EXPRESSIONS.

man, i love this kid.

EXPECTATION VS REALITY.

sunday hallie complained about pain in her arm - her elbow area. monday morning hallie complained about her arm - same place. hmm. i called the doctor who thought we should come in for an x-ray. okaaaay, sure. i asked if she stopped complaining could we please cancel the appointment? nope, they needed to see her.

we drove up there tuesday afternoon. i thought for sure we would pop in for an x-ray, things would look perfect and we'd head to target for a slushie and some shopping. i love target so much. so much.

anyway, here's how it went all went down.

• arrive and check in.
• told to go to x-ray.
• x-ray tells us to go back to check in. also, they want to do her x-ray without her cast on (???!!!).
• sit in waiting room for 30 minutes.
• sit in exam room for 10 minutes.
• resident comes in, talks for two minutes and says it's time to get her cast off and oh yeah - why didn't we have an x-ray yet? (this is the part i start getting really grouchy.) i explain she's not ready for her cast off yet. that she had some pain and they wanted to see her. oh, okay.
• back to x-ray we go, huge crowd. they squeeze us in.
• back to the waiting room for another 15 minutes.
• back to the exam room for 40 minutes. yep, i'm mad now.

all of this to tell us that the x-ray can't reliably show if the pins have moved. um, what? so they had to TAKE OFF HER CAST AND PUT ON A NEW ONE.

oh good gravy.

it was traumatic and painful and I tell you WHAT, if I have to see my kid in anymore pain anytime soon I will be TICKED OFF. i'm so sick of seeing her in pain. it breaks my heart.

but now we have a fresh, hot pink cast. and we still went to target. and i let her pick out WHATEVER SHE WANTED. and get a slushie.

I THINK I'LL GO FOR A WALK OUTSIDE NOW.

a few sundays ago we decided to take a walk up to the mailbox. it was a gorgeous day and my dad was visiting.

our kitties followed us and it turned into quite the pet parade.

hallie, with annie on the leash
me
dad
henry (in the moby)
zoey
billy (the new name for blackie, maybe)
lucky (not pictured)

we didn't want to turn around, so we kept walking. we would have walked all the way to lucille's, but she wasn't home.

if you look at the very first picture, you can see our house in the background. we went a long way!

GIFTS.

the sun.

my son.

every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
james 1:17

SIBLINGS. AGAIN.

boy, was hallie chubby. and that is really a bad, bad picture of her. but still. the foreheads, eye shape, noses and lips are all the same. i think he will look more and more like her as he fattens up and she slims down.

and again.

and one more time,

Monkey see monkey do!

**i found this post from forever ago that i apparently forgot to hit publish on! those girls KILL ME. so sweet. hallie was such a delicious toddler.


*********************************
On September 1, we ventured out to the Springfield Zoo. We went with Mackenzie, Aunt Lissa and Grandma Barb. We had a great time looking at the animals, and then went to Old McDonalds afterwards to play. It was a very fun day!

Me & Mommy


The nasty looking turtle


The bear sleeping on his belly


Trying to get closer to the horse!

Watching the silly monkey with Aunt Lissa

I love my cousin!

Good times in the bathroom at Old McDonalds

OUR HOUSE AT 7AM

to celebrate henry sleeping through the night again (3rd night i a row!!!), here's our house this morning.

henry can't take his eyes off of her.

this went on for quite a while.

SO LONG SUCKA.

hallie lost her second tooth last sunday. yippee! we get verrrrrry excited about the yanking of the teeth.

here's how it went down.

hallie yanked and pulled.
eli yanked and pulled.
uncle chad yanked and pulled.
dave yanked, pulled and OUT came the tooth.

i didn't take a picture (you're welcome), but her mouth was so bloody that she looked like lastat after a fresh kill. yummy.

5 Months Old! Henry!

oh, this son of mine.

we are crazy about him, oh he who:

drools like a son-of-a-gun.
chews on anything near his mouth.
is mellow.
is happy.
slept thru the night last night!
takes a bottle from me now (and dave).
is in bed by 7pm every night.
usually wakes up around 4am to eat.
loves his irma.
loves hallie for some odd reason.
will quiet down if you sing the barney song to him.
likes his exersaucer.
starting to eat oatmeal much better!

happy 5 months, mr. henry. mama looooooves you.

Fire Ants.

yesterday, things went great...at first. we got hallie's cast on, ran an errand and headed home from springfield. i made supper while dave entertained the kiddos. a normal family evening. my favorite kind. our friend bob was coming over for supper and all was well until....

....she started ITCHING.

cue the screaming, desperate hitting of her cast to relieve the itchiness and the pleads for us to PLEASE DO SOMETHING.

it was awful. worse than when she BROKE it. i can only imagine it felt like a thousand fire ants crawling around her cast.

they gave her a tiara and wand after her xray. very glittery. glitter everywhere.

and there is nothing we can do. i have never felt so helpless.

we finally drugged her with benedryl to get her relaxed enough to sleep. that worked until about 1:30am.

she is back to school today. she is tired, but not as itchy. maybe the worst has passed? i'm hoping school will be a distraction. only 20 more days! (wah)

Fire in the Sky.

hallie is doing great, thank you. we struggle at night - she wants to sleep with us (okay, fine) and then wakes up usually once in pain. she is a shifter, so she accidentally hurts herself in her sleep. i know that will pass and i think it will be better when she gets her permanent cast.

TODAY!

yippee - today is the day we get her real cast! they apparently have dozens of colors to choose from. she wanted pink until the mentioned glow in the dark. who knew there was such a thing as a glow-in-the-dark cast?!

she is very excited. in sunday shool they have been talking about moses leading the people across the desert. and how during the day God gave them a cloud to cover to the sun and at night He gave them a pillar of fire to light the way. her beloved sunday school teacher, lori green (love you, lori!) told hallie that they will do a demonstration on sunday for all of the kiddos - and hallie's cast can be the fire in the sky. very cute.

pictures will be coming soon of her new cast, i am sure.

in the meantime, here are some pictures of hallie in her costume from the costume parade at school, trick or treating at irma's and at barb's. and of course, henry.

Our Halloween Sucked, How Was Yours?

this is going to be a very, VERY long post with more words than pictures (your favorite, dave, haha), but i can't help it. i want to record everything before i forget. because i will forget.

sunday evening, at great-grandma lucille's house, hallie fell off a barstool while eating pancakes and broke her arm.

i don't even know how it happened. i think she was trying to hurry and get out of her chair to hide from me. i had been getting after her about eating her pancakes and she was being silly. i think she leapt out of her chair, got her feet tangled and just hit the ground. i could immediately see that something was wrong - i thought her elbow had dislocated. it was so gross. i remember telling lucille - we have to go to the hospital. and lucille was smiling at me because she thought i was teasing hallie. hallie was screaming and screaming and holding her arm.

i finally said - you have to stop screaming! and she stopped. and just whimpered. i scooped her up and ran her out to the car while yelling at lucille - i will call barb, just stay here with henry!

i drove as fast as i could to the hospital, while hallie told me to go faster mommy, faster, please. go as fast as we do on the four-wheeler. it just broke my heart beause you could just tell how much pain she was in. we said a prayer and every once in a while she would cry out about how badly it hurt her. i kept saying - they will pop it back in and it will feel better right away. HA. HA. HA.

we arrived at the hospital and she panicked at the thought of having to get herself out of the car. she kept saying - they will have to come out here and get me, i can't get out, i can't get out. poor thing - i scooped her up and carried her in. i'm sure it was sooooo painful. she said - run, mommy, please run.

they took us straight back and immediately called for morphine and an x-ray. things were a little crazy for a bit, but once they left us alone we could take a deep breath...and then CRY. oh man, that's when i cried. i let myself sob for a few minute while my drugged up little girl leaned against me, sound asleep. it was awful. i was so worried that i had given them the wrong weight for the dose. i wasn't sure - 38 pounds?! i think?! they reassured me that there was a "range," but still. freaked. me. out.

lucille brought me my pump and sat for awhile. and then melissa came too. it was so nice to have company, not to have to go through it alone. i missed dave something terrible at that point.

they ended up transferring us to st. johns in springfield to see a pediatric surgeon.melissa drove with me and kept me occupied while hallie watched a video on her phone and then passed out again. we checked into the er there and they did another xray and took forever to give her more pain medication. my darling daughter was a total trooper through the whole thing, only whimpering and crying out if they had to move it. which they had to do. a lot.



on the way to st. johns, springfield.



melissa left, my dad showed up and after a few hours in the er they took us up to pediatrics. it took us forever to get all settled in. they had to do blood work, vitals, this, that, more, more, JUST LET HER REST. LEAVE HER ALONE. SHE IS IN PAIN, GIVE HER SOMETHING NOW. mama bear was struggling a little bit at this point.

rewrapping it in the e.r. at st. johns. not fun.

and i needed to pump sooooo bad.

they got us settled by 12:30am. my dad (who had already been in town for the weekend - drove home to missouri - found out about hallie and drove straight back) slept in a chair in the family lounge. i made up the "bed" for dave, who would be arriving at some point from tennessee after driving through the night. praise the lord that he was on his way home from all of his trips. i pumped and then slept in the recliner next to hallie. who wanted me to hold her hand. all night. so i did.

she slept in the hospital bed the same as if she was at home.

dave arrived at 1:30am and i have never been so glad to see him in my whole life. i mean, melissa was with me and drove with me to springfield. lucille came to the hospital and brought me my pump, my dad came once we were in springfield, but still. DAVE. yes.

they came in every two hours. they checked her at 2:00am, vitals and such. she stirred, but didn't wake up. but after that she started moaning in her sleep and seemed very restless. so at 2:30am, i asked them to give her more morphine and they did. she slept through the 4:00am vitals check, just waking up to ask if daddy had gotten there. and she was soooo happy that he was. it was so cute and it makes me want to cry to remember that moment. precious.

the er doctor came in at 6am to check in with us and check her fingers. she slept through most of that. we let her sleep until she woke up around 7-ish. i'm so grateful that she slept and seemed in good spirits.

they came in to get her for pre-op stuff around 8:00am and i started getting nervous. they moved her surgery up to 8:30am. we got down there and they gave her some iv fluids and then gave her some medicine that made her veeeeeeery loopy. and sleepy. the poor girl was always so sleepy.

on the way down the hall to the operating room, she kept trying to lift her head. it must have felt funny or something. and then she sort of poked her leg with her finger a few times. it would have been funny if it wasn't MY CHILD ON DRUGS. NOT FUNNY. oh, i hated that so much.

barb showed up and we all waited. it took approximately a million years for the surgery to end and for dave and i to finally see her in recovery. she looked confused for awhile and then passed out, sound asleep.

we were transported back to peds and were told we could go home once she was fully recovered and could eat and drink. it took her awhile, but she finally "woke" up and was in pretty good spirits. i want to remember how when we got her back in bed, i turned on the tv to find some cartoons for her to veg out to. i found sponge bob (dave hates for her to watch this) and it was so funny. she got dave's attention and just pointed at it, like - ha. boo-ya. pretty cute.

she ate and drank, had a popsicle and perked up. time to go home.

note: if you ever break a bone, make sure to do it on halloween. they go ALL OUT. the amount of candy and other treats they brought to her room was amazing. i am not kidding. the recliner was completely covered with bags and buckets. we sorted out enough candy to fill two full pumpkins and a tote bag full of treats. craziness. so don't go feeling all sorry for her that she didn't get to trick-or-treat! she made out in a big way.

we made it home and got her settled in. her arm hurts her, but it's manageable. we get her permanent cast put on tomorrow - glow in the dark - who knew?! she is pretty excited for everyone to sign her cast. we have all signed her temporary cast in the meantime. papa mike supplied every color sharpie known to man, so it's a very colorful cast.

ps - are you wondering where mr. henry was through this ordeal? after i ran out from lucille's as fast as my legs could take me, i called barb. she went picked up henry, bathed, bottled, and put him to bed. she spent the night, got up for the 4am feeding and took him to irma's the next day. then she high-tailed it up to the hospital in time for the surgery.