I ventured out Friday Morning for “Black Friday” shopping. I left at 4:30 a.m. and got home around 3:00 p.m. It was so nice to get out of the house all by myself. My cell phone battery was dead so Matt couldn’t even call (although I heard about tha when I got home…) It was nice to just be me. I did stand in line at Best Buy for an hour and 45 minutes to get our new camera. I was thankful when I got to the front they had one in stock. That was the line to just find out if they had one left! (they did let me pay there as well. PHEW!) Most lines were LONG but I got about 1/2 my Christmas shopping done, and then I finished the rest online on Saturday.

The weather here has been incredible – mid 60’s all week. I have been shoving the kids outside to enjoy the last few moments of fall. It is supposed to get cold again on Friday. I hear in Marysville/Lake Stevens they had 5 inches of snow and schools have been closed for 2 days. I guess we can be glad we aren’t there anymore, although I am sure the kids would enjoy the snow at this point. I am sure we’ll get our snow day at some point this winter.

We had a nice time at the Thanksgiving dinner. We just brought the creeper thing we have set up at home for Dane. Of course I had my old camera still at that point, so not all the pictures turned out. Here is one.

Grandma, here is Dane enjoying the package you sent. Notice the clock in the background… 11:50 and still in bed… We were lazy that day.

Dane is doing pretty good. He can stand up now and crawls pretty good – although he doesn’t seem to like crawling all that much. He still would prefer to be held most of the time. He is sleeping through the night again, so that is a huge plus in my book! Yesterday he was a bit confused. He woke up from his nap and thought it was morning. He was asking for oatmeal for breakfast. LOL Then at night, he thought it was nap time. He slept about an hour and a half and then he woke up and was wide awake for 2 1/2 hours or so. We just left him in his crib with the door open and he was talking away. He finally did go back to sleep thankfully. I think I fell asleep before he did…

We are working on a new link at the top – see that? Family Photo Album. Maybe it will even work by the time you read this, but it isn’t working quite yet. However that will allow us to share more pictures as it links to a site with a lot more file space. With the new camera we will have a boat load for awhile I think. Here a few to wet your appetite until the new area is up and running.

Now that we can hit the picture button and it will actually take an imeediate picture instead of 15 seconds later, and the pictures are clear…. It is a lot more fun to snap photos. I am sure they will get better as we learn more about the camera too.

I hope you are well! There is a big flu bug going around our town, but so far we haven’t caught it yet. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

C-

I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow! We are going to enjoy church at 9:30 and then a quiet day at home. Then at 5:45 we are heading to the VanHoveln Thanksgiving Dinner. (We”re adopted family members) It is an extended family of over 100 (many who go to our church) held at the gym at the boy’s school. Should be fun. We haven’t quite figured out what we’ll do with Dane, but I’m sure we’ll figure out something. Saves me having to prepare a big meal anyway! Although we did buy a turkey since they are always on sale this time of year.

I am still trying to decide if I want to leave by 4:00 to be at Best Buy at 5:00 Friday morning. There is a digital camera I have my eye on since ours is dying a slow death. (Hence, the lack of pictures…) However, I might be kinda grumpy if I did that and didn’t actually get one… Although, I haven’t really left the house for three weeks, so it might actually be worth it. Clara, I’ll miss our traditional shopping trip this year!

We had Christian’s conference on Monday. It sounds like he is doing great. Seems to be on track with his learning and is well behaved. So that is good! Ryan had a big Social Studies test yesterday. He ended up with 80%. I was surprised how much they expect him to know. He had to color in our state on a blank map, then color the states the touch Canada and the states that touch Mexico. Nothing was labeled. Then there were a bunch of other questions about citizen, law, state and government.

Dane has slept the last few nights pretty well. We finally cracked down with him a bit (lack of sleep made our patience of waking up at 3:00 and staying up till 7:30 run out quickly). He is standing up periodically now. (while holding onto something of course) Every morning when we go to get him out of his crib he is standing. Two more weeks until we go in again and hopefully get the cast off!

