The Day Katelyn Inhaled

So this morning we woke up to more snow which started my day off on the wrong foot. That was only the beginning though... the snow led to our Satellite dish not working which led to a me having a very frustrating and unproductive conversation with a non-English speaking customer service agent at the Satellite company, which led to me on a step stool in the snow wobbling on a rocky hillside trying to scrape the snow off of our satellite dish with a painting extension pole (that was jammed on the shortest setting of course) with my Swiffer duster duct taped to the end of it, which led to giant chunks of icy snow falling on my head. Two hours later, that led to the satellite finally being fixed which led to only 18 minutes left of the first session of General Conference, which led to me crying. We had really been looking forward to watching it, so it became one of those moments where everything that had been building up all week long collided in a single moment, which led to my emotional train wreck. That led to me deciding to pull it together which finally led to the pleasant morning/afternoon I had planned.

We had strawberry waffles, went to the kid clinic at Home Depot, watched the second session of General Conference, did some baking and finally refinished Katelyn's bird feeder. I sanded it down from two years of weathering and Katelyn re-painted it today. We have a robin's nest in one of our trees, so she wanted to make sure they had a "nice" house to welcome the baby birds when they hatch. She wasn't thrilled about having to paint and really just wanted to draw, because as she put it: "It's hard to make paints look perfect." I wonder where she gets that from. This is the finished product... the "friendly cat" and windows are my favorite parts.All of that fun led to to our evening, which led to more than I bargained for. I let Katelyn invite two friends over to have a movie night (popcorn included), while I played "Settlers" with some friends. That led to lots of fun, lots of people and lots of food; which led to empty popcorn bowls with popcorn kernels.

I think it is important to note that as most of you know, Katelyn is a very "good" and obedient kid. I never worry about her getting into something she shouldn't. Never say never. That being said... the bowls led to a very teary Katelyn with a red swollen nose, coming to tell me that her nose really hurt and she thought "something might be in it." It took me about a millisecond to realize that she'd shoved a kernel up there and had clearly been trying to dig it out herself which made matters worse. That led to me whisking her upstairs to begin the removal process. She was freaking out but I was surprisingly calm and actually got her to relax pretty fast. I convinced her that by relaxing there was a better chance that I could it and that meant no visit to the ER. She was hyperventilating, but did her best to pull it together. So, I grabbed some tweezers and a flashlight and went for it... just as I was about to get it, she inhaled like I've never seen anyone inhale. That led to the kernel disappearing into what I could only imagine to be her brain and me beginning to plan how we'd politely get the nine other people out of the house and head to the ER. In the meantime, I had her stand back up, plug the opposite nostril and blow like a maniac. That led to a big nasty mess, but I decided to attempt extraction one more time. That led to a miracle... SERIOUSLY. Somehow, the kernel reappeared while she held uncharacteristically still and I slowly got it out of there. I hope Kyle had a great time sight-seeing in Belgium today.