the show me state

we're off.

brad & i are looking forward to time with our yc friends in buffalo, missouri. we're anxious to play a few (ok, brad will probably play at least a hundred) holes at dream valley golf course, where brennon & twyla live.

the kids are staying with friends (3 different families) & are also excited. we know they will have a great time, as will we.

i woke up this morning at 4 am thinking i forgot to write a note to their teachers about where they are going after school today. i couldn't for the life of me shut my mind off, so here i am at 5:34 am showered & nearly ready to go. what in the world?! i guess i'm excited to leave.

can't wait to see you friends!

races

hat over heart for the national anthem

checking the numbers on his bracelet during the raffles

yeah! claiming the prize & speaking in front of the crowd.
rest time. he eventually fell asleep.

last night the boys, brad, pete & i went to the stock car races. what a great time. many thanks to paulette for watching the girls (they say it's too loud for them...).

there are 3 imperial drivers that makes it fun to watch. one of them, shawn, works at lamar fertilizer, so that makes it even more fun. he did well finishing 3rd overall last night. they also announced that my cousin kyle was 2nd in the nation in points for hobby stock cars. we wished he would have been there last night to watch.

they had a bunch of kids' raffles & hunter won a cool new bike! the bussell racing team was kind enough to haul it to imperial for us in their semi. thanks guys!

spectacles

kamrie got new spectacles today. she looks adorable in them. she is very farsighted and having problems with her eyes tracking the same. she is supposed to wear them all the time (not just for reading) & will be checked again in 3 months.

1st Day of School

Quiet.

That's what it is here since 3/5 are at school.

Hunter-5th grade (could he really be that old already)
Parker-2nd grade
Kamrie-Kindergarten

They were ready to go this morning, all of them set their alarms to get themselves up.

I didn't see any tears this morning by students or their mothers. I did see one boy walking around with his teddy bear. It was adorable. Brad left a message for me that said, "Did you cry? Or did you jump up & down for joy?"

Let's just say that we were all ready for school to start. I love them all & we had a great summer, but it's going to be good to get into a routine. I could cry over having to set my alarm, however.

Kamrie has a surprise for everyone. We'll take a picture of her after school so you can see...

fascinated

we're not sure why he's fascinated with the name ogallala, but he repeats it over & over, concentrating on the l's.

xray

look at cooper's cute little xray picture. the black shadows around the bone above the elbow indicate a fracture.

2nd chances

Yesterday's life journal entry:

Jeremiah 18:3-4
So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

It's so cool how God can use the same lump of clay that was marred and shape it into something beautiful and useful. We, as people, can be marred by circumstances from our past. But God can re-shape us if we surrender. Shape us into what seems best to Him.

fun at the fair

face painting

parker had his face painted last night. check it out!

you should have seen his pillow case this morning...his face looked pretty good but i think the pillow case will have to be trashed.

it scared cooper this morning. it was pretty funny. then cooper & chloe drew whiskers & spots on their faces tonight & were walking around saying "ROAR!"

spiderman vs. elmo

cooper must be growing up. he declared tonight that he no longer likes his elmo backpack & wants a spiderman one.

chase county fair

small town fairs are the best! the entire town/area shifts to the fairgrounds during the fair. businesses close early so everyone can get there. lamar fertilizer has a booth there so brad is there every afternoon & evening. this is the first year that i plan on being there every day too, since the kids are old enough it is fun for me now. :)

supper tonight? nachos & snow cones! it was great. i may make it a personal mission to see how many different snow cone flavors i can try before the weekend. today's? strawberry colada. excellent.

the kids are especially excited because they got "mega" passes to ride all the rides they want for all 4 days. i will not be doing any riding since just turning my head too quickly still makes me dizzy from the ear surgery. there are a couple of rides that sure look like fun!

ogallala

cooper is fascinated with the word "ogallala" lately. he loves the way it sounds to say it, so he just keeps repeating it with a definite emphasis on the l's. i've got to get it recorded, it's great.

blue

x-rays round 2
i said "cooper, say cheese." "cheese," with absolutely no enthusiasm.
jodi wrapping it up.
gettin' along just fine.


blue cast for a blue eyed boy.

after cooper's arm hadn't improved at all this morning & after talking to the dr again today we re-xrayed. different angles showed a fracture just above the elbow. he did well today with the cast; it feels better with it on.

biggest cast challenge so far? no thumb-sucking access. no problem. he decided to use the other thumb. it must taste just fine.

