I had just gotten back to NC after being back home in VA to do some cleaning up in the house to get it prepped to sell while leaving the kids with Daddy to look after. We're all exhausted and hoping for an uneventful evening. The following are the events as they unfolded.

I was changing Thing 1's diaper and putting her in her pajama while Thing 2 was walking around; Daddy and I were chatting the entire time. Suddenly, Thing 2 approaches Daddy crying with a very small toy in her hand. She coughs and points to her mouth. Instantly, I yelled at Daddy to check her mouth because she is choking. Daddy puts a finger (a pointer finger! I yell at him to use his pinky) in Thing 2's mouth and Thing 2 cries harder. She spits up. By this time, I left Thing 1 diaper-less to rush to Thing 2. I put her on my lap while she cries harder. I am panicked at this time so I shove my pinky down her throat and do a sweep. Thing 2 spits up blood. I continue my sweep down her throat and she cries and turns blue. I sweep with my finger and thought I touched something. I can't get it because she bites me. Daddy then hands me a small toy to put in Thing 2's mouth so as to prevent her from biting me. I yell at Daddy for coming up with a dumb idea. Thing 2 continues to cry but I can't do anything more so I hush her and calm her down and yell at Daddy to call someone.

After a few minutes, Thing 2 calms down. I call our pediatrician back home and spoke with the doctor on call. I described everything that unfolded and she suggests to take Thing 2 to the hospital just to make sure that the toy didn't get in her lungs. So we drive to the hospital and after a total of 2 hours (which isn't bad in terms of ER wait time goes) and xrays, we find out there's nothing lodged in her throat and there is nothing in her tummy. PHEW! But wait, what was all that?? As far as we can figure, the gagging happened after Daddy shoved a big fat finger down her throat. And the spitting the blood by the time I took over was probably due to Daddy's finger nail. Turning blue was probably due to all the shoving of finger we were doing.

Late last night when all are quiet, Daddy and I agreed on a few things: 1-we absolutely do not mind having gone to the ER to be safe rather than sorry. We would spend our life savings to keep our kids safe, though thankfully, our COBRA coverage has already kicked in so we didn't have to and 2-Daddy spazzed out (and he freely admits it) big time!! I am not the only one, ha! But having risen to this occassion, I realize that my trigger is the sight of blood.

We have now moved to the in-laws. It is sooner than we planned, but because we can't get any cleaning done with while taking care of 3 kids, we've decided to move sooner. Living with the in-laws will save us of upwards to $400 in utility bills and will help once we get the house up for sale since it's not going to be easy to keep the house clean for potential buyers who want to take a look.

I will be making the trip back up to our house ( 3 1/2 hour drive) once a week to keep up with my physical therapy for my knee and stay for a couple of days to clean. It'll be slow, but at least I can do it in peace. But while here at the in-laws, we are helping renovate a family room that will then be our living space. They've been wanting to renovate it but just haven't gotten around to it. Now with a couple more abled bodies, we can get it moving. We've wiped down paneling (it's a 60's house) to prep it for painting (but only after sanding the entire thing). We've ripped up the shaggy carpet (also from the 60's!). It's a lot of work, but it's the least we can do. The in-laws are helping us out and so we're trying to return the favor.

The kids are getting adjusted as best they can and we are of course, having to re-establish our routines. Curious George is excited to be here and would barely nap and get long enough sleep so he is over stimulated by dinner time. It may take a week or so to get him used to things. Then of course, there are times when he asks for toys that are still at our house and when we say we don't have it, he throws a major melt down! Oi. We packed toys that we think he's likely to play with and then of course he asks for something we didn't take with us. There are now a lot of things I have to take back with me from our house!

Hubby is still looking for jobs and applying to everywhere in the U.S. (but we're still avoiding California since it's too expensive to live there!). But since there are a lot of unemployed people in the US applying for the same jobs, it's not so easy.

Until next time! I am utterly and trully exhausted and tomorrow is more work. I am dreading the day when we have to sand paneling because it will generate a lot of dust and I'm worried about the kids.

Curious George turned 4 a couple of days ago. Here he is enjoying his birthday breakfast. It took him a while to learn to blow the candles, but he got it eventually.

Just a friendly reminder to all, especially new members:

• You must reply to Minti mails by logging onto Minti first and using the Minti mail. If you reply using your personal email, the email will just go to the Minti system and not the intended recipient. While I don't mind forwarding emails to the appropriate members, sometimes it isn't easy to figure out who the intended recipient is.
• The new email notification feature tells you that someone has commented on your article/blog/etc. But you must log on to Minti to reply to it.

Cheers!

Tell me this isn't funny!

We don't usually get this much snow around my neck of the woods, so we are unprepared to enjoy it, but it doesn't mean we couldn't. Daddy wrapped a boogie board with lawn trash bag and duct tape. It seemed like it was going to work.

Nope, it didn't work.

And then it was the pizza pan's turn. Didn't work either.

There are a few things that worked against Daddy's ingenuity here: the snow was too dry and fluffy and the our hill wasn't much of a hill. Later in the day, we tried Curious George's sandbox cover and of course that only provided a lot of laugh and no success. We had a lot of fun though!

I tried calling stores around the area if they had any sleds left and I got laughed at. They've all been snagged by the less ingenious people in the area who instead opted to get drive out and buy a real sled. lol

We had about 6-8 inches of snow yesterday, which is unusual in our area (we usually just get a dusting). Being an unusual occurrence, we have no snow suits or any other waterproof suits. Thankfully, I found Curious George's snow suit from 2 years ago when I was hopeful for as much as snow as this. But having only one snow suit, I had to alternate the girls.

This is Thing 2, she was up first. It was hilarious the way she just stood there. But she definitely enjoyed it because she didn't want to come back in.

After a quick exchange of clothes, it was Thing 1's turn. You can hear Thing 2 in the background wailing because she wanted to stay outside. Thing 2 didn't like it when some snow got on her face.

I have videos of Daddy and Curious George's attempt to sled (I say attemp because we didn't have a sled!) that is so hilarious, but I will have to post it another time.