumb swelled and swelled like big fat sausage. In the morning, it was hot, red, and puffy.  By afternoon half of the hand was hot, red, and puffy too. Dr. Alyson told me to go to the doctor because it might be cellulitis. I skipped the beginning of YW (yippee!) and headed to Instacare. The doctor came in, saw the burning hand and the red streaks that were making their way up my arm. He agreed there was an infection, so he ordered one shot of antibiotics in my butt and then a prescription of oral antibiotics for me to take. His first words when he saw my hand were, "Oh wow, that's worse than I thought." I think that phrase is probably filed somewhere in Med School under "Things Not to Say to Your Patients".

The next morning, the swelling and burning was WORSE and I now officially had a balloon hand. Some of the area was so swollen that the skin was blistering and breaking to let out fluid, gross. It looked so disgusting. It really looked like someone had taken a surgical glove and blown it up with air. I started slightly panicking. Why hadn't the antibiotics at least stopped the spread? Was it a mutant flesh-eating bacteria that was immune to most antibiotics? Approximately how many hours do I have until it reaches my brain and/or my arm falls off? By afternoon, Dr. Alyson thought I should go to the ER (If she charged for all the telephone advice she gives, she could probably retire by now). So, I went to the ER, had a typical annoying wait and tried to shelter myself away from other sicklier people.

The result? The doctor looked my arm, felt my hand, and told me that instead of a flesh-eating bacteria, he thought it was probably just an allergic reaction to the sting. So, it was a bum trip to the ER and I'm annoyed at myself for going. Though, Ryan points out that if they had actually found something and I had been admitted to the hospital, it would have been a much more annoying (and scary) result. In my further defense, it was getting worse and it was REALLY painful. On the happy and ironic side, that evening I looked down and realized that the swelling was going down and that I could almost close my thumb again! Today it's even better, just a hint of puffiness left.

Here's a picture I took of my hands to send to Alyson, it's actually before a lot of the swelling, but it's still bad. It's an ugly picture of me frowning and an even uglier one of the hands, so squeamish stomachs beware.

Ahem

Well, it's time to update Ye Olde Blogg again. I still have pictures to post from Utah, but after that my pictures may come to a sudden halt. I can't get the lens-thingy to open on our camera. I googled it and there is an easy, potential cure, but if that doesn't work then the camera is toast. At this point, I'm too lazy nervous to try it. Until I do try it, there is a hope that the camera may still be of use. Once I try it and it doesn't work, then I have to bear the bad news.

A correction to the last post. I wrote that Ryan's siblings introduced me to Chick-Fil-A last year. My sister Carrie respectively pointed out that my oldest brother actually worked for Chick-Fil-A when I was little and was the Chick-Fil-A Chicken for the state of Utah. First of all, I'm not surprised that Chris, in his Jack Donaughy ability to be promoted from errand boy to president within two hours of working at a company, managed to snag such a prime job as Chicken after working for the fast-food restaurant.

Second, I do remember him working there and visiting him at work, but I do not remember ever eating there. Those of you who know my mom, won't be surprised that we would drive downtown to see my brother at work, but still not purchase delicious fast food once there.

Thirdly, even if I did eat Chick-Fil-A in the third grade (approximate time period when said brother was working there), I somehow don't think it was the same as the Chick-Fil-A now. Didn't they revamp everything with the "Eat More Chikin" campaign? I mean, it used to be just in food courts and now they have their own restaurants with free ice cream for kids, storytime, and balloon artists! The very fact that my brother was Chicken instead of a Cow dates the story. I don't really know where to end this post, except that Ryan thought I needed to do a revision for accuracy, and so here you have it.

Chick-Fil-A, a protest day!

This morning we headed out to the park around 8:45 a.m. to get a few wiggles out before the heat really set in. Lisa and Jayden joined us and then we decided that we should hit the 11:00 a.m. library singing time.

After an hour at the park, it was too early for the library and the kids were a little hungry. There wasn't enough time to go home, park the car, lug toddler across apartment complex and up three flights of stairs (or worse, toddler insist on walking entire way and stopping to throw leaves), eat, and get back to the library. So, we decided to make an entire morning of it and stop in for a 10:15 a.m. lunch at delicious Chick-Fil-A. I would also like to thank Ryan's siblings for introducing me to Chick-fil-A last year. I had never been there before, but now I know what I was missing out on.

I knew something was wrong when the drive-thru line was backed up all the way through the parking lot. When we got inside there was also a huge line, but by then it would have taken more time to re-carseat two toddlers and find a new place. So, we found ourselves at the heart of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. I'm all for appreciating those delicious chicken nuggets, but I'm also practical - I will appreciate on a non-official, non-politicized day. Still, the line moved quicker than we thought it would and we got our food with minimal hassle.

Jayden tries to share some of his fruit cup with Willa, as usual she's savvy to his games and likes to play coy.

Three cheers for delicious chicken nuggets, a fruit cup, and chocolate milk! By the time we got out of there, we just barely made singing time. By then, we were all exhausted that we stayed for the minimum amount and then headed home. I had to take Willa's shoes off and tickle her feet the whole way home so that she wouldn't fall asleep. I win, though! Three hours later and napping strong!

Home again Home again, jiggety jig

We flew back to Texas two days ago. It is nice to be home, with Ryan, in our apartment, and back to our routine. I was thinking how grateful I am that we can afford a nice apartment and to take care of our needs as a family. We're not where we want to be, but I need to be more grateful for where we are. I can stay home with Willa, we generally have life pretty nice.

Today at the park, Willa stepped in an ant pile. I had left her for a moment to go help another little girl who was crying. The girl had climbed to the top of a toy and couldn't get down. Her mother was across the park playing on her phone and smoking a cigarette, classy. I ran to help the little girl and when I came back to Willa there were ants all over both legs! I quickly grabbed her and started swatting them off. Fire ants usually swarm the victim and then start biting, so thankfully I got to her during the swarming part instead of the biting. She still has 8-10 bites on one leg and 1-2 on the other. She cried, but I think it was mainly from the shock of me grabbing her and swatting at her legs so abruptly. Chalk one more big minus for Texas.

Hogle Zoo with Ashley and baby Mason. This lion water fountain brings back so many memories!

Final concert at Suzuki Institute, aren't my students adorable?

Willa with her very favorite best buddy, Celeste.

A little bit of Utah so far

We went to my aunt and uncle's house to watch some nice tame fountain fireworks. Willa got to play with her second cousin Thomas (he was much nicer to her than she was to him).

We tried to get a picture of the three cousins together, these are our best shots.

All my siblings came over for a July 5th party. My mom set up this slip n slide down the hill in the backyard. Willa was so ready to try swimming and the slip n slide that she would let any cousin hold her if they would take her down. Look at that GLEE on her face! Also, look at that adorable patriotic swimsuit, I love TJMaxx!

The Utah Suzuki Harp Institute officially started today. I love love LOVE institute and have so many fun memories of going every single summer growing up. All three of my students from Houston flew into town and I am so excited for them to experience it too! This is just one of many rooms of harps. I think the latest harp count was 125.

Dessert for Breakfast

 My sister Carrie once told me that eating sugar cereal with whole milk was extremely delicious; she was telling the truth. Once Willa started drinking milk, we always had at least two gallons in the fridge. One gallon of whole milk for her, one of low-fat for Ryan and me. On the weekends, sometimes it would be three gallons because we'd have to buy an extra gallon on Saturday because we knew we would run out before Monday.

We got sick of it (and Ryan was relistening to "In Defense of Food") so we decided to just drink the whole milk. We actually only have milk with cereal, and sugar cereal on Sunday morning has become a little tradition.

Recently, Ryan went to the store to stock up on some sugar cereal options for Sunday. He tried a new bagged brand and it was a major disappointment. On closer inspection, the bag reveals that the cereal is "all natural".  Now, if I'm buying a gigantic bag of sugar cereal - do you think I'm the sort of person who cares if my cereal is "all natural" or not? NO! The people who care about that are eating All-Bran right now. Not that I have anything against eating naturally, I think it's a good plan. I just accept the fact that a giant sugar bomb is going to be bad for me whether it is natural or not.

Willa, unfortunately, has gotten a taste for the cereals as well. When she sees us pour a bowl she RUNS to our side for some scraps. Luckily, it's not too often that it happens. Today, however, she screamed for cereal, wouldn't eat Cheerios, wouldn't eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and finally ate Lucky Charms. She eventually gets her point across, but it will be easier and less wasteful when she can just say, "I want the cereal with the marshmallows."

Here is a picture of her scowling while eating a banana. I was going to post of photo of her begging for some of Ryan's cereal, but he was wearing his Mickey Mouse pajamas and said that that would be embarrassing.