Thanksgiving

We traveled once again south to my parents house. My aunt from Missouri was in for the week also making it a very special gathering numbering 21. My mom is such a great cook and we all walked out as stuffed turkeys. Followed by the great game as UT (University of TX) beat A&M by 1 point. Jeff and I were very happy, but the rest not so much. Of course we had our marathon of card playing with continued good eats through out.

Of course my dad makes sure that the dogs get their take of goods as he carves the turkey.

Therapy begins

Sara has begin her PT for her arm. She will have 6-7 wks of this. Looks like she will not be done this year and we are already 3 months into it. When we first get there, there is 10 minutes on the machine which is like a bicycle for the arms and they set it so it is an effort.

She has to work the left wrist out. After so long in the splint, it is locked up and she has lost her strength.

Soccer

Rec soccer season is finished for the year. The team did not win any games, but they did play their hearts out. They are playing U17 level-meaning most of the girls they played were 16 and over. This is based on the age of the oldest girl on the team. Remember, Sara is 14 and we also have 2 13 year olds. By this age, most of the girls are playing " select" meaning parents paying a LOT of money, practice times doubled, along with # of games and tournaments. Also in select, the coach does not have to play the girl if he does not want to. In rec, they must all have equal playing time. I feel that school is more important.

growing taller

Thought we would try on the items that Sara had when we first saw her.

Yes, it still fits, though a little fashion forward now showing bare midriff and capris. She says it fits because she does not have her woman hips yet hahaha
Check out the shoes we bought for her in Guanghou.

Halloween

This year the girls did not go trick or treating. Jeff surprised us by driving in for the evening. Ruth and Jeff cut up all night and it was nice for me to get a break. Sara was dressed as a ladybug and Ruth was a cowgirl. Sara was off in the side yard with her boyfriend, with me frequently checking on them hahaha.

We tend to go all out for Halloween including 12 strings of lights that the girls put out

happy year 5!

This is the 5th anniversary of Sara's Gotcha Day. Once again, a cake was in order...marble of course. Note the "frankenstein" arm. She had just taken a shower and got her splint wet and it was drying. She has to put it back on ASAP.

Another doctor visit...and 2 more months!

Back to see the surgeon today hoping for good news. We had the stitches removed with lots of fussing but they came out clean. Only 7 which was good, but it did leave a huge scar. Bad news is that the dr said it would be two more MONTHS until the brace can come off. Back in two more weeks for more X-rays.

Sara's first homecoming

Sara has begun dating the boy next door....literaly. He attends a different HS where his father is a football coach, so we had two homecomings. The first was for his school. He made the mum for Sara and it was beautiful. Sara and I made his garder which was pretty good for a first time try. Notice on his garder we put both school's colors...recyclable for next week too.

The following week was Sara's homecoming and she wanted a mum that had her school colors, so I made her one for her school.

Sleepy time

Sara has to get up at 5:30 to get ready for school and catches the bus at 6:15 AM. Sometimes when she gets home, she falls asleep on the couch. Today I guess the cat was tired too.

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.