Well, I’m off to watch a DVD. This training I am doing has sent me 27 DVD’s so far and I’ve only made it 1/3 of the way through one…. Gotta get cracking!

C-

All right, my new site is up and running! WHEW that was a lot of work! It always is, but it is always worth it. You can check it out by clicking on the banner on the right, or visiting http://www.kidapprovedmeals.com
C-

I suppose it is time for an update. Nothing too majorly exciting is happening around here. We’re just stuck at home with the little guy. He has a newfound desire to be in charge of the T.V. Remote Control. I think that is one thing he feels like he can actually control in his state. He’s been watching lots of monster trucks, Dora, and the Food Channel. Today instead of a nap I just let him vedge out on our bed with the T.V. remote. Seemed to work pretty good. Hopefully he will sleep tonight. The other night we let him stay up until 10:00. He was happy as can be and then slept in until 10:40. He did sleep through the night last night after his big cry when we put him to bed. Hopefully he’ll do the same tonight.

Ryan has a big field trip tomorrow. They are going to see Chronicles of Narnia as a play in the town about 40 min. away. I’m sure he’ll have a great time. I had promised that I would drive for the next field trip (after the fire station) and now with Dane in his state I wasn’t able to. Ryan was pretty disappointed, but I’m sure he’ll live.

I went for my 4 mile walk again today. First time since Dane got hurt. My ligaments in my inner hip are really sore now. I guess I had too long of a break! I also started a diet that I have done in the past and worked pretty well for me. You link carbs and protien. No more then 30g. or carbs per meal or snack and each 15 g. or carbs has to be linked to 7 g. of protien. I’m not a huge protien eater generally, so I think I end up eating less because I know I have to eat protien with whatever my choice food is. Of course as many veggies as I’d like. I’ll try it for awhile and see how it goes. Last time I tried it I lost quite a few pounds and then got pregnant with Dane. We’re going to try to leave out the pregnant part this time.

I have been slaving away on a new site. I will announce it in a couple days hopefully. The sales letter is done, the products are done. I just need to set up the shopping cart and affiliate program and it will be ready to roll.

I think we are all about over our colds now except for the little morning wake-up coughs.

We’re having a big wind and rain storm here tonight. I’m glad I don’t have to be out there for anything.

I hope everyone is well.

C-

I just realized that I hadn’t shared Ryan’s Report Card Yet. Here it is.

Dane had his check-up yesterday. Everything looks good. However, he has to stay in his cast for at least another month! We go back in Dec. 8th to find out if it can come off. Originally he said 2-4 weeks, so I wasn’t too excited to find out it is at least 5 weeks. Matt said it is probably six originally and that they tell you 2-4 so you don’t panic and then lay the truth on you later. I think he’s right. When he said “come back in a month” I all of the sudden felt trapped. We can’t go anywhere as a family until it is off as he doesn’t fit in his car seat too good and he can’t sit up in a shopping cart or stroller. So all of the sudden I realized that we are stuck home for four more weeks! EEK! All the more reason to Christmas shop online this year I guess. They did trim a small piece off the cast on the left leg (the one that is not broken) He kept bending his leg and it was getting all raw from the rubbing. So they cut a chunk off and put some soft fuzzy tape on (that immediately fell offf). They thankfully gave us extra, so we put more on and Matt duct taped it on towards the top (not the part that touches his leg) to ensure it stays put. Looks kind of funny but you can tell he is more comfortable. He is rolling all over the place and scootching to where he wants to go. He has all of the sudden decided that he doesn’t like to go to sleep though. Once he falls asleep he is fine and sleeps through the night. But falling asleep is tricky. The last two nights he has cried and cried. He has learned that if he says owie we will come. (Smart kid…) Then as soon as we get in there and ask him where the owie is he says “I want out”. “I want watch Dora”. I remember our other kids going through this owie phase too, but not when they actually had a big owie…. So that makes it hard. We can pretty much tell if it is a real owie or not though by the way he says it.

Matt is off at a gun show with a church member today. We have the college group here tonight, so I guess I better go clean up a bit. It was 70 here yesterday and today it is 40 with an even colder wind chill. Quite the change. I think most of our colds are clearing up. Matt finally went to the Dr. yesterday and got his normal allergy stuff, Z-pack, and cough syrup with Codine so he should be good in another day or so too. He seems to need that every fall/winter.

All right, gotta run the laundry is calling!
C-

All right, I feel like I can actually kind of function again. We had four nights where I got about 2 hours total sleep each night (not straight). Those were LONG Nights of cuddling and watching Dora the Explorer, I don’t know how many times ,throughout the night. (Thankfully we have almost every episode recorded on our DVR as that is the only show he is willing to watch.) He just couldn’t get comfortable I don’t think. That was Thurs. – Sunday nights. Dane and I didn’t go to church on Sunday. Ryan and Christiian found some surrogates to sit with I guess. Monday I could barely function. Matt had been sleeping on the futon so he was sort of rested so he took over “Mom” duty and Dane and I slept the majority of the day. At the end of the day Matt was proclaiming how tired he was and all I could say was “Well, it’s hard being a mom isn’t it?” He had done the laundry, cooking, running kids to school etc.

Dane has slept through the night the last two nights and I think we are back on schedule. YEA! It feels so much nicer to not be totally exhausted. Of course Matt and I both caught colds after these sleepless nights, but hopefully those will vanish quickly as well now that we are getting our rest. Dane would like to be held the majority of the time, and the days and nights felt like some of the longest ever but the whole time I kept thinking something much worse could happen to any of us any day. This is such a minor thing in light of the big picture. God is good and sustains us through such trials. The people at church have been great as well – calling to see how we are doing, bringing over little gifts etc. We’re getting much more comfortable working with him as well. At first I was scared to even pick him up or move him.

We go back in on Friday for an X-ray to see how things are healing. Today he learned to roll over and scootch a bit so he is a bit happier to be on the floor for short periods of time. For a few days it was like having a newborn (who was 4 times as big) who wanted to be held (and entertained) at all times. How he has graduated to a giant 6 month old – rolling around and exploring a bit. Matt took his car creeper and attached Dane’s car seat to it and yes he is bungee corded in. LOL The bottom straps don’t fit over his cast. We push him around the house a bit in that. He doesn’t really like it unless we are pushing him, but he also sits there to eat as it is right at table height and if we push him up sideways against the table he can feed himself – which he prefers.

Okay, so I’m sure you would like to hear about Halloween. That kind of got pushed out of the picture with Dane’s excitement. Matt and I came up with the idea to do a Trunk ‘O Treat Party the Sunday before Halloween. It was so much fun! There must have been about 70 people or so who showed up. Everyone parked in front of the church in the parking area and many decorated their trunks. Then the kids went “trunk ‘o treating” to each car. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun! One family brought their big huge kettle they do kettle corn in at craft fairs and did that. Another family brought their portable fireplace. We were really surprised at the turn-out and how much everyone got into it. Afterwards we had cider, hot cocoa and cookies downstairs in the church. Everyone stayed quite awhile and just chatted. I would say it was a success and was probably our first annual event. Here are some pictures.

Here’s the Kettlecorn

The Fireplace – Dane thought it was a good place to hang-out.

Then for Halloween Night they picked different costumes out of the costume box and we went trick-or-treating for a short while in town. It was cold and they already had a TON of candy from Sunday so we just did a few houses to say we did it. They had a good time.

Then of course two days later – Thursday the 2nd we had the Dane Fiasco. Christian and Dane were playing in the living room and Matt and I were working on other things. All of sudden the scream – the one where you know your little one is really hurt. I rush out there and Dane is standing on one leg crying and Christian says he fell off the folding chair, but it was so fast he’s not exactly sure what happened. We calm him down, but he still won’t stand on it. I go to my hair appointment and Matt put him down for a nap. He slept about an hour and a half and was still upset. So I picked up Ryan from school and Matt inserted Dane into my car and I drove to the ER. I got there about 4:00 and got checked in. I was asked about 10 different times by various people what happened. (I later researched that 30% of spiral femur fractures are child abuse.. – no wonder I was questioned so much…) We were put in a waiting room and Dane laid on the bed and watched the little T.V. they had in there. Of course the ER was busy. By 5:15 or so he was asking for a drink. I flagged down the nurse to ask for a cup for a drink of water. She leaves and comes back and says “I can’t let him have anything because he might have to have surgery…” Well, that’s when I started to panic. So I called Matt and asked him to find someone to watch the boys and to come. So he asked one of our neighbors and church members who have similar aged kids to watch them and he headed over. He met us in X-ray around 5:45 or so. We get that all done (Dane hated it as the X-ray machines were noisy as they moved around – and he was tired, hungry and in pain). We went back to the waiting room and watched more T.V. and finally they come in to tell us it is broken. So they decide they need to put a temporary cast on in and he needs to see a specialist on Friday. Well, then it took awhile for them to decide how to do the temporary cast…. The finally get it on and we got back around 7:30 or so. Friday morning we get into the specialist at 9:30. So we have a different friend watch the other two boys. The specialist says he put the cast on around 1:30 p.m. So up we go to outpatient surgery. Here we do all the paperwork and Dane was really good. There wasn’t a T.V. here so he had to wait for about 3 1/2 hours before they actually took him in for the cast. He of course couldn’t eat or drink anything again since they were going to put him under. They did give some medicine about an hour before they took him in that they called “happy juice”. It was meant to make him not mind when they took him away from us to the surgery room. Well, picture a drunk two year old. It was really funny. Everyone was laughing – the patients, the nurses and of course us. They took him in, put on the mask, put him to sleep, put in the IV, did the cast, and came and let us know it was done. Meanwhile Matt went and got us some food at McDonalds since we were starving. A member of our church is a nurse and helped with the “surgery”. After about a half an hour we heard him crying and they immediately came and got us and told us he was awake. He had to stay for an hour post-op and then we were able to head home. He was a trooper. It was so sad to see him lying there with that cast and IV. But he did great.

Christian got a new classmate today at preschool so now they are up to 8 kids total – all boys. They had “Stone” Soup today at school. Everyone brought in a vegetable of their choice. He chose a potato. His teacher said only three of the kids would try it and Christian was one. He loved it and had three bowls. Then when he got home he asked if we could make it for dinner. I guess it was good!

Ryan lost his first front tooth today at school. He sure looks old! Now he has two on the bottom missing and one on top. The other front one is starting to get loose, so he will probably be singing “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” this year.

We finally gave away one of our kittens to a neighbor. She was there for about a day and a half and is already back here with her siblings. Oh well… It was worth a try. Garfield is missing now. He was the one who already used up one of his lives – the adventurous one… so he might have been a bit too advernturous…. or who knows maybe he’ll still come home. This morning as the kids were eating breakfast Christian announces – there is a skunk eating the cat food! So of course Matt runs out to see and it is not a skunk…. but a possum. The cats or just sitting there about 8 feet away all cuddled up and could care less. The possum had been here a couple other times as well. So Matt ran downstairs, got his 22… and let’s just say the possum is no longer an issue…

Okay, that is a long enough post for today. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, cards, gifts etc. that you have sent. We appreciate it!

C-

All right, I am exhausted physically and emotionally. Here is what we have been doing the last two days.

He stood on a folding chair and it collapsed. He his a spiral fracture in his right femor. He got a temporary cast yesterday at the ER and then today went in with the specialist for the real thing. They put him under to do it. Now he is imobile for 2-4 weeks.

C-