This is not normal

This is a picture of eldest daughter completely crashed on our couch in the middle of the day (with the TV on, and her brother and sister playing around/on/over her).  She’d been complaining of her head hurting and just seemed out of sorts, but after the impromptu nap seemed much better, which was a good thing because we had a long car trip planned for the day.  All seemed well until we pulled up to our destination and she says, “Actually, I think I need to throw up…” which she then did all over herself, her blanket, the back seat…

I was a little afraid this was going to be a virus that we would all get to experience, but thankfully it was just the once and we were all able to enjoy a few days of a holiday break together after this rather less than auspicious start.

Sick Days

Well these past weeks have been a strange fog of sickness and life lessons.  We are emerging from this wicked sickness that—had you asked me a week earlier—I would have promised it might end up with me expelling my lungs from the force of coughing…

But just because we are sick (husband dear too) doesn’t mean the world stops or slows down—so sometimes, as husband dear was so good to remind me, sometimes we have to step off and take sick days.  And so for two days we did.  The only effort we put forth was into making sure our children stayed alive and made it to and from school.  And praise the Lord, we all survived and are once again well (and then sick again briefly for eldest daughter =( a story we’ll tell next installment).  Thank you to all of you who thought of us and prayed for us, and have been so faithful to do so always—we love you!

Stanley's Visit: Part Two

What a difference a little know-how makes in fixing up pictures.  Husband Dear took pity on you all and took the red-eye out of these, maybe one day I'll try to learn how to do that...

In this picture you can see the henna she just got done (it's very orangey on the first night).  No henna for Stanley, darn that laminating film!

 Stanley hanging out with the other "kids."  I can't say what is more disconcerting in this picture--Stanley's electric blue eyes that follow you everywhere, or the babydoll without eyes...

This is the one playground toy I can't look at without feeling a little sick...NEVER eat creamed spinach and then take a spin on this bad boy is all I've got to say...

I added this picture so you could all see the henna after a day or two, it gets much darker as you can see here in this picture.  Stanley enjoyed playing at the park--we took him when everybody else here goes to the park--at night. =)  Thanks for the visit Stanley!

Look who's back for a visit

It is eldest daughter's turn to host our friend Stanley, and she decided the first place he should go is to ballet class with her and Imp.  Please forgive the wild hair and red eyes, sometimes it's all we can do to capture the moment around here.

In other news, I stepped into a hole and turned my ankle right after their class ended.  This left me with a sore/bruised ankle and the realization that I had three miniature personal assistants (and a wonderful husband) who happily let me boss direct them around from the couch.  Still, hopefully I'll be back on both feet again soon--because as much as I love them, I don't trust my personal assistants not to eat my super-secret peanut M&M snack. =)

And the cast is off!

Sweet girl, she never once complained about wearing this cast, even though she's right-handed, and it's been over 100 degree heat for most of the time, and dry and sandy everywhere you play (and I won't even begin to tell you all the things we found inside her cast when they took it off).  She never slowed down and she never complained.


She did promise to stay off the monkey bars for a little while.=)  We'll see how long that lasts...


Here you can see how we remove casts--with a saw!  Thankfully we've done this before (and viscerally, at least, she knew she had too from her previous cast experience) so this also went smoothly.

  

And, just to be sure everything in her arm was working properly the good doctor gave her another lollypop to carry on her way out.