Pictures, Pictures

Getting us up-to-date on pictures.

Face Painting Follow-up

So you remember Miciah got a butterfly painted on her face in Pittsburgh, and it was disappointing, and I suggested that my Aunt Corene paint her face once we got home? If you want a refresher on what the original face paintings were, click here and scroll down a bit.

Well, here's Corene's butterfly:

Pretty sweet, right?

Here's Corene's version of a koala bear:

Better by light years.

And finally, Corene's version of a dragon:

Tank kept it on for several days.  Finally, it faded on its own, and Corene came over to the house after it was off, and Tank apologized for the dragon being gone.  That made me chuckle.

All the kids sporting Corene's work:

(Random insert:  A woman just called me.  She mis-dialed the number she meant to call.  This is the second time in my life when a random stranger has said, after mis-dialing, "Well, I'll just talk to you, then."  Really?  I learned that she think it's "kinda cool" to call strangers even though she's never done it before, that she's on disability, and that she feels her $80 a week income is too much because "otherwise I drink and call strangers."  That's when I told her I had to go now.)

Pink Eye

Elijah had pink eye a few weeks ago:

He looked great, right?  ...  Happily, it passed without incident, and none of the other kids got it.  That's a first!

And here's Tank's eye today:

I'm laughing on the inside, of course, because that looks like the beginning stages of pink eye.  (We've wiped away goop twice today.)  ...  Oh well.  I guess you never get off that easy.

And beautiful pictures of my kids that Key West Friend took over the weekend.  I want to post all the pictures she took, but that's a little bit of overkill, even for me (and I have a high tolerance level).  Here's 3 that I'm thinking about framing and putting up on my wall:

Another ... I Can't Even Say the Words Outloud (an update)

Well, at least Miciah was in school for 2 days this week before the first 4-Letter-Word Day was upon us. The kids have been enjoying playing Nintendo downstairs (no, not our Wii. The original old-school Nintendo) and I've been enjoying the peace and quiet upstairs. Rob decided to work from home to keep the craziness at bay. Hurray!

The roads are clear now, since the sun came out. So school should be on tomorrow. ... Really, I don't mind Snow Days that much. They can be fun. But last week was a LONG week. I felt better knowing that it wasn't just me that was going crazy. It was everyone I know, kids and parents alike. So, at least if I'm going crazy, I'm in good company! Universal Snow Day-Induced Craziness. I think that's an official medical condition.

I would take more pictures of the snow, since it is beautiful, and another 6 inches of gorgeous powdery snow fell yesterday. But, after a while, it's just snow.

Three Goblins

Monday ended up being one of the most productive days of my life. Mind you, this isn't hard to accomplish. I can make dinner and fold a load of laundry and the day would be tied for second place on my productive days list. (I despise the word 'productive' even. As well as 'effecient' and 'effective.' Why would I want to be those things? I rather value being relaxed and easy-going, and if that means sacrificing productivity, then so be it. Productivity: --shudder--)

Monday started with me cleaning the entire upstairs. I vacuumed every floor, and wiped down every hard wood surface by hand. I did all the laundry. I traced a full-sized Elijah onto posterboard for him to color and then put up in his room. I decided to put up curtains and they were too long, so I spent hours doing a sewing project to make them just the right length and look good, too (for me this was a HUGE accomplishment. Sad, I know, but normally I would just cut them off, leave the ends ravelling, and call it good). I babysat last minute for a friend who needed to go in for an emergency doctor's appointment (no, it's not someone you know. Yes, she's fine). So I even had an extra toddler while I got all this done.

the curtains, all finished!

To top of the "Tamra is Awesome" feelings, I have been finishing lots of projects lately, and it's been a good feeling. Projects I've left for YEARS. In January I finished a wood working project that's been on my To Do list for 3 years (1 year of thinking about it, 2 to actually start, stop, and then finish making it), finished a book that I've been meaning to finish for the last 2 years (Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman--HIGHLY recommend it, but it's a thick read), made a few paper craft projects that I've been meaning to do for a long time, and completely and totally de-cluttered my entire house, top to bottom.

So I was standing downstairs, folding the last load of laundry and feeling pretty good about myself as Miciah and Elijah were upstairs coloring the Elijah poster so we could post it in his room. Mid-self-congratulatory thought, Miciah came downstairs yelling, "Elijah colored his face and hands!" Well, that was good, I thought, since he'd been avoiding those areas on his poster. I said, "That's good!" Miciah just stared at me. She blinked. "No. I mean, Elijah ACTUALLY COLORED his face and hands. With marker!"

Oh.

I thought about that for a minute. So what if he colored his face and hands? Was it hurting anyone? No. I chuckled to myself, thinking about how funny kids are, and said, "It's alright, Miciah." She was not expecting that response, and she jumped on her opportunity. "Can I do it, too?" "Sure! Just don't color on your clothes." What a relaxed, fun mother I was right then! I kept folding laundry.

About 10 minutes later Teancom came downstairs, his face, hands and feet COVERED in red marker. Totally cute, and totally funny. I went upstairs to see all of them covered in their favorite colors: Teancom, as I just said, was red; Miciah was blue; and Elijah was green. They were all goblins, they said. Elijah was the Green Goblin (a familiar character in our family). Teancom ran around the living room saying, "I red gobwin!" and shooting me with his pretend weapon that shoots out of his hand. I got out the camera and took pictures of the 3 of them. I was even composed enough to take a video.

And then I noticed a small detail I'd previously overlooked: They colored the bottoms of their feet. I could just see, in my mind, marker all over my house, rubbed into the carpet. I imagined myself on hands and knees for hours trying to get that red out of the carpet and being wholly unsuccessful. And suddenly, the fun was over: I sent them all into the bathroom to take a bath. Miciah complained, "You said we could keep it for a while!" "Well, that's before I knew you colored the bottoms of your feet!"

I went to turn the water on, and it wouldn't warm up. Our water heater has been acting up lately, and the pilot light hasn't been staying lit. Rob has been re-lighting it a few times every day, but he hadn't shown me how to light it yet. I put that on my to-do list. Then I got the phone and called Rob at work. He wasn't there. I looked at the water heater, trying to figure out how to light it, but all I could picture was a blown-up water heater. I thought about calling a neighbor to use their tub, but I quickly put that out of my mind. I went back to the bathroom and did what I had to do: I ordered the children to take a cold bath.

Needless to say, they weren't thrilled with that prospect. I filled up the tub with a minimal amount of water and told them they could stay standing, but they HAD to wash off the marker. I left them in the 3 inches of water and went back into the dining room to find marker footprints everywhere. A little flustered, I started Windexing. I surveyed the livingroom as I went past, and there was no marker on the carpet, for which I said a small prayer of gratitude. Then back into the bathroom where there was marker EVERYWHERE. I must have Windexed every surface of that bathroom: the floor, the sink, the toilet seat, the glass shower door.

As I was finishing the Windexing, I could hear Teancom repeatedly saying, "It's cold. It's cold." And then Elijah said, "Mooomm! There's peeee in the bathtub!" "Do I LOOK like I really care?" is what I was thinking, but I said, "Why is there pee in the tub?" "Because Teancom peed in it." I almost rolled my eyes. "So don't drink the water."

Having finished the Windexing, I proceeded to the tub to make sure the kids were adequately scrubbed down. I had told them that they could keep the marker on their faces, but decided against it after wiping marker off too many surfaces. The kids were NOT happy about me scrubbing down their faces with cold water. Teancom doesn't like to get his face washed anyway, so the whole time I was scrubbing his face he was screaming bloody murder and the red marker dripping from his face made it look like he was bleeding bloody murder, too. Good times.

Afterwards I sent them downstairs to watch a movie until Daddy got home. I needed a little sanity time after that! And as they were marching downstairs, I called after them, "Oh. And you can't color with markers for a few weeks." Miciah wasn't happy: "What? Why?!" "Because I said so," I replied, and sat down to read a book.

Pink Eye

On Thursday Miciah's eye looked a little pink, but not a big deal. Cleared up on its own after a few days, and by Sunday she was fine. I called a medical student friend and asked what the tell-tale sign for pink eye is. He said, "If your other kids get it." So wouldn't you know that on Saturday Elijah's eyes started looking pink, too. Still not a big deal and no real goopiness or anything. And then Monday TEANCOM got it. His eyes, though, turned pretty dark red and were very very goopy. So I'm pretty sure, looking back, that they all had pink eye, and I'm very sorry that we attended church on Sunday. However, it appears to have been one of the most mild forms of pink eye I've ever seen. Teancom's case, with as bad as it was, is over now. ... Course, there could be a re-infection in a week or so. That's par for the course at our house.

Teancom's Naps

Teancom has decided he's done with naps, which is usually fine. Sometimes I find him on the floor, blanket over him, and I'll ask if he wants to go lay down. He'll say no and that's that. The other day, though, he was being pretty fussy all day, and then in the evening Rob walked into the kitchen and said, "Doesn't need naps." I looked at him and he motioned for me to come into the livingroom. I found Teancom like this:

His "nap" was short-lived, though. After 10 minutes or so he was back up and running. I guess he just needs cat naps. Like his dad.

