It started with the snooze button...

For the record, I hate the snooze button! I have some kind of internal clock that allows me to never need an alarm clock- Ken does not have such a clock. On this particular Saturday morning he snoozed about 4 times too many for me leaving me in not such a good mood. I ,however, overcame my crankiness and did some laundry and even managed a bit of time on the elliptical before hopping in the shower to get ready for the girls gymnastics performance.

Shortly thereafter I heard crying in the distance and thought to myself- seriously, I just got in the shower who is crying already and why!! Then that crying got closer and sounded like bad crying. My little Jack came bursting in my bathroom holding his arm and saying it really, really, really, hurts-yikes!! I quickly rinsed my hair and knew that a trip to the ER was necessary. In the meantime, I tried to get dressed, get him situated, calm down Marah who was crying and saying that this is scary, told the girls to get dressed, remembered that Hayden was home, woke him up, filled him in, told him to call Ken at work and left for the ER with Jack.

Both bones were broken and after some sleepy juice, a repositioning of bones, a splint, liquid percoset, and lots of x-rays we were ready to pick up his meds and head home. I called home to no answer about 3 times and then I started getting worried.

Hayden finally called me back to let me know he was having a hard time breathing-WHAT!! After a few minutes of panic between Ken and myself we devised a plan. I left with Jack to pick up Hayden while Ken waited for the meds. Luckily, Uncle Paul came over to watch all three little people and I headed back to the ER with Hayden.

After a not very nice man triaging us, a chest x-ray, torturous FOX news in the waiting room, a few jokes from the ER peeps, the diagnosis came...MONO!! Well, that news certainly perked up both of us...me asking the doc if it was still referred to as the kissing disease- yes indeed it is- a smiling face from Hayden and a few more hours of mocking from me helped to pass the time.

The boy had two bags of IV fluids, a steroid, IV meds, and tylenol and then we were out of there. He was certainly much perkier and we had some good laughs. All in all a total of 9 hours in the ER for me- not how I expected to spend my Saturday- nothing good comes from the snooze button!!

A few days later Jack got his cast put on. He chose purple and is back to normal- looking at about 4 to 6 weeks in his cast with trips to the ortho clinic weekly to make sure said bones are growing back correctly- oh joy!!

Happy Times...

November was full of happy times!! Autumn turned 8- I can hardly believe this- it seems as if we just brought her home yesterday:( It's exciting times when you turn 8 around here. She was baptized last week and now gets to go to activity days twice a month. Activity days is for girls who are 8-12 years old and they get together and do lots of fun stuff- she was overjoyed. Marah on the other hand was a little sad and so was I since this was the first thing they are not doing together.

The girls had their first piano recital. They were so excited and both did a great job. Everything was going so well until...

It was time to hand out the trophies. Autumn's name was called and Marah sat on the edge of her seat until the very last trophy was handed out just waiting for her name to be called...

and it wasn't:( Can you say heartbreaking, soul destroying, just plain wrong!! We all looked at each other like deers in the headlights since we didn't even know there would be trophies handed out!! She handled it pretty well but I wish that was a lesson she didn't have to learn at the age of six- good grief!!

Our tree has been up since the beginning of the month and this is the first year in a long while that I can remember feeling the true Christmas spirit. We have Elf on a Shelf this year and the little peeps LOVE him. He sits somewhere in your house and every night leaves to report to Santa on everyone's naughty or nice status returning to a different spot each morning. He cannot be touched otherwise he will lose his special powers. I've only had to get out of bed twice having forgotten to take care of Elfie:)

Hayden is working on his picture taking skills- I prefer pictures of the faces only- for obvious reasons but he insists on taking whole body ones- ugh!! I continue to be amazed by his kindness and all around goodness. He is a huge blessing to me and our whole family. We continue to have difficult and heartbreaking challenges with Ryker but I am forever grateful for a husband, family, and good friends who help me through the crappy stuff.
A few random pieces of info- Ken and I found the best burger place ever and he is addicted, I'm back to yoga and I love it, shift work is not as terrible as I thought, I have a great coat that is cute, warm, and zips, Marah is about to lose her two front teeth- another one growing up-sigh-, Jack continues to humor us with his constant chatter, Ryker is riding his bike in this freezing weather, we should be gaining daylight soon, and I am still dreaming about moving to Florida!!