Well Crap.....

So B went to the doc today and the bones (yes, plural) he broke won't likely heal on their own so they are going to perform surgery to fuse them (or use screws or something) to the big unbroken bone in his leg. It is an outpatient procedure (although what isn't these days) so next Monday (Dec 29th) B will have the surgery. He won't be able to bear weight for at least 8 weeks. I have no idea how this is all going to work out but I am sure it will result in many funny stories for the blog. (or years of therapy for me) Either way, should be interesting.

That's all for today as I really need to get presents wrapped.

We Interrupt Our Previously Scheduled

posting of the Santa and Pajama Party photos to bring you these photos of Dr. D and a short science and math lesson.


Where we live it is cold plus it rained yesterday equals a thin layer of ice completely covering everything outside

We have a (slight) incline on our driveway plus gravity equals an easy trip to take the garbage can down the driveway BUT

A slight incline on our driveway plus gravity times a thin layer of ice minus any kind of traction equals a leg broken in 2 places







Yes, D is applying every band aid she can find to B's leg. So he manages to get into the house and says (somewhat nonchalantly all things considered) "I think I broke my leg" I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV but even I can tell from looking at the weird swelling that it's broken. So I get the kids up, pile them in the car at midnight (and yes there was actually some thought about the best way to get B to the hospital-and in light of the circumstances it was probably the best choice) and we drive to the emergency room. I wait in the car with the kids (why break any more bones on the ice?) We were watching DVD's on the car's system when I get the idea that idling in one spot for an hour might not be the best idea (you hear the stories about carbon monoxide in cars, even outside. At 1am- who knows if they are true) so I decide to run the car off the battery briefly. I figure it's a new car (which means a new battery) which brings us to our next math problem

power available in a car battery divided by the amount of voltage needed to run the heater, DVD player and lights equals about 30 minutes less than you might think

After about 10 minutes, the DVD player stops, the kids yell, I turn the key and.......

NOTHING

So now we have a dead battery, it's 1:15am, I have already used up all my alloted AAA calls for the year (which is a another story), there is ice everywhere and I have four (well technically three, as K slept through all of this) kids freaking out in the car. Luckily, after about 5 minutes the battery was able to start the car.

At 2am B calls me from his cell to tell me that they haven't even seen him yet and I should take the kids home and he will catch a cab to get home. We drive home slooooowly (did I mention the ice???) and the kids decide that if 2:30 pm is a good time for a snack then 2:30 AM must be an even better time. By the time snacks were over and I corralled them in their rooms it was almost 3am. Luckily the ice caused A to have a 2 hour delay at school the next day so he got to sleep in.

B got home around 5:30 am, leg in a splint. We go to the doc on Thursday to see how they plan to fix it.

Some days are like that

Like I have time for this...

I will post the Santa photos in the next day or two (or so- by New Years for sure) and photos from last nights crazy Pajama Party but in the meantime- despite the fact I have presents to wrap, work to do and a house to put back together following the aforementioned pajama party- I did this instead

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy First Birthday K

On November 22, K turned one. It is hard to believe that she is one already. She has grown so much since she came home- she has gained about 4.5 pounds and 3 sizes of clothing. She has enough hair to put into 4 "poofs" and she can sit up alone, roll from her back to her front (which makes diaper changes much more interesting) and crawl (although I use the word loosely) backward. She is starting to be able to go from sitting to on her belly- but she hates that cause then she is stuck. She has no idea how to reverse the process. Now I know many of these things are things younger babies can do- but they represent how much she really is growing. Of course, what you really want to see is photos so....





This is MY paper! (someone should really tell her that the wrapping paper is NOT the best part of the present. Of course, her defending her paper stash made it much easier for D to get away with taking the actual present to play with)



I know something good is about to happen....




Oh pretty flame- let me touch it. And what are you all singing about???



Well- maybe this will be fun...







It's all fun and games till somebody gets cake in their mouth
(have we mentioned that we are working on some huge feeding issues....)

The Halloween photos (I actually got them posted before Thanksgiving even)

The kids worked hard to get the "guts" out of the pumpkins so we can carve them- but I am not sure they look like they are having much fun.









It's not every year our pumpkins make a political statement- but B was pretty proud of his Obama pumpkin


How cute are these little trick or treaters. We tried to get A to be a zoo keeper or vet since we had a mouse, cat and monkey- but Stars Wars won out and he was Anakin Skywalker.









D really loved the "gimme candy" aspect of trick or treating but really didn't like the "older kids in scary masks whose parents didn't teach them that it isn't okay to scare toddlers" aspect of the evening. At one point they were across the street when an older kid came by in one of those "scream" masks that bleeds and he scared her (he also had just tried to scare X on purpose so he was kind of lucky he wasn't bleeding for real) You could hear her screams of terror across the street. But the desire for candy won out over abject terror and back off they went.

Finally they returned to spend the rest of the evening trick or treating out of our own candy buckets

My first attempt to "do hair"

How do people do these fancy styles on these little tiny heads. Heads that, I might add, don't stop moving the whole time you are trying to work. Add to that the screaming as if I am tearing her hair out and I think I have a lot to learn. But between the screaming and wiggling and my total cluelessness- I think it turned out kind of cute







Coming soon (maybe tomorrow???) Photos from Halloween.
Yeah Yeah- better late than never

A Witness to History

We have witnessed the election of the first African American president. And while two of my kids can't (at least now) become president, they can see that a person who is brown like they are can be President of the United States. That positions of power are no longer held exclusively by White men. It gives me hope that eventually all people will be judged, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. What an amazing day yesterday was. We rejoiced at every state that "turned blue" and watched as the American people chose a leader, not based on the color of his skin, but on the content of his character. People from all walks of life came together to change the course of our nation, Time will tell what that course will be, but I am optimistic that this is the beginning of something remarkable and that Barack Obama will be the one leading our country back to becoming the amazing country we can (and should) be.

In the words of an anonymous man who was a preacher and a slave

"Lord, we ain’t what we want to be; we ain’t what we ought to be; we ain’t what we gonna be; but thank God we ain’t what we was.”

Today we are one step closer to being what we ought to be and today I am truly proud to be an American