Shad Mecham Family

Yesterday Ainsley stuck a jelly bean up her nose and it got stuck. She came up to me a little panicked, taps me and says Mommy, then she tilts her head back so I can see up her nose. I asked her why she would do that, and she gives me this blank look. I had her get me a tissue so she could try blowing it out, that didn't work. I tried pushing down on it from the top, but that hurt her. At this point I am laughing, even though I am thinking that I may have to take her to the Dr. I called Shad to see where he was at on his way home from work, and when I told him, he started laughing. Now I'm laughing even harder and Ainsley is getting really distressed. Not to mention that she is mad at me for laughing. I grabbed some tweezers to try and pull it out. Which is hard to do when you are trying not to laugh. I finally got it out, had a good giggle, and had Ainsley blow her nose well. While it was stuck, she had cried a little and the drips from her nose made the jelly bean dissolve a little. I also had a chat with Brenden and Ainsley about not putting things in their noses or ears. I only wish I had thought to take a picture.
Update on the bully. Because of the concerns of a few parents, the school intervened and the bully had lost all recesses for about six school days. I am glad the school has stood behind their zero tolerance for bullying. Ainsley's head is healing up quite nicely. On Sunday she also purposely knocked her bottom two front, bottom teeth loose. One was so loose Shad pulled it out. All because she wanted the tooth fairy to visit and got tired of waiting. What a week it had been.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a day, sat down and just gone "Oh my!" Today was one of those days. It just kept going. It started out with the fact that I slept in and Brenden obsessing over this bully in his class while we were getting ready. I addressed some of it with his teacher last week, but more came to light this morning. I'm now stressed over this and I have to talk to his teacher again. I had to volunteer in Brenden's class today and wasn't able to talk to her then. Now I have to wait until after school to talk to her. Then I went to pick up the girls from my friend's house and was visiting for a few minutes (gotta have some adult time) when Ainsley starts crying. She had been hit by another child in the head with a shovel. There was blood. When that was mentioned, she cried even harder. Luckily, it wasn't too bad and didn't require a trip to the Dr, but it is still stressful. She has also been worried over it and freaking out a little the rest of the day. It was itching when she went to bed so she scratched it and reopened it. I had to doctor her up a little again. Capri, where do I begin? She has a cold so she is a grouchy, growly, bear, but she isn't sick enough to be held for very long. She still has enough energy to get into everything. We are talking nothing is safe from the curiosity and destructive power of this almost 2 year old. When I pull her out of things, we get screaming, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. All day long. And still it continues. I had den meeting today for cub scouts at 4:30. At 4:00 I remembered I needed to plan it. Oops. I'm trying to do that while I sit with Brenden and help him with his homework. I get to den meeting and we have a new cub scout. I am excited because this means that I will still have a wolf cub. The one I have now will be moving up next month. This means I will still have something to do. But he came today and we found out today. Actually, this was a blessing because I used the other boys to help get him started on his Bobcat. The got a review and were able to help him a little. Not to mention it took up half the time and what I had planned filled the rest of the time. That worked out well. I get home and Capri had lost a game cartridge to my DS, still haven't found it, and Brenden isn't helping to look for it, Shad is exasperated, and Ainsley was trying to help as best she could, but soon reverted to her usual. I actually stayed surprisingly calm, I wonder now if I was just overloaded and couldn't process it all.
Now the kids are all asleep in bed and it is quiet. I am sitting here wondering how I made it through without completely losing it. I guess it is because Heavenly Father loves me and helped me take it one thing at a time. I actually feel quite stress free right now. I am also really excited about the new cub scout. Our pack is only 5 boys strong and one is moving away next month. This is a big deal. I made it through today and I am still vertical. All I can say now is: "Tomorrow, bring it on!"

I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. Being May, we were talking about things coming up. Namely Capri's birthday. Shad had the kids trying to guess which day is my birthday. I told them to pick my favorite number between 1 and 31. Ainsley picked 32. When I told her that she had to pick a number smaller than 31, she still insisted on 32.

We are happy to announce the newest addition to our home. Ainsley got a pet guinea pig. Shad made a deal with her that if she got her room cleaned up then she could get a pet. He made this deal with her a long time ago, but Saturday she finally got her room entirely cleaned up, so Shad made good on his promise. She picked this guinea pig out. During the week, this guinea pig had gone through several names, including but not limited to, Cookie, Buttercup, Marshmallow, Pumpkin, and Toasty. Hopefully soon she will decide on one name. So far, Ainsley has also done a good job of keeping her room clean, which makes one good point to this pet. It has been good for her, so far.
Brenden received a Falcon Pride award from his school yesterday. His award was for improvement in being focused and on task in class. We are proud of how hard he has worked in school.

Capri disappeared on me one afternoon. As I was looking for her I found her like this. She had put herself down for a nap. She even covered herself with a blanket.

We were getting Capri ready for the tub when I realized that she and Brenden were dressed or undressed the same. Brenden loves the "strong guy" from Indiana Jones. It's the big German Indy fought in Raiders in the airplane fight scene. They are doing "strong guy" poses.

Thursday night, after we put the kids to bed, a thunder storm blew in. At about 9:30, Brenden comes out because he was scared of the lightening and thunder. Not long after I went back into his room he asked me if we could say a prayer. In his prayer, Brenden told Heavenly Father that he was scared of the storm and asked the Lord to bless him to feel safe and not be scared anymore. After his prayer, I spent some time talking to him about what makes lightening and thunder and how being in the house makes us safe from it. We also talked about how Heavenly Father can tell the clouds and lightening and thunder what to do and they will listen. Eventually, I left him and he fell quickly to sleep. I realized a little later that I hadn't noticed any more lightening since Brenden said his prayer. Friday morning I asked him if there was any more lightening after his prayer. He thought for a second, then said that there wasn't. He then told me that Heavenly Father stopped the clouds from rubbing against each other and making lightening.
I was reminded of how much Heavenly Father does for us and how we don't always recognize His intervention. I am glad that Brenden recognized the source. What a faith builder! He may not remember this specific experience, but he will remember that the Lord hears and answers prayers. I will always remember that the Lord loves us enough to make the clouds stop rubbing against each other because a scared little boy asked for some comfort.