Monsoon & Baseball

This morning we woke up to my Mom making pancakes. They tasted so good and was a welcome treat to our day. We didn't do to much today, other than work on crafty business stuff. Plus we knew we were going to have a long late afternoon/night because we were headed to the ball game. Being that it was Friday, that meant it was Busch Bash at the stadium and also meant Autograph night. As we drove to the stadium, it started to sprinkle off and on, the weather guy said that it would just be sprinkles the whole time. Once we got there, we were about 25 people from the gate opening and it started to rain a little harder this time. My Mom went back to get the umbrella but still I kept thinking it shouldn't get any worse than this. Well as soon as the gate opened, we rushed to get into line for autograph tickets, what we can't figure out, is why we were a good 200+ people back when the gate just opened and we literally walked right into where the line starts. It isn't like this was our first time at Busch Bash, heck we are an old hand at it. So there was something really fishy about how it all went down. They only hand out 150 tickets, which guarantees you an autograph for sure, then if there is extra time he will sign more. Within in seconds of getting in line, the skies opened up and it literally poured. The rain was hitting the concrete and bouncing back up. It was near flash flooding inside the stadium and we were standing in at least a good inch of water. Keree hid between us, while I tried with all my might to keep my backpack from getting wet. It rained like this for a good hour, the funny thing was, no one was leaving the line because of the fact he could sign more autographs. Amazingly, Ozzie Smith did start autographing closely on time but the huge on-field celebration of the 85' World Series win didn't happen. We waited in line until he stopped autographing and left, it kept raining off and on the entire time. The Local Farmer's Initiative was there and giving away free yogurt and baseball cards with local Farmer's on them. They were so awesome! We were all getting hungry, so we luckily got a table with a patio umbrella. We treated ourselves to some nachos and a hot dog to split between all of us. As soon as my Mom sat down, it started to rain yet again. It continued raining for the next 2 hours, so of course the game was on hold for the weather delay. It finally stopped, so my Mom and I looked at each other and decided since it was 930p, there was no way they were going to play. Well as soon as we left the stadium and got to the car, it started to rain again. We were about half way home, in a very heavy, can't see the road rain, when we heard they were starting the game. We got home, got out of our wet clothes and went to bed.

Re-Check

We got up this morning, amazingly didn't get stuck in to much rush-hour traffic and got to Keree's 6 mos recheck appointment right on time. We checked in and I was a little shocked when we weren't sent back immediately for X-rays, like usual. Instead we took a seat and about 10 minutes later, they called us back. Again, I thought they would send us to X-ray's then but nope they took us to our room. The Administrative Nurse asked us a few question and then said our Doctor's Nurse Dn would be in shortly. I'm pretty sure our Doctor's Nurse Dn has been there as long as Keree's Doctor R, which she happens to be Assistant Chief of Staff of the Hospital. Well she asked us what all was going on, so I explained to her Keree's pain, hyper extension of her knee and hip, and of course the leg length, which it has all been the same concerns for what, the last 3 years. I also mentioned a new symptom, which is Keree's knee cap is getting stuck on her good leg. So basically her leg gets held in a 90 degree angle until she/we push her knee back into place, which results into a huge popping sound. Of course, when Nurse Dn checked it, she couldn't get it to do it. So of course they chalk it up to a one time thing. HA! It's not a one time thing. She left because the Physical Therapist department was up next to visit us. They were running a little behind, so instead we were visited by the Intern. Usually, we only run into the Intern's during the Late Fall, very Early Winter. So we were a little surprised by him. But I have to say, he was an amazing Intern! He didn't ask a lot of stupid questions like previous Interns, he had actually read her file before coming in and wasn't shocked by her having Polio. I didn't get the usual stupid Intern question of "Are you really sure she has Polio?" Ummmm, DUH!! She had the test in the United States by one of the Top Doctor's in that field. I really dare you to undermine and doubt her Diagnoses. After he left, Physical Therapy came in, it actually turned out to be the same PT we have seen for the last 2 1/2 years. She questioned about what kind of exercises we do with her, how is her outpatient PT is going and does she get services from the school. When she finished asking her questions, it was time for Keree to walk up and down the halls. About the same time, Dr R showed up. So there was Dr R, Nurse Dn and PT they watched her walk, watched her run, watched her jump and Keree even skipped on her own. There final decision, they thought she needed a new brace. Seriously, she hasn't grown in the last 6 months and her brace is fitting exactly the same as it was when we got it. So we headed over to the shop, so they could cast Keree's leg for her new brace. They also decided that after more than 3 years of going either every month or every 3 months, that they don't have to see her back in a year. Yep, 1 whole year! When they told me that, it was at that point I realized they don't expect her to get any better. They don't think there will be any new cures, new treatments, no getting even a little better.......there will be nothing. I'm her Mom, I can't accept that there is nothing else. I mean I realized, long ago that we were dealing with the unknown, we were in pretty much uncharted water. It's not only that she has Polio but Paralytic Polio that only 0.02% of the population who gets Polio gets this kind. So there wasn't much research on Paralytic Polio anyway and all that research is from before the 70's. But there has to be something more, this can't be the end, it can't be there's nothing more than we can do. I don't know what my next steps will be except we will be seeing her Primary Doctor very soon. After our visit, I had planned on taking Keree to a local Splash park I had found online that was less than 10 minutes from the Hospital. When we got there, it was closed. Keree was so beyond bummed and so were we. Keree feel asleep on the way home, we stopped by the County Fair grounds to pick up the Premium book. We decided entering a few of the Premiums (contests) would be a fun thing to do. When we got home, Keree legs were hurting and she just plain didn't feel good. So she laid down again, when she got up we decided to do a project. We were making crayon melts. Keree had so much fun peeling the crayons and then breaking them into pieces. Once all the crayons were peeled, I put them into the oven and we watched them melt. Keree loved how fast some colors seemed to melt, while others seemed to take their time. We followed the time directed but our crayons weren't melted, so we left them in for a little while longer. When we pulled them out, we put them on the counter to cool. Keree couldn't wait for them to cool off. Once they cooled off, we spent the evening drawing pictures with them.

