Too Cute not to Share

Look at my precious precious nieces and nephew! I haven't seen Charlie since he was just a week old! Look how gorgeous my nieces, Betsy and Hailey, are! They are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. Can't wait to get to know Charlie and can't wait for him to start taking all my brothers "stuff" apart! My mom (the Geeg) went to Grandparent day at Hailey's school and had a photo shoot of the fam as well!

Fat Ass

My B-day was a couple weeks ago. Thirty something...
I asked to go running by myself in the morning. I came home from my run at 7 am to find 2-wait 3 boys icing a giant double batch cookie cake for me! So much for the run.
Too many candles later that night...
I'll take 'em while I can still get 'em!
Thanks Luke and Mase!

B is for BATCHELDER! Argh...

The story I am about to post is from a dear friend of mine from a long time ago. Not telling how long ago, but quite a while. This story is from "The Batchelders" specifically Chris Batchelder. Chris, Steven, Annie, myself, and my brother all grew up on Georgetown in Bartlesville, OK. We have LOTS of stories, some that still have not met the statute of limitations. This story is about Chris' son Brady. Yes, I am still very proud to call Oklahoma my home state. By the way, Brady's father once thought it was a good idea when he was babysitting his baby sister Annie to put her on his shoulders while roller-skating. Yeah, she broke her arm. Anyways...here goes.

So, 9:30 on Tuesday night, Brady decides he wants a corndog. Why he is still up at 9:30 and hungry is a topic for another email. After some debating, we agree to cook him his corndog...he goes running gleefully out to the garage freezer, opens the door and WHAM! gets hit in the head, blade-first, with a four-inch scraping blade (usually used to scrape old wallpaper off walls) that had been sitting on top of the freezer.

He has about a one-inch gash across his forehead that pretty much goes all the way to the skull. There is blood everywhere. Chris, who had made it to the doorway just in time to see the whole thing happen in slow motion, grabs the kid, grabs a towel, reminds me to stay calm whilst screaming for Emily (not Abbey mind you, because we all know why), Emily. Incredibly, she doesn't wake.

I am tossing shoes, grabbing keys, manage to find one of the four phones that are missing from their chargers and call Gallen and yell into the phone that he needs to come over because there's been and accident. He arrives in record time.

We leave oblivious, sleeping girls in his care and head out to the emergency room by 9:50. Now, this is Stillwater, Oklahoma mind you....

We arrive to discover there are no less than 30 people in the ER waiting for treatment...on a Tuesday. Since our child is hemorraging, we naturally expect to go to the front of the line. However, we are quickly informed that ours is not the worst injured child in the waiting room, as there is another boy there (Brady's age) from Ripley who has been attacked in the face by a dog.

Oddly, this poor mauled boy is ALSO waiting because some idiot college kid got injured in a flag football game and separated his shoulder (sorry Robyn, but really there are two bleeding children in the waiting room). Meanwhile, flag football guy's entire team are all there to help comfort each other and over-inflate the drama.

We, on our own, without being given so much as a piece of gauze or a paper towel, manage to get Brady cleaned up. He's wrapped in a blanket with no pants or shoes on. (BTW, dog-bite kid is in diaper only and soaking wet.) And we start distracting him with "name that shape" and "name that color."

It is about this time, 10:30, that we start to notice some of the other folks in addition to dog-bite kid that have found their way to the ER:

1. Pregnant teen, age 15 (and that's pushing it), and her mullet-haired mother, both reeking of smoke.
2. Unwed mother, at least twice MY size, with newborn, cussing out "baby daddy," who I call Jack Sprat because he is half my size, because they have "done been waiting" since 9:30 to see the "effin doctor."
3. Strung-out Native American man in wheelchair, long black mullet, also reeks of "funny" smoke. Staff call him him by his first name, Prentiss, as if they are familiar. He is wheeled back and forth many different times but only moans in response.
4. Bi-racial, lesbian couple within unknown ailment. They are sitting next to us (also reek of smoke), and it takes me awhile to figure out the one isn't a dude because it had shaved it's head and was wearing a baggy hooded sweatshirt.
5. I'll be generous and call them "common law" husband (also sporting mullet) and wife who enter ER and explain to nurse "we ain't got no 'lectrics, so we use oil lamps, and when I done blown one out it took all her breath away." To which she responded, as she is filling out her OWN paper work, "yeah, I can't breathe. I aint breathing." These folks were dismissed fairly quickly.
6. Old man with no teeth, also smokey, gumming a bag of Funyons. His son(?), with teeth plus multiple piercings and tatts, "funny" smoke. Another man, missing teeth, mullet (of course), badly in need of a belt.
7. Middle-aged lady with pink hair (I swear, I can't make this stuff up), seemingly healthy and quite friendly. Reeks of smoke...and "funny" smoke.
8. Pop Warner football player, still in full pads, with broken nose...and his father, in full coaching gear.
9. At least three other elderly couples, who are called back before us, looking completely healthy, but I'm not going to judge because maybe there were having heart attacks or something.

So just for the record, that's four mullets in one ER...but, we can talk about that later.

Finally, at 11:30 we are called to CHECK-IN, and told by the triage nurse yes, Brady definitely needs stitches, but there is still no room for us, as they have a DIFFERENT flag football injury in the back that is about to clear out. And hopefully we will get that room.

Only we don't.

One of the mullets goes instead, followed by dog-bite kid...which I am actually OK with, since I'm thinking he needs a shot before the rabbies actually sets in.

During this time it hits us that the irony is...we don't even HAVE any wallpaper that would ever need to be scraped.

At 12:10, we are shown to our room, where the only staff member who seems eager to wait on us is the admin in charge of getting our co-pay and insurance card. (Tip: Always take your insurance card to the ER. I have learned this willl cut your total wait time in half.)

Sure enough, instead of waiting two more hours for a doctor, it is only 45 minutes, during which time dog-bite kid next door is either getting multiple stitches or is giving birth to a real live alien judging by the screams.

Brady, by this time, has forgotten about his head wound and really wants to jump on the hospital bed and play with the little TV clicker thing that makes the "ding" noise for the nurse. Still, Dr. Olsen (who looks about ready to take a scalpel to his own jugular) makes it to our room and informs us that glue won't do and that our kid needs stitches too and that he'll go get the orderlies.

Two of the strongest guys I've seen and one poor girl nurse enter and proceed to wrap Brady like a human burrito into a sheet. All three hold him down while Dr. Olsen tries to stick the "deadening" needle in the precise spot that will numb the area. This is harder than it seems as human burritos are harder to manhandle than regular burritos.

Brady screams "mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama."

"Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama."

Four very precise stitches and a bandage the size of Canada. The orderlies are actually sweating they are so worn out. Me too, since they have me down under the towel covering Brady's head, trying to get him to look at me and calm down. At one point I send Chris into a fit of laughter by telling my child: "Brady, he's not an Amish quilter, OK? He's going as fast as he can!" Of course this doesn't work...some strange guy is sewing a wire into his head!

"Mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, OK I ready go home."

Anyway we're done.

Nurse: Wow, he's strong.
Me: Yeah, we know.
Nurse: No, I mean he's *really* strong.
Me: You aren't the first medical professional to tell us that.
Nurse: Well, he's *unusually* strong.
Me: Thank you. We're very proud.

Brady is fully calmed downed now, and into full-on flirt mode. Dad is carrying him out of the ER and he gives everybody a wave. He is blowing kisses to the nurses like a celebrity. He yells at the doctor "Later GUY!"

We are home by 1:30, asleep by 1:40.

And this morning he's totally fine.

There are several morals to this this story. I could go the serious route and talk about how God must have been really watching over us and how lucky we are that Brady didn't lose an eye intead of just have cut his forehead open. Or I could warn to stay away from the Stillwater ER if you are in immediate need of medical help. Or I could make a serious case AGAINST a publically funded healthcare system. But, I think I will just go with the generic "keep your children away from sharp objects" moral and be thankful that I don't wear a mullet and and that I still have all my teeth...and that I always carry my insurance card.

Angie

Instant Boob Job...boy, I wish!

Me in our butterfly top and E in the "instant boob job dress." I will leave it at that, don't want E to get mad. (Hence, if you have no girls up top, this is the dress for you! Or if you have big, perky, fake ta tas this is the dress for you. Sorry no big saggy girls. It just doesn't work.

Me, frisking one of our manequins before the party. Not sure which of the 3 we have-if this is Kelly, Kris, or Jill. I named them after Charlies Angels. My favorite.
This is my business partner and friend Michelle! She is the "treasurer." She tells me how much money I can spend, and then I spend more... I refer to myself as the Prez. I keep forgeting to tell Michelle that! You can't see it well but Michelle has on what I named the "skird." It's a skirt and a dress. Fits skinny bitches and the rounder larger wholesome woman.


