$50 well spent...

Yesterday while driving home from school, Syd tells me from the back seat "Mom...my ear was really itchy during school so I scratched it with my pencil and the lead fell down, down, down inside my ear." My response..."Are you serious???" I made her call Dan on his cell phone to see what he thought of her 'second day of school adventure'. He said he would bring his 'look inside the ear' tool home from the office and check it out.

Here is Dan taking a peak in Syd's ear, which was followed by a very poor attempt to retrieve the lead with tweezers. Luckily Dan told me that pencil lead is not actually lead, it's graphite. Thank goodness for that :) We will give Dan a gold star for trying, but that lead was staying put...glued in nicely by a bunch of ear wax.

Here is Syd entertaining herself while waiting at the ENT's office for over an hour since they were kind enough to slip us into their already packed schedule. First thing they said when we walked in..."Oh you're the little girl who stuck a pencil in your ear." Yup...this is her!

Last but not least...the very waxy piece of pencil lead measuring in at just under half and inch. I'm serious when I say I almost hugged the ENT for getting it out in the office for our $50 specialist copay. I was truly afraid of an out patient surgical center visit where we would have to meet our very large deductible.

Definitely $50 well spent!!!

Summer Vacation...

While most of your summer vacations are wrapping up and kids are heading back to school, ours here in Las Vegas is just beginning. All two weeks of it that is! The last day of school was Friday, August 7th and the first day of school is Monday, August 24th. I do have pictures of my girlies last day...which I intend to post sometime soon :).

So as part of my girls two week long summer break we headed off to Flagstaff to visit Diane and family. We can't tell you how excited we are that they live 3 1/2 hrs away now(give or take depending on the traffic at Hoover Dam). We also have some Iowa friends that we are excited to go visit there too!

One thing is for sure...I can't get over how BEEEEEAUTIFUL Flagstaff is! Maybe because Vegas is, shall we say, not so much. We took the kids down by the creek at West Fork one night and they had a blast! They said they wanted to live there forever, to tell you the truth I did too.

I told Spencer to show me his muscles and this is the pose he came up with :)

All the kids were having tons of fun hunting down blackberries that were ripe. I learned two things about blackberries that night: #1- just because they're black doesn't mean they're ripe #2- those are some seriously mean bushes, they will grab you and rip you to shreds if you let them!

The loot!

Looks like Vegas (just kiddin')...

Spencer worked long and hard at this TeePee to use for fires and cooking. He thought they might need something since they all were seriously planning on living down by the creek permanently.

Oh how we all love those little twins (crazy hair and all)!

Perfectly lovely!

My girls stayed with Diane for a few extra days so they didn't have to spend any more time at the office than necessary (bless you Diane). I'm still trying to decide if I'm glad I went, because I am really having some Flagstaff depression. It's always hard to come home back to real life reality after spending a few days relaxing. If the Norris family comes up missing...look down by the creek and you might just find us cooking up some dinner on Spencer's tee-pee.

Conquerors!

Did I ever mention that I have a great running partner (aka...Dan). He somehow manages to get my very tired bottom out of bed at 5:45 in the morning to go running (or shuffling as we like to call it) for approx. 2.5 miles (give or take). He is the BEST because he never hits the snooze button he just gets up, gets dressed, goes the bathroom, gets a drink, does a few stretches and then very politely asks if I'm coming. Yeeeeesssss...I painfully say. Before too long I'm up and ready, we're out the door and back before our girlies even roll over in their cozy little beds.

I must say we've made some serious progress over the last few months. Until today, we've been able to run the entire way...the entire way EXCEPT for one little section of our route that we lovingly call "the hill from hell". Dan honestly and truly thinks it should be called "Hell's Hill".

Here it is...I feel pain in my entire body just looking at it. (Insert "Rocky" music in your mind right now for effect :)

I know what you're thinking...it doesn't look ALL THAT BAD. You're thinking that I'm just being dramatic. You're thinking that you could cruise up and down it 5 times in a row w/o even breaking a sweat. Well...let me just say that you are WRONG! This is a beast, especially when the 5:45 temp is 97 degrees.

So let this day (Friday, July 31st) go down in history as the wonderful, yet terrible day that Dan & Carrie conquered "The Hill From Hell". True, we wouldn't have won any race at the speed we were going, but that is not the point. We set a goal...and we accomplished it! We ran the whole way INCLUDING Hell's Hill!!! Next, Dan thinks we need to not only run this hill but then proceed to run the 2nd (equally as horrible) hill to the water tower. And believe me, when that day comes there will be a post about that as well.