Thursday, 15 June 2006
Tonight was our wards quarterly HFPE. The theme, Family Reunions (family history, genealogy, etc.). I volunteered to bring a dessert and earlier this week came upon the idea to make and take one of my Grandmother's signature desserts. One of the desserts she prided herself on, a dessert she took to EVERY function... reunions, church socials, family dinners, etc.
As a teenager, whenever Grandma would send me a letter or card, she'd include some handwritten recipes. Most were things she made all the time - carrot cake, fudge, rolls - but some were just things she'd found or seen and wanted to pass on. I put these long thin slips of green paper (undoubtedly scraps from Uncle Mike's print shop) in a file box that's still at my parent’s house.
In hopes of finding the recipe, I emailed the extended family, and then called my mother. Mom spent the next hour sifting, first through my little recipe box, and then through her recipe drawer... a dresser drawer stuffed with recipes. Within the drawer, just as my father walked in the door from work to see a kitchen that had exploded with recipes, she found the card with the recipe written out in her beautiful script. Hurry! Thank you Grandma!
At one point during our search my mom suggested a few other dessert options. We both got a good laugh at my reaction.. "Mom I can make a dessert, I have lots of dessert options, the point is to take Grandma's dessert!"
It's been over 10 years, possibly even 15, since I last made this cake, and she was right at my side making sure I did everything just right. She'd make the cake in a metal cake pan and serve it chilled. Grandma's cake was a melt in your mouth, could easily sit down and eat the entire pan, kind of cake. It's gonna take me a little bit to get my cake to that standard, but my first solo attempt wasn't a bust. I even put the coconut and walnuts on top, just like she did.
Side note: Grandma put walnuts in and on just about everything and as kids we didn't like nuts - no crunch for us thanks - she and my mother seriously wondered how we were ever born into this family... but she humored us when ever she could and would even leave out the walnuts in our batch of Christmas Fudge.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Snowflake Dream Cake
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Eight Years - A trip down memory lane
Sunday, June 11, 2006
The Library Tradition
Tuesday, 6 June 2006
Yes it's true, today was the first time I took my children inside our local public library. This coming from the woman who's mother took her and her siblings to the public library DAILY from the time she could walk to the time I entered school, and once I got in school we still went to the library as frequently (if not more so) than church.
We have a really good public library that puts on amazing story times and other activities for children and young adults of all ages. Today happened to be story time when we arrived, so the kids wiggled their way into spots on the carpet and listened to a handful of books and then got to make a sun visor. We spent nearly 3 hours at the library listening to the stories, making the craft and then playing on the computers.
Sam and I picked out some books for us to read for the summer reading program - some Rebecca can read herself, a couple classics from my childhood, and a few new ones.
During story hour, I discovered I was standing in front of a good size and diverse selection of young adult literature on CD. I decided to give this medium a try for our bedtime stories. For our first book on CD, I choose
I'm really looking forward to making this apart of our weekly summer routine.
After our visit to the library, at the request of the children, we went to lunch a Wheatfield’s, a restaurant they love to go to for breakfast. I should have just gotten everyone a cinnamon roll or cookie and gone home to make PBJs, but they really wanted to eat lunch there and after looking at the menu, I thought I found something safe ... a turkey and Swiss sandwich on country French bread with apple slices. I purchased two sandwiches for the four of us to split and got everyone their drink of choice. We ate at the stools facing in the big picture window and 20 minutes later, I wrapped up three sandwiches in various stages of being dissected, and off we went.
Note to self... next time, forget that it's technically lunchtime, and the kids should eat something nutritional, and order the cinnamon rolls.
Friday, June 09, 2006
It's ALIVE ... yet not for the faint of heart
Last night I finally planted my garden... I know Grandfather, June 8th isn't really the most ideal time to plant a garden in Kansas, but I purchased the plants at least 8 weeks ago... very embarassing... and figured they should get in the ground. They'd survived this long ... actaully produciing one small tomato and bell pepper ... they should be given the opportunity to thrive in real dirt with plenty of space, sunshine and water. Anyway, one tomato plant in particular looked a little droopy when I put it in the ground last night so this morning I went out to check on it to make sure it was still alive and had soaked up all the water I gave it last night.
Well from the pictures below you can see what I found. A baby bird had fallen from it's nest - in my dryer vent 2 stories above my garden... AND it was moving! Head, neck, wings, legs, all were moving! I frantically looked for the Nature Center's phone number and dial... praying that someone would answer the phone even though it was 45 minutes before they were to open.