Rob's Birthday Coat

Rob's parents came down for his birthday and took us all to Trader's World. Fun place. If you've never been there, you might want to try it out. It's a huge flea market, and it's totally random stuff. We found matching shelf/peg board things for our front entryway (I say entryway, but it's really just the livingroom wall right by the front door). We've been searching for just this sort of thing for a while now, we had the money for it, they were really inexpensive, and I really liked the woodwork. I'll take a picture of them, so you know what I'm talking about. I thikn they look really nice, and I would definitely go back and buy this guy's stuff again. I like the style. (They also had other cool wood stuff, like a kids' play kitchen set for about $50, and a rocking horse for $30.)

the little one is in our bedroom. I've wanted a little shelf there for almost 2 years. This one works perfectly.

One thing we did not find there, though, was a new coat for Rob. Rob decided that for his b-day he wanted a nice coat. Like mine. Not that I'm bragging about my coat, but I love my coat. Love, love, love. It's 5 years old now and it's not very stylish, but it keeps me warm. So Rob's parents took the kids home with them and we went searching around town for a coat. Burlington Coat Factory: No acceptable coat. Bass Pro Shop: No acceptable coat. Kohl's: No acceptable coat. We didn't even try after that. Figured if we couldn't find a coat to Rob's liking at Burlington, our chances of finding it anywhere else were slim.

So we looked on-line after we got home. Still, Rob wasn't finding a coat he liked. I finally looked at him and said, "You know, the coat you want: someone has to SELL it." Finally he found the coat he wanted, and he got it in the mail on Friday. He likes it. It keeps him warm. Happiness. (In the picture of the wooden peg shelf things, the green coat hanging up is his new coat. Not that you can see it well in that picture, but whatever.)

He also got a birthday goodie box from his Aunt Lisa. She sent candy and a movie (which we haven't watched yet. I'm slow on movie-watching).

Rob's parents got him 2 new games and 2 new movies.

He's 30 this year. I threw him the big 3-0 party last year and told him it would be his 29th birthday this year. Really, I won't insist people say he's 29 all year, but the idea was a good one, apparently, because it made this year feel really nice. All the big hullabaloo stuff surrounding the party was over with, and we got to spend a quiet birthday with just his parents around our dinner table. Best of both worlds, I think.

Taxes

Finished our taxes already. Nothing special about that, it's just nice to be done with them! Plus, we got a good chunk of money back from the feds, so we'll be able to buy that new water heater. And fix our van. And still save some.

Spiritual Gifts

I have to give a talk on Sunday about Spiritual Gifts. If anyone has any insights for me, let me know!

MarioKart Wii

We've been having fun with MarioKart Wii lately. Rob has been impressed with my driving SKILLS. I'm not really a gamer, but MarioKart is My Game. SNES was my system, and MarioKart was my game. I played it for countless hours. MarioKart Wii is different, of course, but the same sort of idea. I'm having a good time with it.

And can I just say that I love that the Wii keeps track of your "accomplishments" for the day, and the "accomplishments" list is exclusively how long you've played? This cracks me up every time. I always check out how long I've played, and I think this is a useful feature, but not in an accomplishments sort of way. In a making sure I don't play too much sort of way. I may not like the word 'productivity', but I know what NON-productivity is, and video games pretty much defines it (sorry, my gaming friends, but you know it's true, too). Accomplishments, indeed.

Rob's Career

Rob is developing relationships with colleges in Cincinnati. He made contact with a wonderful woman at Mount St. Joseph's (if you aren't familiar with this college, don't worry, you're not the only one). They spent a lovely few hours talking about what life was like as a professor there. It was a great meeting, and it gave Rob all the information he needed about what it would be like to be a professor at a teaching-focused college. Rob is more excited than ever about his future, and that's a WONDERFUL change for us.

He also has put in an application to teach at least a night class at a local college. He was encouraged to put in more applications to more places. ... It seems it might be likely that we could stay in Cincinnati long-term. This is weird to think about, since we came here thinking we're be here and then moving on in 4 years. We're on year 5 and we wouldn't mind at ALL spending many more years here. Cincinnati is a lovely place for us.

And that's life from here.

