This is pretty cool

Trip to the Hospital

Last Friday, yes, the 13th, as in, you know, Friday the 13th (gasp), Saige had to have blood work done and had to have a CT scan, too.  The doctor is trying to rule out bad, bad things like cancer or gall bladder disease, in his quest to figure out what is causing Saige to have such bad nausea.

I think it's Dr. Lampshade.

I mean he's the cause.  He causes stress, and stress leads to stomach aches.

But it's good to rule out stuff that can be horrible.

When we have one member of our family going to the hospital, the rest of us go along.  It's not only a fun, bonding experience, but we also get lots of hysterically funny photos.

Saige is ready for anything!!

Even this nasty radioactive drink o' grossness they gave her.  (I'm not exactly sure why my boobs are crawling down to my stomach.  I blame gravity.  Stupid gravity!)

But oh, this stuff is NASTY!

Amusing, but oh, so nasty.

Jethro tried encouraging her to drink it down.  Or else he was saying, "I had to do that, too.  Just guzzle it and get it over with!"

We got some candy from one of the quarter vending machines, and Hope was amused by her blue tongue.  Look behind her, though, at Saige's face!

YAY, Spongebob Squarepants!

And yay for finishing the nasty drink!

Having your blood drawn is always a fun activity, too.

As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!  Or, I'll never have blood drawn again.  Whichever comes first, dang it.

Then this weekend, Lampshade's wife, Britney, showed up with their niece, Anklebiter.  Anklebiter absolutely, positively, adores Lampshade.  She thinks he is funny!

She is a cutie, isn't she?  I got to hold her for a little bit, but she kept giving me the "stranger danger" fearful look, and a couple times she got the quivering lip, so I gave her back to Aunt Britney and Uncle Lampshade.

We had Hope and Justice this weekend, too, so their Mom and Jethro could have some time alone, which they spent cleaning house!  Well, I can remember having two toddlers, or preschoolers, around, and I know that I would have probably cleaned house, too, if someone took my kids for the weekend.

We made some liquid soap, and some of the bath jelly I wrote about.  It did gel, but was more like slime than jelly.  Maybe if I'd had more time for it to cool it would have gelled, but the girls had fun with it, anyway.  Let me tell you, though, when you dump a big thing of purple soap into the bath, the water turns a very dirty gray. The girls didn't mind, though, because they helped make this stuff, and they smelled like grapes.  They got clean, too!

Erma and Ambrose spent the weekend, which is always nice.  I cooked some of Erma's favorite foods, including salmon loaf and lentil stew.  Surprisingly, Hope LOVED the lentils.  She ate a big bowl of lentils on rice.  Justice, on the other hand, wasn't so sure about lentils, so she picked out the sausage she saw and ate that.  

Then Erma spent several hours, making the girls their very own church dolls.  She let them pick out their own fabric and buttons for their dolls.  Of course, once Hope saw Justice's doll, she wanted that one, and we had to remind her that she picked out the things for her dolly.  The girls LOVED those dolls.  At bedtime I made them a crib out of a blanket my mom had sewn for one of Saige's dolls, and we put a piece of fabric on top of the dolls for a sheet. (It was hot, and Hope thought the dolls would like a sheet more than a blanket)  

These dolls were made many, many years ago, when fathers or mothers tied their handkerchiefs into these dolls to keep their kids occupied during some long sermons. If the kids dropped the dolls, they made no noise falling on the floor of the church.  The dolls are soft and cuddly, and Justice was so excited to get her baby, she was trying to tuck it in while Erma was still sewing it!  When Hope was tucking her doll into bed, she said, "Oh, you are as snug as a rug in a bug!"

Some funny things that happened with the kids:

Ambrose, luckily, heard Hope saying, "I don't have anything in this backpack. Not even a kitten!"  Uh, yes, she did have a kitten in her backpack, and this kitten did not like being in the back pack.  I love how little kids tattle on themselves!