The naturalist I talked to told me to bring it in, they don't nurse animals, but they are a drop off site, so if possible they'd find someone to nurse it to adulthood. I really didn't want this little guy to die in my garden, and if possible I wanted it to at least have a chance at survival - something more humain that what it was doing in my garden dirt.
Using great care, I scooped the little guy into a box filled with shredded paper and topped off with 2 squares of toliet paper, and off we all went to deliver the baby bird. The children were really good with the baby bird, they were quite concerned about the little guy and wanted to make sure it would be okay.
When I showed the naturalist the bird, he was surprised at how young the bird was and was doubtful they'd be able to do much for it given it's size, but he took the bird and said they'd do what they could ... sadly it's injury's were pretty extensive. Since it landed on it's belly, there was massive brusing, and the naturalist was pretty sure they'd have to put it down. More than likely it became lunch for one of the animals they have there at the nature center.
In the car on the way home, the kids were asking about the baby bird and if it would be okay. I explained that they were going to do everything that they could to help the baby bird. But that if they weren't able to help it feel better, that they baby bird would still be okay because he'd be with Heavenly Father. Emily decided that the baby bird would be happier with Heavenly Father.
And, Sam kept asking if the baby bird was going to miss us, and I'm sure in some small way, it might.
Girls T-ball
Tonight was Rebecca's first t-ball game! She had three weeks of practice, one practice each week and tonight they showed us and the other team, what they've learned.
This summer Parks and Rec. had enough girls interested in playing t-ball to create six kindergarten all girl teams, which I find really exciting! They are pretty good size teams, and I've been very impressed with the parents and coaches. Everyone is very encouraging and supportive of these girls – who are each at very, very different skill levels! GR and I are both really impressed with how well Rebecca has done over the last four weeks. She has come a long way from last years basketball experience!
Becca’s a social bug, and likes to have fun… and when she has an audience, oh boy! So, we had a couple of conversations throughout the day about staying focused on the game and the ball - not being silly, or loosing concentration, ‘cause that's when the ball goes somewhere you don't want it to and someone gets hurt. Somehow she managed to do exactly that, squarely hitting the ball both times she was up to bat and playing third base. Yet , at the same time, she never let go of her personality - she talked to every person that stopped at 3rd base and a few times enthusiastically motioned them on to home, and of course she had to have a conversation with the 2nd base coach and player when she was tagged out – I fully expected her to debate with them, but she didn’t, nor was she upset.
The games last an hour, and both teams were well matched. Both teams managed to have two great plays, and both were able to get two players out on base during the game.
GR took this opportunity to brush up on his sports photography, and despite feeling VERY rusty, he got some great shots of the girls. I’m hoping we’ll have enough pictures by the end of the season, to put together a little scrapbook of pictures of the season for her coach.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Butterfly update
Before loading up the car for church this morning I checked in on our chrysalis' to see if they were making any sign of opening up. Their color had changed from grey to a dark grey/black color. I contimplated taking the entire pavilion to church with us so we wouldn't miss them emerging, but then decided surely they would wait 3 hours ... plus where would I put it during church?
To my horror, when we got home we had a pavilion full of butterflies! After a quick count, we had 8... so we had two chrysalis's that were thankfully, taking their time to emerge. We got to watch one emerge from the chrysalis and that was amazing!
Our little booklet recommended feeding them a sugar water solution on fresh flowers. We tried using flowers from my garden, but they didn't stand up easily, so we opted for the second and third suggestions - a paper towel soaked in the sugar water solution and sliced oranges. So far the paper towel is the favorite.
Now Emily has to decide when she'll be willing to release the butterflies into the wild. Their lifespan is about 2-3 weeks, so by this weekend I'm hoping she'll be willing to release them. It's been a really fun project, and is defiantely one we'll do again!
Monday, June 05, 2006
Weekend Warriers
While the children played in a new sprinkler, GR and I continued to work on cleaning out and organizing the garage. We started Friday night by taking down some shelves we put up last fall that despite our best molly bolting efforts, ripped themselves from the walls.
It seems that every 5-6 months we need to spend a Saturday morning reorganizing the garage, sweeping out all the dirt and leaves that find their way into the garage, take a load of cardboard boxes to the recycling center, and clear space to park bikes and organize the outdoor toys.
GR talked me out of taking a picture of the heaping pile of trash we set out Tuesday AM. I did feel better as I drove around the neighborhood Monday evening... everyone in our neighborhood either cleaned out their garage or basement this weekend because nearly every house on the street had twice as much trash out for the Tuesday morning pick-up as they normally do.