Lessons 24 & 25

Keree didn't sleep well last night. She feel asleep in my bed and when I went to move her, she woke up. I can't even count how many times she woke up during the night with pain. When we finally got going this morning, we decided since it wasn't miserable hot, that we would head outside. When I was cleaning, I came across Keree's in-line skates. I bought the skates almost a year before I brought her home, in hopes that we would go in-line skating together. Our sidewalk is a really rough surface but she got the hang of it quickly. I can't count how many times she went up and down the sidewalk (it was at least 10 times) before she had her first fall. And even her first fall, was in slow motion and she caught herself. After she finished skating, she played on her tricycle for awhile before heading inside. Once inside, it was nap time. She didn't want to go to sleep, so I sat in there with her hoping she would fall asleep. Three hours later and she finally closed her eyes. When she got up, we played for awhile before we started with school. We did some review before we started our lessons. We covered Lesson 24, which was a review of the last sound we covered. She stumbled over some of it, but I blame that on myself because I've been so laxed the last few weeks on trying to do some work. Once we finished Lesson 24, Keree begged to go onto the next lesson. On to Lesson 25, which introduced a new sound, they are starting to phase out the rhyming section but that's ok because Keree is finally starting to rhyme on her own. Which is a skill she should of mastered before she was 3 and had been an area we had struggled with until we started rhyming with our Lesson book. The funny thing was, I had brought up this concern to the Pre-school Teacher last year about it being a milestone she missed. Her response was less than desirable one and I was brushed off with the normal, "Well you know she does score above all her peers by 2-3 grade levels, so I wouldn't worry if she's missing 1 milestone." UGH!! Once we finished with school, it was bedtime. So, Keree headed to bed but I finished my evening by watching Toddler and Tiara's....actually it seemed like it was a marathon because I watched quite a few of them.

