peanut boogers and hot sauce

Before we even get to the peanut boogers and hot sauce, we have an unpaid commercial presentation for BurnFree, a product you can buy from Emergency Essentials. Presenting case study #1: Ella Thygerson. She set her hand on the hot stovetop after I cooked macaroni and cheese on Friday. I put her hand in water, then ransacked all of our various first-aid kits looking for some kind of burn cream. Nada. What kind of loser first-aid kits do we have?! Next idea: call a friend around the corner with 5 kids. She said she had the best burn product ever, and rushed over with BurnFree, a gel that cools and relieves the pain. As you can see, it ultimately worked wonders. I got online and ordered 4 bottles right away. They are $5 a bottle, and if we draw your name for Christmas, you will probably be getting some... he he. The good news: She's fine now, and the blisters on her thumb and palm don't seem to bother her.



So then the next night as we were getting ready for bed, Ella came to me saying she had a "peanut booger." I thought, well it must be quite the clog, and I responded, "Oh, you have a big booger, let's blow your nose." Ella: "Yeah, it's a peanut booger." Ella: farmer blow in the hallway to produce one of these:

Yes, it was a popcorn kernel that apparently she had shoved up her nose. The good news: it wasn't in there long enough to absorb moisture, swell, and require a doctor's intervention. Whew.

But Ella wasn't the only one to learn a new skill this week...Caleb was a big helper in the kitchen. He loves to help cook, and I needed a way to separate them at dinnertime, so I asked him to come help peel the potatoes. It was his first effort, and you can see he made sure that EVERY last bit of peel was gone. Oh, and most of the potato, too.


He also did a great job of picking the biggest, and most broken, dead plant for me at church:

He was SO excited. "Happy Mother's Day!" I guess it was supposed to make up for the fact that he refused to go up front with all the other primary children and sing, since he didn't know the song. And the fact that I spent the entire second hour of church with him in an empty classroom and then the car when he refused to stop screaming. Love it. Unfortunately I left the Tobasco sauce at home.

Now, about the hot sauce...you remember last week I asked if anyone any ideas to curb Ella's yelling (and Caleb's, for that matter), and our friend Jon Pointer (thanks Jon) jokingly suggested hot sauce. Well, turns out that's been a pretty good idea. I carry a bottle of Tobasco everywhere, and miracles have occured. I've used it once on each of them, and that's it. They are petrified...and quieter. Love it. He even prays, "Please bless that we won't get hot sauce..." I did try it on my own tongue to see what it was like, and it's not that bad, but it sure works.

Rachel got to see her first movie in the theater this weekend - "X Men Origins - Wolverine" Here's her face when his naked bum flashed on the screen:


Just kidding. She was very good, though, no crying or fussing, just sat in my lap and watched the whole thing. Towards the end she blew out her diaper, but I changed it with minimal leakage. Yet another great thing about living in a small town - the theater crowd is small enough we have a whole row to ourselves, empty ones in front and back, so no one gets a whiff of nursing baby poo.

Had a blast painting the back porch this weekend, and Caleb made it through another soccer game without a fistfight. He actually did very well, we were proud of him.

Well, if you've made it all the way to the bottom of this, way to go, you deserve a medal. Hope you guys all have a great week!