that's "mrs. genius" to you

when shay was delivering kavers she was the vomit queen. with every contraction she'd vomit and dry heave. it was very painful to see my baby sister in that condition. and hard to not console her. that was her husband's place and duty and he was taking it full on. at the foot of her hospital bed was a neat little dispenser of blue vomit bags. they had a cardboard circular ring at the opening and pointed into a sleek bag ready to collect its contents. they were the coolest invention eva!

i say this because cristian has always been our carsick child. this was a small, compact answer to our driving dilemma. i stole like 5 that day. ever since then, whenever i've had to go to the ER i make sure to steal about 5 more. i'm telling you they are awesome. when your child carries around a barf bucket it is large, cumbersome and let's face it the contents sometimes splash outside the bucket. vomiting isn't a clean process.

i ran out of barf bags and shalynn has decided to start birthing children in other states so my stealing practices came to a halt. the perfect storm came around our house about 2 months ago. in my 10 years of parenting it was the first illness bloodbath. the simultaneous infection of all 5 children. they staggered themselves of 2-3 at a time. some with vomit, some with diarrhea. one would mend, return to school, then flip and come down with the opposing aliment. for 2 weeks the house was fluids from both ends. i had to devise a plan.

i thought of how i could make these amazing barf bags....

i found the embroidery rings at hob lob. get the plastic ones so they can be washed by hand if necessary. the wooden ones will soak up stains, smells, etc. ooh, look cute fun colors....


1 gallon freezer bags simply looped through the rings with the rings tightened snugly.

one cute kid fake vomiting/laughing into his vomit bag. these are even better than hospital ones because they are ziploc-able. you remove the ring, seal the contents, and throw away. i keep these bad boys in the car at all times.

for real, it's a gross topic, but i'm a freak'n genius for creating these little numbers! enjoy.

mixed bag

i had some serious doubts about cristian's soccer team when the season started. he is way taller than all the other boys because it's a 3rd/4th grade team. i thought for sure he wouldn't be challenged on the team with such little fellas to work with. then our coach bailed. he suddenly had to relocate to another city for work. it left the team short and without a coach.

a couple of dad's stepped up to fill in for the season. i think most of them are techies and sports are really alien to them. no kidding, last week's game found the coach wearing a shirt in bold letters that read, "STAR WARS". this team is breaking all stereotypical barriers.

the team is doing quite well. especially the tiny little indian boy who plays goalie. he is just so scrappy and tenacious. there are other boys who have soccer in their blood. it's really a fascinating dance of various skill and talent while watching them play. i'm always impressed.

my favorite part of his team though is the diversity. wow, it's a total mixed bag of ethnicity. and to think we are in suburbia in austin texas makes me so, so happy. in fact, there is only one caucasian boy on the team. two, i guess if you count cristian - i never know where to put my kids on the race scale - they're both.

check out these names though - elijah, arsh, jacob, diego, akalish, edgar, mauricio, trunks, and cristian. we've got hispanics, indians, i guess Mediterranean, and caucasian. it seriously is such a beautiful thing for me to see. i love my kids having such experiences.