Homeschool & File Folder Fun

Keree woke up this morning in an awful mood, I can only assume that she's still not feeling well. I told her that even if she wasn't feeling good, that she wasn't allowed to act awful. She apologized and was in a little better mood. While Keree ate breakfast, I headed up stairs, I had a few mail labels to print off for orders and also some print outs. After everything was said and done, we headed outside for our 10am meeting. Today was our meeting with a Homeschool Coordinator (and 2 Teachers in training) from a local private program. It's sort of like a co-op but they have a teacher come to your house once a week, you have a group social event and field trip once a month. The biggest appeal to the program is it's free but the catch is you have to pass several different interviews to get in. I hated having to have the meeting outside but it was cooler out there than inside. We headed out about 930a to move the table into the shade, wipe down the chairs and then place towels in them to keep clothes from getting dirty. I also sprayed the area we were sitting in, in hopes that the bugs would stay away. While I got everything done and waited for them, Keree rode her bike, played on the swing set and watered the plants. I had promised Keree if she was really good that she would get to play in her sand table while they were here. Needless to say, they showed up a good 1/2 hr late. They were here almost 2 hours and most of that time was spent filling out paperwork. Things that bugged the hell out of me were, they couldn't get the concept this was my house and my Mom lived with me. They kept assuming I lived with my Parents because there's no way I women my age could own a place like this. UGH!! The next thing that drove me crazy is because half of Keree's paperwork is in her Vietnamese name still and the other half is in her American name. No matter how many times I called Keree, Keree, she kept calling her by her Vietnamese name. Now the last thing and probably the most annoying was, she totally wouldn't believe me that Keree had a disability. I physically had to have Keree come over to where we were and show her, her AFO, the riser on her shoes to correct leg length, etc. Seriously, I don't make Keree's disability a big deal and 90% of the time it's a non-issue in our everyday life. But to have someone basically flat out not believe you there is an issue makes me beyond furious. I have to say at that point, I thought maybe this was a wrong decision and I should withdraw our application. I finally decided to leave our application in and if the program just doesn't work for us, we will withdrawal at that point. It was 1230p when we finished up, I shook their hands, thanked them and apologized for having to sit outside. We came right in and fixed some lunch (tomato and cucumber salad) and then Keree laid down for a nap. She's complaining that her throat is itchy and her ears are closed. I'm really hoping that it's just allergies because she's got a runny nose and tons of draining. She slept for almost 3 hours and most of that time was spent on top of me. So everything I had planned for nap time, was thrown out the window. When she finally woke up, she helped me make a File Folder game. I've been doing more research on Homeschooling and have found that this is a great tool in learning. The one we made was called Animal groups. Keree and I had so much fun putting the animals into either mammals, birds or reptiles. Before playing we had a long discussion on what the differences of mammals, birds and reptiles. She actually only got 2 matches wrong the first time we played. In the evening, we ended up having to do some running and by the time we got home it was almost 8p. So we ate a quick dinner and then Keree decided to spend the rest of the evening practicing for the County Fair talent show.

Now I can't end today's post without mentioning that today would have been my Grandpa's birthday. I can't believe he's been gone for 7 years now because there isn't a day that passes I don't think about him. It's amazing to think he was the first person I told with my plans to someday adopt. I wish he would have lived long enough to meet Keree because they would have loved each other so much. After he passed away, I use to make a trip up North to place flowers on his grave but that tradition has fell by the wayside since Keree's been home. I had really wanted to restart the tradition this year but it just didn't happen, which makes me a little sad considering everything else that has happened this year. So Happy Birthday Grandpa, I miss and love you so much!

Painful

When Keree woke up, she was in an ok mood but she wasn't feeling all too well. With this quick weather shift of cool nights but then super hot days, Keree's allergies are back in full force. Actually all of our allergies are acting up. Once we got to PT this morning, Keree seemed to be feeling better. Our Fill-In PT decided to have Keree do more adult exercises again. She had her walking on the treadmill and told Keree to tell her when she got tired. Ok, this is Keree, she will never admit to someone other than my Mom, Uncle or I that she's tired. She walked over 5 minutes on it before the PT put a stop to it. I'll skip through the rest of the details but the main reason we go to PT, is so they can stretch Keree's feet and leg muscles without her brace. The Fill-In PT ended up running out of time and didn't stretch her at all. I'll just say that our day didn't get any better after that. We had not even pulled out of the PT parking lot, when Keree dissolved into tears in pain. Keree has a super high tolerance for pain and it has to be super bad for her to say anything and for her to dissolve into tears, it has to be super intense pain. She screamed and cried the entire way home. The worst part about it, is there was nothing I could do. I had actually stopped carrying around our bottle of Tylenol because these episodes had been starting more towards the late morning and we are usually home at that time. The drive home felt like it took forever. As soon as we got home, Keree wanted to lay down, which is odd considering how early it was. I laid her down and told her I was going to give her medicine. Now, Keree spent the first 4 yrs of her life taking medicine like a champ, no fighting, crying, she just took it. These days, medicine has become a battle, I'm not sure if the aversion to medicine started because honestly it tastes awful or if it's a battle of wills. Can I drive my Mom nuts because I don't take my medicine. So when I brought her, her medicine, she whined and avoided it for about a minute before she finally drank it. I ended up sitting in there with her massaging her legs and feet until she feel asleep. She ended up running a low grade fever as she slept but that's nothing new to her painful episodes. Her nap lasted almost 4 hrs and when she has an episode as severe as today, I let her sleep. When she woke up, she was her happy, usual self. Since it was somewhat bearable this evening, we headed outside to play. Keree was excited that she found 2 brown feathers, she put both of them in her play mailbox for safe keeping. Otherwise she rode her bike up and down the sidewalk. I found a few more baby big boy tomatoes on our plants, which was exciting, so I took a few pictures of them. We headed inside just in time to watch American Pickers and then we headed to bed. Keree's legs started to hurt her again, I told her that the only thing we could do was take medicine. Amazingly she took it without fuss and fell asleep pretty quickly. The only downside was she woke up at least 4 times before midnight asking for her legs to be massaged.