So I started my own company and we launched August 21st. It has been non-stop ever since. It allows me to be a stay at home mom with my human garbage disposals and have a little somethin of my own to run, create, escape, whatever you want to call it! This is one of our first BIG events at E's house. Thanks E! I was a huge success with more to come!

Kids Will Make a Liar Out of You...

So this fall I signed up Luke and Mason for "Little Dribblers." Basketball for little ones. The absolute minimum age is 3. Mason just turned 2 in July but is beyond the size of a 3 year old and is completely totally obsessed with BALLS-yes, even his own. Man does that stuff start young! Anyways, I lied. I signed Mason up and put his birthdate down as a year earlier than it was. He passed easily for a 3 year old and I thought he would be completely obsessed. He would barely leave my side at our first basketball practice today. He went out with the other tots at first and then just kept saying Mama mama mama! He then saw some fountains, stripped down, and ran naked all over the place. No surprise there with my boys. They actually prefer to not have any clothes on at all...ever I just don't know where they get it? hmmmmmm... then Mason went into the flowerbeds at this nice community center place we were at and continued to bring me flowers from their garden and kiss me every time. He was a hit with the other moms. So yes, I am already lieing for my kids, and feel a bit bad about it. OK, not anymore, I'm over it. Hopefully next week he will participate. If not, he can pick their flowers and kiss me all he wants because someday he will want nothing to do with me and my kisses will embaress him! I'll take it while I can get it.

This summer in Colorado at the North Pole! Luke, Hailey, Betsy, and Mason. What fun we had, and have! It's so fun to see them grow up together! Little Charlie has some catching up to do!

PaPa and Partner

This summer we went four-wheelin in CO. This is one of my favorite pics from the trip. Mason thought he was all that and drove the Razr while pimpin in MaMas shades. Thanks PaPa!

My Babies Go To School- WAHHHHHHHHHH!

Masons first day! Luke was excited Mason was coming with him!



Mason isn't quite sure what is going on.
Lukes first day of school.


precious...don't the haircuts look nice. Sally (aka mommy) bought some shears and did it herself! Sorry boys, its a disease.


Luke is going to preschool T, W, Th, this year and Mason is going only on W mornings. I am VERY hesitant to send my baby Mason because he JUST turned 2. He isn't talking much so "they" think being around more kids and other people will help his talking, or lack there of. Last Tuesday was Lukes last, first day of preschool. I cried the week before about all of this, a lot. I had last Wednesday morning to myself and stopped crying. It was simply amazing how much I got done without ANY interuptions. I was quite worried about my Mason but he did fine.

A little behind

I have been a bit busy lately-starting my own business. Check it out- www.thesassycloset.com Needless to say I am behind in my pics and stories and to be quite honest, I will never truly catch up. This is a picture of my grandparents from about a month ago when we had the Mason Family Reunion in Colorado. We had so much fun and this with my bro and I's monkeys. I will slowly but surely post more pics from our fun filled summer! By the way my Grandfather, Pops, turned 90 last year and my Grandmother, Mamaw, is 88. Wow...

Nebraskaland

The boys went to Nebraska in June to visit MeMe and Go while Ben and I had a "romantic" weekend away at a wedding in Indiana. Remember that "romantic" "puking" weekend? Well, the boys absolutely had a blast in Nebraska doing all sorts of fun things. MeMe and GO said they were VERY well behaved! So, what am I doing wrong? Naaa, my boys are well behaved for the most part, well for today, well for this hour and this minute. Thats because Luke is watching Scooby Doo and Mason is asleep. We have lots to catch up on with the Karel Bros. Arriving at the Big O running to MeMe.
Mason being Mason

Playing in the yard with Bella and lots and lots of trucks and sand


Playing with fun antiques

Giggling and posponing bedtime as long as possible

Delivering toads to MeMe
Lots of laughter
Playing at the river cabing with our friend Josie
Cooking hot dogs with Go- my little pyromaniac

Had some sand delivered to play with- another excuse for MeMe to do MORE laundry

Went to the Childrens Museum in Lincoln. Go finally took the sticker off his DVD player in his car for the boys to watch a show on the way-it only took him what...4 years?
Diggin for fossils at the museum
Catching toads
more toads and teaching bro


Getting ready to give to MeMe as a "surprise!"

Go and Luke built a birdhouse and painted it.
Went fishing and caught a "6 foot fish." This fish story keeps getting better and better!
They did catch about 15 fish but kepts one, cleaned it, and ate it.


Building the bird house with Go.

Thanks MeMe and GO for your help and love for our boys! They had so much fun! Hope you are still resting!