The Happenings

I've discovered that whenever my camera battery is dead, my blogging tails off. So, I've charged my battery, and now I can blog again. Anyway, we went to Utah at the end of April, but my battery died while I was there, so no blog post about that unless I can convince Laura and Laila to send me their top ten faves of our time there. Ladies? What do ya think?

Utah was such a fun trip. I almost started crying as we pulled into town cause the grass was green, there were tulips and blossoms everywhere, and there was FAMILY!!! When we left Calgary, temperatures were still (and kinda still are) hovering around freezing, and there was not one green thing to speak of. I thought I liked Calgary, but I don't anymore. I can handle a cold winter, but when it's time to be warm, it's time to be warm. Even now, the highs have been in the 40's. Sometimes we'll get an odd ball day and it'll be in the 60's. It's been raining the past three days, so we've been a little cooped up and depressed. It's been thinking about raining today, but we've had spots of sun. Victoria Day Weekend, we got the kids a sandbox. They LOVE it!! They played with it that evening and then ever since it's been raining. They beg and cry to go out. Today, there was a bit of a break in the weather so I let them go out. Here's Lincoln sporting his training underwear (you can't see them, but they're there) in the sandbox.

Also, Saturday night of this Victoria Day Weekend, Lincoln pushed Bennett into the corner of a wall. Benny's head split right open. Tears and blood everywhere. Surprisingly, after a little compression, the bleeding curtailed and I realized that I could peer straight down into the cut all the way to his skull. It was pretty gaping for how short (maybe 3/4 inch) the cut was. I thought it probably would warrant some stitches, so I put a little bandage on it for the car ride to the ER, but Benny wouldn't have it, so I left it open. Last time we went to the ER for his seizure in November, we waited in the Children's Hospital for 6 hours before we were seen. I was thinking that surely there would be some kind of after hours clinic we could go to other than the ER at the Children's Hospital, so I called my friend to get her thoughts on that. She suggested going to one downtown. She had had good luck there. So away Benny and I went. When we got there, the triage nurse said it would be about a 2 hour wait. Great! But after we came in, a bunch of crazy (literally) and serious cases came in, so we kept on getting bumped back. Imagine, holiday weekend, downtown. One guy that came in I'm pretty sure was on drugs. He was escorted out by the security guards. Then a girl came in who was throwing up so much into a bucket, she couldn't stand in line to be assessed by the triage nurse. It was nuts, and to be honest, I was a little scared. Chasing Bennett around the waiting room was also getting old. He loved to dart out to the automatic doors and make his escape. FINALLY he fell asleep around midnight. After 3.5 hours of waiting, our name was called, HALLELUJAH!!! The nurse informed me that it would be another 8 hour wait since there was only one doctor and lots of serious issues, and suggested that we go to the Children's Hospital. Oh... my.... WORD!!! I put sleeping Bennett in the car, and hoped he would stay asleep. Who knows how long we'd be waiting. When we got there, it was relatively empty and after only an hour WE GOT IN!!! They glued his head together, and that was that. Mercy me!! I need to buy some of that glue. Pretty sure I can do that. We got home around 2:30 AM. The 7:30 AM Ward Council Meeting came pretty early for me!! Here he is, almost a week later. The glue hasn't come off yet, which is great. Bennett was really brave! That was his 3rd trip to the ER since we've been in Canada. Three too many! But, I'm sure it won't be our last.

Here's a picture of the perpetrator for good measure. Lil' stink!

These two have been saying such funny stuff lately. Last week, Lincoln asked me to pick him up, so I did. He put his little hands on either side of my face, and then examined my hair, then told me, "Mom, your hair is cool!". It was in a day old up do, but I'm glad someone thought it looked good. 

Bennett will tell me throughout the day that he wants to go find his blankie. I used to make him leave it in his crib, but since he's been sick and injured, I've let him have it out during the day. He'll just throw it on the floor in the middle of the kitchen, lay on top of it and suck his thumb. Since he's been getting better, I've been enforcing the rule more, and he's been sneaking up the stairs and grabbing it through the crib slats. He'll come down the stairs and proudly announce that he found his blankie. I may have to destroy that thing soon. Here he is, snuggling with Lucy and his blankie in the rubble, captured with my phone. 

