In the Interest of Full Disclosure...

Hey. How are you doing? Good. Good. I was trying to post some pictures, but my computer (remember? The one we paid $200 to repair?) isn't cooperating. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you all a little story of what happened to us yesterday.

Two nights ago, I happened to notice Greeley had a rash on the backs of her legs. Third child, rash, -eh, whatever. I'll keep an eye on it. She had a fever a few days ago, but she doesn't seem outlandishly cranky. A bit fussy, but tolerable.

Yesterday, the girls and I were heading into an appointment. As I'm using a wipe to try to swipe the lollipop slime off of Greeley's hand (lollipop=another sign that she's a toddler, not a baby), I notice that she has blisters on her hands. Blisters? Yes! Blisters.

I reschedule our appointment because I'm a little distracted. Did I mention my baby (when they're sick they're soooooo not a toddler) had blisters!! on her hands? We drive over to Rich's job site. I'm kind of thinking chicken pox, but would like a second opinion. Rich looks at the blisters and says, "I don't remember chicken pox but I say you take her to the doctor's." Reassured that I'm not overdoing it, I drive straight to the kid's doctor's office. No, we don't have an appointment, but I was wondering if you could get us in? Because my baby? My baby has blisters on her hands. They did get us in to see the doctor.

We do the initial weigh in, where Greeley stands on the big girl scale. Point towards toddler. She stands up against the wall so the nurse can see how tall she is. Another point towards toddler. We get into the doctor's office. He looks at her paws. He asks if she has blisters on her feet. "Um, I don't know. " We remove her sweet little sneakers to discover that her feet stink like her father's and that she does indeed have blisters on her feet. The doctor turns to his computer and starts to pull up the diagnosis. I see something, something mouth disease and say, "Hoof and Mouth Disease?! Isn't that something cows get?"

It turns out it's hand, foot and mouth disease. Judging by the paper handout he gave us that said, "Not to be confused with hoof and mouth disease", lots of people make the same mistake. It's like a cold. It's a virus. There's no treatment. She'll get over it. And with any luck, I'll be able to post the post I actually wanted to tomorrow.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

It's an overdue post full of overdue thank yous.

Thank You Number One:
Sometime ago, I won something! Tracey from Just Another Mommy Blog hooked us up with two bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. Greeley can't keep her hands off it.

Even though it looks kinda like she can't keep her hands of the bottles of margaritas. Thank you Tracey!
Thank You Number Two:
Saturday night, Uncle Michael came to visit. That can only mean kid tacos! Or, at least, that's what my kids think. As Michael was getting ready to leave on Monday, Atlee pointed out that he couldn't leave because he hadn't even rolled her into a taco yet. I believe the quote went something like, "But, Uncle Michael, if you don't roll me into a taco then I will have to live (big sigh) a tacoless life."

She was not destined to live a tacoless life.

Introducing the taquito. Thank you, Uncle Michael!

Thank You Number Three:
Did I mention Greeley's getting bigger? Here she is enjoying a bowl of Fruity Pebbles. One more step to toddler.
All sorts of big girl toddler-style food going on. You know what else is a step out of babyhood? When your parents decide your big enough to spend the night with someone else so they can go stay at a hotel without any kids.
That's what we did. My last thank you of this post is going to Amy. Amy, my brave friend. The friend who said, "Sure, I can take all three of your kids for the night- including that toddler that still nurses and sleeps next to you every night and has never been away from her Mommy. I'll add that to my two girls and barely even notice." Thank you to Amy for going without sleep so that I could enjoy a leisurely dinner at the Herr's Tavern. No one asked me to get them a glass of chocolate milk during dinner, and it was wonderful!

Thank you! And Amy's even still talking to me- pictures soon to prove it!

Proof That Sometimes I'm Right And He's Wrong...

