another dr visit

Went back to the surgeon for a follow-up. Once again another cast came off...ouch. The stitches will come out next week. Based on the X-ray, all is aligned well.











Just like a teen, nothing is going to stop that texting. I guess that at this point it is a good distraction.

recovering

Sara has managed to take no pain pills today. I took her shopping a little to get her moving some. She actually ended up riding in the buggy at Wal Mart because it got to be too much. She went to the movies with a friend. Ruth is such a help too.

Our dog Jessie is very protective of Sara and makes sure that she is alright.

Sara's surgery

Today was surgery day. Sara went to the first two classes and I picked her up just in time to get her to the hospital on the dot. If you have perfect attendance in class, you do not have to take the final and we are going for this. Also, that way she was not home worrying. Also, today was disney character day and she was dressed as Mulan....more on that to follow.

Sara was a real trooper. She tolerated the preparations as best as she could. They had to find a pediatric gown because she is so small. We went with the loopy medication into her IV and then she had no cares in the world, and actially thought she was flying.....

about 1 1/2 hours later they told me they were done. The dr said that because she was so small, they actually had to bend the plates to fit them into her arm.....my question why did he not actually LOOK at her when we were in and see how small she was and weighed only 84# instead of seeing that she was 14. I am upset about this. What does this mean? SHE WILL HAVE TO HAVE A REPEAT OPERATION IN 4 MONTHS TO REMOVE THIS PLATE
We will NOT tell Sara this for about 4 months. I think she has enough pain and suffering for a while.

The recovery took many hours due to her pain levels and I will not even go into what they had to do to pin it all together and you do NOT want to know but can you say OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So many tears and trying to keep the pain meds going every 4 hours.

Thank goodness there is a holiday on Monday and we have 3 full days of recovery.

Vollyball champs

Once again Ruth's team is rocking. She is a hard player and getting better every day. See her at the net #14. Guess why~~~~can you say TALL. Their games are always very exciting!

BAD NEWS

WELL.....thinking we were just going to the orthopedic dr. to get the bone looked at and then into the pink cast of choice, but we can not always get our wish.

Sara will have surgery on Friday to put plates into her wrist. The dr explained that the end of both bones at the wrist are in many pieces and will not heal correctly by themselves.

More bad news according to Sara, since there will be plates, there will be no need for a hard cast, just a brace which means that there will be no signage....and knowing her she will ask the dr for one but really, can you say scratchy!

She will be out 8 wks and I really hope she learns to do more by then or I will be crazy.

Another hospital visit

Yes--SARA BROKE HER ARM THIS AFTERNOON.


Today Sara had a soccer game. I took her while Jeff had Ruth at home doing homework and a few chores. The soccer game began at 3. At about 3:10 Sara took a hit and went down. We do not coddle the kids and she always gets up, so I did not panic, UNTIL the coach ran to her, looked, and yelled HOSPITAL``HOSPITAL.

It was obvious by the way the arm was hanging that it was broken. I gather everything up to get things in motion. The coach and a few dads took her to the concession stand for ice and splint while I got the car. After passing out and luckily being caught, they helped get her into the car. I made a quick call to Jeff...."yes dear, the same hospital as before"...which luckily is only 4 minutes away. Jeff and Ruth showed up about 20 minutes later....they were in a middle of an oil change and it took a few minutes.

Yes, she broke both of her wrist bones and luckily it was not a compound break. Will see an orthopedic surgeon next week and when the swelling is down, we will get it taken care of further, including a hard cast. She is on nice pain meds and it is funny to watch her falling asleep.

SO NICE.....her coach showed up after the game. Also one of her very good friends, my other daughter, to see to her and she was so upset that she began to faint....can you say comedy act?

Jeff and Ruth took a break and had to get something to eat since it was now 5, so Her friend and her mom stayed.

Finally about 6 we were discharged and went out to eat....what else but Chinese food so she could get her egg drop soup. OH YEA---the doctor said to make sure she takes a lot of calcium so after dinner she had a HUGE bowl of ice cream. I am sure no doctor ever needed to tell me to up my calcium aka eat ice cream.

Still hot!!!

Yes, yesterday we broke the longest held record of the most days over 100-we are now up to 70 and counting. We should be with the average temp of 92....but instead it was 107!!! What the heck! I think if we do get this cool front this weekend, we may roll out our winter coats-such as they are-and turn on the heat!

Please, bring on the cool.....and by the way....still NO rain! It has also been about 3 months of this......doing a rain dance here.

9/11

It says it all. We watched some of the memorial tributes, but I cried too much. I forget that Sara, though she has been her 4 years, the details never were discussed. Today, she found out that the attacks were on purpose and she was so shocked and mad and did not understand why....just like the rest of us on that day. I did shield Ruth from the attacks for many years until she learned about it in school. I am that mother hen that wants to protect my little chicks from some of the horrors of the world and maybe help them believe that there are mostly good people in the world.

Give someone a hug today!

Volleyball champs

Today--all day--Ruth's school volleyball team was in their first tournament. It is early in the season and they have had only one game before that in which they swept the floor with the other team....bragging mom.

