Friday Fifteen

I am so sorry for the lack of posts lately. Sicknesses and life have kept me off the computer more than ever lately. Here is a list of things that have been going on around here.

1. Brianna is doing fantastic. She did not have to wear elastics this week. The doctor is trying to balance the need to heal her jaw joint on one side and the fracture on the other. She goes in today for xrays to see how it is healing.

2. My sister and her family have moved here. We are all so excited, but the kids are especially excited to have their cousins close.

3. Arick has started soccer and he is doing great. He is the fastest kid on the team and should do pretty well. His first game is this weekend.

4. I read the book "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and I enjoyed it, although I felt like it ended quite abruptly. It is about the Nazi occupation during WWII on the island of Guernsey which is off the the coast of England.

5. I made a batch of whole wheat bread this week. I love the smell of baking bread.

6. Andrew and I are enjoying the new season of 24.

7. I recently listened to the book The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. It was fantastic and I highly recommend the audio version as it is quite well done.

8. My studio is almost complete, yay!

9. Andrew worked incredibly hard this last week and finally got our 40'x20' garden all ready for planting. That meant shoveling in the 5000 pounds of dirt. Thanks Andrew! Hoping to plant the cool weather veggies this week.

10. We bought our tickets for our trip to Utah this weekend. The prices fell a lot, so we jumped on it. We are so excited! Our van rental might cost as much as our tickets though, ouch!

11. Arick came in second place in the pinewood derby. We were not expecting that at all. His car was slow at first and he lost in his first race. In the second chance race, his car got faster and he won. Every race after that, we watched his car get a little faster. It was very exciting. Arick was thrilled. It is the first time he has ever won anything.

12. Andrew joined a community band and it has been fun to hear him playing tuba in the house. His first concert was in March and another one will be in May. Hopefully Bri and I can actually attend that one!

13. Ella is completely obsessed with being a princess. Everyday she must wear a pink frilly dress and her tiara. Fancy shoes and a purse usually complete her ensemble. It is so adorable.

14. This weekend, I have to work on taxes. I am not looking forward to it at all.

15. My new favorite games on my iphone are Wheel of Fortune and 10 balls 7 cups.

Pics of Brianna

We wanted to show some pics of Brianna to show how good she looks. (these are cell phone pics)



Brianna after the surgery.



Brianna showing her metal mouth!

Brianna is doing great!

Hello everyone! Brianna has a mouth full of metal now and is at home relaxing. She is feeling great and everything went better than they expected. They were able to avoid wiring and instead used elastic bands. These bands keep her mouth shut but we can remove them for mealtimes and brushing her teeth which is a huge blessing. She won't be able to chew anything for a month or more, but as far as treatment goes, it could have been much worse. We are so grateful. Yay!

Chipmunk Cheeks

We now have a chipmunk living in our house. Her name is Brianna. So how did she get this new nickname? Yesterday, she suffered a fall from a scooter. The neighborhood boy found her crying and carried her all bloody back to our home. Arick cried out telling me that Brianna's hand was cut and bleeding really bad. If only it was her hand. I sat her down and saw lots of blood on her face. I had her open her mouth and I saw that half of her front tooth was missing. A stinky thing to have happen, but manageable. Call the dentist and get it fixed. If only.

The bleeding was still profuse, so I examined her more and I found a large cut under her chin. Scratch the dentist, go to the ER for a set of stitches. If only. We put the towels on the cut but she was still bleeding. So I examined her again and found a terrible laceration under her lower lip. This is where I completely started freaking out. Scars of the faces of boys are war wounds, not so much for girls. It doesn't help that this was the worse cut I have yet to witness on any of my children. So now we were definitely off to the ER to deal with what I thought was an awful situation. If only.

We chose to go to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital since our last experience with stitches at Summit Hospital was less than good. What I thought would be a three hour experience, ended up as a 10 hour ordeal. If only, this had been a simple case of needing stitches and fixing one tooth. In the end, Brianna was found to have broken 3 permenant teeth, fractured her jaw in two places and she did receive stitches for her two icky cuts. If only it been just a hand injury, right??? She is a sight to behold, bless my heart, as her face is very swollen.

So that is the story about how Brianna earned her new nickname. Tomorrow is her appointment to get more x-rays to see if there is more dental damage (please pray there is no more damage!) and to go over the details of her surgery on Friday. Please keep her in your prayers that the next couple of months will fly by and that her discomfort will be minimal.

As a mom my heart is broken for my little girl. I hope and pray the damage is not worse and that there won't be any lasting effects of the injury. Of course, Brianna is handling this incredibly well. She is most disappointed to miss soccer for probably the entire season and her snow cone party at school on Friday.

My blogging vacation is over

This past month has been incredibly busy and stressful for me. I am trying to go through and declutter the house, as well as turn my office/craft room into a studio. It has been many hours of work. Add to that being busy with clients, my calling, the childrens' activities, trying to keep the house clean, illness, etc and you can see I do have valid excuses. Just thinking about these past three months makes me want to go crawl in bed and sleep for a week.

So I will resume regular blog posts about family life later this evening. I just have to share this video with you now. Watch it. This talk is probably my favorite talk of all time. The entire message can be found here: