Inclement weather and More Stitches

The threat of a snow storm and freezing rain kept the kids home from school last Thursday, much to everyone's delight. They were all dressed and ready for the snow at 8:30am. The only problem was, there was no snow. So, they waited for it outside in the windy cold.

After a couple of hours outside, they came in to warm up with some hot cocoa. Around lunch time, it finally started snowing. There wasn't much on the ground, but it was enough to make these kids giddy, so back outside they went.

About a half hour later, I heard screaming, the kind of screaming that means something very bad has just happened. I looked out the window and saw blood gushing from Aubrey's mouth. Her mouth and a friend's head had collided and split open her lip and mouth, mostly on the inside.  It looked pretty bad, so I called the doctor and then called Mom. (Greg was in Corvallis for the day.) The roads were mostly drivable but icy in spots, and more freezing rain was expected, so my mom came and picked Aubrey and I up and drove us to the doctor's office, and Kari got her first longer sibling babysitting experience, with a cell phone handy and many neighbors around to call on, if needed. The doctor took a quick look at Aubrey and determined we needed to go to the ER. It was more than they could handle at their office. So, we drove to the ER, with Aubrey in the backseat crying and voicing her displeasure at having to get stitches (her last set was just two months ago). "I CAN'T go to the hospital! I WON'T get stitches! I can't DO this!" But she did. I was thankful my mom was there, as I felt the nausea and lightheadedness coming on as they were stitching Aubrey up. Aubrey did great, once it all got started. They didn't end up giving her a Novocain shot. They just used numbing gel! She didn't seem to feel the first stitch, but she felt the second one. Thankfully, it was over pretty quickly--just two stitches.

We had only been home about an hour, and I had just taken Aubrey's photo to document what a good job the doctor had done, as well as the photo below of the deck with some evidence of the trauma) when Aubrey said, "Uh-oh, it came out," and showed me the thread she had just pulled out. Her lip puffed up and started bleeding again, and I could see where she had pulled out the outer stitch. Oh.my.goodness. I was MAD!  It was not my finest mom moment. I yelled and ranted and was just so frustrated! (I did apologize later.) I called the ER, then called my mom (again), and we went back in to see if it needed to be re-stitched. The doctor decided it would be ok to leave it. He said it would take a little longer to heal but should eventually look just fine. The other stitch was still holding pretty well, well enough anyway.  Aubrey was relieved, and I was relieved when the doctor said he would try to keep us from getting charged for that second visit. (The doctor we'd seen the first time had left for the day, so we saw a different one the second time.) We'll see what kind of bill we end up getting.

 It was just one long day. As I was telling Greg all my woes that evening once he got back safely from Corvallis (it was getting very icy outside by then), I looked down at my hand and noticed my wedding ring was missing one of the little diamonds on the side. That opened the tear floodgates that I'd held back all day. It was just one of those days, an Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day kind of day. I just needed to go to bed. So I did.

The next morning, our street, yard, and driveway were all a sheet of ice. This was Aubrey's bedroom window. She woke up puffy-lipped but happy. The kids had a two-hour delay for school because of the ice, so we had a nice, slow morning and an uneventful Friday.  Oh, and on Saturday, I took my ring to The Shane Company in Tigard, where we bought it, and they are replacing the little diamond and fixing my ring for FREE! I'm so happy! Aubrey's lip is looking better and better each day, too. :) Hopefully, we can be injury free for a while now.

Waldo, Wenda, Pippi Longstocking, a Ninja, Rapunzel, and a Pirate

Halloween is FUN in our neighborhood, and this year was no exception. I don't like any of the scary, evil parts of Halloween, but I love the kids in cute costumes, handing out candy, and being a part of the community in which we live. It's like one big block party with parents and neighbors chatting on sidewalks while kids run house to house, saying "hi" to their friends along the way. Greg and I dressed up again this year. He was "Waldo" from the Where's Waldo? books, and I was "Wenda," Waldo's girlfriend. Greg said he may have heard, "I found you!" or something like it, 75 or 80 times that evening as he walked around the neighborhood with the kids. I walked around the block with them but then came home to hand out candy. At the door, I had a lot of kids ask, "Where's Waldo?" and I'd reply, "He's out there somewhere. Go find him!"

 

 

 

Dad took a couple pictures of us when we stopped by their house. My camera was a part of my costume, so I'm glad it was documented that I wore it. :)

 

We could not believe the haul the kids made this year. Kari and Joel were out in the neighborhood a little over 2 hours (Aubrey and Grant didn't last as long) and came home with loads of candy. I took this photo the next day when they were sorting some of it and trading. It doesn't do the stash justice. There's more that you can't see. We've got treats to last a while!

Carving

Greg was out of town for a few days, so we waited until he got back, just a couple days before Halloween, to carve our pumpkins. The kids do their own, and we help when they need assistance. That's enough work. Maybe someday we'll do some fancy ones. Maybe.

