Hey Dude! What are you DOing?

Aunt Becky arrived on Saturday, and we cannot say how excited we are to have her HERE!

Since she flew in to Chicago, we made an adventure of the day.


A Picnic lunch waiting in the cell phone lot for her plane to arrive.



Waiting for Aunt Becky to arrive at baggage claim.
(I think we were there not more than five minutes!)

There she is! There's Aunt Becky!



Off to The Field Museum where we saw


and saw and heard the archeologist who found the famous T Rex, Sue, answer some questions.


Then dinner at Hardee's and CiCi's (I wanted pizza, but we weren't certain of where to get off the toll road, so we got Hardee's just in case we missed the road(s); luckily we were able to get salad and pizza for dinner, especially since the burger place messed up on our order and instead of a real hamburger, I got a meat patty covered in onion sandwiched between two slices of bread- no pickles, cheese, tomato, bacon or even condiments!).

We had a fun ( and exhausting!) day. Now, off on more adventures.

Picnics

I love going on picnics!

I especially love it when I have fun food to take with me.

I also love picnics because there's less mess to clean up after lunch, or at least it feels like that.

We had two picnics today!

Lunch with friends- some even from out of town.

Dinner with family- including a bike ride up to campus, sand (volleyball court), and beanbag toss.

Ahhh, I love SUMMER!

And, it is officially SUMMER VACATION!

(pictures forthcoming, but I'm to tired to post any tonight... all that sun, bike riding, and picnicking)

May 31
And... the pictures:

Veronica was crying just before I took this picture;
she'd just awakened from a nap and instead of getting to cuddle and nurse with Mom, her big sister carried her downstairs and mom plopped her in this trailer. Then her big sister crawled in on top of her and Mom put this plastic container on top!
The Injustice!
(She loves the ride when we get going)

Megan was cold in the shade, so she ate her dessert in the sunshine.

Veronica reached over and grabbed the cookie right of Zoë's
tray when her big sister wasn't looking

Miranda was in heaven being able to run around outside.

I enjoyed being able to eat dinner and not worry about spills, drips, slops...

I love picnics!

Veronica was sitting up on the picnic blanket, but she managed to get on her belly, and then she started moving around grabbing things: Zoë's cookie (which she devoured), an apple core (that she started sucking/chewing), and she even was reaching for Megan's purple punch (and am I glad she didn't reach that one!)

Does this look like...?

Veronica started on antibiotics on Sunday for her ear infection. Remember? The ear infection just about anybody can diagnose because there was green pus draining from her ear canal?

So, does this look like a little girl with an ear infection?


The picture was about an hour after dosing her with Tylenol for a fever. And, maybe if you know that Nica wouldn't let me set her down all day, and she woke up every hour last night you might reconsider.

I looked at hear ears this morning (after I scrubbed my face ten times so I could see out of my bleary sleep-deprived eyes). The right one looked horrible. The left one didn't look great either (but I didn't want to look too much since that's the one that ruptured).

So, I called the doctor to see if maybe he'd take my word for it and just switch antibiotics over the phone.

No such luck.

So, after four trips to the doctor this week (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and now Friday), and four prescriptions for antibiotics, maybe we might get better around here. (See all those conditional modifiers?)

Except, well, Zoë came home with a headache.

And a fever.

*Sigh*

Maybe she's just getting another virus and she'll shake it off. Maybe it'll be FIVE visits to a doctor this week.

I'm glad Travis is home, safely. And that he had a good trip. And that tomorrow the Stake Relief Society is having a conference that I get to attend and I get to be the mommy cat who shakes off all her young and runs away (but I'm know I'm leaving them in the capable and loving hands of their father).

But, I might just sleep through the whole conference...

Box Lunch

I love these cute, clever, and amazing Bento Box lunches!

Happy Little Bento

Although I'm seriously tempted to try out some of her lunch menus/recipes, I didn't quite have the supplies on hand. Still, I tried to be a little creative with Zoë's Field Trip Picnic Lunch.

She wanted Lunchables. You know, those nasty little plastic lunches where the crackers taste like the container, has processed cheese and ham. Ew! Yeah, yeah, I wanted them as a kid, too. I even used to like American (processed) cheese.

But, since I wanted the lunch to actually cost less than what it would cost to feed our whole family lunch at home (isn't that the part of the reason for taking a lunch?), I scrounged around in my fridge and food storage to see what I could come up with.

I grabbed crackers, cookies, juice, applesauce, string cheese, slice of Cheddar cheese, and ham. I also grabbed the box the cookies were in, since it was the last bag of cookies.


I turned the box inside out and taped it back together. I needed something a little stiffer to prevent the wax paper box from being crushed.

I then cut out five squares from wax paper and folded, folded, folded and folded until I got one large box with a lid and three smaller divider boxes that fit inside. I then packed the little wax-paper box with the cracker sandwich fixin's:

Placed the lid on, put everything carefully inside the box, and Voila! A little box lunch:

Zoë was more excited about the contents than she was about the presentation. Oh well, it was fun putting it together.

Unexpected Trip

Travis is on a plane to Houston right now.

It's sad, really. He's going because his former PI just lost his 17-year-old autistic son to an accidental drowning in the bathtub. They believe he had a seizure.

We scurried to find last-minute deals and get things ready for him to leave Wednesday, after finding out this sad news on Tuesday morning.

