Sheinah turns 4

It's hard to believe that it has been four years since Sheinah was born. It's always a little bittersweet for us on her birthday as it brings back memories of the near-death experience for Melissa when Sheinah was born. That said, we had quite an exciting day. This weekend we are celebrating our grand opening at the pharmacy so Sheinah got to spend the morning with her Nama and her sister while we worked. She got calls from all of our immediate family with lots of happy birthday songs sung to her. She even got a call from one of her babysitters, Nicole Skinner, all the way from Wisconsin.

We've been telling her for several months that when she turns four she would have to give up her B (her special blanket that she uses to suck her thumb). We are trying a technique we saw on Super Nanny (yes, it's cheesy but we hope it works). The episode was with a family whose four year old twins had a pacifer in their mouths 24-7. The "Binky Fairy" came and took all the pacifers and left presents in their place. Thus, the "B Fairy" was born. Now, we try our best to be truthful with Sheinah so when she asked who was the B Fairy, we told her it was daddy :) The deal was that she would need to give all of her Bs to the B Fairy and then she could get one present for each B she turned in. We let her pick out the presents at our store. We had planned to do this transaction next weekend after her birthday party, but today, she came to the pharmacy and said she wanted to turn in her Bs for her presents. We patiently explained the consequences of this which she professed to understand.

Fast forward to 8pm tonight when the B Fairy came for the Bs. The short version is that it did not go well. Melissa cried almost as much as Sheinah. Sheinah just kept saying "I just need my B for one more night and then I'll give it back tomorrow." This sounded completely rational to her mommy! Travis, in all his daddy-B-Fairy wisdom, knew that it would only get worse if we gave in. Two hours and many tears, screams, and one potty accident later, she was finally asleep. It was most certainly a birthday to remember!

Peach's Accident

We got a call on Tuesday night, August 18th, from the folks who are boarding our horse saying that Peach had gotten hurt and we better come see her. When we got there, things looked pretty bad. She had long scratches down her back and a big giant hole where her left front leg attaches to her body. Unfortunately, as soon as we got there, a huge hailstorm went through, destroying any evidence of whatever had happened to her. Travis and Dave (the guy who boards her), drove 30 miles to Ogallala to take her to the vet. The vet sewed her right up and said it looked like Peach had impaled herself on a fence post. The next day, Dave and his friend walked the property looking for downed fence or any evidence of what might have happened to Peach. Since he couldn't find any damaged fence, he decided to call the Department of Wildlife to investigate if it could have been a mountain lion attack. It should be noted that Travis had called his cousin Mike in Wyoming (where we got the horse) and emailed him a picture of Peach's injuried the night it happened. Mike's theory matched the vet's - that it was a fence post as mountain lions usually attack from the front at the neck. After a week of investigation, the DOW agreed with Mike's conclusions. Dave spent several more days walking the property and still has been unable to find what might of happened to injure Peach. In any case, Peach chewed on her stitches and they came out so she still has a big gaping hole in her front side. She finished a course of antibiotics and now Dave or Travis just sprays her with some pink stuff (there's a name for it, but I don't know what it is) and the vet says it will eventually heel. In the meantime, she has to stay in a small fenced area so that she won't walk too much on her injured leg. When we went to see her on Friday, all the other horses were visiting with her on the other side of the fence. They seemed kind of sad that she couldn't come out and play. She has a roommate now too...one of the horses was "naughty" (in the words of Dave's 11 year old daughter) and has to stay in the stall.

We have to give Peach all kinds of props from coming through this injury. The pictures of her injury are just too graphic to post but it looked really horrible. Since she has so many scratches on her back that have to be sprayed with the pink stuff, she kind of looks like a painted pony from the circus. Once those stitches popped out, it looked really bad again, but that pink stuff is actually working. I'm guessing she is gonna have one heck of a scar though when it is all said and done.

Sheinah has been a real trooper through the whole adventure. We took her to see Peach that first night because we honestly didn't know if the horse was going to make it. We wanted her to be able to say good-bye to the horse, if needed. Sheinah did really good despite the gruesome hole in her pet. She goes with Travis a few times a week to feed/care for the horse and hasn't balked at the big hole at all. She hasn't even complained that she can't ride the horse. Of course, we haven't got the bill from the vet yet so we are still doing good ourselves (wink, wink).

Tennis Ball Gun Gone Wrong

The Bumgardner boys have never really grown up. Case in point - while we were in Wyoming at Dusty's house, Dusty took all the kids (including the grown-up ones) outside to play with his toy. It was basically a potato gun on steroids. The goal of the gun was to shoot tennis balls really far using hairspray and a flint in the bottom of a PVC pipe. Apparently, he uses this gun all the time to entertain the kids. Enter Travis....

Now those of you who know us well are aware of Travis' various head injuries...all of which involved ice. Somehow, in the process of doing nothing more than observing someone else use the tennis ball gun, the lid to the gun shot off the back, hit the concrete and bounced up, hitting Travis in the eyebrow. It just so happens that Travis doesn't have health insurance. Thus, we had to make the decision about whether or not the cut was deep enough to need a trip to the emergency room for stitches. The group concensus was that superglue and steri-strips would do. The operating team included Melissa, Dusty, and Shannon with assistance from the entire Bumgardner clan. The repair was videotaped by Kerry and I'm sure will show up on some Bumgardner's blog or facebook page. Dusty swears that he and the kids have used this thing forever without any problems...

The best part of the story is when we got home. Remember that we are business owners and Travis is the face of the pharmacy up front. His story was that he mouthed off to Melissa one time too many :)

Welcome to Peach

Sheinah has been asking for a horse since her third birthday. We took her to the Bayfield Apple Festival last October (our annual tradition) at which she rode a pony on a guided pony ride. Right after that she told us that on her next birthday she was going to get a pony. Now we usually don't like to just give her everything she asks for. However, part of the point of living out in the middle of nowhere is so that we can have things like a pony. It just so happened that Travis cousin Dusty had an older horse that could no longer go hunting in the mountains. Dusty offered to give the horse to Sheinah. Thus, we took a trip out to Wyoming to visit with Travis' uncle JimBob and pick up the horse.

The horse's original name is Peaches. When we first asked Sheinah what she would like to name her horse she said "Miss Kim." Kim is her favorite teacher at pre-school. We were thinking that Miss Kim might not enjoy having a horse named after her but we were willing to let her choose. Once she met the horse and we told her the horse's name, Sheinah decided that the horse's name would be Peach. We got scolded if we forgot and called her Peaches :)

Her first ride required Travis to have his hands on her...then she let him let go...then she rode with her cousins. Once we got Peach home, Sheinah actually rode her all by herself! Check out some pictures.

Sedgwick County Fair

The Sedgwick County Fair began today with the annual parade. We found out on Monday that we (Abts Pharmacy and Carolyn's Flowers) needed to be in the parade. The ladies of the store did an amazing job creating a float in just two days. It helps that we have a flower shop well stocked with decorating supplies. Faye, one of our clerks, provided her truck and trailer which everyone (except the pharmacists) proceeded to decorate. It is my personal opinon that we had the best float, but I may a bit biased. The theme for the fair is "Tough enough to wear pink" in support of breast cancer awareness. Thus, the entire float, including the folks on it, wore lots and lots of pink. Donna, another of our clerks, found day-glo hot pink hats for the guys to wear and Judy (one of the former owners) provided Travis with an amazing hot pink shirt. I have three favorite memories from the parade: (1) Travis in the hot pink shirt with the collar turned up to make him look cool (2) Murl wearing his hot pink hat sideways saying "I is the pharmacist" (3) Sheinah talking about caramel poop (in reference to all the horse manure on the road).

Raspberry toots

We try to spend a little one-on-one time with Sheinah in the evenings after we put Amaris to bed. Tonight, we were having a tickle fight. Sheinah and I decided to blow raspberries on Travis' tummy. Sheinah needed me to show her what to do because she didn't quite know how to do it. I showed her and then gave her a turn. As soon as she blew out, she also tooted. We, of course, started laughing and asked her to do it again. Amazingly she did...again, and again, and again. I wonder if there is any need for people who can fart on demand? Anyway, we got a video of it. My favorite part was her trying to show Travis how to do it and Travis's face turning red as he tried unsuccessfully to toot. Apparently, she didn't get her ability in this area from her daddy. Be sure to turn up the volume in order to hear the toots.

First tooth

Amaris finally cut her first tooth today. It seems like she has been teething for months. Of course, she is very grumpy and drooly and can't seem to put enough stuff in her mouth but we are happy that the first tooth is through.