Never Boring Around Here!

Because a beautiful baby shower last night, Norman's birthday tomorrow, and the upcoming birth of Abby Grace on Friday is NOT enough excitement in our lives, we were met with a bit of an unexpected challenge today! Thomas fell helping me on my paper route this morning and broke a bone in his right ankle. After I quickly finished delivering the 35-40 papers we had left, we were at St. Mary's ER at 7:40 this morning. It seems to be a minor crack, and we will be calling the pediatric orthopedic specialist tomorrow to get it looked at and see what our course of treatment will be. He's in an aircast/brace thing and on crutches. If there is anything sketchier than a gangly, slightly clumsy 6'4" 15 year old who has inherited my tendency to trip over air, it is one on crutches in a house with 2 littles and a VERY pregnant mom. Oh, and a bedroom upstairs!! My life is TRULY a never-ending source of excitement these days!!

Thomas is managing well. His ankle is sore and swollen, and he is upset about missing basketball, but he wasn't going to be at practice tomorrow or Friday anyway, and hopefully it will be a quick healing fracture that will heal with very minimal intervention. He's been good about icing it, and taking OTC meds for the swelling and pain. He'll be sleeping on the air mattress in the den tonight, and in Benjamin and Max's room Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, so Norman can come with me early the next mornings to learn the route.

We appreciate any good thoughts and prayers for safety and healing, and that Norman can QUICKLY learn what Thomas has been doing on my paper route! We're t-minus 5 days and counting til baby's arrival. I am working Thursday am, then have a substitute for a few days, but the plan was for Norman and Thomas to take over after that.

We're just waiting to see what happens and see where we go from here!

Again, it really is NEVER boring!!

Belated Birthday Post

Thomas' 15th birthday was last Thursday and , since I have not updated recently, I thought I'd stop in and post some Birthday pictures! I TRULY cannot believe that is has been 15 years!! BLOWS my mind!!

Thomas loves to bake! He is SO much better at it than I am, too! One of my old bosses used to say he could always tell when I had baked something, as I always would come in to work with a burn mark on my arm from the hot rack I would inevitably touch while in the process of baking! Anyway, Thomas has often spoken of wanting to be a pastry chef someday, and he enjoys practicing his craft! Grandma had him over last Monday and they baked 4 cake mixes, in big pans, loaf pans, and cupcake pans. Thursday he went over and decorated them. His cake turned out AWESOME, and Benjamin and Max enjoyed the personal cakes Thomas made for each of them!! Thomas had a fun birthday. No big friends over shin-dig this year, just family cooking out and enjoying each other's company! A nice time , I thought, and Thomas seemed to enjoy himself, too!
Happy 15th Buddy! We love you and are SO proud of you!!

That's about all here. We are busy trying to finish getting ready for Abby Grace's arrival, and today is full of things to get done! I have a doctor's appointment at 1:45, and about a hundred errands to run and calls to make! Never a dull moment!

The Photos Return!!

When our computer blew up a couple weeks ago, and we got a new one, I was in the middle of a number of tight deadlines. I loaded the software I needed and had to learn to use all new stuff! Great fun in the midst of an already hectic process! Well, now that my part of the Electives process is wrapping up and my responsibilities as a Moppets Co-Coordinator are under control, I sat down this morning to upload some pictures. Seems our fancy new 'puter has all the stuff built in to upload, sort, edit, create movies and all kinds of way cool stuff I will need to investigate in some of my spare time! For now, though, we have pictures......

At the End of August, Meadow Farm had a family evening with Old-Fashion Baseball. Thomas was in costume and had a GREAT time helping out!On the 1st, we went to WaterWorks to cool off for the day. I got no pictures of Thomas, as he was off to the wave pools and big slides, but the littles had fun!
Last weekend, Thomas helped out Saturday evening with Civil War Lantern Tours, which mom, Rich, and I attended and enjoyed, then on Sunday, he worked Civil War Days at Meadow Farm. His job was making cartridges and showing visitors how Civil War era small arms worked! He got to shoot the gun with percussion caps (which make quite a pop!) and had a great time! He is SO good at speaking with the public, and truly enjoys the time he spends at Meadow Farm!While Thomas worked, Benjamin and Max got to play. Max LOVES the horses and cows, and Benjamin runs around in the wooded area, playing "swords and bad guys". They had a LOT of fun!

They both think it is GREAT fun for Norman to lift them up and let them hang on the branches of trees, just like the monkeys they are!!
After visiting the horses and cows, they decided to try a little role-playing. I asked Benjamin what their names were. He said "one cow and two cow , and we eat our hay."
All that playing wears a kid out!

WOOOO HOOOO!!!

I'm DONE!!! After MANY hours spent pouring over applications and spreadsheets, and blowing up one computer, and innumerable e-mails, I am DONE with my part of the Fall 2007 Electives Co-Op paperwork! We have 40 families with 95 kids participating, and have classes for everyone ages 3 and up from 9:30am til 2:15pm for 6 Fridays this Fall!! I am SO relieved to be done, and just tired out! I feel a great sense of accomplishment and now am excited to be there to see it all unfold.

Life has gone on in the midst of the chaos that has been our lives! We have been to WaterWorks, done Lantern Tours and Civil War days at Meadow Farm, I am still working Applebee's a couple shifts a week, and MOPS is gearing up to begin next week! I hope to get my photo software loaded in the next day or so, and will upload new photos then!!