Later, with a frown, Justice informed us that, "I not cute!! I darlin'!"  That's because I'll say stuff like, "Come on, darling, and let's get dressed."  

(She is really cute, by the way.  As is Hope, of course.)

Oh, in case I forgot to tell you guys, Lamp's blood work for the Hep C came back as negative.  They thought perhaps he was exposed at one time, because of the first positive.  However, he'd tested just two days before, too, and that test was negative so who knows?  Now he can no longer sell his plasma, which stinks for him because that provides 50 bucks every few days.  So even though the major test came back as negative, because he did have a positive, he can't give plasma.  I'm not sure about giving blood, although if the rules still apply, none of us except for Saige can donate blood because of the time we lived in Germany.

The only one who seems to have an issue when Erma and Ambrose stay the night is BDG.  I slept on the couch so Erma and Ambrose could have my room.  Well, BDG wanted that room, so he kept breaking down the door so he could go in there.  Early one morning I woke up and went to the bathroom, and BDG was standing at my door, waiting for me to let him in.  He is one dog that absolutely loves his routine.  And for my family, especially Emmie, remember how Constance used to get jealous if we petted one another?  BDG is that way, too!  In fact, if someone is talking to me and I'm not paying enough attention to him, he'll desperately try to get in my lap or he'll shove his head under my hand in a bid to get me to pet him.  Silly dog.

Fuzz Dawg likes her routine, too, but she's not as adamant about it as BDG seems to be.  

Oh, the doctor's office called, and Saige's CT scan was normal.  The bloodwork isn't back yet, though.

That's it for now.  Go in peace, be warm and filled!

Let Us See

Let's see if I can complete a post.  Unlike my other ones, though, this one might be rambling and nonsensical.  Wait.  Most of my posts are that way!  Well, this one might be worse.  I have Hope and Justice here.  They are wonderful little girls, but like I've written before, they do require lots of attention.  Plus, Justice keeps merrily trying to get one of the baby "gittens" and when I tell her not to do that, she stomps and says, "Dat not you baby gitten!!!'  Last night at bedtime she became very upset with me over something like, oh, you know, it being bedtime, and she said while pointing at me angrily, "YOU NOT G'AMMA CINNY!!"

She took away my entire identity!  Hee hee!!

So, to catch you up on things, Easter was fine.  Mother's Day was, well, really it was just another day, albeit with a humongous card courtesy of Jethro and some phone calls from my other children.

I've always wanted to try dying eggs with natural dyes, like flowers or fruits, or even onion skins.  I've also wanted to try dying eggs with silk ties, but unfortunately, the thrift shop I use only had one tie that was made of silk.

Here I was using dandelions.  It took a TON of dandelions to make any sort of color on the eggs, at least, in my experience.  Notice that one of the eggs is cracked?  Yeah.  I can't boil eggs very well.  Don't judge.

The egg on the right came out with a stripe.  I'm not sure how that happened.  Anyway, after I boiled the eggs in the dandelions, I set the little bit of color with some vinegar, rubbed the eggs with some oil to make them shine, and then we promptly ate them.  Dandelions aren't poisonous, so eating the hard boiled eggs was fine.

Later I used frozen spinach and some frozen blueberries to dye some eggs.  The spinach, well, it made nice white eggs (there was no change at all in the color), and the blueberries made a really cool purple.  

I wrapped these eggs in some light fabric, trying to protect the eggs from cracking, and also to see what kind of pattern it made.

As you can see, even the material didn't protect the eggs!

Here Justice shows off the egg we'd decorated with a temporary tattoo.  I felt sunflowers were more appropriate for Easter than, say, the skulls we also have on hand on the tattoo sheets.  