One item that got thrown away worth noting: The original W Family tents that were 18+ years old. These were the tents we used to camp for the very first time as a family in Bryce Canyon. Daddy would remember the exact year. They were used on many a family camping trip, father son camp outs, scout camping trips, etc. Barbara brought them to use at girls camp the summer she nannied for us in 2002. They didn't get opened then, and they haven't been opened since - just sitting rolled up in my garage. I wanted to make sure everyone was satisfied that they had served their purpose. Daddy assured me they had, and in the trash they went, bugels sounding as they made their way to the end of the drive way.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Toddler for Hire
Monday, I was franticly looking everywhere for a talk I'd written back in March that I need to give on Sunday at another ward conference. For a number of odd reasons, I'd hand written this talk, and not written on the computer the way I typically do. As a result I cleaned out the computer desk and created a rather large pile of papers to shredded.
With school out and no schedule to stick to, this morning was the perfect day to shred papers and Samuel became my diligent helper. For nearly an hour he and I shredded documents. Once we got through my pile, we started searching the house for other piles waiting to be shredded.
While I sorted, Samuel shredded and then once the container was full, he'd dump in into a large black trash bag. We filled two bags with paper pieces. What I found suprising was that he quickly learned that envelopes didn't need to go through the shredder, so when he came across an envelope, he'd toss it in the trash bag and move on to the papers.
Saturday, 27 May 2006
Garage Clean Up Day. Sam helping GR salavage some shelves he was getting ready to rehang in the garage.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
House Guests
For Christmas Emily got a Butterfly Pavilion - a pop-up mesh cylinder complete with post card to mail in for your own Painted Lady larva, aka caterpillars, to hatch your own butterflies at home. At the beginning of the month I filled out the post card and patiently waited for our larva to arrive. Monday night GR brought in the mail and there they were, 10 little caterpillars barely an inch long each. The peanut butter looking goop at the bottom of the "habitat" (jar) is what they eat. And the webbing - silk - is what they spun to help them more easily move around the habitat.
The kids and I have been amazed at how quickly the caterpillars grew and formed their chrysalides. Friday night the kids had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa, and most of the caterpillars had migrated to the top of the habitat. By Saturday they had started to form their chrysalides, and by Sunday night they were pretty much done.
The next step is to open the habitat (something we haven't been allowed to do until now), remove a paper disc that the chrysalides are attached to, and pin it to the inside of the pavilion and then wait for the butterflies to emerge. This has been such a great project!
I've been trying to ask Emily how long she wants to keep the butterflies in the pavilion before we let them go - since the temperatures out side are perfect right now for butterflies. She's still working on that concept. The idea that a butterfly doesn't have a life span like that of us humans or even other creatures, is starting to sink in. So we'll see how long they last in the house, before the children are ready to say good-bye and release them into the "wild" of the neighborhood.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Becoming a 1st Grader
Thursday, 25 May 2006
Today was Rebecca's last day of Kindergarten. They had fun little Mexican Fiesta to finish off the year, and their month long study of
I was asked to come up with a craft for the Fiesta and found the directions for a Mexican Bird Rattle which looked fun and do-able with a little prep work. I started saving toilet paper rolls and found a stash of them at my mom's house Mother's Day weekend which helped me complete my set of 14 needed for the class. As the prep work, I assembled the basic rattle closed the ends of the toilet paper roll, and taped the handle to the roll. Then let the kids, color and cut out the beak and bottom decorative strip. Then all they needed to do was glue everything together. It still took much longer than I thought... surprise, surprise, they weren't very focused... but the kids enjoyed the end product - they looked so cute! - and they used them to perform the Macarena for the parents who were there to help with the fiesta.
Rebecca wrote a really cute little note to her teacher, which we enclosed with a pendent I got for her on a jewelry website I love! Her teacher always wear's beautiful sterling sliver jewelry so I've been watching the site to find just the right pendent or ear rings to get her. I ended up going with an oval pendent with a mother of pearl center. Simple, classic and would go with just about anything. Rebecca's Thank You note to her teacher, went as follows... she dictated it to me, I wrote it out for her and then she copied it onto the card:
"Mrs. C____ , Thanks for the great things you have taught me. You are a wonderful teacher. Love, Rebecca."