My father built this rocking horse for Shea when he was a baby. My brother, Bob- the family artist, painted its oh-so-realistic looking eye. Our family has moved three times in three years. We went from a three bedroom house to living in one bedroom in Rich's Dad's house to a two bedroom house to all of Rich's Dad's house. We've gotten rid of many things in each of those moves. Rich asked each time we moved if we really needed to keep the rocking horse. I lobbied hard in favor of the rocking horse... and I was right.



Thank you Grandpa!

That's Not Going To Be Fun...

That's exactly what Rich said when I told him our friend, Amy, had invited Girls Club for an outing to the Round Barn. "Have you been there? They sell apples. What's fun about that?" We ignored my husband and headed out with Amy and her daughter, Kaya.

Grrr.... Blogger won't let me edit where the photos are placed. So, this may be as chaotic to read as it feels to hang out with 2 four year olds and 1 one year old. Atlee posed as an apple.


Apples and donkeys? Atlee was nervous the donkey would take her whole hand and not just the apple. So, she kept dropping the apple.


She kept trying, but in the end just tossed it through the fence.

There were also goats. Kids definitely think goats are fun.

Greeley kept calling them dogs. Everything is a dog these days.

There were hay bales to walk on. Again, fun.

Kaya also posed as an apple.

Kaya was much braver about feeding the donkey- until he bit her hand off. Just kidding.

Fish!? See those smiles? That's because fish are FUN!


More dogs, er- goats, to be petted.

Did I mention the apples? There were plenty of apples. Apparently, we live in the "fruit belt". That's a fancy-schmancy term that means we have a whole heck of a lot of orchards in these here parts.


And places that sell apples? Yeah- they can be fun with the right company.

Mountain House Floor

Creative title, eh? The floor is stained at long last. It still needs a coat of poly.

I don't know if you can truly appreciate this floor without knowing what the before floor was. It was four layers of flooring saturated in pit bull pee. Vivid sensory experience, no? It looked kind of like an archaeological dig when Rich tore up the floor. Layer after layer of icky flooring. Culminating in rotten subfloor. Woo Hoo!

Yeah, this is better.

The landscaping efforts outside have begun.

We're not foolish enough to think we can make the entire two acres look tamed. We'll settle for the garden along the side of the house.

I feel like I understand our ancestors that hacked home sites out of the wilderness a bit better now.

Gettysburg Fall Family Fun

While it seemed like all I did for the last two weeks was glower at the computer and direct some colorful language its way, it's not true. To start with, Atlee's playing her first season of soccer.


A classic sign of the approaching autumn is the Gettysburg Heritage Festival. The festival is designed to celebrate and encourage diversity in our community. Lots of different food, music and activities for the kids. (As an aside, Atlee ate a hot dog and all three had ice cream. They didn't appreciate the opportunity to sample exotic food.) First, Atlee made a tissue paper windsock.

Then she looked at the reptiles and amphibians visiting from Strawberry Hill.

We moved onto the face painting. At first she declined. Then I pointed out she could have kitty whiskers. On her face. Kitty whiskers. She was quickly down with the plan.

Perhaps you were wondering if it was just Atlee. No, Shea and Greeley were along for the ride. Shea hid behind Greeley's stroller each time I tried to snap a shot of him. He relaxed his guard on the playground for a moment.

Can you see her kitty whiskers?


Greeley got a balloon. Well, each child received a balloon. Shea and Atlee requested uninflated balloons. The nice woman kept looking at them and then me. "Really? They want UNinflated balloons?"

It wasn't all partying. We've managed to work on the Mountain House too. Pictures soon. Pinky swear.

Did You Miss Us?

Because I certainly missed you. And you. And you. And even you. Our computer was consorting with some bad, bad web pages and picked up a computer transmitted disease. The sort of virus that does all sorts of evil things to not just the computer, but goes even further and dirties all of the dishes, leaves an empty milk jug in the fridge and eats the last of the jalepenos. Bad, bad virus. The computer has had a long time out and a serious talking to. A serious talking to with a computer expert. A serious talking to that required my writing a check for $200.00. Bad computer. So many pictures to post. Missed you!