"Old bee..."

Last Friday Noel and I made a spontaneous trip to Roanoke to see family. It was really nice to see my parents, but after a series of unfortunate events, I wonder if we would have been better off to stay home.

Saturday evening, we decided to eat out on the deck, with a summer feast of hot dogs, chili, potato salad, and baked beans. Yum! Noel took a late nap and woke up around 6:00. She began eating her hot dog while Mom and Dad cleaned off some of the plates/dishes. It was then that a wasp came crawling out of a small crevice in the umbrella, flew over to my mom, then flew down and stung Noel right next to her eye.

I did not actually see it sting her - I was alerted by her high pitched cry, then noticed her scratching and rubbing her eye. We ran her inside, applied ice and baking soda paste as best as we could. I called her pediatrician's office, but of course since it was a (holiday) weekend, it took about an hour for anyone to call me back. Mom had already ran out to get some infant tylenol and children's benadryl.

I've never seen her so upset - she cried and cried and CRIED, clutching her arms around my neck, burying her face into me, sobbing. It is truly heartbreaking to see your child so distraught- you just want to make everything better.

I was not only concerned about her fear, but also because Tim is allergic to bees himself. The pediatrician called back soon after mom arrived, and we ended up giving her 1 tsp. of benadryl. She was busy watching Caillou, but every now and again, she would point to her pink, swollen eye and say "Old bee!" LOL

By the next morning, her eye was almost back to normal, with the exception of a tiny red dot on the lateral side, where the stinger went in. She is such a trooper! I remember having a bee sting in between my toes when I was a kid, and not being able to sleep at night because of the pain. I also remember it not going away for several days.

Anyway, I looked for that "old bee" and could not find the little deviant. I just hope he knows that he won't get away with that next time! You're on my list, buddy!

So if you remember, I said unfortunate events...

We returned on Sunday afternoon, after picking Bane up. We made it into our trip about 2 hours when I get the whiff of something truly repulsive and foul. I knew there had been an accident in my car, so I pulled off as soon as I could (which is really a bummer because Noel was sound asleep).

I walked around and opened the hatch to find runny doggy poop smeared across the 'walls' and floor of my cargo area. Terrific! I had several layers beneath them, but he still managed to get it underneath my backseat. We've cleaned it as best as we can for the time being, but I still see us taking the entire backseat out so that we can get every little bit out. (Sorry for all of the grossness :( )

And then to top it off, Noel came down with a cold. I'm pretty sure she got that from Tim, but it doesn't help this week because I had my first exam yesterday, and an interview on Thursday.

I didn't get any pictures of the bee action, but there are a few pictures of our dinner, and around the house. Hopefully next labor day weekend will bring better luck, huh? Haha

Dicing Duo

Noel and I have been cooking and baking a lot these past couple of weeks. I've been trying to introduce NEW meals so that we don't always have the same boring menu of...spaghetti, hamburgers, tacos (from a box)...etc.

A few of the things we've made are...

Apple Nut Bread (A variation of the Amish Friendship bread...the one you get the starter for)
Rainbow cake with buttercream icing (I did a trial version of her birthday caketo make sure I wouldn't screw up the final cake)
Beef & Bean Burritos (I added a green chile to the meat, and added tomatoes + cilantro on top)
Meatball Sliders (The provolone cheese is what makes these so good!)
Chicken Spaghetti (time consuming, but so worth the effort)
BBQ Chicken Pizza (If you don't use the toppings, try the crust! It's SO darn delicious!)

In case you haven't noticed (or maybe if you didn't click the links), 4 out of 6 of these recipes are from the "Pioneer Woman's" website/blog. Everything I've made from her website has been delicious, and the ones I choose have very basic ingredients. I am REALLY looking forward to trying her Lasagna, and the Eggplant & Tomato Pizza. To be honest I've only ever eaten eggplant ONCE, and I've never cooked with it, but I'm sure it'll turn out just fine. I can't wait to try it!

Noel helps me by pouring in some of the ingredients, and stirring it all up. She also enjoys tasting everything as we go along! Today she took several bites out of one of our apples, and when I was placing the dishes into the oven to bake, she stuck her ENTIRE head into the bowl to lick the batter. Nice! Hahaha...needless to say, she had a bath shortly thereafter. ;-)

Happy Birthday...one month early!

This year we bought Noel a swing set for her birthday. Tim had originally wanted to design and build her a "custom" swingset, but after pricing lumber and accessories, it made more sense to order an already-made one. We decided to get it early because winter is fast approaching and we want her to get as much use out of it as possible.

Unfortunately, since it's already-made,we can't swing on it, or go down the slide :( BUT I guess we're too old for that anyway, right?






I don't have a full shot of the entire thing, but it has a small child-size picnic table attached, a wavy slide, a rock-climbing wall, two swings, and a "glider". These pictures were taken when Tim was assembling the whole thing.

Nannie and Poppy also sent Noel an early birthday gift. We received it today, and I spent a couple of hours assembling it. The colors go perfectly in her room!

These pictures aren't that great - Noel was ready for bed, but she still agreed to the photo shoot.



I'd like to put a few small prints on the walls bordering the table and a small rug beneath it.

Actually, her room needs a lot of work! It's difficult to organize the room based on the sheer number and size of toys and furniture she has. It doesn't help that her room is pretty small and narrow. I'm starting to wonder if we should make our guest room a "Noel play room". Hmmm...

Once we remove the rocking recliner, we'll have some extra room in there, but we can't get rid of that until Noel has a big girl bed. Since she isn't climbing out of her crib anymore, I'm inclined to leave her in there for as long as possible!

Playdate

Just last week I decided I would go ahead and "back up" all of my photos from this past year. From Noel's birth through her first birthday, I filled up TWO DVD's of photos and videos. So I thought for sure I had the same amount this year. NOPE!

I still have 3 GB of data to go before I fill up ONE DVD, so in the interest of keeping up the pace, and trying to secure this precious, irreplaceable data (I do not trust external hard drives), I have been trying to take pictures everyday.

Here are some pictures from a playdate with Hannah and Leah a couple of days ago! Noel mostly played by herself the whole time, though. I think it's harder for Noel to "play" with them because they're sisters and so used to being around each other/playing together. I do think that I need to get her involved with other children more, though. She is still friendly/interested in other children (just yesterday she saw a "baby" and ran up and gave her a big hug), but I don't want her to lose that.





Playgroup is going to start back in the middle of September, and we're going to start going to that every week. I also thought about taking her to story time at the local library.

It's hard to keep her involved with other children when you live in the middle of nowhere and don't have any friends close by. I wish we had a "family" around here - we really need to start visiting the local churches so that we can meet people.

I'm secretly holding out hope that when Tim's employer does their "re-districting" or whatever, that they'll reorganize it so that we can transfer back to Montgomery County. *crosses fingers* NOWHERE feels like home (even my real home!) like Blacksburg to me. I could happily live there forever, and I hope that eventually we are able to do that.

No-no Dew-ee