P.S. We just found out Emily will be in AM kindergarten and Mrs. C (who I think is the head/senior kindergarten teacher) told me today she put Emily in her class! Excellent! We couldn’t be happier.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Last day of Preschool
Today was Emily's very last day of preschool. In the fall she'll be a big kid, going to Elementary School as a kindergartner. Here she is with her teachers:
The evolution of the tea towel
Tomorrow is the last day of preschool and it's taken me forever to think of a nice, simple gift to give all of Emily's teachers. They have truely been wonderful women who I she and I have come to love and cherrish!
Back in 2004, Better Homes and Garden put out a magazine called "Creative Kids," filled with a lot of really cute things kids to could make or that you could make for kids (parties, summer fun, etc.). One of their projects for Mother's Day was to make a Helping Hand kitchen towel using a flour sack cloth. Using acrylic craft paints, I sent to work making one for each Grandma and my Grandmother. What resulted was a really cute little gift that documented the kids hand prints, and have amazingly held up quite nicely in the wash.
Since that project, I've modified it a few times... I really love Rudolf... Emily's foot is his face, Sam's hands made the antlers, and Rebecca and Emily's handprints made the Christmas Trees. Their finger prints did the decorations on the trees.
The latter two are what I've made for the preschool teachers... her classroom teachers will get one of each, the director and the art/music teachers will get the stars (I ended up with a pounding headache tonight that refused to go away, so after 5 star towels, I called it quits and headed to bed.) I'm also including a small jar of last summers wild blackberry jam - yum!
Monday, May 22, 2006
Ben & Jerry's
My sibblings and I got the following email from Mom today at 12:38pm:
April 25 is "free scoop day" at Ben and Jerry's. (advertized on Martha Stewart's TV show--so it's nation-wide)
St. Louis locations include:
17408 Chesterfield Airport Road 636-530-7633
10909 Olive Blvd (Creve Coeur?) 314-997-3663
200 South Kirkwood Road 314-965-3331
6380 Delmar 314-721-8887
FREE ice cream ALL day long - noon - 8pm - at Ben & Jerry's ... really? After checking Ben & Jerry's website and watching the show at our house (which doesn't come on until 3pm), I decided this was a legitimate offer and started making plans to go, as soon as GR got home and the kids ate their dinner.
We made it there about 20 minutes before 7pm. The line snaked out the door a good 15 feet and then inside it snaked around a few times before you actaully got to the counter - something you didn't really find out until you got in the front doors.
The line moved surprisingly fast - not having to stop and pay someone at the cash register really speeds up the process! Sam and the girls had so much fun smiling and waving and talking to EVERYONE as we moved along the line. Most of the people in line were college kids, who just got a kick out of these three really cute and very talkative kids asking all kinds of questions about their ice cream and what they where doing at the ice cream shop.
Once at the counter everyone made their selections quickly - Sam and Rebecca once again choose mint chocolate Chip and Emily, plain chocolate. And sadly I can't remember what flavors GR and I choose.
It's an amazing little "customer appreciation/anniversary" day for Ben and Jerry's to sponsor. If you think that for our family of five to eat cones there would cost atleast $15, and they easily served 60+ cones in the 20+ minutes we waited in line, that's a lot of ice cream moving out their door in one day, all across the country! And the line was just as big when we left as when we arrived. They were raising money for the Boys and Girls club, so GR and I let the kids put what $1s and $5s we had in our pockets into the buckets and went for the car to eat our cones. I wonder how much they made for their charity?
So mark April 25, 2007 on your calendars, and plan on getting your free scoop! We definately are! As you can see the kids had a great time, and even GR said "this was a lot of fun, I'm glad we did it!" once we got everyone strapped in the car - one handed!
Friday, May 19, 2006
A quick visit
Tuesday afternoon Aunt Barbara and Grandma Mutti drove through town for a quick visit on their way to SLC. Barb needs a car for her last yearish of school, and Mom and Dad found a gem of a car - 95 Toyota Camry - for a fair price and purchased it. The big debate was what of the three cars my parents now own, to send with Barbara... The '95 won, and Barb flew in late Easter Sunday to drive it back with Mom.
We had a great visit - short but fun and full of lots of good conversation. Barb read Rebecca's library books to her and Emily while Sam finished a nap. And later that night Mom and I assembled 80 handouts for a workshop I'm teaching Saturday for our Stake HFPE Women's Conference. I'm no where near where I need to be preparation wise - everything still in my head and NOTHING is on paper yet. I've known what I wanted to do for my handout since day one of this assignment 2 weeks ago, but I knew if I didn't make it while Mom and Barb where around to help me assemble it, it'd never happen! We got 65 of the 80 assembled, and I can handle putting 15 more together.
