Because Mom needs the house to stay clean

This one was sick.  . . 

And we were having a showing of our house in the evening (honest quote from me:  "If you guys mess anything up, I'm either going to kill you or myself."  I'm such a good mom.), so these two played together outside all afternoon, without their usual Mimi buffer.

This was their house, under the big pine trees in the backyard.

 Someone was the queen and someone was the servant.  From the snatches of conversation I overheard, I couldn't be quite sure who was who.  I'm not sure that they knew who was who.

 Pinecones were the food.

 And a wagon and a kiddie pool are fantastic beds for sleeping outside.  Bella was looking for a pillow, so Liv found that incredibly comfortable soccer ball.  :)

I'm 32!

Here's what I love about having kids.  Who else is so worried about my birthday?  No one.  But my girls?  Yeah, they're pretty much determined to make it my best birthday ever EVERY YEAR!

So this year, I woke up to Maddie (who is too young and needy to have caught the spirit of making mom's birthday the best day of her life), who was fed, and then showed her affection for me by agreeing to poke her dad up the nostrils and pull his hair until he got up out of bed with her and I could go back to sleep.  Which I did, until 9:30, people.  9:30!!  That right there was the highlight of my life.

Then I was treated to these three cards.  Olivia's letters are currently full of questions.  I was to answer these questions on the back of the card.

 This is a birthday cake, a la Bella.

 Naomi labeled Bella's card.  I wasn't clear how to indicate the birthday after my 31st, but it appears the correct term is "32th."

 And apparently Picasa thinks the correct orientation for these card shots is portrait.

 As Naomi indicated, they "srved me brekfst."  Olivia made the pancakes, Naomi made the scrambled eggs, and Bella stirred my yogurt.

 Then. . . wait for it. . . they did dishes!

 I love these girls!  (And their dad, obviously, who encouraged and enabled this lovely show of birthday affection.)

Happy Birthday to me!

What I missed out on by having six brothers

 Family night tonight was a night for girly facials.  Avocado clay masks and cucumbers for eyes.

 Originally, I thought that Bella was way too young for his activity.  However, she surprised me.  She laid perfectly still and sober, desperately trying to prove how big she was.

 Olivia shunned the regulation spa headband for this avant garde shower cap.  She's been saving it from our last hotel trip for just the right occasion.

 Mimi kept delighting in how this was exactly something that Fancy Nancy would do.

 After I applied the mask to all my salon clientele, I joined them.  Don't we look fabulous?

 Just one of the fabulous things that happens when you have a house full of girls.

On the South Shore Line

Our conductor on the train to Chicago was female, but with a very short haircut. She was incredibly friendly and helpful and kept coming back to talk to us. And, every single time, Bella would say to her, "You're not a boy, you're a girl. A girl!  You're a doctor?  [conductor] Where is that other doctor?  I want that other doctor."  

Luckily, the woman never understood her.  She just kept smiling and nodding and responding happily to Bella's rants.

Pincer Grasp

Alternate Title:  It's just so hard to be a baby.


Hmmm. . . what do I have in my hand?

 Did it come from the table?

 Well, I definitely need to keep hold of it in my death grip.  I'll have to use my other hand to get another one.

 Oh, but just look at the treasure trove I've found.  I'll use my raking grasp to get a handful of these.

 Oooh, oooh, I've got one.

 But I see a half-gnawed piece of cracker there that I'd hate to miss out on.

 Oh, and what is that black thing Mommy is pointing at me?  Maybe I want that too.

 This is another one of those delicious puffs that just seem to jump out of my hand at the last second before they make it to my mouth.  Maybe I'll have to sneak up on this one.

 Concentrate.  Concentrate.  Don't lose focus.

 Fail.  Try again.

The only time Maddie was able to get one of these puffs in her mouth is when she had accidentally slid it to the edge of the table and she was able to pounce on it with her mouth like a baby hawk.  We've got a lot of work to do on the pincer grasp.

Recipes You Need to Try

All right, friends.  I'm trying to get my act together and make myself a mini collection of the recipes my family loves and I am willing to make.  I find myself fighting the inner meal-planning battle every week, which I hate.  It's sad, really, because I actually love to cook, if what I'm making sounds exciting and delicious, rather than last-minute and yucky.  So--I've been putting some things together.  And because I'm generous like that, I'd love to share some of my favorites with all of you.  I'm linking to the recipe, rather than writing them all out here 'cause I don't want this post to look all messy.  :)

