Let's Paint

Staples and Drama

On Saturday, August 6, 2011, Seth was running through the house, slipped and slammed his head into the corner of a wall. I heard the scream and when I came around the corner, the first thing I saw was a lot of blood. I called for Wayne, who was still in bed, and rushed Seth into the bathroom where I put a washcloth on his head. At this time, I wasn't sure what was bleeding, as I thought it might be his ear. I quickly determined it was his head and got us both dressed so we could head over to urgent care. We arrived 15 minutes before they opened, so we had to just sit and wait. Once the doctor saw his wound, she said he would need one staple to help it close. Well, he ended up needing two staples.

I made an appointment with his primary on Monday morning to bring him in on Wednesday to have the staples removed, but she said we were a day early and to come back on Thursday right before lunch, as they should only take a minute to remove. Well, that minute turned into a horrible 2 hours! Actually, the really horrible part last about 5-10 minutes (I really couldn't tell you the exact time). Turns out that the staples got stuck under his skin and a large scab. The doctor really had to work hard to get them loose, but before that happened, the two staples ended up catching on to each other. I can't even describe the screaming that came out of poor Seth, it was horrendous. So, she finally got the two staples separated from each other and one out, but then couldn't find the second one. Turns out that that wound had not closed up like it should have and the second staple fell inside the hole in his head! She had to get some tweezers and go digging. At this time, I said should I just take him to the hospital and have them put him to sleep to get it out? I mean really, he was in a severe amount of pain and I couldn't hold back the tears myself. I do not have a week stomach by any means and have no problem holding my child down to have a procedure done when I know it is going to help them out in the end, but this felt like I was holding him down just so he could be tortured. She finally gets the staple out and I see that Elsie is laying on the ground under the chairs in the fetal position, I am nauseous and light headed and both Seth and I were covered in a thin layer of sweat. So sad!

She then went and called the doctor at urgent care to get his advise and he wanted us to come downstairs for him to check it out. So after waiting in the waiting room for half an hour and then in the exam room for another 15 minutes, the Physicians Assistant comes in to check it out and decides he needs another staple. Ugh! I made sure she knew what he had just gone through an hour earlier and asked if there was any way to numb it and not make it so painful/traumatic. She said a shot would hurt just as bad as the staple gun, but that we could put some numbing gel on it. Because of what Seth had experienced previously, it took 2 nurses and myself to hold him down for the PA to insert the staple and then when it was done he said it didn't hurt. Praise God!!! She also said when it comes out 7 days later that I can request to have the area numbed again, which you better believe I will be doing!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for two of my kids. I still have a hard time getting used to school starting in August vs. right after Labor Day, but that is how it goes I guess. We now officially have a 1st Grader and a Kindergartner in the house! Before going to school, we took our traditional pictures with the chalkboard. Isn't this apple shaped chalkboard perfect for school pictures!

Kya is all ready for the 1st Grade. One thing she was excited about was being able to play on the *big kid* playground vs. in the fenced in kinder one.

Seth was super excited about going to Kindergarten and meeting new friends. This was a big step for all of us, as he has been home with me for his entire 5 years.

One of all three kids. Can't believe next year they will all be in school. I am really going to cherish this one on one time with Elsie. We started off "our" year with breakfast at Denny's and shopping.

Children's Museum

Wednesday was our last true day of Summer break before we had to go to meetings and orientation for school, so I really wanted to do something fun, yet cheap and close to home with the kids. I opted for the Chino Children's Museum because it is cheap, not all that far from home and is indoors. It had to be an indoor place due to our high summer heat. I picked up a friends son and we headed out to Taco Bell for lunch and then to the museum. It really is a cute place and we will definitely be going back.

The kids played in the bank for a while first. It is so cute and has money, money bags, and cash registers to really enhance the kids imagination.

The boys had lots of fun going down the fireman's pole over and over again.

Uh oh! What were you boys up too?

A favorite among all the kids was this real police motorcycle. Here we have Officer Seth.

Officer Reginald

and Officer Elsie.

There are also lots of costumes for the kids to wear. From Fireman, Police, Construction, Cheerleaders, housewives, to the very glamorous.

Reginald and Kya really liked this center. Here they got to pretend to be anchor men/women while actually watching themselves on tv. In between reporting the news, they sold fruits and veggies to various kids. lol

Lazy morning at home

Tuesday morning the kids were bickering and antsy due to some boredom. Kya had an appointment at noon and then they all had swim lessons that evening, so I didn't want to go out to the park or anything. Besides, it was way to hot (103)! So I pulled out some paint and animal shaped sponges that I had stored away in the back of the closet and let them paint away outside.

Yes, they did get paint all over themselves and we still have paint on the sidewalk, but it kept them occupied for a good hour. And, because they decided to paint the bottoms of their feet to make foot prints on the paper, I wouldn't let them back in the house. So they put on their bathing suits and I have them a bar of soap to wash themselves off in our inflatable pool! Redneck, maybe, but it did the job, so I don't really care! LOL

Corona Del Mar

The day after getting back from visiting Doris, Seth had his 5 year physical and then we went to a local water park. (no pictures). On Thursday, we went down to the beach! Kya had been learning about sea life in her class, so I really wanted to take the kids to one of our tide pools. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong tide pool to go to and we didn't see too much sea life. We will have to try Cabrillo down in San Diego next time. This is where I went as a kid and there was a ton of things to see.

First, we found a spot on the beach to hang out for the day and enjoyed our picnic lunch. Then we ventured over to the tide pool area. To get here, you have to climb a bunch of rocks, which the kids found to be fun. They also enjoyed checking out the three little caves inside the back of the rocks.

Next we walked thru the shallow water over to the tide pools, but first we had to pose for a few pictures.

Kya pointing out some barnacles on the rocks. This is mainly what we did see! lol We also got to see a couple of hermit crabs and sea urchins.

If you look right in the middle of the picture below, you can see a sea urchin partially under water.

Laws Train Museum in Bishop

Wayne had a week vacation a couple of weeks ago and so we went up to visit Doris for an overnight visit. As always, she treated us to a wonderful dinner where Greg and Ginnie were able to join us. Next day, she took us up to Bishop to the train museum. The kids had lots of fun climbing all over the train and seeing some original buildings from the late 1800's.

My little princess, Kya, posing in this small train named Little Princess.

All the kids took turns checking out the large engine and pulling the string above to sound off the horn.

Doris, Wayne and kids on the back of the caboose.

Kya coming off one of the passenger cars. After sitting inside this car, we really appreciate our modern transportation! The seats were very uncomfortable and the box car was quite hot. And, to top it off, most men and women wore heavy wool clothes back then.

The entire museum is run by local volunteers. This particular day, a gentleman was working on
this old mine emergency transportation train and gave the kids a little ride on his way back to the train barn. Highlight of the kids day!

Doris, Jennifer and Kids in front of the large engine.

Getting a chance to see inside the old rail managers house, the train depot and school house was lots of fun for us. We have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books and many of the items we saw had been talked about in her books. So not only was it fun, but educational too!

Kya and Elsie took turns being the teacher, Miss Beatle. It was nice they had some books in the desks for the kids to look at while sitting in these old desks.

Mammoth Mountain has received a TON of snow this year. In fact, the latest blizzard came thru on 4th of July weekend. It was quite interesting to see snow on the mountain tops, while the temperature was in the 80/90's down below.