Celebration

This is my happy face. It may be difficult to discriminate from my not-so-happy face...

I should have taken a follow-up picture. It would have resulted after the following:

1. Riding a bus with 50 others wearing the same shirt.

2. Walking through a gauntlet of high school cheerleaders and band members.

3. Sitting in a hot stadium.

4. Having items thrown into the crowd that seemed unnecessarily close to my head.

5. Thinking I was going to be attacked by some student council person running up the steps.

6. Waiting in the hot bus for 20 minutes.

7. Riding a bus with no air conditioning back to school.

I'm pretty sure it was a VERY un-happy face...

Painful Reality

The image to follow was a very painful experience. However, it is what happens when you are allergic (not slightly, but highest level of allergic) to the following:

TREES:

Boxelder

Birch

Juniper Rocky Mtn.

Oak

Ash

Cottonwood

Elm

Maple

Russian Olive

Willow

GRASS:

Timothy

Johnson

Bermuda

WEEDS:

Cocklebur

Lamb's Quarters

Pigweed

Dock

Sagebrush

Plantain

Ragweed

Marshelder

Scale

Kochia

Russian Thistle

Greasewood

Alfalfa

OTHER:

Cats

(That doesn't even include the lower rated allergies i.e. dogs, horses, sycamore trees, walnut trees, linden trees, mulberry trees and mesquite trees).

My arm was ON FIRE! And it took quite awhile to get the itching to subside - even after heavy duty anti-itch cream and a shot of liquid Zyrtec...

The avoidance techniques won't really work since these allergies occur all spring, summer and fall here in Utah. I do get a higher A/C bill because I don't open the windows. Lucky me.

Possible allergy shots are in my future...

On the plus side I am not allergic to mold or dust :)

Babysitting

It is a rare occasion that I babysit only my niece at my house. Today just happened to be one of those days. She was in a pretty good mood, so I thought we would try a few fun pictures :)

She was enjoying herself, even if it doesn't look that way! It is hard to smile when you are fascinated by that cute baby on the computer screen :)