Well--the girls swept the tournament too and came in first place. It was a long day beginning at 8 and ending at 5, but with some breaks between thank goodness.

School has begun

Finally, school has begun. In some ways it went by too slow, some ways too fast. Sara is now a 9th grader in high school. We spent quite a lot of time learning her way around the huge school, scouting out where the bathrooms are, where the bus drops off, etc. She did survive the first week and the only tears were over her original bus she was assigned to ride, so I am not taking her two blocks away to catch another, where the driver does NOT read while driving and she has friends on this bus.

Ruth is still at the same school, but is now the top of the pecking order. She said the first day she opened a door when the bell rang and knocked down a 7th grader..... saying how small they are. I know she forgot that the beginning of last year, she was not taller than me, and my how that has changed. She also survived the first week and in currently in volleyball tryouts.

Disney & the melt

We made it home from FL. We spent two days with Jeff's parents and they are looking very well. They have made some beautiful updates to the house since their last visit, and we learned a wonderful & very easy recipe for chicken soup....even made it while at the condo in Orlando.

We enjoyed a walk along the beach and collected shells and coral.

We spent one day each at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Universal Studios, Animal Kingdon, and the water park Typhoon Lagoon, where the girls went snorkeling for the first time. I actually got Jeff into the very long lazy river---twice!

WELL....though the weather says it is only 96, keep in mind that the humidity jumps that way up....this whole week to 105! Yes,,,,,we found another way to sweat for 5 days--8 hours a day. We are now nicely tanned and exhausted and I promise no summer vacations again for a long time...at least to a hot destination.

. .oh, a few more vac pics

Just a few more pictures.

First the back seat became a beauty salon...anything to help past 18 hours!




Then chillin at Nana & Papa's house.

Every morning was a struggle after sweating all the day before. Next vac maybe we will just sleep.

We always to to A Bug's Life at Animal Kingdom. Don't we make cute bugs.

Oh, sisterly love. Sara usually attacks and Ruth retaliates...all in fun of course.

More love....see the smiles

One of my favorite pictures from Honeymoon Beack in Clearwater Fl. We always go there when visiting Jeff's parents.

OK. As you all know it has been too hot without relief anywhere. So, here is the inventive way to help with this:

First we found a new use for the soccer canopy that Jeff's parents bought for us....shade for the people and pup pools. It helps keep the water from getting too hot to enjoy.

Next, this is a mister that we got from Lowe's a few years. You hook the garden hose up to it and it makes a fine mist and it feels really good to feel....let it mist on you directly.

















Finally make sure that there is an unbrella over the seating area. If not, you may burn your bottom just sitting onto it. If a high wind comes by, look out. We actually have it anchored to the ground and tied with clothes line to the chair...country hick style, but it usually works, though we have had to chase it a few times.

My dad turns 80

It was a great birthday party. My sis had her canopy set up next to her jacuzzi-this is where I got the idea. Of course it was so hot, we had to wait for the sun to go down do the water would cool off enough to get in. There were games of washers-similar to horse shoes. Admiration for my sis's veg garden...always a green thumb.

We play a game called pin the parts on the old fart, and thank goodness it was a clean game. It was things like glasses, cane, sock garders, hearing aid....it was very funny. Then my dad posed as the old fart.

The cake was good, but my dad especially loved the apple pie.

Of course as is our tradition, it was all followed by playing cards and eatting queso and chips-thanks Mike.



We made a very fast weekend trip for my dad's 80th b-day. Jeff stayed at home because we currently have a very sick cat that can not miss any of her meds.....so he volunteered to stay behine and take care of our Puff.

HOT

yes, it is currently 10:30 and had finally dropped to 91. Last week I noticed that at 5 it had dropped to 105--this is all without the heat index.

WE are hibernating inside.

For those up north with this heat, at least we have practice handling the heat, so stay inside, lots of fluids, and turn the fans on HIGH.

SO, Happy July 4th. By the way, it was in 1776 that we got our independence. What are we doing today.....are you kidding? It hasn't been under 103+ every day so we are hibernating INSIDE!!!! And by the way....being in a SEVERE drought....many cities are cancelling fireworks. So far, our city is a go.....of course it will be going off over a water park, so, at least there will be water near by.

Hope everyone can get outside and enjoy the day

Sara's Mission Trip

Sara left for the church misison trip to LaFayette, LA. They had 124 teens attending in 12 work groups. Each group built wheelchair ramps.

Education in the summer

This is the 4th year that Sara was nominated for the Education In Action program. This year, we sent her. She went to the Houston/Galveston program. They spent 5 days touring, doing group activities, and I don't know what else. They had a huge workbook to work on and she said only the way Sara can "this is like school in the summer"....Yea...get the EDUCATION part?

Yes, Sara's best friend attended with her.

catching up

We finally refinished the chair in the back yard. most of the paint was chipped off during a hail storm a few years ago, and we finally went for it. The color turned out so bright, we had to get cushions to hide some of it.

Mother's day was great. I got flowers, chocolate and cards from my kids and Jeff.