The girls headed off for Denver about noon, taking Emily to preschool on their way. Emily was so excited to be able to show her teachers AUNT BARB! She could hardly contain herself!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Easter Festivities
- Picnic lunch in the park of chicken nuggets, fries and salad
- Emily, Rebecca and Sam chase Robins through the grass... Emily got very good at walking up to them very quietly... she could get the closest before they'd fly out of reach.
- Spend a good 30 minutes at the park swinging, swinging and more swinging with an occasional trip down the slide waiting to cross the street and participate in the HyVee sponsored Easter Egg Hunt to start at 1pm.
- GR and I, along with other parents and grandparent, quietly watch large, thick, dark, moisture rich rain clouds slowly cover the sky above us.
- 12:30 cross the street to see what activities, if any, they are starting early.
- The kids are some of the first in line for a huge blow up slide and take 2-3 trips down the slide before going to collect their 5 eggs - one of each color scattered across the park.
- Stand in line for 25 minutes to get the kids faces painted by two incredibly talented women who cared more about each child having a fabulous time and feeling like they were the center of the world, than how long the line was or how much time it took to paint something beautiful and unique on each child's face.
- In a mere 15 minutes, Rebecca had a sparkly heart balloon on her cheek, Emily had two sparkly pink butterflies - one on each cheek, and Sam had Nemo (her first ever!) ... each were on cloud nine and so pleased with their face painting!
- Convinced the children that an additional 25 minutes in each line was not worth a balloon animal/hat/etc. from the balloon clown, nor was it worth, the 2 minutes of fun, jumping in another blown-up thingy.
- Used the Toy Store as a bribe... found our own game of Pick-Up-Sticks for $4.99
- Opted to purchase three 1/2 gallons of ice cream ... mint chocolate chip (Rebecca and Sam), Vanilla and Chocolate checkerboard (Emily), Fudge Brownie Sundae (GR) ... and eat cones at home.
Sunday 16 April 2006
- More beautiful weather!
- Easter Egg Hunt after church at Grandma Mum and Grandpa Bob's
- Each child found and collected 13 eggs spread throughout the entire front yard and play set area.
- Side Note: Realizing that 13 eggs each would provide the children with a lifetime supply of every type of sugar know to man, GR and I sent the 39 eggs we had planned on also hiding for the kids to the Pharmacy on Monday. GR arrived very early Monday morning, hid the eggs and then let the pharmacists and techs find them throughout the day. They had just as much fun as the kids did on Sunday and I was happy my eggs got used and enjoyed.
- Dyed a dozen Easter eggs - something GR loves doing. One of these days we hope to have a Easter Egg Dying party where everyone brings a half dozen hard boiled eggs and we provide all the decorating supplies.
- Learned when you use vinegar in your dye to make the color more intense it doesn't work to put a yellow egg in red dye to make orange, or to get a marbled cool duel color effect ... all the yellow dye comes off and you end up with a plain, boring red egg.
- Spent a quiet, peaceful afternoon, enjoying the beautiful weather and the kids having a blast eating jelly beans and chocolate and playing with different toys found in their Easter baskets.
- Enjoyed a fun and traditional family dinner of ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, and asparagus.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Good Morning Mr. Sam
This is where GR found Samuel this morning ... he'd taken the laundry basket from our room, moved it to the girls room, put in his pillow and found his little blankie to lay over himself, where he quietly closed his eyes and waited for the girls to wake up.
Friday, May 12, 2006
A change in duties
Sam has been "potty training" for what seems like forever.
Just shy of his 2nd birthday he would poop on the potty, but not pee. Then we somehow lost all interest... and periodically I would test his interest ... we would try again, sometimes for a few hours, other times all day, until he'd lose interest and we would have accident, after accident, after accident.
Back in January, we had a fairly successful weekend of underpants, going potty every 45 minutes, but then Sunday and church happened, and by the end of nursery we’d had an accident, he lost interest and was back to pull-ups and diapers.
With boys (and girls too, I guess), I've always heard, “don't push them, when they're ready, they're ready.” And that was what I was trying to do with Sam. In the mornings, I'd ask, “Do you want to wear big boy underpants, a Spiderman pull-up, or diaper today,” and let him pick. Making it clear that if he chose one of the first two, he'd have to sit on the potty when Mommy said it was time to. Again, we'd have some successes, and lots of messy failures. And unless he was naked or in Sacrament meeting, he'd NEVER tell us he needed to go potty, we were always the ones telling him when it was time to go.