Another day the girls and I, along with Saige, did a tie-dye method to color our eggs.  That's pretty easy, but if you're doing this with a 4 and a 2 year old, well, I recommend you don't do that!  All you do is hard boil the eggs, and then put them in a colander.  Sprinkle them with some vinegar.  Then take two or three colors of food coloring, and drip them down over the eggs.  If you are 17 or older, at least in our house, the eggs look very colorful and pretty.  If you are 4 or 2, the eggs look kind of muddy, and your hands are colorful.

I try to do a lot of crafts with the girls when they come over.  We have some nice, homemade play dough that has kept for several weeks in the refrigerator. A little while ago we made liquid soap, and later, we're going to try making bath jelly.  In truth, I am doing most of the work, which is fine, since making the soap and then the bath jelly calls for boiling water.  

Three of the four kittens (gittens) have homes, and if the fourth one found a home, I'd be happy with that, too.  I'm really glad the male, named Prince, has a nice home.  He's already been to the vet, had his shots, and he'll be neutered when he's old enough.  Yay!  

Here we have Emily, Bear, Darcy (who lives with Macrame and Jethro) and Prince.  

Emily is still with us, but she has a home. The only one that is without a place is the gray one.  She is so cute!! Well, they're all cute, of course, as kittens tend to be.  If you remember Teo, the cat who died a month or so ago, he was the father of these kittens,.  Well, of some of them.  Cats tend to be rather promiscuous, and can have more than one father per litter of kittens.   I'm pretty sure that Teo is the dad of the majority of kittens, though, because Hell Kitty was his father, and Hell Kitty looked more Siamese than anything else.  These kittens look like their grandparents, that's for sure.

Hope and Justice keep trying to pick up and love on the kittens, who don't want to be squeezed.  I'm working with Justice especially, showing her how to "be soft!  Soft!!  Ack!  Put down that kitten!"  The lessons aren't going too well.

It's rather cool and kind of dreary outside today.  I was hoping the weather would turn and it would be nice so we could go to the park.  I mean, we can go anyway, I suppose, but it is better when it's nice outside.  We're supposed to get more rain throughout the afternoon.  Well, if nothing else, I'll let the girls use the small garden spades so they can dig, and plant.  I have a lot of old seeds--and if anything grows from them, it'll be a miracle, and if they don't grow, the girls will have fun digging.

I'm going to have to get them lunch soon.  Justice keeps coming up to me and saying, "I need eat!  I need a 'nack!"  

Oh, I have to confess something stupid I did with Hope.  Jethro, Hope, and I had driven somewhere, and it was rather hot.  I ran into a gas station to get a soda, and when I came out, Hope was holding a plastic cup that held some now warm water. I handed her the soda with the words, "Here, honey.  This soda is better than that old water, isn't it?"  

Well.

Apparently when Hope was home, she'd say she was thirsty, and when Jethro or Macrame got her water, Hope would say how soda is better than water.  Grandma Cinny said so!

I explained to Hope that I'd just meant that the soda was better at that time, because her water was warm.  I told her that water is always better for you than soda.  I told her that even grown ups make mistakes sometimes.  My mistake was forgetting how 4 year olds are concrete thinkers, and if a grown up says soda is better than water, then by gosh, it is better than water!

Erma and Ambrose have spent the past couple of nights here.  Both of them began working last Monday at various places, which is good, but they're employed in this town, and they live about an hour away.  Gas prices are soooo high that having to drive back and forth every day is a bit much, so they stayed here for a few days.  

Lampshade is still here, but I've told him he cannot stay much longer.  Supposedly he's going to get back with his wife, and they get to have her Dad's house while he goes to Florida to visit his mother.  We'll see.  I love Lamp, but he causes too much stress and drama, and things tend to disappear when he's around.  You know, things like money.  Electronics.  In fact, Saige heard him saying to a friend that he was going to get the title for my old Escort, so he could scrap it.  Uh, I think not.  

The rash I had last year is back.  I think it's exacerbated by stress.  And Dr. Lampshade.

Well, I need to get going.  Go in peace, be warm and filled!