I’m Not Dead Yet….or a random post to explain why I haven’t written in ages

When Jacob first put on the gas mask toy I recieved for my birthday, Paul was laying on the floor. He walked up to him, looked down and said, “I am your fa-er” in a very serious face and proceded to breathe loudly.

Paul and I laughed, and laughed, and laughed….

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One of my bestest friends ever visited back in July, the two of us got to take off on a Friday evening for some very fun girl time. Girl time is so fun, but there is something extra cool and fun about hanging out with a long time friend whom you haven’t seen in years. We went to the Comedy Sportz place in Portland, and laughed until we were crying.

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I’m really dissapointed with myself – I forgot to take any grandparent and baby pictures while my parents were here – I took lots of pictures, just no solo grandparent with baby photos for James’ scrapbook.

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James is now crawling.

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James has 2 teeth.

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James is pulling himself up to standing – I caught him standing in his crib a while ago and took a picture – I’ll be sure to post it.

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School shopping is done and school starts next Tuesday – Woohoo!!  Most of the clothes the kids have are fitting really well – so we got a pair of jeans for each one and just their basic school supply lists.  Backpacks and anything else they end up needing we will wait and use as Christmas presents.

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I finally made it to my first Baseball game ever! (since the last one I tried to go to was rained out.) We had free tickets for the whole family from Paul’s work. So we took everyone last Friday and enjoyed hanging out watching the game.  It was a lot of fun, and the 9th inning was a slam bang finish. It came down to our team at bat, two runs behind, the bases were loaded, there were 2 strikes and 3 balls.  He hit the ball and it was caught – so we  lost, but it was still a way cool exciting ending. 🙂  And, we even got after game fireworks. It was an incredible display and the kids LOVED it!

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I have four of the kids enrolled in soccer this year and practices started last week. Liz and Dot are on the same team, Em is on a team for 1st graders, and Jacob is in Little Big Kicks which starts in September and is on Sat. mornings.  Luckily the park and rec does a soccer swap and we were able to get shin gaurds, cleats, and even socks for free – woohoo!  We will have lots of fun soccer photos to post soon.

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Last week Elizabeth turned her left ankle when she went running down the slide. It wasn’t swollen really, but I slapped some ice on it and pronounced her healed when she could walk on it without any pain.  It turned a couple more times during the week, but didn’t seem to bother her – she even went to soccer practice and was running on it without a problem.

Then, Monday evening, she was standing flatfooted when it gave out beneath her. She came crawling to me in major pain. I took a look at it and it was swollen and very bruised. We iced it and decided to take her into see our pediatrician the next morning.  Of course our pediatrician is out of town, so we ended up seeing the doc on call – she actually is very nice.

We were sent to the hospital for x-rays – possible displaced fracture and chipped bone.  The reason for the “possible” is because they could only spot the break in one x-ray, where usually it is visual in at least 2 of the 3.  So, this morning I spent from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm trying to find a orthopedist who could see Elizabeth before mid September.  I called at least 12-15 orthopedists before I finally found someone who could see her soon – everyone was either over booked, on sabatical, on vacation, or didn’t see children under the age of 12. I was continually refered from one doctor or clinic to the next, and was near tears, when I finally managed to get her in to an orthopedist at Emmanual Hospital in Portland – Tomorrow actually.

Ummmm…. and so much for soccer for her – at least she made it to one practice! We told her she could be the team mascot. We will still take her to all the practices and games, and if she gets off her crutches before the last game, maybe she will have a chance to play.

She’s having a hard time with it though – especially because she can walk on her ankle with little to no pain.

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After I got Lizard’s Orthopedist appt. made I took off to rent crutches and fetch a baby sitter so I could take James into Good Samaritan hospital in Portland for his urology appt in an attempt to solve the case of the missing testical.

They found it – which is good – however it is up in his stomach and the only way to get it down to where it belongs is surgery – there is also a hernia involved, so he would have to have surgery regardless. It isn’t a very major surgery, and I think it might even be an outpatient surgery, where he won’t even have to stay the night.  I didn’t think to ask at the time.  We don’t know what the surgery date will be yet, we should be getting a call to schedule  the surgery by the end of this week/beginning of next – the surgery will most likely take place at Emanuel Hospital – so at least it will be at a place we are very familiar with. 🙂

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Liz had her first sleep over at a friend’s house last night – she had permission from the pediatrician – because the friend is moving to Alaska.  They caught a praying mantis.  So today, Dorothy, Emily, and Jacob were trying to catch flies to feed to it. 

Just before I left to get the crutches and babysitter, they brought me a jar – they were so proud of themselves that they had caught a fly.  I took one look in the jar and nearly keeled over.  Jacob, in a stroke of three-year-old genius had noticed what flies are attracted to. So, he scooped up some dog doo-doos and plunked them in the jar. The fly flew in and they capped it.  I couldn’t decide weather to laugh, cry (from earlier stress) or scold as I stood there holding a jar with dog poop in it.

I finally settled on laughing – after I made sure that Jacob scrubbed his hands well with lots and lots of soap.