4 weeks & check it again...

arm update

the dr called this morning & said they think cooper's arm is not broken. they said we can take off the splint & see how he does.

we have it off but he is still complaining of pain & not wanting to use it. so we're going to give it a little time to see if we need to reevaluate it or if he is just sore from falling.

splint

daddy holding cooper for the x-rays.

asleep before jodi looked at him.

napping with a splint.


cooper fell on a trampoline earlier today & possibly broke his arm near his elbow. we'll know tomorrow after the dr & the radiologist talk. there was a questionable area, so it's splinted for now.

he's been sleeping since the dr's office. he cried from about 4:45 until 5:15 really hard & non-stop during the x-rays. then fell asleep right before jodi came in to look at him. he even slept during the splinting.

he opened his eyes when brad laid him down on the bed & he gave a really weird look at the splint & shut his eyes again. he was quite upset a little later too because he can't suck his thumb! jodi said he is going to have to be ambidexterous for awhile. we'll see what he thinks about that.

what happens when mom is sleeping

i'm back to the land of living. sort of. my mind is feeling somewhat more clear today. i'm a bit dizzy & still feel drugged. weird since it's been 2 full days since i've taken anything more than ibuprofen. the strongest meds i was on was tylenol with codeine. don't let me make any decisions on that stuff.

which brings me to my point today. either i agreed to this haircut or they knew i wasn't in a position to argue about it.


hunter gave him a mohawk!

brad finished it off the next day. when cooper was laying beside us last night he said, " i want my hair back."

i need to get a picture with daddy, parker & cooper all together (shaved heads) & hunter with his long hair (who refuses to shave it off).

happy birthday

happy 40th to todd. great party for a great friend.

blue eyes are back

you can see cooper's beautiful blue eyes once again. the swelling is almost all gone & he looks great. today he kept telling me he doesn't like bugs to eat him so he smashes them.

no coffee

2 reasons for no coffee tomorrow am.

no coffee pot. i threw it away today since it quit working today.

ear surgery tomorrow 10:30 am ct. tympanoplasty .

when i was in high school i had my right eardrum repaired & it was a much less complicated sounding procedure than what will happen tomorrow. i'll let you read the details in the above article if you like that gory stuff. it includes hair shaving, incisions & flipping my ear over to get to the ear canal.

yikes.

maybe, just maybe you'll get to see pictures of me bandaged up--big wrapping around my head to keep pressure on my ear.

thank you for your prayers about this procedure. pray that the surgery goes just as planned & the graft will take & successfully close the holes in my eardrum.

Skeeter Syndrome

Skeeter Syndrome is a severe, localized allergic reaction to mosquito bites, consisting of inflammation and fever.


suppertime sunday

early early monday (1 am) morning as i was reasearching swelling on the internet...

Cooper ended up at the ER yesterday for an epinephrine shot for a mosquito bite near his eye. Saturday night when he went to bed you couldn't even tell he'd gotten bit. Before church his eye was a little swollen shut. Our PA looked at him at church (thanks Jody!) and said if it looked red tomorrow to call her & she'd put him on an antibiotic.

By the end of church she'd decided he needed a shot for the swelling & to start on the antibiotic. Last night it was very red & the swelling hasn't gone down at all. He acts fine but if you ask if he can see he uses his finger to open his eye & says, "yeah."