My Sister, the Art Teacher

When I agreed to teach the crafts lessons for our church's VBS, I had no idea that I would end op needing sinus surgery the same week. Fortunately, my sister was willing to step in and fill my shoes. We tried out a few of the craft projects when we had our cousins in town, but we definitely didn't cover everything. Once my surgery was underway, I was no help to her whatsoever, but she did a GREAT job.
These are some beautiful Japanese flowers that the kids created using PAPER TOWELS! First, they folded and dip dyed paper towels. We found directions on the blog wendolonia. They just made the tie dye decorations and used them as window decorations.
We found directions for transforming paper towels into Japanese Kanzashi flowers on the filth wizard blog. Our group of kids ended up being a little young, so Jen took it upon herself to sew the flowers together so that each kid got one. They turned out SO PRETTY! Thanks Jen for stepping in and doing such a great job in my place!

Sinus Surgery

I never had sinus problems and then, suddenly in January I developed a sinus infection on the left side of my face that just wouldn't go away. I was on antibiotics a few times this winter and it would help, but then the pain and pressure would return. I could usually breath through my nose, but had constant reminders that all was not well. I kept putting it off and finally decided that summer, when I was off from school, would be a good time to get it checked out. Even though I could breath fine, the doctor saw a total blockage and put me on a 3 week course of antibiotics. Two weeks into the treatment, a CT scan still showed a complete blockage, so we scheduled a surgery to open it all up and clean it all out. The surgery was Tuesday and the doctor said it was a LOT worse than he expected. He said that the lining of the sinuses is normally the thickness of a piece of paper. Mine was 100 times larger. I keep thinking about what 100 xerox copies looks like, YUCK. Even worse was the volcanic (doc's description) eruption of infection when he cut into the sinuses. Sorry about the visual, but it is stuck in my head, so now you have it too! I came through it all fine, only had to take one pain pill yesterday. I LOVE my anesthesiologist, who ever he was, because I told him how I usually vomit after surgery and he found a good dosage that kept me from getting nauseous. So, now my nose is bandaged and I feel headachy and foggy like when you have the flu. Lydia is going to daycare all week and Jen has been babysitting me. Hopefully soon I will be back to my old self, minus the Groucho Glasses!

Sunday in Iowa

Sunday was our last day visiting in Iowa. Lydia took a bath with her cousins, then a LONG nap. Everyone else went to the pool while she was asleep. When she woke up, she and I had some quiet time and a pack of Oreos.

Lydia now insists on prying the two halves apart and only wants to eat the half with the frosting.

When she finally gets them separated and shoves the entire frosted side into her mouth, this is the face she makes! So cute, I just had to grab my camera and share!

Iowa Cousins

Jennifer and I drove the Iowa cousin's home on Thursday. We are now enjoying a weekend of catching up with the rest of the family. Last year we took a picture of all the kids playing in the yard. We were able to take another picture this year and are enjoying seeing how much everyone has grown.

Cousins at the Condo

This is what you get when Jen and I watch Lydia and the Iowa cousins at the condo.

We invited four more kids to have a slumber party at the condo.

In 24 hours they watched an entire season of the Simpsons.

They swam in the neighborhood pool, but also enjoyed swimming in the large jacuzzi bath tub. All the kids had a great time, and the 3 girls who had to ride to Iowa the next day slept REALLY well in the car!

Iowa Cousins in Tennessee

Last weekend, Jen and I drove to Indianapolis to meet up with our cousins from Iowa and bring their two girls back to TN with us for a few days. Next weekend we will go all the way to Iowa to take them home and visit for the weekend.

We wanted to take the girls tubing and hiking, but it poured rain all morning on Monday. Fortunately, the sky cleared for a few hours and we took advantage of the temporarily blue skies by heading to a local splash pad. Iowa has amazing public pools, but I don't think they have splash pads, so the girls seemed to enjoy themselves. Lydia had a great time running around with the older girls. After splashing, and before dinner, we went to Chill on North shore. Have you been to a Chill custom creamery? Its like a Coldstone or Marble Slab, only instead of them mixing in toppings and charging for each, you get a cup of liquid and add as much or as little of an assortment of toppings to the liquid. Then the fun begins. They have all these Kitchen Aid mixers that mix the liquid while blasting it with something super cold, so there is all this foggy smoky action. The kids LOVED watching their ice cream get "chilled!"

Traveling by Train

On Saturday, PJ got tickets for us to ride the Three River's Rambler. The train leaves Volunteer landing and travels up the river for about an hour and then returns. We went with some friends and their kids. Everyone was very excited by all the train sounds and the beautiful river views.