the 200$ popcorn kernel (and other stuff)

see that little popcorn kernel van's holding? well, for some unknown reason, he decided to stick one just like it in jasmine's ear one morning before school (??!!). so i got out my tweezers to see if i could get it. no luck, there was no getting hold of that thing...thus started the 2 day dramatic episode of the popcorn kernel extraction.
so we went to an urgent care clinic near our house, and they were going to charge us $300 just for the visit, not including the cost to get it out. it wouldn't have cost so much, but we just changed our insurance to an HSA account, and pay out of pocket for dr. visits. it goes toward our yearly deductable, so in the long run it's great...but for times like these, it was killing me to have to pay that much for a stinkin' popcorn kernel! just then, my sister called (the self proclaimed "expert at removing popcorn kernels from kids ears") and she said to come on over and she'd get it out.
well long story short, after 2 hours of my sister and i carefully trying everything to get that bugger out, 2 more trips to other urgent care clinics, and an overnite stay with the popcorn kernel lodged in her ear...the next morning we went back to the clinic and finally got it out. for the bargain price of $200.
it was pretty traumatic for her, but now she's back to her old self...

ready to throw around the football with freddy and van at the school park




18 week belly!

so we all survived the popcorn kernel episode. another story for the books...

that's my girl...

so i go into jasmine's room last night to find her reading. no big deal, there's rarely a moment that she doesn't have a book in her hand. but this girl takes the cake. i ask her what she's reading, thinking it might be one of the twilight books (she likes to read them over and over). but no, she's reading her literature book- just for fun.
i don't recall ever taking my school books home, let alone reading them for pleasure. for real though, i have never seen anybody find so much joy in reading. she was tested last year (5th grade) on her reading speed and comprehension. that girl can read 240 words per minute and comprehends 88% of what she reads! that's more than alot of adults. she has read over a hundred books since then, so i'm curious what her score would be now.
anyways, i'm just really proud of her. that little smarty pants is too smart for her own good sometimes...i forget she's only 11.

butt mom.

ok it's not what you think (although my ghetto booty is not on the small side). this is about van and his choice of words when he's challenging my authority. he's usually pretty good at doing what he's asked, but of course there are some things that a kid has to protest.
for example, if i tell him it's time to turn off the video games and get ready for bed, he immediately throws out (in his whiny little 5 year old voice) "but mom!". sometimes it's followed by an argument about why he doesn't want to do whatever it is he's protesting, but it always starts with "but mom...".
so instead of getting irritated that he didn't jump the second i asked him to do something, i started turning it around to make a joke out of it. so now every time the "but mom" comes up, i say:
"butt mom? why are you calling me butt mom? what, you think i have a big butt or something?" and then he starts laughing (because he can't get enough of the butt and fart humor), and i start the tickle fest, and before you know it- he's in the bathroom giggling while brushing his teeth, the video games all but forgotten.
i'm a genius. except now he thinks it's funny to call me "butt mom" in public.
oh well, can't win 'em all:)

congratulations erik and karen!

i'm a little late in posting this...but 2 days after Christmas, the youngest Sanders boy got married! he really got himself an awesome girl, and we were so glad to be a part of their beautiful wedding.

sanders boys:

the ceremony was beautiful and there was such a sweet spirit there.

everything was gorgeous and turned out absolutely perfect!
everything including...

the cake...the entertainment...

the dancing...not to mention my handsome hubby with our cute little niece savannah

but most importantly- the bride was beautiful and happy!
welcome to the family karen! we love you!

bye bye skinny jeans

today i was walking by this picture that's hanging up in our living room, and i realized something. it's official (and depressing)...i can no longer button up those jeans i'm wearing. they go pretty far down on my hips, so i was able to get away with wearing them up until now, but i just tried them on the other day and it's not happenin' anymore. dang.
plus, if my husband tried to lift me up like he's doing here, he'd probably fall over backwards, and soon won't even be able to get his arms around me. definitely one of the downfalls of pregnancy...losing your waistline. oh well, it's all worth it- right?
someone please tell me it's worth it...

china shoes

(i posted this a few days ago, and accidently deleted it...so here it is again)(disclaimer: this little story will probably not be funny or interesting to anyone else but us. i just wanted to remember it)

so van got these shoes as hand-me-downs from his cousin luke a while back, and for some reason calls them his "china shoes". i seriously don't know why. i asked him once, and he said matter-of-factly... "because i wore them when i was in china" (??)
so now if he can't find his regular shoes, these are always the default. "just go put on your china shoes" we'll say. we laugh about it everytime they're talked about, and i think we'll be sad when he grows out of them.

texas ice storms...

Wikipedia:" Ice Storm"

Ice Storms happen when a warm cloud rains above a layer of colder air. This lowers the temperature of the droplets to below zero, however they remain in a liquid state. The supercooled droplets freeze into ice on impact when they fall onto a surface the temperature of which is close to, or below, freezing. This freezing rain covers everything with heavy, smooth glazed ice. Ice-covered roads become slippery and dangerous. In addition to hazardous driving conditions, branches or even whole trees may break from the weight of ice. Even without overhead tree branches, the weight of ice itself can snap power lines. Just one quarter of an inch of ice accumulation, can add about 500 pounds of weight per line span, leaving people without power for days or weeks. Damage from ice storms is highly capable of shutting down entire metropolitan areas.

(i had to look all that up, because i didn't understand why ice storms were such a big deal in texas)

We live in the DFW metroplex, and i can account for the "entire metropolitan area shutting down" because of an ice storm. most of the time the weather here is absolutely beautiful (except for the 3 months in the summer when the blazing heat will all but kill you), but the other 9 months you can pretty much count on very mild, comfortable weather. a few days out of the year though, you can also count on an ice storm or two, to cause a frenzy.
these are typical headlines in the news in the month of january:

Roads iced over; hundreds of crashes reported...6 dead after Texas ice storm...600 residential outages reported in North Texas...Flight delays...Business and school closing alerts...

texas ice:

what? business and school closings? now i'm from utah, and never in my life did a business or school close on account of the weather. it could have snowed 6 feet, and you had to shovel your car out of the snow (after shoveling your entire driveway) in 5 degree weather, and you were still expected to be at school. so it was so weird when i moved here, and found that if there's even a hint of bad weather, most of the businesses and school districts in the metroplex shut down. i guess i understand the concern...but still, a little strange for me.

so last week, a famous texas ice storm decided to come visit us. (ok, i guess we'll stay home if this might happen when we go out)we watched the morning news, and got the official word...yay! no school! (these kids get off too easy)
so freddy took the day off too, and we spent the morning inside playing games and hangin' out as a family. and when the sun came out and melted all the ice, we decided to make a day of it. we picked up jasmine's friend emily and headed out to the mall to do some shopping, catch a movie, and hang at the arcade.

what ice storm?

(this isn't the movie we saw...van just liked the darth vader poster)the boys had fun playing street fighter...

and the girls found their own fun riding the rapids...and doing a little bit of modeling.

van's favorite...skeeballwe dropped off jas and emily at a church activity, and finished the day by doing some much needed grocery shopping. i've decided that grocery shopping is at the bottom of my favorite things to do list, so it was nice to have my hubby there...it doesn't seem like so much of a chore when i'm hangin' with my man (and my easily amused little 5 year old boy:)

so thank you texas, for your crazy ice storms. we took full advantage of the time off and had a great day!