 

Fall Soccer

The fall soccer season officially ended this last weekend. Three teams-worth of practices and games kept our schedule pretty full from the end of August until the first weekend of November. All four kids enjoyed playing. Grant was especially happy to finally be playing. He absolutely loved it. Aubrey was the old pro on the team and played with a smile on her face. Several of the kids played on Greg's team last year, so it was fun to see them and their families again, and fun to see their improvement, too. Greg enjoyed coaching alongside two other friends this year. It made for some crazy times, having three teams of little kids practicing together, but they sure had fun. Greg's quite the micro's coach pro now. :)

Joel enjoyed his team this year, despite their losing season. He scored a nice handful of goals, had some great passes and assists, and had a good time doing it. He ran hard and did a great job of playing in whatever position his coaches had him.

Kari also had a good season, playing with the same coach and same group of girls. They had a couple tough losses and, unfortunately, had to deal with some poor sportsmanship and behavior from one opposing team (both players and coach), but Kari's coach used that experience as a valuable teaching opportunity, and the girls learned a lot from it, ugly as it was. They played that team twice, lost the first time they played them but won the second time. These girls have some competitive spirits! They are fun to watch.

 

Family History

Joel came home from school a few weeks ago with a big family tree/biography/speech project. It's way too involved and complex for a third-grader, but we're trying our best to help him with it. We invited Great Grandpa and Grandma Moffat over for dinner so Grandpa could tell Joel some stories about the Moffat family history. They've done a bunch of research and have quite a bit of information about the Moffats. He told us about how his grandfather came to the U.S. from Scotland, then moved up to Canada, where he died in a mine explosion. His grandmother started a candy store but couldn't afford to take care of the three boys on her own and had to put them in an orphanage. One boy ran away to the Navy, and the other two ran away from the orphanage and found their mother, who was remarried by then to a "worthless" man, according to the orphanage personal records. She left her husband, took the boys, and ran away to Port Angeles, Washington, where they stayed and where Great-Grandpa's dad became a U.S. citizen.

Grandpa brought copies of photos and maps and a copy of the newspaper article about the mine explosion for Joel to use in his project. We all gathered in the family room to listen, even the littler two sat and colored as they listened. While I wasn't thrilled about this project when Joel brought it home and am still annoyed with the fact that it's really a parent project, I'm thankful for the wonderful opportunity it gave us to learn about Grandpa's family history and to hear his stories first-hand. A lot of it was new to Greg, as well. It will be a treasured memory for us.

More tooth drama

I'd been telling Aubrey I wanted her two front teeth gone in time for her school picture retake, and she'd been working on wiggling it but wasn't too anxious to pull it out. I've never had a kid do a retake of a school picture, but Aubrey's was not good. She, basically, just showed the photographer all her teeth with no smile. It was funny, but we paid decent money for a SMILE, and I wanted one. Plus, since that photo, she'd lost one of her two front teeth, and I wanted that documented.

Anyhow, the night before her picture retake, we were all sitting at the table, having just finished dinner, and we were all trying to get Aubrey to pull her tooth out. Lots of family pressure going on. :) It's been ready, hanging crooked and all. Bleh! We got out the dental floss, and she let Greg tie it onto her tooth. She pulled on the floss, but it just fell off. Greg tied it back on and then yanked. It popped right out! And then began the 15 minutes of screaming and freaking out. It bled, as gums do sometimes when teeth are pulled, and Aubrey did not like it one bit. She frantically rinsed her mouth out under the bathroom faucet, screaming and ranting all the while. Such drama! How many more teeth does she have to lose?? 12?

Room Switch

I feel very behind on my blog posts. I'm going to try to catch up this week. Fall just blew by, and I couldn't keep up! It didn't help that our computer died and had to be sent in for repairs, which took two weeks. Thankfully, it was under warranty, and we didn't lose any photos or other files. It was a pretty painless computer issue.

At the end of September, I started thinking about our kid room situation and how Aubrey, at 6 1/2 years old, was needing to no longer share a room with her little brother.  It's been the plan all along that eventually Joel and Grant would share. I casually broached the subject of switching with Joel, who has had his own room for the last two years, and he surprised me when he didn't object at all to giving up his room and sharing with Grant. He even hinted at the fact that sometimes he gets lonely in his room. Once I opened up the topic for discussion, the kids couldn't stop talking about it. They were all anxious to make the switch, even Kari, who wasn't making any changes herself. She does love to organize, though, so she helped them move and organize their things. In fact, they did almost all the moving before I was ready! The announced one morning that they had already moved the bedding, and Joel was going to sleep in the bunk room that night and Aubrey was going to sleep in Joel's room. So, they did. Then I went to work on the painting and décor.

The stripes I had so carefully painted three years ago proved very difficult to cover. I sanded and painted and tried my best to get rid of the lines, but I finally had to give up and just say, "Oh well." They're not too noticeable, but I know they're there. Maybe we'll retexture the wall someday, but not now. Aubrey loves her purple room.

I pitched the room switch idea to Joel by telling him we could make the orange room into an Oregon State room--new bedding, new curtains, new OSU pillowcases, and some wall stickers. One of the walls is still white, so we're making that one into a Seahawks wall. Those were the colors of his other room, and he wanted to still use his Seahawks posters from Grandpa M. I got away without having to paint, and Joel and Grant are very happy with how it all turned out. Grant loves everything Joel loves. The boys are getting along very well sharing a room, and Aubrey is loving having her own space.

Here are the finished products: