Fashionist

My poor kids have inherited my fashion sense. Look at young Margaret wearing her faux Ugg boots with her swim suit. I offered her Crocs but she chose these instead. Meanwhile, I think I need to feed Andy more. He eats, I swear, but those ribs showing are a little disturbing.

Strep, again

Meggie Meg has a case of strep. I prefer it to some of the other options, like an evil cold that can't be treated, stomach flu or an ear infection but I'd rather be watching a new episode of Glee about now instead.

She had sort of a low grade blah yesterday and by last night, she was warm with fever, snoring like her father and generally feeling unhappy. That was all not great enough, but then she threw up a couple of times. Throughout the day, her fever came and went but she never quite seemed on the upswing. Tonight, naturally, was Andy's open house/math night at school starting at 5 so I never got her in to see a doctor. I decided that I'd take her to minute clinic for a strep test, only to get there too late to get on the wait list to see the nurse practitioner. I know, right? So we ended up at an Urgent Care down the street where we got the diagnosis.

That was all well and good. The doctor was nice, facility clean and the exam room had a TV (they all seem to here, it's nice). We were on our way back to CVS to fill the prescription when she started throwing up in the car. Then she threw up a couple more times in the parking lot. I must say, things to love about Texas. A lady in the parking lot came over to help me. She gave me a bunch of napkins and found a bag for me to put her clothes in. I didn't really need it, but how nice. Also nice? Bjorn met us as the door and promptly got to work cleaning the car and car seat. It really does take a village and I love it.

Honey badger don't care!

I must say, if all nature videos were this nicely narrated, I would watch it all the time. Hilarious.

Ranch trip

Jennifer and her baby. She's a regular Angelina Jolie.

Bjorn and Andy on the four wheeler. It was so. much. fun.

The Super Moon. On the clear night out in the country near Brownwood, it was pretty magnificent.

Dad and Andy after climbing the cliffs not far from the house. Andy absolutely loved climbing. Dad and I were cringing and giving him all sorts of advice and he just did it his way and it worked out.

Dad helping Andy shoot the .22. Andy declared that shooting guns with Pop was more fun than playing Wii. That's some seriously high praise from the six year old.

Bjorn mowed around the house and fence line, killing the stickers that are a real nemesis down there.

It was a little dusty down there. It was very dry, the river was low and there was a burn ban in effect so no outdoor fires or s'mores. This time.

Dad and Andy walking through the take out spot on the Colorado River. Normally, there's a river there and not a dry bed. We still had fun skipping rocks in parts that had water and chasing frogs.

Like I said, the four-wheeler was a ton of fun. The roads are still hard to find and in some cases, hogs have torn then up, so I couldn't go too fast, but it was still good fun to tool around on them. I usually had one kid with me which meant I was even more alert than usual.

We also found time to kayak upriver, spotlight animals (we saw seven deer the first night and two armadillos; five deer the second night), cruise around in the jeep, chase wild turkeys (we counted at least 10) and watch college basketball. It was a fun trip. Looking at the pictures, I'm reminded how much we did. No wonder I'm tired!

Reason #3948 for why I hate carpet

I really, really hate carpet. It's a pain in the neck to keep clean, especially this off-white carpet that adorns half my house. With moving in trauma to the carpet, the frequent cat throw up, regular child messes and Andy's recent bout of nose bleeds, it's time to get it cleaned. I haven't done this in ages so I started asking for quotes. So far, the lowest has been about $400 to clean just half the bedrooms, family rooms and hallway. And that's before I added on cleaning the back staircase at $2 a step. This is a necessity due Andy's nosebleed the other night where he left a trail of blood from his room, down the hallway, down the back stairs and into our room. I swear we don't beat him. Much, anyway.

At these rates, I might have to suck it up and rent one of those carpet cleaners for $50 from the grocery store. I haven't tried to use one since circa 1995 when I moved out of my apartment in Alexandria, Va., and headed for life in the big city of Washington, D.C. My apartment there in Woodley Park had ancient hardwood floors. Sure, I could get a splinter going to the bathroom, but at least I didn't have to vacuum.

So has anyone tried getting one of those do-it-yourself carpet cleaners of late? Am I better off sucking it up and hiring someone at that price? Bjorn's Blackberry is about to implode so we've been thinking of getting him an iPhone, partially so he can follow the NCAA tournament on his phone and stop using mine. Which is better? Bjorn + iPhone and us cleaning ourselves or hiring professionals and no iPhone?

Blackmail photo

The great big bed

When we moved into the new house, one of our first orders of business was buying a new king-sized bed. With two little kids, it was impossible to have one of them in addition to us in the queen-sized bed and not wake up with bruised kidneys due to tiny, but powerful little arms and knees that seem to find the most sensitive spot to kick you at 3 a.m. after visiting complaining of a bad dream. 

So far, it's been mostly a good thing. We actually like cuddling with the kids (most days), but the best part is being able to pull them into bed with us and going back to sleep instead of having to constantly return them to their beds. I know, I know, we're supposed to break them of this habit and we will. Eventually. 

When Meg comes down in the middle of the night, she never just comes by herself. Instead she almost always brings some sort of accomplice in the form of a lovey (or multiple loveys) with her. I changed the sheets on Friday and this is what I found that had probably accumulated over a week. 

This morning was unusual -- we had both kids in bed with us (usually just one and usually just Meggie). Andy fell asleep on our bed with his head on the foot of the bed. Meg started in her own bed, but woke up screaming something around 3ish having rolled over on her Elmo book that makes noise.

Genealogy for dummies

So we have a new favorite show in this house. Well, I have a new favorite show and everyone else kind of likes it. It's NBC's Who Do You Think You Are? which is sort of a reality genealogy show. I know, right? How dorky, except it's kind of cool. So the premise is you get these "celebrities" and they work with professions to track down their family history.

We've done a fair bit of research in our family so I am familiar with the process and the search. My only real complaint is they make it seem so easy sometimes. Sure, it's a piece of cake when Rosie O'Donnell walks into the Canadian library and the researcher has her information and pulls it up like that. In the real world, you spend eight hours going blind trying to read cursive handwriting on microfiche until you finally find something, anything useful. Still, it's cool to watch. My sisters, mother and I are all into it.