Tortilla Soup (a light and delicious version)
Peanut Wraps (my kids loved these, and they are usually skeptical of new "mixed-up" food)
Chicken Corn Chowder (not light, but absolutely amazing.  Thank you, Larissa!)
Creamy Baked Taquitos (serve with a salad and the lime cilantro dressing she recommends.  Perfect!)
Yummy Salad (infinitely changeable--make it how your family likes!)
Easy, Fresh, Tomato-ey Pasta and Pizza Sauce
Roasted Asparagus (goes with everything, tastes like spring)
Lemon Chicken with Roasted Vegetables (So. Stinkin. Fast.)
Sara's Chicken Salad (love it!)
Lemony Tortellini with Bacon and Peas
Bread Salad
Granola (not really for dinner, but it's fabulous anyway, and it's a great breakfast-for-dinner option)
Yogurt Parmesan Chicken (amazing!)
A Whole Darn Week's Worth of Recipes (you really should get Everyday Food--it's Awesome!)

As you can see, my tastes veer dramatically toward, chicken, soup, and salad, with a little bit of pasta thrown in.  I love to try new things, though, and if you have a recipe you want to recommend, I want to have it recommended.  Please share!

Viva Honduras

John went to Honduras for his favorite medical mission in March.  He went all four years in medical school, and he was able to go again this year with the same group from Toledo.  It was delightful.  Here is his report.  
Edited to add:  Some of the pictures below are a touch graphic.  Please be careful if you are, like me, sensitive to yucky medical stuff.

Here's the view from my room the first week.  That's mostly smoke from burning stuff with a little fog.  People cook with wood and burn trash so there's a lot of smoke.

Front of the Hospital in La Esperanza

The ambulance we donated when I was a 3rd year med student.  Well used with 270k miles.

The hallway looking from the ED entrance.  That's the table where ED blood draws are done using gloves for tourniquets.

The ED complete with intern.  It's really more like two office rooms with one exam table each.  No O2, no suction, no bed.  They want to remodel since they recognize the limitations of the current ED.

The other half of the ED room complete with exam table and Barbie curtain for privacy.

Drug reps look the same in any country.

The home behind the hospital women who live out of town move into when they get close to their due date.

Ovarian cyst and ovary. (the little white part in upper right is ovary).  This was taken out of a 17yr old.  I only saw two hondurans cry and it wasn't the machette/hatchet/gun shot wounds it was this girl and another girl that had a ruptured tubal pregnancy.  Did not see a single narcotic used in two weeks.  All tylenol, diclofenac (like ibuprofen), and ibuprofen. Even surgery patients got tylenol.  It was same in Bolivia though I did see narcotics used once there to put an elbow back in

Machete to the hand.

Rural Honduras....typical home.

Bull used in construction of adobe house.  Water hole is where mud for adobe blocks was taken from.

170 water filters pre assembly $4020 worth.

Univ Toledo team.  This was our work station/teachers desk.  We're usually in schools or churches.  Different town each day.

Sweet little 6 year old who has lost his two front teeth.....

.....because they along with a few others have rotted out of his head.  This is where Dave comes in a few years from now.  There was a dentist my first trip as a student in 2005 but hasn't been one since.  Dr. Paat says he hasn't been able to get one to go since then and he was the busiest guy there nonstop pulling teeth.  I wish this picture wasn't common but I'd say about 1/2 the people I saw kids included had at least a couple teeth that were completely rotted out.

Somethings not quite right with that right eye.

It's called ptergium and it's where the conjunctiva because of UV light and dust (irritation) grows over the iris.  I can become problematic if it grows too far.  Treatment is surgical removal.  We gave sunglasses to help with dust and UV light.

It was trial and error with random glasses from a box which included old prescription glasses (like those above) and a bunch of dollar store reading glasses.  I saw several people with cataracts too which glasses help very little and that need to have them removed.

As we were driving Satruday to the R&R location (a beach resort) we came across a three care accident two of which are pictured above.  What lucky people to have a bus full of gringo doctors be amongst the first on the scene.  Amongst whom are the chair of internal medicine at Mayo, the chair of peds at Mayo, a GI doc from Cleveland Clinic (all U. Toledo grads).  The wilderness life support course came in handy as I got a Honduran to cut us some sticks to splint the lady's very obviously dislocated knee (possibly broken too), and her husbands wrist.  An ICU nurse got the IV going on him.  We moved his wife using empty duffle bags since one of the cars (a pickup) involved was leaking diesel all over the road. Eventually we loaded both into a pickup and sent them to the hospital.

Over all the second week I was there which was the week with the team we saw a record 2247 people if you count the two on the highway and the one team member who passed out and was seen in clinic and transported to the hospital but was released shortly afterward.  

A big thanks to Susanne for coming out to take care of the ladies.