HOT

Today was day 12 of this wonderful extreme heat. I swear it fills longer than that but in reality anything under 110 hasn't been considered extreme heat, so the past 12 days have been 111+ temperature. I can literally say we didn't really do anything today. My Mom and I got hooked on the Love Saga marathon, which is a total of 8 movies following the same pioneer family through the years. Keree played most of the time, but she even got hooked in a few times to the story. Especially when they were discussing the orphan train and draughts. We did head outside for about 10 minutes just to take a few pictures but we couldn't stand to be out there longer than that. Keree kept complaining that it was too hard to breathe and I have to agree with her that the air just felt so thick. For dinner tonight, Keree made it all by herself. I wish my camera battery hadn't died because she did such a great job. The only thing she didn't do by herself was peel and slice the zucchini lengthwise and use the can opener to open the tomatoes. She tore the bread into pieces, cooked the sausage (with supervision), measured the cheese and then mixed the mixture together. She spooned out the seeds of the zucchini and then added the mixture to the zucchini. I had to place them in the oven because her arms are too short. But when they came out of the oven, man, it tasted so good. My Mom even loved it and I wouldn't call her picky but she's set in her food ways. Keree was so excited about how good her food was that she had to call her Great-Grandparents and tell them all about it. It was so adorable to hear her describe how she made it over the phone and then tell them that she will cook for them when they come visit. We are headed to bed early because we are just so exhausted.

Rummagepalozza & Win

We got a late start this morning and by 9am it was 110 degrees and rising outside. At the last moment, we decided to check out Rummagepalozza. I'm not sure if it was it's first year or not. It was on the tad small side but did have some awesome stuff. When I had saw the ad online, there was a guy who said he had tons of craft stuff. Well he did not disappoint! We didn't even look into his 50 cent section because of all the great stuff in the 25 cents section. I'm don't have an exact number of yards of elastic I got because I stopped counting after 50 yards. We also got lots of other trims and laces ranging anywhere between 5-10 yards. Some vintage Aunt Martha iron transfers, I know there vintage because they had their original prices on them. So everything we got in the top two pictures were $6.00. We were so excited about all the great things we got. We continued to walk around looking to see what everybody had. I was surprised how much some people were trying to charge for their junk and yes, it was junk. What also bothered me, is those people trying to sell their old, used, nasty, stained and way expired carseats, plus they were charging almost the same price as a brand new one from the store. It was starting to get so hot, that we were just going to leave before looking at the rest of the stuff. But as we were walking out, I came across a guy with boxes and boxes of fabric. I was really drawn to the green leaf and the stripe one, which is actually sort of seersucker and lacey. The teal fabric was plain and perfect for appliques. I paid $3.00 for all of them and there was at least 3 yards of each of them. So since there was only a few more stands, we decided to finish looking. I found a Whoozit rattle for 25 cents, I know Keree is totally too old for rattles but I'm a Whoozit junkie. I actually have a gigantic Whoozit that's bigger than Keree. So I totally brought it for myself. At the last booth we visited, I found some random baseball packs for my Brother. I bought him 6 of them for $3, which I could see some of the inserts and they were totally worth more than what I paid for. Our finally stop before heading home, was a thrift store across the street was having a sidewalk sale. Everything outside was 25 cents. I found Keree a Gymboree top and then found my Brother 8 pairs of pants, mostly khakis for work. By the time we left, it was 128 degrees outside, it was said to be the hottest day of the year so far. We were so hot from walking around, we quickly stopped and got each of us a drink before we headed home. We spent almost all of the rest of the day inside but in the evening it started to cool off a little bit because there was a storm moving in. Keree played outside while we worked on the grass. We also finally went to get the mail and I was super excited to see my envelope from SkinnyKidz. I had won a Blog drawing from Mrs. Broccoli Guy a few weeks ago and got to pick one. I have to say they have so many great choices to choose from but finally decided on the Polk-a-dots. I'll be honest, I have been wanting to get once since Laurie announced her new business venture with Jena on her blog. I honestly wasn't sure even with their measurements if they would be small enough for Keree's waist, because she has a 0-3 mos waist. The other thing was, because of the unknown if they would fit her correctly, I didn't want to spend the money. That's why I was thrilled to win one. I handed Keree the envelope and she was thrilled that she had mail. It took her forever to slowly peel the envelope flap open. Once it was open, she hurriedly removed the belt, took a good look at it and goes "Mommy, is this really for me? Is this really one of the belts from the Internet? Oh Mommy, you love me so much, don't you." I told her, that yes it was for her and that we won it. She didn't quite understand until after some explanation I just said it's kind of like when you won Princess Tomato and they gave you catsup, a crown and trophy. She totally got it then. When my Mom came in, she showed her and goes Mommy won it, just like I won Catsup. See, I told you all she was in the contest just for the bottle for catsup. Keree did try her new belt on for just a few short seconds. It was just too hot for any type of pants, even in short periods of time. So I will write a better post later of this awesome belt and Keree wearing it.

