The Joy of Hospitals

Brittany and Levi packed their things to head home. Levi wasn't feeling well and was a little anxious to get home. When he only ate a small breakfast I knew something wasn't right. I joked about how nice our ER is as they loaded their things.

They were almost to Cheyenne when Brit called and asked me to help her find the hospital there. Levi's pain had gotten worse and he was now throwing up. Because of his prior experience, he knew the pain was his appendix. 

The ER doctor was confused as to why there had been no surgery before when Levi's appendix ruptured just over a year ago. (We all had wondered the same.) There was just enough of the appendix left that it had become infected again. They instantly prepped him for surgery.

I am so thankful that they were still close enough for us to help them. And I am SO thankful for good friends who were willing to take Morgan and Zane for the afternoon so Scott and I could make a quick trip to Cheyenne. We got there just as they were bringing Levi out of surgery.

I'm also thankful for good missionaries. We had a young man serving in our ward here who was transferred to Cheyenne a few weeks ago. We tracked him down and him and his companion were able to come help give Levi a blessing. 

A quick trip to Nebraska has turned into an extended stay in Wyoming. We are all praying for a speedy recovery so they can return home. Hopefully we are done with hospital visits for a while.

The JOY of Family

We are SO thankful Brittany and Levi were able to come spend the weekend with us! They got here late Saturday night and were able to go to church with us on Sunday. 

 Brit helped me figure out the timer on my camera.

 The girls had fun eating Starbursts and baking cookies.

 Lots of hugs and snuggles!

 And lots of fun!

 My MOST favorite people!

 We even had time for a little coon hunt.

(The raccoon herd needs thinning!)

 We let the boys do the dirty work. (Actually, they told us we were too loud and made us stay back on the road.)

 We watched through the binoculars. 

 We took pictures.

 And we enjoyed the beautiful sunset over the pond.

 The mighty hunters were successful! (We won't talk about the rabbits or the ground squirrels.)

 And then the kids took turns shooting.

Zane needed a little help holding the gun with only one arm. He bragged to Brit that he hit the fence post and she missed. 

It is always so wonderful to be together as a family!

The courage to try!

Sometimes, the Lord asks us to do things that we think are hard. Maybe we even complain a little. Maybe we stomp our feet and insist it is too hard. Maybe it takes us a little while to get up the courage to trust that the Lord does know what's best. 

Zane has not let his broken RIGHT arm slow him down. Sunday morning he was up at 7am getting himself dressed. He needed help with the buttons on his shirt but he did the rest by himself. He fed himself with his left hand. He even brushed his teeth with his left hand.

Being the mom, I kept asking if I could help him. "Let me do that for you," I would say. But he insisted that he could do it. If he needed help he would ask.

In Relief Society we talked about receiving inspiration and revelation from the Lord. That's when I began to think about the example that Zane has been for me. He just accepts what ever comes and does what he can do. If he needs help he asks but he has the courage to try to do it himself.

I want to be more like that. When the Lord gives me a trial, I want to have the courage to try and then ask for the help I need. When inspiration comes I want to have the courage to just do it!

Spiderman Doesn't Fly

The kids had played outside all day on Saturday. They were so excited about the new horse trailer! It was time to start dinner so I had them come in and clean up and take a break. Zane put on his Spiderman costume while I turned on a movie for them. 

Dinner was almost done when I heard Zane crying. Morgan said she didn't know what happened because she was laying on her back and Zane was jumping over her and then he started crying. Zane said he jumped and caught himself on the couch and his wrist popped.

There was no sign of injury but I gave him an ice pack and told him to SIT STILL. I finished dinner and was putting it on the table as Scott walked in the door. He called the kids to the table and Zane wouldn't move. He was now laying on the couch. When I tried to get him to sit up he started crying again. I took the ice pack off and saw there was now a bulge on the side of his arm, just above his wrist. I new instantly it was broken.

Scott came over and looked at Zane's arm. He agreed with me. While I got another ice pack and grabbed my purse and keys, Scott got the costume off of Zane and his shorts back on. By the time we got Zane into the car he was shivering uncontrollably and about to pass out.

I quickly drove to the hospital where we sat and waited for the on-call doctor and x-ray tech to get there. (Holiday weekends are not the best time to go to the ER.) The nurse gave Zane a double dose of Motrin and we snuggled on the hospital bed while we waited.

Zane's favorite part of the hospital visit was the wheelchair ride to the x-ray room. The break, fortunately, was just above the wrist so he only needed a short cast. Unfortunately, we are still paying for his last ER visit. Just add it to my bill! Nurse Caswell was right, the broken collar bone at age 1 was only the beginning of our hospital visits.

We decided that Spiderman needs web to fly.

An Educational Journey

I've been planning our summer school adventures for a few months now. I have LISTS of things I want to do with the kids to keep them learning all summer long. The first lessons I've learned are you have to be flexible with the schedule and I, yes me, have to have patience. 

 I've got workbooks and a binder for each of the kids. My thought is at the end of the summer they will each have a portfolio of all the things we did over the summer. Maybe they will think it's super cool and want to do it again next summer. Maybe.

I've created a weekly planner to organize my lists of things to do. I created a daily worksheet to give Morgan some basic practice on the things she needs to work on most: time, money, calendar, and math facts. I also threw in a little writing corner where she will write about one thing she is thankful for each day. And I've printed off some worksheets from the internet. (Yay for Pinterest!)

Ready, set, go!

The kids have been SO anxious to start. The last day of school was Tuesday. I thought we would take the rest of the week off and hit it hard on Monday. Now, we have Brit and Levi coming to visit and we are going to spend a week in Utah. First lesson learned - be flexible with the schedule.

We sat down today to work on our first project and a page from their workbooks. Zane was struggling with writing a nine so I was going to hold his hand and help him. Suddenly he acted like he didn't know how to hold a pencil. We struggled. I got frustrated. Jokingly, in my frustration, I told him I was going to kick him out of my school if he didn't follow directions. I know. Not the best thing to say. Even in joking. It took several minutes of crying and apologizing for us to be friends again. He finally forgave me and I promised never to kick him out of school. (Man I need to learn to play nice!) Second lesson learned - be patient.

This is going to be a challenge but hopefully it will be fun too, for us all. 

We are off on an educational journey!

Oh the places you'll go!

These last few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for Zane and I. Last week we were driving in to town for story time at the library and Zane reminded me it was the last one because the summer reading program would be starting. Then I realized it was his last one ever because he would be at school in the fall. 

After I made that announcement he got real quiet. I looked back and saw tears in his eyes and he softly said he was really going to miss seeing Miss Nightingale. Then we both cried. Miss Nightingale got an extra big hug that day.

Monday was Zane's last day of preschool. After being with this group of kids for two years they've become very good friends. I hope at least one of them is in his kindergarten class with him. 

Today is our last mommy & me day since it's Morgan's last day of school. Zane is okay with that because he loves having her home. Something about, she is more fun to play cars with. Humm...

But along with all the "lasts" there are lots of "firsts" coming. I'm excited to see my little boy take on new challenges, even though it's hard sometimes to let him go. He has a whole new adventure ahead of him!

One of Zane's firsts is playing T-ball. (He is SO glad he's on the same team as his friend Max.) He's having fun and tries so hard to do exactly what the coaches tell him. The coaches spend most of the practice telling the boys to stop digging in the dirt. I think Zane is the only one who has not been digging holes when he should be catching balls. (I guess that's the advantage of not having lawn. Dirt is nothing new to him.)

 He actually throws really good!

And all our balloon ball games in the living room have paid off. He just hasn't figured out what to do when he hits the ball. "Run, Zane! Run like your pants are on fire!"

The beginning of new adventures!

"KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS! ... Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!" ~ Dr. Suess

Buried Treasure

A friend gave me some squash plants. I'm still trying to decide what to do with my garden spot. It's a perfect little spot but we live with rabbits and snakes and mice and racoons and all manor of wildlife. I decided the only way to make it work would be to surround the picket fence with chicken wire to keep most of the critters out. Then we would need to cover it with chicken wire to keep the hail from destroying it. But how much time and money do I want to put into this garden spot?

I planted the squash in the flower bed. Someday we'll have a garden again. Probably not this summer.

Zane helped me dig out weeds and water the plants. I started washing off the steps that lead down to the driveway and noticed the cement went farther than I thought. Then I discovered a brick.

 We dug about 8 inches of dirt and found a cute little path leading from the driveway to the steps. We had to use the hose to loosen the hard, wind-blown dirt which made a bit of a muddy mess. Zane decided it was a swim trunk job. I hoped the sun would dry our sink hole before the bus brought Morgan home.

Zane thought we were digging for buried treasure and wanted to keep digging.