Burgaled!

I usually describe living in Lagrange as living in the Andy Griffith Show town of Mayberry. Everybody knows everybody else. People look after others and run errands for each other. They sit on their porches in the evening watching the sunset. I have actually had people come over holding shoes/backpacks (one time even my mail) that they found at the park and wonder if they might belong to us which usually it does.

Any way, yesterday the boys (and girl) and I spent all day in Cheyenne. Usually for me a day in Cheyenne with the kids is like herding 12 wild cats at a dog pound, but yesterday was quite smooth.

We went to the bank, the dentist (4 kids for fillings, one ortho check), then sack lunch at the park and ice cream at Cold Stone, a treat from Grama. Next was the hospital for abdominal xrays and blood work for Josiah. NEVER attempt to park a 15 passenger van in a hospital parking garage.

We were able to visit my dean of women, Mrs. Downare, who is in the hospital recovering from a stroke. She and Mr. D and their wonderful daughters Christy and Cathy brought ALL the boys (and girl) into her room for a visit. It was special for all of us.

Then we walked down to the Hershler building to say hello to Matt at work. The kids have never been there (he started that position right before the snake bite). His boss was outside and saw 8 children walking along and figured we must belong to Matt and invited us all in. We got a tour of the building and met all the coworkers (received candy and pop from each and every one of them). Then Matt took us over to the Capitol to meet the people he works with in the Govenors office. The ladies there gave us the full tour of the govenors office including the secret candy vault where they received more candy and pop.(I've been wondering how the kids have so many cavities!).

We stopped by Walmart for a few groceries and then gas and went home getting back around 6:30. I was exhausted and rested for 20 minutes while surfing facebook. When my laptop battery ran out I got up and looked for the charger. It was not where I left it. odd.

I wanted to keep surfing so I went to get the kids laptop out of the office. It was GONE! BURGLED! We all knew where I had left the charger that morning AND several children said, "yes they had seen the laptop in its spot that morning."

I looked around for any other missing items. The cash lying on my dresser was still there, my camera, my laptop all there. I looked around the yard and I found... A CLUE! The neighbor boy's bike was in the yard.

We knew there was MOTIVE because his laptop was broken and he wanted to try my charger to fix it. He also knew we would be out of town.

When Matt got home we decided the offense was enough to not deal with it our selves. The sheriff came out and asked a few questions and left. 30 minutes later he was back at our house items in hand. RETURNED!

So that was my big day.

Do I still live in Mayberry? Yes! Things still go wrong in Mayberry just usually there is a good outcome and the community is still there for each other. Though I just might lock my front door to help keep the kid out of trouble.

I love Sam.

We were discussing school electives today. He asked me if "extreme reading" would count. I wish it could. He is definitely my extreme reader.

Funny sayings

Funny sayings: Matt got dressed for work in his usual attire, slacks, dress shirt and tie. As he stopped to give the kids a hug goodbye one commented “Wow dad! Your pants work really well as a napkin.”

We have lots of dishes to wash at each meal. The kids are good at dishes now but it still takes a long time. I’m always looking for ways to speed up chore time and the other day I mentioned to the kids that if we each pitched in twenty bucks we could buy a dishwasher. “No thanks!” Was the unanimous decision. 

I was puzzled. Why not? Their answer: Dishwashers don’t get dishes clean enough.

Very Cool! We have come a long way from kids getting caught drying the dishes on the back of their underwear! (while we had company over I might add)

Lice, UTI, Swollen Eye, Lost Child, Tornado, Gastroenterologist

Josiah has had some stomach issues since the beginning of June. It started before Abbey’s snake bite. We tease him that he must be pregnant because he has all the symptoms of morning sickness: Eight weeks of nausea and a huge appetite.

His doctor decided we needed to see a pediatric gastroenterologist because he can’t figure what is causing it although he has ruled out pregnancy. 

The closest ped gastro is several hours away and the appointment was in the morning during a visit from my mom. So we made trip out of it and spent two nights at my sisters house.

We had the usual adventures: lice exposure, Abbey got a UTI, Silas’s eye swelled shut (mosquito bite allergy), Gideon got lost long enough in a store to have to get the manager, and to top it off a tornado touched down while we were in King Soopers forcing us to abandon Josiah’s prescription from the gastro doc and flee the tornado. 

It all worked out. None of us got lice (My sister spent $65 on lice testing and killing supplies and found no lice), Abbey’s UTI went away with copious amounts of cranberry juice, Silas’s eye unswelled after 2 days, Gideon was found, and Matt can pick up the prescriptions today.  I did not die from stress. ; )

So the appointment: We liked Joe’s gastro doc. She liked(!) Matt’s sense of humor and to Josiah’s embarrassment the two of them had good laughs about nausea and poop for most of his visit. In the end Josiah was given an xray and is assigned some various diagnostic tests. She also prescribed a different anti nausea med to try since the first one didn't help. So we will see what they find