Among the Living

I am among the living but just barely. I can't think straight and shouldn't be sitting here thinking about myself and posting, but I am. Scott has been home from China now for 1 week, but I still haven't recovered from him being gone for 2 weeks.

About an hour after he left for the airport my doctor called with the results from the MRI I'd had done on my foot the day before. "You've got multiple fractures in your foot. I need you to come over so I can put you in a boot and you need to get back on your crutches. I'll set you up with an appointment with orthopedics next week." You've got to be kidding! This kind of set the tone for the whole 2 weeks. I drove and drove and drove and drove and then drove some more getting everyone where they had to be in the evenings. Kids got sick. We had 2 softball tournaments in KC. I've pretty much put everything else out of my mind. I don't remember anymore of those 2 weeks.

Supposedly things are winding down a little bit now. Baseball's over. Hannah's softball tournaments are over. Holly's got her last tournament this weekend. BUT, basketball's starting! This evening's Halloween party is over, but Halloween is next week and it's HUGE in our neighborhood.

Now I've relieved some guilt by breaking the blog fast. However unintelligible it is, it's done. I promise better next time!

My Friend's Blog Post

Jennine is a mom who has adopted recently from Ghana. She spent 4 weeks in Ghana while she prepared to bring her daughter home. She spent a lot of her time doing great things. Check out her post about Christ Outreach Orphanage. This is where Williams was prior to coming to AAI's Eban House.

http://goingghanagone.blogspot.com/2008/09/orphanage-in-kasoa.html

Kid Sayings

Williams had been playing a lot with the Billy Blazes action hero from Rescue Heroes and also watching the movie. Billy will pass along a fire safety tip whenever his button is pushed. One of them was, "If your clothes catch on fire, stop, drop, and roll!" I wondered if Williams was picking up any of Billy's words of wisdom. I asked, "Williams, what would you do if your shirt caught on fire?" He looked at me like I was crazy for thinking such a thing, thought for a minute, and said, "Take it off." I love a kid with some common sense!

The last week has been challenging, at best. Scott left last week for 2 weeks in China. I had an MRI, found out I had multiple fractures in my injured foot, and am in a moon boot and on crutches for another 4 weeks. We've had crazy schedules all week. A couple of evenings ago I was leaning on the kitchen counter, crutches in arm pits. and was complaining about being tired after driving 4 kids around to everywhere. Hannah said, "I can see why! I'd HATE to be you!" Honesty is obviously one of Hannah's virtues. She's kind of cute too!

Fun House

A few weeks ago my best friend Cindy invited us over to her house for an evening of fun. This is just not any kind of fun, this is the best kind of fun. The kids compare this experience to Disneyland. There's not a whole lot that rivals the excitement of going to Cindy and Eddie's house.

One of the big draws is the "chat mountains". I can't tell you exactly what they are but they're really fun to climb on. That is, for everyone but mom. I'm just waiting for someone to one day plunge into one of the deep crevices never to be seen again.

I can't remember if Adam was going up or coming down.

Next we have the pond and fishing.

And for the first time, we rode the quads.

Cindy had dibs on giving Williams his first ride.

We have so much fun playing at their house, but really the best part is having great friends. Although Cindy is only one year older than me, their 2 kids are both in college. Amazingly, they still enjoy hanging out with us. That's true friendship!

Overdue Update

Oh, the days of wanting his picture taken and yelling "Snap me! Snap me!" seem to be lost already. I was lucky here to get a picture without hands covering the face. I sneaked up on him and got him.

Days have been oh so busy with little time to ponder the days activities or milestones. I'm going to take the time now as I wait for two different daughters to return from two different softball tournaments in Kansas City and as two tired little boys are already in bed.

Yesterday Williams received his vaccinations. I put it off as long as I could after the horrific scene when he got his blood drawn. He had to get four shots and kept up his reputation of not holding back his displeasure for anything involving needles. I know this is no new thing. He's certainly not the only kid to share this emotion at shot time, but he is very vocal in his displeasure. He walked out of the doctor's office with an armful of treats, stuffed animals, and stickers, so I guess it proves that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, or in this case, the screaming boy gets the goodies.

My mother-in-law left last week after spending a week and a half here from Ohio to help while I had my foot banged up and was on crutches. I'm pretty sure we done wore her out. I tried to give her bonus trips to Panera to give her incentive to keep going. I think it worked. She got her fill of baseball and softball games. She was still smiling when she left. God bless Grandmas.

Here's one of the attempts to block out the camera.

I guess he felt well hidden behind the hat and shades so he blessed us with a shot. Oops, that's a bad word around here right now!

Things have really been going well. Williams loves school, although he will tell you he doesn't. I loves playing soccer, although he will tell you he doesn't. He loves Sunday school, although he will tell you he doesn't. Are you detecting a pattern here? He's going through a phase of saying no to everything. The good news is that he doesn't act negative like all his responses. He's very outgoing, happy (usually), and cooperative. We still have consistent limit testing, but I always win. Go Mom! I'm getting some kisses on the lips which is a new and welcome thing.

All in all we have nothing to complain about, well the adults anyway. Four kids with no complaints would be just wrong, not to mention creepy.