Catching up...

The Princess is was napping. The patient is sleeping. The Sound of Music is on.  I'm blogging! Scroll down....I think I'm up to 4 new posts and a couple more to go.

The Patient

Ben now has a new ACL thanks to his doctor and his own hamstring (the doctor took part of his hamstring to create a new ACL in his knee).  As I figured might happen, he had a hard time with the anesthesia part of the surgery. He was 2nd to last patient to leave the hospital (after 8PM) and his surgery was over around 12:30PM.  He's doing better each day, but he spent his first few days at home like this....

We put the gate up to keep the kids out. (We quickly learned that they didn't have the need for personal space like he did.)  Ben still has to spend 4 hours a day in this machine that bends his knee and stretches his hamstring.  He joked that it'll be his most relaxing Christmas vacation ever...lots of reading and movie watching.

Christmas Program #2

The Handsome Man had a Christmas program at school. Unfortunately, it was on the day that Ben's ACL surgery was to take place. We missed it. But my parents and sister were able to go and take pictures for me (and all of you).  The Handsome was pretty excited to be one of the three Wise Men. And I'm pretty sure he did a great job. :)

Christmas Program

The Princess had a Christmas Program at the weekly Bible Study I attend.  She should have been here....

But instead she was here.... on my lap...with her blankie.

She never made it to the stage. She was *that* child who ran out of the aisle, crying, straight onto Mommy's lap.  Oh well....maybe next year she'll make it to the stage. :)

Novem-beard

It is what you think....grow your beard in November.  Ben's co-worker decided it would be a good contest to see who go the longest without shaving. The only time I've seen anything close to this much facial hair on my man is after a long week + of camping. But this is one month....

He's still quite handsome, but I prefer him sans-facial hair. He did finally shave and is back to his handsomer self.  (And, in the end, the contest fizzled and there was no prize. Darn.)

Wow-zers a of week(s)

I'm not really sure how to describe the last couple of weeks around here. Wow-zers is all I can think of. Or maybe just crazy. That'll work too.  Here's a quick update:

Around November 15th, we got a call to foster a for a little boy who is almost 3.  It's a long story, but he didn't come until Friday, November 18th.  The state did tell us he was developmentally delayed and neglected, but the social workers actually didn't know how severe his situation was.   By the end of the weekend (in which he cried all the time), we knew that he needed more time and attention than a mom with 3 young kiddos could give.  We let the social worker know and it took them a while to find a new home for him.  Eventually they did find a better place for him....a foster home with no other children so that he can get all the time and attention he needs and deserves.

In the meantime, the Princess turned 2 on November 19th! Pictures to come soon. 

Then, the Princess decided that a super high fever would be a good way to culminate her birthday. Poor girl had a high fever and a nasty looking throat for days. We ended up staying home for Thanksgiving because she was still running an above normal temp. :(  She's all better now, but she forgot how to get herself back to sleep so she's still waking up about twice each night.  Hope that changes soon tonight.

The little foster guy will be going to his new family in a couple of days. Of course we're getting used to him, and him to us. But we know this will be good for him. He needs 16 hours of early intervention therapies a week and needs to see 6 doctors in the near future.  I just don't have enough hours in the day to do all that he needs.  The more attention he gets, the more progress he'll continue to make.

Oh, and I nearly missed the most exciting part of the last two weeks.....my niece was born last week! We drove down to see my sister and her growing family yesterday. I'll admit that I pretty much monopolized the baby-holding time. I just couldn't help it.  She's too cute!

Sweetness

Earlier this month, my sister had her 2nd sweet baby girl.  I had to share my niece-holding time this year with her cousins! They loved holding her (wouldn't you?). 

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Handsome Man had a Thanksgiving program at school. This is his last year at his Christian preschool so it's probably the last Thanksgiving school program I'll get to see for him. He was so cute!

Happy 2nd Birthday

We celebrated the Princess's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe she's already 2.  She is our funny, crazy, wild child.  She can make me laugh and lose my patience all in 10 seconds (or less)--almost all day long.    Here are some pictures from her party with our family.

Opening Gifts...

Cake...

Happy Birthday, little girl! We love you!

Family Raking Day and Movie Night

Remember that beautiful tree I posted yesterday? This one?  The leaves are no longer on the tree. They still look pretty on the ground but it's time to rake.  Rake, sort of, since Ben has a ridiculous leaf blower that does most of the work.  We just had to rake them onto a tarp and drag them to the street.

Here's my crew after they helped me rake the first batch leaves onto the tarp.

 

And then a ninja pose. Not so sure if this is what ninjas do, but I guess that's what they think they do.

We tried to be good helpers. Ben tore the ACL in his knee and possibly something else as well so he's not his usual self (aka...a work horse). Don't we look like a serious bunch?

Here's the work horse himself. Raking leaves with a very bad knee and no crutches. Hope he can walk okay tomorrow.

And off we go to the street. (I really was helping. Someone has to stop and take the pictures though.)

Then, after long day's work, we relaxed for a family movie night. Cars 2. (I know, we're a little behind the times.) And, it's our first time in 3D.

Happy Fall!

This is the tree in our new backyard. I'm about a day late in taking the picture because some of the leaves have already fallen.  It's a fun conversation when we talk to the kids about autumn....that God created all these beautiful colors just for this time of year. The leaves could all just turn brown, but they don't.  I'm so glad that He decided to do this...

Snow!

This is a first for us...snow in October.  The leaves haven't yet fallen so the snow was heavy on the limbs. Many limbs fell and downed power lines.  We were without power for about 50 hours; many are still in the dark.  Our school district closed for two days.  Here's the sight outside our front window. (You can also see the color we picked on the wall, our new curtains and a little bit of our new living room furniture.  I'm hoping to get some before and after pictures soon.)

The kids loved playing in the snow. The Munchkin was a shoveling machine and helped her daddy for a couple of hours. She even shoveled out a few neighbors. The Handsome Man helped a little too. The Princess surprised us and loved playing in the snow. Of course, she kept her paci in most of the time. She's totally a paci addict. :)

While we were without power, the house got a bit chilly.  We did a lot of living underneath covers.  We went to my parents to charge up our phones, laptops and DVD player. That came in handy.

Our power came on while we were out trick-or-treating on Halloween. It was glorious to come home and have a warm house.  We couldn't have asked the Lord for a better time to have heat!

Pumpkin Painting

We didn't get to go apple picking this year (we were planning to go the weekend that the Princess hurt her finger so that didn't happen). We didn't go pumpkin picking because time got away from us. But we did at least get pumpkins (shhh....from the grocery store and one from the Handsome Man's hayride field trip). And, the kids painted them.  They had tons of fun!

Can you see all the paint color samples in the background? We finally picked one! Pics coming soon!

Also, if you look closely, under all the paint, you can also see the Princess's band-aids. The doctor said that we don't have to go back for 4 more weeks! Her finger is healing really well. Now we're just waiting to see if her fingernail will grow again.

Decisions, decisions...

Sometimes I'm decisive. Sometimes I not. Usually I'm not. Right now, I'm really not. Case in point....

Every wall in our living room and dining room looks like this. I just can't decide on a color. It's getting a little ridiculous now.  Hoping to make a decision this week so we can finish painting these two rooms. (We've already done the trim and ceiling; just waiting on my color choice to do the walls.)

First Family Bike Ride

For the first time since before being pregnant with the Munchkin, I got on a bike.  I'll admit, I was a little nervous. I had visions of myself falling in front of my kids.  Ben's been taking the kids for bike rides lately, and they're getting to be quite the little bikers. (The Princess rides in a bike trailer that Ben pulls with his bike.) Today I decided to dust off my bike and join them. We rode a 1.5 miles to the playground, stopped to play, and then rode home. I LOVE that we can do that here in our new town. We had fun, and I loved seeing my kids encourage me this time...."Good job, Mom. How's it going, Mom?  You okay, Mom?"  The Munchkin even rode behind me so that, in her words, in case I fell, she would be able to help me.  So cute. Next time, I'll take pictures.  This was officially our first ever family bike ride. :)

Just a quick update on the Princess's finger....we're successfully getting the Betadine on her finger. She won't let us soak it but she will let us pour the solution over her finger in the sink. There were many tears in the beginning, but now she's doing just fine.  She'll see the surgeon again on Tuesday but it looks like it's healing pretty well. We are so thankful.

Update

The Princess saw her plastic surgeon today and her finger is healing well. It will be about 3 months before we know if her finger nail will ever grow again, but he's hopeful it will.  She's down graded her bandage to 2 band-aids now, and this week we are trying to get back to her normal life (i.e. not staying home and watching Elmo all day). 

Tomorrow I have to pick up some special solution that the doctor wanted me to add to water and soak her finger in for several minutes twice a day.  When he said that, I looked at him for a few seconds to see if he was totally serious. He was. Then I proceeded to ask if I could maybe fill a basin of water, add the special stuff, and then let her play with it. (Because, clearly, my almost 2 year old who climbs everything in sight, is not going to sit still while I soak her hurt finger TWICE a day.)  The doctor's answer was, "Well, you could do that. But she should let you soak it." Hmm...we'll see about that.

She'll go back again next week for another check up. And if he's happy with her progress, I think we'll get a week off and not have to go back for a couple more weeks.

The Little Patient

Here she is watching Elmo in our bed this morning.  She's doing really well.  Elmo and Tylenol are keeping her happy for now.

ER Visit

This morning, I had been feeling like this week was full of ambulance visits. Two separate times, we heard sirens down  the street at the Munchkin's new school. Once last week when a teacher (and good friend of ours) broke her ankle. Another for a little girl having a seizure. Tonight it was our turn; this time at our house.

As we were cleaning up dinner, the Princess pulled her booster seat (which is attached to a dining room chair) over. It's not totally abnormal occurrence for chairs to fall over around here. She's a climber. Things fall and sometimes she does too. But this time, Ben said "Call 911."  Some part of the chair hit her finger with just enough force, in just the right (or wrong) spot, that she almost severed the tip of her finger completely off.

We only live 2 miles from a pretty good hospital. After talking to the 911 operator and got the police and ambulance on their way, I dropped the kids off to a friend. God's provision #1: She was home and available. And so kind and generous to watch them on about 30 seconds notice.  And, Ben was home.  It would have been much harder to this all on my own. We thought about just driving the Princess to the hospital but then the police pulled up and the ambulance was right after. Provision #2: The EMTs said we really need to head to the hospital that is a state trauma center. She needed a hand surgeon.  Provision #3: The police took care of my car and told me to ride in the ambulance. It was rush hour and it would have taken me way too long to follow in the car.   Provision #4: Once we got to the hospital, the plastic surgeon was already in the pediatric ER and was already finishing up with the last patient. We barely even waited for him.  Provision #5: Tonight, we was on call at both hospitals--the one 2 miles away and the one we were at. But God sent us right to wear he was. Had we chosen the closer hospital, we would have had to wait a long time for him to get there.

Just looking back over the last few hours, it's truly amazing to see how God provided for the Princess and us.  The surgeon reassured us that her finger should be okay. He reattached it and it should heal.  He's not sure her finger nail will ever grow again; we'll just have to wait and see.  We'll know in about 3 weeks or so. 

We were reminded tonight how life can change in an instant. But the Lord is always there, always present, always working. On the way home, the song "Healing Rain" came on the radio.  The song repeats this phrase often, "Healing rain is falling down." I was reassured that God is our Healer...my baby's Healer.

Half Marathon

I nearly forgot to post that I finished my 2nd half marathon. I ran with some gals from our church's running group this summer. We all having matching shirts that say, "Pray Continually 1 Thel. 5:17". The course brought us through Jersey City and along the Hudson River. It was beautiful! We even had a view of Lady Liberty. Here we are before the race (after the race wasn't such a pretty picture).  I know I look a little silly with my super water bottle belt, but I was so glad to have it. It was a hot and humid day and I drank all of my water along the way plus some gatorade at the water stations.

Good-bye Training Wheels

The Handsome Man successfully graduated to his two-wheeler today. No more training wheels!  Here he comes down the street. You can see Ben in the background. He only had to run alongside him once and then he was good to go.

There he goes back down the side walk. His favorite thing to do is ride on the grass; you can't do that well with training wheels. It's a new freedom for a five year old.

One member of his cheering squad. We were all so excited for him (especially since he tried once this summer and was quite ready so we had to put the training wheels back on).

Ran Running

Ben and I both really enjoy running. I started running in college when I no longer had time to go to the gym. I never ran competively. Even now, I run in races, but I only try to beat my own time...no one else's. Ben readily admits that he started after coming to my first race. He liked the positive atmosphere of a race and decided he wanted in too. 

We helped co-lead a running group at our church again this wummer, and last week we had our annual race day together. Here's the Ran Clan before the race. It was very chilly.

I'm not a fast runner, but I enjoy running long distances. I ran the 10K (which is 6.2 miles).  Here's me with one on my good friends and running partners before the race. No after race pictures were taken. :)

Ben, on the other hand, is a really fast runner. He ran the 5K race (3.1 miles) in 19 minutes and 45 seconds. That's just a crazy pace. His goal was to finish in under 21 minutes.  We spotted him near the end of the race towards the end of the 18th minute. I'll be honest to say that we, his fan club, went totally nuts. Here is after the race. He also came home with a trophy for 2nd place in his age group (and he asked me not to cheer so forcefully that time...I refrained from screaming his name and hollering "You did it!")

Next weekend, I'm running my 2nd half marathon. The goal there is just to finish.  I didn't even bring my camera to my first half marathon in May; I'll try to bring it along this time.

First Day #2

This week the Handsome Man started school. He's returned to his wonderful preschool for an extra year of transitional kindergarten. (He is 5 and could go to kindergarten. But this class gives children an extra year to grow and mature before kindergarten. It's not the right choice for every child, but it was for us in this case.)  We always call it TK so that it's not confusing and not seen as a negative thing. We think giving him an extra year is a gift of time. TK is 5 mornings a week. He was so ready for school and so excited!

Showing off the new backpack...

 

Pictures outside because it was raining! Hooray for sunshine!

And outside his classroom...the "red" room....

The Handsome Man had a great day. He loves his school, his class, his teacher and all his friends.  It's always fun to be the oldest class in the school. :)