Archaeologist & Garden Veggies

Late last night, we ended up having to run to the Dollar store. So I gave Keree, $1.25 we discussed the importance of money and she was given a choice to either save it or buy something. So while we looked around at the store and I found what I needed, Keree continued to look. She eventually picked out a Disney Car's book that she thought she wanted. A little later, she decided she didn't want the book after all. We walked around the store a little longer and I finally told her if we didn't find something this time, that we could just save the money for the next time we go to the store. She was ok with that, so we walked around the store one last time. We went up and down the candy aisle, I asked her if she wanted candy. In a very wise beyond her years answered "No Mommy because it won't last". Since nothing jumped out at her, we went to check out. There was a Dinosaur egg hanging there, it was one of those that you dig the dinosaur bones out of it and then assemble the dinosaur. Keree asked in a timid voice if she could get it. I told her if that is what she really wanted then she could. She was so excited to pay for it on her own and carry out her own sack.
Well as soon as she woke up this morning, she asked for her dinosaur egg. It had to sit next to her as she ate breakfast. Usually we have PT on Friday but our Fill-In PT had a day off, so instead just my Mom had it. So, since I had a little time, I need to get a few things done on the computer before we headed outside. Keree would not stop bothering me, so as we were heading outside, my Mom got back from PT. Before starting, I explained to Keree what she was doing. That she was being just like an archaeologist. We discussed what their job was and how they not only look for dinosaur bones but other things like the pyramids and mummies (she watched a show with me on them). So once I knew she had a firm grasp of the job and what they do, she went to work. I couldn't believe how rock solid the clay/dirt was, so I made a small hole, so that way the pick wouldn't keep sliding. I was concerned that she would hurt her finger. About 45 minutes into digging, she finally unearthed a leg. Considering that the temperature, was quickly rising and nearing 98 with 98% humidity, we asked Keree if we could help out. So my Mom was able to dig out a large chunk of dirt. We then handed it back to Keree to keep working on. I'm not sure how long it took her but she soon found the dinosaur's body and tail. She continued digging and finally found his skull and his other legs. She then carefully used the other end of the tool, to dig the dirt out of the carcasses and then used what she called the little bitty paint brush to dust the dirt off. It was finally time to assemble her dinosaur, which was a Dimetrodon. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get the pieces to snap together, so I helped her. Let's just say there was a little incident and we lost a dinosaur leg somewhere in our yard. We looked and looked for it but it was gone. Keree was ok that her dino was missing a leg, she goes, "he's like me, he just has a bad leg."
Before we headed in, we decided to pick a the few cherry tomatoes and peppers that were ripe. While we were moving the leaves of the cherry tomato plant , we were surprised that hidden underneath, were 2 gorgeous cucumbers. We were so excited because we really didn't think we would see anything from it because the blooms kept turning brown and seeming to wilt. From what we can see, there is 1 more cucumber almost ready to be picked and 2-3 more still growing. We also discovered 3 Big Boy tomatoes that are slowly growing. Too bad that out of 13 tomato plants, so far we only have those 3 green big boy tomatoes but honestly it's better than nothing. As for the rest of our day, it reached 121 degrees today, our window unit and fans kept the house bearable, but honestly it was miserable. I worked on some new creations for our upcoming fall shows, while Keree played with her toys. Her current obsession is putting various items on a pretend plate and then serving it to us. She's cooked some pretty crazy dishes. On the afternoon news, we did hear that the American Pickers were in town. My Mom and I sat there trying to figure out a way to track them down. I mean seriously, how cool would it had been to meet them, get pictures taken with them and their van. My Brother and I are such huge fans of the show. But we decided that more than likely that they were already gone since it was so late in the day, especially with the heat. Keree did help me with dinner tonight, I fixed Teriyaki Stir-fry with chicken. I had been craving Asian food for a few weeks, so I finally just made it myself.....now if I just had some egg roll wrappers, nothing like homemade egg rolls.

Kingdom Playground

I couldn't sleep last night, I still had a million things running through my head. I just couldn't relax, so that meant I was up till past 2am. So, while I couldn't sleep, I worked on some craft stuff and then researched random things on the net. Which was kind of neat because I came across a new park...well I guess it's not all that new but it was new to us. It advertised that it had a splash park and also a huge castle playground. Of course having Mommy guilt from yesterday, I decided I would take Keree there today. My back started hurting, so I finally decided to try and just lay in bed, Keree decided to wake up at the same time, she said she had a nightmare and begged to sleep with me. She fell back asleep fairly fast but I'm not sure what time I finally succumbed to sleep but I know it was after several 1/2 hours of info commercials. Keree of course was up at her normal time, I bought myself a little time by turning on PBS but somehow she has learned that Nick is also on that television. Of course again, lack of sleep and Mommy guilt, I turned on Nick. I know, even in my sleepy state, I gasped at the thought. But I have to say she was so quiet while it was on and I got a good solid hour of restful sleep. Then, much to my dismay, I woke up to Spongebob. Luckily, she knows the rules and that means when Mommy is up, she gets to flip on the news. So, I got Keree and I dressed and asked my Mom if she wanted to come with us. Keree knew something was up, when I put on her swimsuit and then her clothes. I put a longer pair of capri's on her, in hopes that they would protect her from the hot slides. Keree then got to pick where we ate for breakfast, of course she picked McDonald's. Which in the scheme of things a sausage mcmuffin is much better than donuts. It wasn't that long of a drive to get there from our house and even with me getting a little lost, we got there in no time. When we arrived, we were disappointed to discover that the Splash Park was closed until further notice. We were all so bummed out but then we saw the gigantic playground and that helped in our disappointed. Keree hadn't finished her breakfast, so we sat at one of the picnic tables until she was finished. Then it was time to play, we started out on the 2-5yr playground. Keree had fun walking, climbing and sliding before heading over to the Castle. The Castle was amazing but Keree was a little unsure at first because of the height. So I gave the camera to my Mom and went up to the tip top with her. I'm not sure how tall it was but I was amazed at the view. Keree decided to take the slide down, while I climbed down to the bottom. After that we explored the rest of the playground, Keree hung on the monkey bars, hung on the rings, climbed and hide in the tunnels, walked the wiggle balance beam and crossed the bouncy bridge a million times. After awhile we explored the Dragon side of the Castle. Well, once you get to the top of that area, you get four choices to get down. Well none of those 4 choices were stairs...the only way to go down was to pick one of 4 slides. My Mom stood at the bottom of the slide and laughed her a$$ off at me. Of course she took a picture and I can only assume it will reappear at the worst time. My Mom was getting super hot, so she went and sat down at the picnic table, while Keree and I continued playing. We ran, explored and just had fun. Keree discovered a chain ladder and she went up and down it several times. When I asked her later, she said that was her favorite part of the playground. So while I was taking some pictures and a movie, I turned around and smack in front of me was a huge wasp nest. The nest was at least 3" in diameter and filled with eggs and wasps. We were getting ready to leave but that kind of sealed the deal. All I could imagine was that with our luck, one of us was going to get stung. We noticed on the Welcome sign a phone number to call if there was any issues. So we did our good deed and called the City, she couldn't Thank us enough. I told my Mom later that all I could imagine was some stupid kid either trying to knock it down or poke it with a stick and get stung. And of course being the City that this playground was in, their parents would have sued the City in an instant. We were going to head straight home but my Mom needed to run a few errands. Luckily they didn't take to long. By the time we got home, we were so exhausted from the heat. Keree wouldn't lay down by herself, something about nightmares and monsters. So I promised to sit with her until she fell asleep. I'm guessing she was so tired from being outside in the fresh air and heat that's why she took an almost 3 hour nap. Once Keree got up, we played around the house. We fixed a tomato cucumber salad and some noodles for dinner. And then spent the evening playing and relaxing.