There's a First Time For Everything...

I was just running out the door to do errands yesterday afternoon, when the doorbell rang. Jon had dropped off a package to be mailed and they brought it back because it needed some paperwork filled out. Good thing, because I was HOME filling that out so it could be put back in the mail when the phone rang. It was the school. My first thought was one of the kids forgot something and needed me to bring it, but when I answered and it was an adult, I thought one of the kids was in trouble. Then I heard, "Kendall had an accident on the playground." My heart started pounding. He was playing football at recess and caught the ball. Another boy went to tag him (touch football) and tripped or something and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. He went to the office and had it iced and then he went back to class, but he ended up back in the office, which is when they called me. I went over to the school and looked him over. He could hardly lift his right arm and when I touched his collar bone, the right side felt different--and he was almost crying with pain. I checked him out and called the dr. They were at lunch and couldn't get him in for 30 minutes, so we went in then. They couldn't see a bump (obvious break), but it felt different, so they did an x-ray and sure enough, he broke it. They said it wasn't broken all the way through, the bottom part of the bone is just barely still together, but most of the bone was broken. So...he gets to wear a swath to hold his arm tightly to his body for 2 weeks and then a sling for his arm for 4 weeks. He's in pain, but he'll be just fine. Why the title of the post? Out of 4 kids, some more wild than others, not one of the kids has ever had a broken bone before---or stitches for that matter. I'm surprised we've made it this long.PS He's a left-handed guy, so fortunately he's still able to "function."

Surprise! It's a Miley Cyrus Concert...

Kristen has been dying to see either Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus in concert and when I heard she was coming to town, I thought maybe that was something we could do. My neighbor told me the tickets were really expensive, so I entered a contest to try and win some, but didn't. I wasn't even going to tell Kristen about it, but decided to, just in case someone at school mentioned it. She was sooooo bummed that we didn't win the tickets! Well, yesterday afternoon, I was just sitting here and I commented to Jon that I felt bad about it and he told me to go ahead and buy some. We thought it would be so much fun to surprise Kristen! I got the tickets and didn't say a word. Jon had a cub scout cookout and Kendall had a football game, so I loaded all the kids up and went to the game and then dropped them all off at home, before running out the door with Kristen. I told them I had an errand, an appointment that I needed to go to. Kristen kept asking questions (I told her it was a girl thing) on the way and then we parked and there were soooo many people. She asked what store we were going to, because it sure must be a HUGE sale for that many people to be going to the same place! We walked into the building and she could hear someone singing and she kept saying, "What's going on? Where are we going? Just tell me what's going on in there!" I had her hold the tickets for a minute and she didn't even notice what they said. We went and found our seats and there's Metro Station singing and she still had no clue. I told her that a lesser known band usually opens for a more famous person and asked if she knew who we were there to see. You should have seen the look on her face!!! Wide eyed shock! We had sooooooooo much fun, screaming and singing along. It was great! I felt so bad for Miley--she had the flu and at the start of her 3rd song, she looked like she was going to pass out and then she ran off the stage. The backup singer finished the song and then they came out and said she was sick. We waited for about 10-15 minutes and then she came out and finished. She was a little shaky/rough on the first couple of songs, but I thought it was a great show and that she did a great job!! We had a blast and it was a very fun surprise!

Billy & Belly

As I've mentioned before, I kind of use this blog partly as a journal. And it's time I blogged about Billy & Belly.

Kendall never really had imaginary friends--he liked to dress up and pretend, but that was it. Kristen had Bee & Assina---a bee with red hair who lived in a pink house and a pig with curly orange hair. She would always talk about them. And sometime, I may share the story of when Bee died. I thought that my brother Kolten would snort up a lung from laughing at that one. :) Jarren went through a phase where he WAS someone else--he insisted on being called Nathan (a friend of his) and refused to answer to anything else. He WAS Nathan! Jenna is following more after Kristen's style, thus Billy & Belly.

Billy is a 7 year old boy with white hair who is very very very naughty! Any time something gets messed up, ruined, misplaced, colored on, etc. it's Billy's fault. Apparently, he sneaks into our house and does these mischievous deeds without me knowing. Of course Jenna is totally innocent in all the naughtiness---not---but she sure thinks she is. Belly is his 15 year old sister. She has yellow hair and is naughty too, but not as much as Billy. I think it's hilarious when Jenna starts to talk about them, especially Billy. She gets so scandalized by the things he does. And one day we were even driving down the street and she started screaming--"There's Billy's house!! There it is!" Billy & Belly love money and "they want lots of it, so they take it so no banks can have any money." You've gotta love Billy & Belly. :)

Washer Bracelets

And last, but not least (for today), are my washer bracelets. I work with the Young Women and we wanted to challenge them to work on the value of Virtue for the summer. The project was a big one and we wanted to have some type of reminder (for those who completed it) of their hard work and to remind them that a virtuous woman is a good thing. The color associated with the value is gold. So...back up....my mom was telling me about a lady that she works with who's granddaughter made these cute bracelets using hardware washers and ribbon. Well...after some research and time, I came up with these. There are only a couple of "gold" washers (brass), but it's to remind the girls that when you are virtuous, you stand out and that's it's a beautiful thing to be that way. They really seemed to love them--phew!

Merit Badges

Okay...I can think of a couple of things to say I guess. Kendall turned 11 in July and the next week, his scout leader was put in a different calling, so....she's been double dutying for 2 months. Needless to say, they haven't always had a lot of activities. Jon took Kendall and Kristen and 2 friends on a merit badge outing, where the boys worked on their bird study merit badge. They worked hard, played hard, and had a blast!

It's Been Awhile....

I just realized that it's been about 2 weeks since my last post. I really don't have much to say I guess. We are in the swing of things now---the kids are all back in school and doing well; Kendall is playing flag football again; Kristen is dancing 3 hours a week; piano lessons are in full swing; etc. etc. etc. I've also had a taste of single momhood this month and let's just say, kudos to any single parent--it's NOT easy!! Jon's been busy traveling this month for business--California and Germany. Lucky! The German chocolate makes it all worthwhile. :)

Jenna

Jenna....where do I start with her? She has got an attitude! The other day I told her that she had watched enough tv for the day, so she huffed off, telling me that she didn't love me anymore. She swings one of her arms and marches off. Then she tells me that she's mad because she has mad eyes and then she'll glare at me up through her wild curls. Yesterday, she was mad because I wouldn't let her have a snack--dinner was 5 minutes away from being on the table--so she went and found some green teeth and told me that she was a mad "zampire"--could see her mean green teeth? Then, after awhile of holding her grudge, she comes back and tells me that her eyes are happy again and that she loves me again. Woe is me--how will she be as a teen?!

Anyway...Jenna has to have surgery on her mouth and I KNOW she's not going to be happy about it. She is tongue-tied--it's connected almost to the tip and her upper lip is connected to her mouth right between her top front teeth. Apparently, this could have all been taken care of in a doctor's office, but since she's so "old" now, we have to have it done at the Children's Hospital. The dentist pointed it out in June and they tried to do the tongue, but there was a misunderstanding with the insurance company, so after 2 months, we decided to talk to her Ped. They won't do it, so we had to make an appointment with an ENT and then the dentist office called back, saying that they could resubmit the preauthorization and it would take another 2 months to see what would happen. We just took her to the ENT. They're building a new hospital a mile down the street and it will have a Children's unit. So...the ENT suggested that we wait and do the surgery in November when he can do it at this new hospital. It will be good to have it done!