Also last weekend (it was a busy weekend), we were on our way to Lincoln's little friend's birthday party. I had just wrapped the gift, and Lincoln was convinced it was for him, having just had his birthday. I told him, "No, today is Hannah's birthday, not yours". The wheels were turning, trying to figure that one out. Then Bennett yelled, "My birthday!". Then Lincoln said, "No, my birthday!!!", and back and forth they went, demanding that it was their birthday. Seriously, kids. Let's not fight over nothing, K?

We've had a shortage of tupperware lids lately. I made a drawer for the lids, a drawer for the tupperware, and a drawer of plastic kids dishes. I left those without a kid-proof latch cause the lil' tikes enjoy playing in the cupboards, so I thought I'd let them at least have those 3 drawers. I caught Bennett a little while ago putting some tupperware lids down the side of the fridge, so I knew it was a favorite pastime, but I didn't know to what extent. Lids and tupperware in general have a way of disappearing, even without the help of the kids. Matt finally got sick of searching for lids, so he pulled the fridge out to see just what all was back there. Over 25 lids and kids plates were stashed there. Too funny!! I had no idea of the scale of this issue. The only downside to this discovery is that now our fridge is tipsy. Gotta figure that one out. 

Lincoln asks me at least once an hour if not more what time it is. I get tired of telling him, so I say stuff like, "It's time to do the dishes" or whatever. He will not accept anything other than a proper, numerical answer. After I tell him REALLY what time it is, he says, "Oh". And that's that. 

Bennett is the grocery shopping companion from the underworld. Lincoln hates to sit IN the cart and prefers to sit in the seat, and Bennett prefers to be in the cart and not in the seat, which seems like a good match except that anything you put in the cart with Bennett will be thrown out at one point unless Bennett falls out of the cart first. If I make them sit where they don't like to sit, then everyone whines or cries most of the shopping trip. Arg!! Maybe I'll start shopping Saturday mornings BY MYSELF!!! Wouldn't that be a dream?

Lincoln said his first prayer all by himself last night. This is what he said, "Heavenly Father, Bless Daddy, he'll be safe. Bless Mommy, she'll be safe. Grateful Ben-Ben. Grateful watch cartoons Daddy (meaning with Daddy). Grateful horsies. Grateful mousy. (Not sure what he could be referring to there, but we do like all animals and are grateful for them). Bless fishy died (his fish died months ago). Please bless watch a new movie (his reward for doing #2 in the potty, which he has yet to do, and I pray for myself many nights). In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN!!!!"

Very thorough and thoughtful, don't you think?? 

If you've made it this far through this post, congratulations and well done. You will now be rewarded with some pictures. As it has been too cold to plant our veggies outside, they've remained inside. Some have done well, others haven't. My green onions and snap peas have been a great success!!

These are from Lto R tomatoes, spinach (all dead), peppers, a bunch of flowers and then on the far right, corn. We'll see if they can make the transfer out of doors soon.

This is how much the watermelon liked the indoors.

I love my Kalanchoe plant. I never water it and it does so well. I need more plants like this.

The basil germinated, and that's about it. Sad, sad chive in the back there.

Finally!!! Popcorn popping on our plum tree!! (Notice the nice hole Lucy has dug in the middle of the lawn)

Very proud of our baskets. They've survived a week and a half. We'll see how long they make it.

Our home. I thought I should take a picture before the oak tree gets leaves, otherwise you wouldn't be able to see it. I have 2 issues with the house. Too many trees (never thought I'd say that), and the faux stone on the porch looks so hokey cause it doesn't come all the way down to the ground so the house looks like it's floating. Oh, and it's a little orange. Other than that, and that we don't have a garage, we love the place. So maybe there are 4 things I don't like. Cheerio!