One Tooth Less, and Adventures in Young Mens

My updates usually feel like non-updates, and this one is no exception. And I don't even have pictures to send out to make me feel better about sending out nothing important. :) Oh well. This is the update.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week was crazy and fun! It started with Rob's brother and his fiance (G and M) plus Rob's mom coming down on Monday night. Tuesday was Grandparents Day at Miciah's school. C had a great time with Miciah and it made Miciah feel special. Before school they had a great time making up stories and drawing pictures together. At school the Kindergarteners sang a few songs for the grandparents and then Carolyn got to check out Miciah's classroom and play games with her. Miciah LOVED it.

After school we left and drove up to P to spend the rest of the week with family. We played games, talked together, and had some great food. Yea for Thanksgiving food! Leftover turkey on leftover rolls. What's better than that?

A Wedding

Friday night we went to a wedding. D & N, two grad students in Rob's program. They are both beautiful people and her dress was GORGEOUS. It was a very fancy ordeal and it was fun to attend. We left when the party was really getting started--about 11 pm. Our kids were being watched overnight at a friend's house, and we thought, why would we stay at a public party and watch people become increasingly intoxicated, when we can go home and do whatever we want. So we went home. It was fun to wake up Saturday morning to a quiet house. A little strange, but fun.

Miciah's Tooth

Then Saturday night was fun. Around 6 p.m. Miciah started screaming about her tooth that hurt. We've known she's had a cavity for almost 2 months. We saw a hole in her tooth at the beginning of October. She had a scheduled cleaning for mid-October. At the cleaning, the dentist obviously saw the hole, too, and scheduled a return date of the beginning of November. They had to cancel that one, and the next time we could get in was mid-November. After waiting in the waiting room for 2 hours, the dentist told us that the hole was bigger than she thought and we'd have to come back another time when she had more time. That was scheduled for December 5th. Still a week away.

Anyways. Back to Saturday. Rob started checking out her tooth and noticed a huge bulge in her gum above her tooth. Bummer. So we gave Miciah some Ambesol and some Childrens Motril and started making phone calls. We called our dentist: no emergency line, of course. We called a nurses' hotline for our insurance. They suggested calling our pediatrician. We spoke to a nurse and then a doctor at our pediatrician's office. The doc said it probably was an absess tooth as we thought, but he didn't feel comfortable giving a prescription for an antibiotic until someone looked at it. So to the Emergency Room we went at 8:00 p.m. Fun times! We got in really quick. It was funny to see people's reaction when we told them what we were there for. It was a funny situation. A dental problem that was now a medical problem, too. Anyways, after fearing they would turn us away with some cop out answer like, "We can't do anything for a dental problem," the doctor was really nice and said it was an absess tooth and gave us the antibiotic we needed.

But we still have to take care of the tooth. On Tuesday we called our dentist's office, told them they were fired for not getting this taken care of in a timely manner, and then called Children's Dental Clinic. It's attached to Children's Hospital and they have a really great reputation. They also have a really long waiting list to get in. We weren't hopeful. But they got Miciah in THE NEXT DAY. Wow. So Wednesday morning Miciah went in to see what needed to be done about the tooth. Turns out that without us knowing or being able to see, her tooth had decayed away. Rob said there was a quarter inch gap between the top and bottom of the tooth. Eww. And of the 3 roots the tooth has, there was only 1 left. So they pulled the tooth. But Miciah did really really well and in a near-miraculous feat, she didn't even know they gave her a shot until I told her a few hours later. That's amazing! She stayed home from school Wednesday. Not because she couldn't go, she had just already been through a lot. So we let her chill at home.

But, for amazing feat #2 for Children's, there was a cancellation on Thursday morning, so Miciah was able to get in the next day for a new patient check-up! Wow. She was a little afraid to go back, but I promised they wouldn't pull any more teeth. They found another 3 little bitty cavities that aren't a big deal. Miciah goes back in January to fix those and also to get a spacer put in her mouth so that her teeth will still grow in the right way. The tooth that got pulled was a molar and it was supposed to stick around for another 4 years before she lost it naturally. Bummer. ... They also mentioned that Miciah doesn't have much space for her bottom teeth, so those will probably come in crooked. I told them that sounded familiar. That's my teeth, and that's what braces are for.

So it's nice that even though it wasn't a fun resolution for Miciah, we're at least now in good dental hands. Elijah will go there from now on, too. Who knows what his teeth are like. I hope he gets Rob's teeth, not mine.

So that was one adventure for this week.