The good news is that Travis will get to visit some of our good friends in Texas! The Fears and the Lewis families have said he's welcome to stay overnight with them. I'm glad Travis took his computer so he can share some pictures of his girls. We also contacted the Wilsfords, and hopefully Travis will have a little time to see them. Still, he's only going to be there less than 36 hours- long enough to support his former PI at the funeral, say high to a few (and not enough!) friends, and then head home to take care of his baby fish.

Meanwhile, I'm home with sick babies, trying not to grumble about how much life is so unfair because I'm the one who loves to travel, wants to travel, but Travis is the one who has flown to Spain, Florida, Houston, and will soon be heading to Wisconsin. Granted, these are not vacation but work trips. But still! he's traveling, and I'm... well, I'm trying not to grumble.

So, in honor of Travis heading to Houston and the location of Two Rows, the restaurant that made one of his favorite appetizers, South-Western Egg Rolls, I'm posting my "famous recipe".

South-Western Egg Rolls

Adapted from Two Rows


I've had a few people ask for this recipe. It's VERY simple and super yummy. It is NOT low fat/calorie (so, I guess frying anything in oil is not low fat!)


13.5 oz canned Chicken
1 can Corn
1 can Black Beans
1 can Green Chilies
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
3 Roma tomatoes (other tomatoes are usable, but make the mix a little watery)
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teastpoon oregano (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt


Drain corn and chicken and place in bowl. Drain and rinse black beans, add to bowl. Add green chilies to bowl.

Wash and strip leaves off cilantro stalks, chop and then add to bowl.
Dice tomatoes into 1/4-inch pieces and add to bowl and mix ingredients together.


Stir in cheddar cheese, chili powder, oregano, and salt.

Remove outer package of egg roll wraps. Fill a small bowl with water. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of mix into center of wrap.

Fold one corner of wrap to the center.

Fold in the two opposite corners, leaving the fourth corner open.

Dip finger in water bowl and run along edges of fourth corner, then roll the wrap closed.
Be sure that corners are sealed.



Roll all 20 wraps.

Heat vegetable oil in a skillet to 375-400 F.

Carefully place rolls seam-down into oil. Allow to cook for 2-4 minutes until light brown.

Turn rolls over and cook another 2-4 minutes until golden brown.

Allow excess oil to drip off and place on paper towels or rack.

Serve warm with sour cream or other salad dressing (ranch, bleu cheese).

Yumm!

Again? What's with the Ear Infections?

OK,

So now four of the five girls living in our house are on antibiotics.

I had Strep last week.

Veronica woke up Sunday with pus draining out of her ear (EW!). She's still only marginally better and I can only tell that, not because she isn't smiling, but because she doesn't want to go to sleep.

Does this look like a child with RAGING ear infections in both ears?

Zoë had a well-child checkup on Monday (only the 40% for height! I guess she takes after her mom in that department) and got her Hepatitis A vaccination (she didn't even cry! although she was NOT happy to have a shot).

During dinner last night, Miranda said her ear hurt. I took a look, scooped out some hard wax, and then thought, "Uh, oh, that doesn't look good". But she stopped complaining after I cleaned her ear out, so I let it go. Did I mention that Travis stayed home with Veronica and Miranda on Sunday because Miranda had a fever on Saturday afternoon?

Last night, at 12:15 am, as I was trying to buy airline tickets and reserve a rental car for Travis to head to Houston for a funeral (more on this later), Zoë came downstairs, crying and holding her ear. I took a peek and she had a BRIGHT RED ear drum. I gave her some motrin and sent her back to bed after letting the medicine take effect.

I checked both Zoë's and Miranda's ears this morning. Zoë's ear was a little red, there was more fluid behind it, but it didn't look nearly as bad as it had at midnight. Miranda's appeared to have even more pus behind the ear drum, but didn't look terribly red. *sigh*

I called and got an appointment for Zoë, debating if I shouldn't just get Miranda an appointment, too. We headed to the doctor's office. When we got there, I asked if the doctor would please check Miranda's ear, too. Our sweet doctor! He said Zoë's ear didn't look too scary, but with her throat being red too, he was willing to treat her with antibiotics. He then said that Miranda had a raging ear infection. I said I'd be happy to pay the co-pay since I'd snuck Miranda in under the radar, but he just waved me off! I was VERY grateful.

We stopped at the dollar store and I let the girls each pick out something. Miranda went over to the sunglasses and tried on a pair.
I guess she looked very entertaining with her white tutu, a Princess balloon in hand, and adult sunglasses on her face. A gentleman saw her and started laughing- one of those belly laughs.


We made it through (Megan picked out some foam, Zoë got a recorder flute, Miranda a princess balloon) and at the checkout, this same gentleman brought Zoë and Megan princess balloons, too! Then he took the girls over and picked out some sunglasses for them. I was so humbled and so grateful! My heart was in my throat as I said thank you. I was grateful for this man, who probably had no idea what a crazy couple of days/weeks I'd been having, but his kidness to give my girls some silly toys and brighten their smiles made my day better (in the face of no sleep, three girls with ear infections, husband going out of town for three days). I am so thankful for the Lord's servants, and that people would do good things for others.

With smiles on all of our faces, we headed out to the van. As we navigated getting three huge Mylar balloons into the van, and juggling buckles, and bags, this same sweet gentleman came trotting after us and brought three bears (dark brown, light brown and pink) for the girls. So sweet!

So, we will enjoy our balloons and sunglasses the next few days. I will smile every time I think about that kind man, and about my girls' smiles. I will (someday!) laugh about how so many of us were sick at the same time.

And, I will continue to thank my Father in Heaven for all His help that lets me get through weeks like these last few, and for sending me wonderful friends, doctors, and even strangers to help bring a smile or lighten my load.