Finally last Monday, May 1st, I decided it was time to simply put him in big boy underpants and see what would happen. Preparing myself for weeks of accidents, vowing to be consistent and not give up, no matter what, we started.
Sam did pretty well all week, averaging only 2 accidents a day. I count myself lucky we only had one public accident (we had a week full of errands, etc. getting ready for Rebecca's 6th birthday and all girl party!). It happened at preschool and was only pee - a lot of pee, but only pee - that I can deal with in public. Thankfully, I had a change of pants and underpants in the car and had just purchased wipes at the store!
I think Sam's finally starting to figure out when his body needs to go potty. We've been accident free since Saturday afternoon! AND he's been waking up dry! Tonight GR is experimenting by putting Sam to bed with big boy underpants on, not a pull-up. We'll see what happens in the morning.
I'm comfortable taking Sam anywhere in underpants, but not confident. I still drive around town with a couple pairs of underpants, a pair of jeans, some wipes and a pull-up - in the front seat of the car! I'm not sure we'd be accident free if I didn't remind him every couple of hours to go potty. But today - for the first time in underpants - Sam said, "Need to go potty!" So off we rushed to the bathroom where Rebecca was just finishing, poor thing had to wipe standing up so her brother could go,
So it looks like for the first time in 6 years, I will have a short three month break from changing dirty diapers!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Side tracked
Today was the deadline for the local Parks and Recreational sign-up forms to be turn in. So Emily, Sam and I went to make sure Rebecca got enrolled in t-ball with other girls from her elementary school, and get both girls enrolled in a little 6 week cheerleading class. T-ball will start once school lets out and cheerleading will start a few weeks later. Hopefully, we won't have a scheduling conflict with practices/games falling on the same night.
The office is next to a great little park, and the weather today was sunny and beautiful! The kids persuaded me to stop for a while to let them swing and slide and have some good old fashioned fun. Afterwards we drove through Wendy's drive thru to get a glass of ice cold lemonade.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Monday, May 08, 2006
Off we go again
Wednesday, 12 April 2006
Today for lunch Emily and Sam had peanut butter and honey sandwiches and a huge bowl of strawberries. After cutting up half the carton of strawberries and making sure everyone was settled, happily eating their lunch, I went to respond to a quick email before loading everyone in the car for the preschool run. I might have been in front of the computer 60 second before hearing Samuel scream, and come running into the front room with blood dripping down his hand.
Turns out he and Emily inhaled the strawberries and he decided he could cut them up himself. Our new kitchen knives were no match for his little finger.
(This picture is terribly out of focus and a bit misleading but it's all I've got. We took two pictures, and they both turned out this way ... the cut was straight and very clean and was about 3/4" long.)
It's 11:50... 40 minutes before preschool starts. I get Sam's finger cleaned up, asses that it's not going to stop bleeding for a while, wrap a wash cloth around the finger, make a phone call to a friend in our neighborhood who also goes to preschool in the afternoon who might be able to give Emily a ride (she's not home, leave an odd disjointed message), and discover Sam has a poopie diaper. Use a large claw clip to hold the washcloth around Sam's finger and apply light pressure, but won't cut off circulation, and change his diaper, and call another Mom who lives up the street and whose daughter also attends preschool with Emily - she's able to take Emily to school, I call GR get his cell phone and warn him we're coming, and off we go.
We get to the ER about 12:30 where GR meets us. They aren't quiet as fast this time, but we still get seen within 10 minutes. Sam won't let anyone, including GR look at his cut. I finally get the wash cloth off his finger (everyone was rather impressed with the claw clip solution to applying pressure and keeping the wound covered) so the nurse and the doctor could look at it. It's stopped bleeding, but he still isn't keen about anyone touching it.
GR and I learn that finger tips don't have much blood circulation, so they don't use numbing agents when dealing with cuts on the fingertip. Numbing of the area could cause permanent damage to the finger tip because it reduces the circulation of blood to the area. Instead of stitches, they glued the cut closed with Derma bond, put two Band-Aids on it to keep Sam from bending his finger, give him a green popsicle for being brave and off we went to race back home to pick Emily up from school. (Thankfully, Wednesday's are Rebecca's afternoon with Grandma, so I didn't have to worry about who was going to pick her up!)
"Strawberry Cut" update:
Sam will still tell you how he got his scar, which has healed very nicely. And he will also tell you that he isn't supposed to cut strawberries by himself, that's Mommy's job. And we haven't had any major injuries since, knock on wood!