When you think that you've seen it all...

you're enlightened. To put it another way... you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

It's funny, not funny ha ha, but funny in an irony sort of a way... sort of. One would think that having six children would expose you to just about anything and everything. You'd think that. Then one day it happens, something that hasn't happened before. Today was such a day.

Late this afternoon, Nick was mowing the lawn and I was sitting keeping an eye on him. After he was about half way done with the front, I went in the backyard to get the leaf blower and the cord... using it to blow the excess clippings around and keep them from clumping in the lawn. Anyway, Nick proceeds to finish and I (like I said) am busy getting all the clippings redistributed. Nick manages to finish mowing the back before I finish with the blowing of said clippings. I'd like to add (at this point) that Jake, Rachael and Lyndsey are all in the backyard playing and swinging and so on.

I make my way to the back yard to investigate if there are any stray clippings that need tending to in the backyard. Nick has since gone in after having put the mower in the shed. It's at this moment that I see Lyndsey kind of crying sitting at the bottom of the slide. I turn off the blower and ask what happened (to Lyndsey) and Rachael replies, "She stuck something in her nose."

I ask, "What was it?"

"I don't know."

"Lyndsey, what did you stick up your nose?"

Just a shoulder shrug.

"Rachael, why didn't you or Jake stop her?"

"We didn't see her."

"Then how do you know she stuck something in her nose?"

"Cuz Jake saw her."

This is where I grimace in disbelief and shake my head... this is also when Julie pops her head out the back door and asks, "What's going on?" I explain that Lyndsey has put something up her nose and no one here seems to know what it was.

So Julie takes her in as I finish up. I go inside to see that finally Julie managed to coax Lyndsey to blow her nose. The biggest problem... outside of her shoving something up her nose... is that she's crying and her nose is getting (as we call it) schnoodley and her natural instinct is to sniff... to keep it from running out her nose and down her face. Only one side was running so whatever she got up there was sealing it off.

What was it you ask? A small plastic bead (about the size of a pea and apparently a perfect fit) that she found on the ground. Naturally it fell from the sky and was a gift from the heavens as it wasn't recognized by anyone.

Well... five down and one more to go.

KEIYTAP