Youth Fireside

Sunday was a second adventure. Sunday was the youth fireside where they basically have a Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, all that stuff, plus pies. Me and Rob and the kids all ate, then I went home with the kids and Rob finished the fireside. Not so much an adventure, really, until that night. Rob's stomach started bothering him right before we went to bed. And then from 1 in the morning until 6 in the morning Rob was up on the toilet cleaning out his system. He woke up at 9 or so the next morning feeling awful, not only because of the awful experience, but also because he hadn't slept all night. He stayed home and slept until almost 1 p.m. Wow. My system wasn't happy with me, either, but I didn't get sick like that.

The next day I asked a friend who was also at the dinner, "You guys weren't by chance sick yesterday, were you?" Yep, they were, too. None of the kids were (though Teancom did have a gross diaper on Wednesday--but that was 2 days after everyone else got sick), thankfully. Rob went to Young Mens Tuesday night and started asking around. All but 4 or 5 people got sick, most of them up through the night like Rob had been. :) They never did pinpoint what it was that got everyone sick (though the stuffing was a likely culprit, all information gathered), but it was a fun sharing experience anyway.

Pink Eye

And for our last adventure of the week, Elijah has pink eye. Not much else to say about that. I was hoping he'd get what I call his vampire eyes, just like last time. But they're just pleasantly pink instead of blood red like they were when he got them last. We called the doctor's office and they called in a prescription for us without making us come in. Yea! Her instructions were, "Try to keep him from rubbing his eyes." I laughed over the phone. Right. He's 3. She said, "It is highly contagious." Yes. Yes, I know. So we might be in for a longer adventure. Who knows? Cute little pink eyes.

Miciah is doing well. She watched the newest Barbie movie (we borrowed it from a friend) about 10 times in the week we had it. I now have most of the songs memorized. Elijah is still obsessed with Spider-Man. Miciah was watching the movie, and there's a lullabye in it. It talks about night time coming by saying, "Stars begin to climb." Elijah looks at me and says, "Mom, Spider-Man cwimb?" Yes, Spider-Man climbs. "Stars don't cwimb." No. Stars don't really climb. Cute.

Elijah also still likes playing pretend. Miciah still likes this, too, but Elijah is getting more and more into it. The other day we were in the car and Elijah said, "I play pretend. I be Spider-Man. And you, Ciah. You be Ciah." I thought that was awesome.

Teancom

Teancom is doing good. He's still not walking, but every now and then he thinks about it. The day before Thanksgiving he surprised us by walking about 10 steps. But he can't do it consistently and he refuses to try most of the time. I still swear that his left leg doesn't move straight. I call it his peg leg. :) He'll walk eventually. He is getting much more curious and that's fun. It's weird to me to think that he's almost a year and a half old. Because he's still very much a baby, not a toddler. He doesn't walk, he's still not really talking, and he's still very cuddly. Rob always says that he'll come home, and every time, within seconds, Teancom will crawl over to him and want to be held. It's cute. But it's weird to see other babies that are much further along and that are also younger than him. :) Teancom will get there. And I've no complaints.

Rob's Paper is Submitted!

OH!! There is one exciting update! Rob submitted his first paper for publication!!! That's AWESOME. I'm going to have Rob send out an e-mail explaining what it's all about. So be looking for that. We're celebrating tonight with a bottle of sparkling cider. Thought about a last-minute date, but with pink eye in the house, uhh, right. But, congrats to Rob!

Post-Doc Search

We also are getting a little further in figuring out where we'll go for his post-doc. It's been an interesting process. We will probably stay in Cincinnati (if it works out with the person he's negotiating with right now. They meet next week and so hopefully we'll know better by then), which is what we originally thought, but I'm glad the process has gone how it has. At first it was about staying here because we're comfortable here. Then we wanted to leave because it was Rob's career dream to go to the NIH. And then things started coming into focus. This is the first decision of this nature where we've had to worry about balancing work AND family. And it just gets harder, I think, to make these sorts of decisions from here on out. Because more and more factors will be added. Anyways, it's been a learning process. Particularly a lesson in patience, for me. I'm not a patient person when it comes to stuff like this. :)

Christmas

And Christmas rules! Our tree is up. The stockings are on the wall. We have 2 nativities out. One is ceramic, beautiful, and up where the kids can't touch it. The other is a Fontanini one that the kids can play with. Which is awesome--it's my favorite Christmas memory growing up: playing with the nativity set. Cute little baby Jesus. This year we added wise men and a cow (the pieces are expensive), so it feels much more complete this year. We have the holy family, a shephard, a traveller, and the 3 wise men. Plus sheep and a cow. I love playing with the set about as much as the kids do. It's awesome.

Hope you're all well. Sorry this is a boring update with no pictures. We love you anyway!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom