Popcorn popping

The other day we were driving down the street and Sawyer said "Wow! Look at all the popcorn!...Yum!"

I'm glad the spring flowers are finally here. I keep getting hand-fulls of my grape hyacinths from a certain little 2 year-old which is adorable and frustrating at the same time.

Puppy

She is still so sweet. We've been having a lot of fun with her.

McKinley has finally let other people in the family have time with her.

Sawyer is learning how to be gentle with her and will speak baby talk to her, it's cute.

After a cornered few seconds of puppy nipping, Hayden was scarred for a few days. He still won't go out with her alone, but likes being around her if someone else is there. When she walked by him this morning he went running into Sawyer's very protective arms. It may take a few more days for him to get over it all.
She "cried" only one night so far. Every other night she has gone into her kennel and stayed quietly until morning.

Now we just need to start training, and get her to poop in one part of the yard only. I'm picking up a book a neighbor suggested from the library. Hopefully McKinley's off track time can be productive.

A Conspiracy of Kings

by Megan Whalen Turner

The 4th book in the series: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia.

I finally got back into reading again.

Summary: Follows the story of Sophos (who we meet in The Thief) and his journey to become king of Sounis. With a little romance with the Queen of Eddis :)

My thoughts: I didn't know another book was coming out, so I was happily surprised!

I loved the other books, and this one didn't disappoint either.

There must be more books coming...

The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio

by Terry Ryan



Summary: a retelling of the true, unusual contest-winning life of her mother who was raising 10 kids. When life was hanging by it's last thread, a new contest winning came in the mail to renew their hope.


My thoughts: I thought it was an interesting story about a strong woman. She was married to a drinking, selfish man, but pulled herself and her whole family through it with hope and optimism. I liked the realization of the daughter when she saw her mother as a person who had hopes and dreams and interests, not just a mother.

I got a little tired of reading all the jingles though. I skipped over a lot of those.

I thought the story was a good reminder of the power of mothers.

11 years ago today...

I was doing this...

getting married, not looking out windows.

Dancin' queen

Tonight was McKinley's Spring recital. I love this girl and I love seeing her in her dance recitals. And I love how her spandex shorts are just hanging off her tiny little body.

a rare event

A picture with all of the family in it!

Worthy of hanging on the living room wall, no, but a rare event worthy of documenting.

I am really resisting a self-depricating comment right now....groan!

Sadie

Here she is! What a sweet lil' face!

So far she has romped around a bit, and slept a lot. Or a least tried to sleep.

3 excited kids couldn't let the sleeping dog lie :)

Hopefully she'll get enough rest tonight to start all over tomorrow.

Spring has sprung!

Finally! Snow last week, and 70's this week. Thank heavens.

We have been out enjoying it as much as we can.

Here's what we've been up to:

Making this...

for the new little puppy we're picking up tomorrow. I can't believe how excited I am!


I was beginning to wonder if I did something wrong, but low and behold here they come! All my plants are sprouting! Even the carrots now!

spinach

peas

We even got to spend a little time at the park today (It's much funner now that I don't have to worry about the aggressive hitting phase we had last year...phew! I think we are finally over that hurdle!) which by the way was swarming with young children, and take some pictures of a friend's darling little boys.

Saying goodbye

I turned in my badge and med key yesterday and said goodbye to my old job. I took my little camera (because I'm a nerd) to take some pictures of the old place. I was only a little sad.

The "float pool" office...central staffing.

the swimming fish by the elevators

some of the cute wall decor downstairs

The motto of the hospital...which for the most part staff really believed in.

A few things I'll miss about the old:

NICU: I love the tiny babies. Good thing I still get to be with babies!

IMSU: Ditto...love the babies. I also liked sucking out baby boogers during RSV season. Weird I know.

CMU: The kids - sometimes it was nice having kids who could talk and interact.

CSU: The kids- I also started on a surgical unit in Seattle, so I always like surgical kids.

NTU: Liked it mostly. Won't miss the non-accidental traumas! There were way too many of those! Also won't miss the neurosurg residents, they have superiority complexes. The attendings were awesome, just the residents tended to be jerks.

RTU: The kids- luckily I have my own kids at home :)

ICS: I liked the transplant patients. The oncology patients made me very sad though. That's my worst nightmare (my kids getting cancer).

PICU: So long sucka! I will not miss you PICU!

I liked my manager, I liked floating to different units, I liked my co-workers, I love the hospital.

Right now I'm excited for my new adventure. I think this will be a good change.

Easter Time

Sawyer asked us if we could color eggs on the Monday before Easter, so Kent went to the store and grabbed the egg dyeing kit while I boiled 9 eggs for the kids to color.

Hayden was all about putting everything he possibly could on his eggs. The kit came with glitter, glue, beads, stickers, and colored sand, and plastic shrink wrap. He did it all. In fact he became so exuberant in his decorating that he accidentally grabbed Sawyer's egg and had it shrink-wrapped before we caught on. So I had to grab a raw egg out of the fridge for Sawyer to start over on. McKinley is all about the design. She carefully thought out what she wanted each of her eggs to look like. Here's one of her favorites. I don't know where she saw them, but lately she is all about the "peace" signs. I find them all over her school work, and now on her Easter eggs (it's hard to see in the picture, but it's there).

Sawyer had no rhyme or reason to his madness. He just knows he wanted to do it himself. Eventually the little wire egg holder was abandoned and he was just dropping his eggs in the cups with his fingers. His method was to put each egg in each color for a few minutes. As you can imagine they turned out very....brown.

In order to use all the boiled eggs and not just throw them away, the following night we had to have one of Kent's family dishes called "egg-la-golden-rod". Don't ask for the recipe, I think it's an acquired taste. It consists of a white roux/gravy with boiled eggs poured on top of toast and a sprinkle of cheese on top. Like I said, it's a family thing.

Hayden was little mortified that I broke his egg for it. Sawyer wanted to keep his under his pillow.

For Easter Sunday we hid candy-filled eggs around the house for the kids to search for. In the baskets the kids got a book (tradition), the boys got 2 hot wheels, and McKinley got a stuffed animal. McKinley got her Easter dress, but the boys are still waiting because I couldn't find anything I loved. Since it was conference my mom and dad came over to watch the festivities and then eat crepes before conference started. Then we watched conference. My kids were actually very well behaved. When the boys started getting restless Sawyer suggested to Hayden that they go downstairs to play. It was a conference miracle! McKinley colored the whole time.

Later that evening we took Kent to the airport to go to Seattle for work, and I took the kids to Kent's parents house for dinner and more egg festivities.

Then we went home and went to bed. Happy Easter!