One Size 3, One Size 4

That's an awful title, but it's true (for now, at least!)

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Our thoroughly enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend has been overshadowed by our first accident-related ER visit as parents. It's been almost 6 years that we've been parents, so I count it as a miracle that we made it this long.
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Daddy took Jack to Checker Auto early Saturday morning so that everybody else at Grandma's house could keep sleeping. But we were soon awakened by the 2 of them crashing in the front door & into my room. Apparently there had been a little accident involving Jack & a trailer hitch. Specifically, Jack pulled the hitch off the shelf & right onto his big toe. Seriously, YIKES!
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Off to the ER we go, & we're ushered right back. Our good buddy Myron snapped a few x-rays, & the nice nurses cleaned his little foot up as best they could before the Doc let us know that my poor 1 year old's toe is broken! Cracked, anyways. And that's secondary to the fact that the entire nail & top of his toe was pretty much torn off. The bottom of the toe is crushed beyond recognition. So now his left big toe is about 1/4 inch longer than his right big toe. When Andrew first showed me, I really didn't think that his injuries were that bad. But when Grandma started cleaning off the blood, it became a little more obvious how bad it was. And then when it got really cleaned at the ER, I was shocked at how serious it is.
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Yes, he has 2 different size feet for now. The swelling is incredible! HOPEFULLY the nail will heal itself. If not, I'm sure his little toe will be cute even without it. The Doc thinks there's a good chance it will fall off & never grow back. Poor baby.

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WARNING: BLOODY PIC AHEAD!
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YIKES!
Hmmm, it actually looks better in this pic than in real life.

I just want my Daddy.

All better now.
He was walking on it within 20 minutes of getting back to Grandma's. He's a little limpy, but he's really not even acting like he's injured! (Except when I have to change the dressing, that is!)
Another day, another disaster, right?

Silly Turkey!

I absolutely could not resist.

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When I found THIS last night, I immediately got out my pipe cleaners.

Emma thought I was such a cool mom.

I think she's a pretty cool kid.

Not every 5 year old could wear a turkey in her hair & still look so pretty.

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Although, after I finished it, it totally reminded me of a mullet. You know.....

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Business in the front....Party in the back!Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

So Cute? Funny? Sad?

Hmmm, I'm not sure which category this falls under, but maybe a little bit of all 3.

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Last week I was in town all day accomplishing super important tasks. Unfortunately, I had no other option than to drag all of the kids along with me. When I eventually got home, I had just enough time to run in & take a quick 3 minute shower before I needed to race the kids to the babysitter (for the 3rd time that week) & head to another meeting.

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In the house I run, leave the kids in front of the hypnotic power of the TV, & hustle in to wash off the grime of all-day errands.

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When I came out of the bathroom, I spotted 2 little shadows underneath my closed bedroom door. What was that?

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I open the door to find this.

Emma reported that he didn't want me to leave again, so he parked it outside my bedroom door to wait for me. Poor little bug was so tired that he slept here for over an hour (my meeting got postponed).

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Eventually some noise disturbed him enough that he stirred just long enough to roll over. I was so sad to wake him. What an angel.

All Things Jack

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks with this little man. He's become such a toddler all of a sudden. And oh, boy, he's definitely perfecting his "make Mommy want to scream" routine.
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Example #1- Get him out of the shower, put on the diaper & turn around to help the other kids get dried off. Approximately 3 minutes later, this is what I find in my room. Who knew that we even owned tapes anymore?

Example #2- He's trying to shorten my life span by scaring me to death.Example #3- About a dozen times a day. Can't you just see him saying "Who, me? What did I do?"Example #4- When Emma says "Mom, Jack is making a mess," Mommy had better listen! Applesauce, yum!

Example #5- About 1 week ago, he was taking his first steps.

4 Days later, this is him. He chooses not to participate in the wobbly, falling down, dangerous stage. Instead, it's from 1 step at a time to kicking a ball while running in 4 days flat. CRAZY!!



Watch me go, Mom!

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And just for fun, we got this a couple of weeks ago, too. It's Jack's first hearing aid that actually belongs to us! Well, actually not really. The audiologist ordered it for us, gave it to us, & then they tried to tell us that we needed to bring it back until we paid the full balance on our account. Great, OK. Except that they can't figure out how much we owe. One person says $1200, another $600, and the insurance says we owe nothing. We'll get it all straightened out eventually. I hope. We ordered one this year & will order the other next January to take full advantage of the insurance benefits. It is so small! It's about 1/3 inch shorter than the ones he has now, & it's only about 1/2 the width. It lays so close to his head, it's awesome. Hopefully this will reduce the number of times that we're sticking them back behind the ears every day.

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Isn't it pretty?

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(Only the mother of a child with hearing loss would feel that way!)

3 Times the Sickeys

For the 3rd week in a row, I "got" to stay home from church with a sick kid.

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Just to recap:

Week 1- Jack running an unidentifiable fever. Turned out to be teething, but didn't know that at the time!

Week 2- Emma's S-Illness drama. Ugh!

Week 3- Frank has an ear infection & "acute tonsillitis"!

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What is going on here? I know it's that yucky sicky time of year, but seriously, I've had enough. My home teacher/visiting teachers called us tonight & asked me what I needed. Nothing, nothing at all! At this point, we're so used to being sick that we're just in autopilot with Kleenex, prescriptions & laundry duty. I wonder what it will be like to have them all well...............

Follow-Up

Just to let you all know-

Emma is doing amazing. By Sunday afternoon her fever had broken, & she's been driving me crazy for the past 2 days. I can't wait to get her back in school on Thursday! We just wanted to make sure that all of her cooties were gone before we sent her back. Nobody else needs any of what she had!

Thanks to all of you that offered care & prayers. I am so relieved that she stayed strong & we didn't have any major asthma issues. We are so blessed.

What did YOU do today?

If someone had asked me that question yesterday evening, I would've said "I helped butcher a deer!"

And if you asked me that question tonight, I would say "I took that butchered deer meat & made it into venison sausage."

Specifically, maple breakfast sausage, italian sausage, & chorizo/taco meat.

Don't you wish YOUR father-in-law would drop by for 5 minutes & leave THIS hanging on your kid's swingset?

Butchering a deer on the trunk of Andy's Geo. Classy.
Aren't you proud of me for not gagging?
Last year we took Andy's deer meat & made it into jerky. (Deer meat is so gamey that you can't really use it unless you mix it with something.) So this time we decided to turn it into something that we could/would actually use for food storage. And it was so easy! We mixed it with pork & seasoned the heck out of it. I'm excited to taste it after it cures a bit.

Just another adventure in our quest to be modern day pioneers.