External Fixator removal

Here is our little fiesty girl!

 I cut the side of her pants so the external fixator would fit.

Here's a close up of our torture contraption! Lol! Laura hated pin cleaning!! We had to unbandage and clean the pins twice a day. Laura screamed bloody murder each and every single time. The scar is where her knee used to be. This makes more sense when you see the X-rays below.

June 20, 2012

Laura felt ready to get the fixator out...

especially once the meds started working ; )

Slowly..

 Sleepily...

Waking up....

Horsey also had surgery. The nurses used green tape on he back. After surgery, Horsey got a new outfit and we were ready to go!

Sophia

to be continued......

June Happenings

Goodness, it's almost the end of June already. Where did the time go? What have we been up to? Lots and lots! Let's see, where do I begin? Well, Laura went back to Pre-K for a couple mornings a week. She enjoyed getting out and seeing her friends. We survived a total of 8 weeks and 1 day in that crazy external fixator!! Our little best friend in the whole wide world moved away. : ( You will be missed, Sophia! The boys also finished school. Both did very well especially in science. We also had some friends come visit us this month. Boy are we excited to have old friends that we knew in Okinawa and then again inVirginia move down here this summer! Oh, and today is a very special day. Today, Alex turns 13! Oh my, I have 2 teenagers in the house!!!!

Impressive!

Alex went deep sea fishing with his Dad last weekend. The men had a great time and we had a nice birthday dinner of fried flounder, puffer fish and sea bass, along with my famous chocolate cake for dessert.

 Here are all their impressive catches!

 Great job, Alex!

This picture was taken a few years ago, Alex has always loved to fish!

This will be the year that Alex becomes taller than me. He measures his heigth with me daily. I'm afraid I have him by only a inch (if that). Alex is 5'3. Alex is still our silly guy. I'm afraid things might be a bit borring around here if it were'nt for our comdedian and animal lover, Alexander the Great! Alex is also tender hearted, well most of the time anyway. I thank God for my sweet Alex and all his goofiness!

Sophia pushing Alex. 

Alex founf the turtle while on a bike ride. We kept him for a couple hours and then returned him.

The turtle was very shy and barely poked his head out.

Hapy 13th Birthday Alex!

Ha

Challenges- Week Four

I've never really considered Laura handicapped until recently. Four weeks ago, she had surgery to build a thigh out of her femur and tibia. So, we use a wheelchair for long distances and a walker in the house. Sunday, our ramp at Sunday school... was blocked due to a very INCONSIDERATE carny ride in the back lot of church. Thanks alot Maynia!! I had to unbuckle my gal, carry her up the ramp, have her hold onto something, then go walk back down and two of us Moms had to carry the wheelchair over all these big electrical lines. Grrrrr!!! Patrick had to do the same thing after church too. So much for her first day back to Sunday school since her surgery huh? The last four weeks have really opened my mind up to how hard it is to be in a wheelchair- that's for sure!! First it took 3 1/2 weeks to get a ramp on our house and now this! 

 The experience of the last few weeks has made me more sympathetic and understanding to the needs of others, especially those in wheelchairs or that use walkers.

It's been four weeks since surgery. The first 10 days or so Laura was in a lot of pain and needed a tremendous amount of help. She was also on some pretty serious pain medicine. The end of the second week was better, Laura's pin sites started looking better and a lot of healing took place. On day 14 Laura wanted out of the wheelchair and started using her walker in the house.

Then week three came....

Boredom!

Grumpiness!

Attitude!

Naughtiness

Demands

and

Challenges!

Not so happy.

But Patrick and I still try to smile.

 and try to have a good attitude when she tests us...

We are tired, but we smile....

and act silly.

Alex says Laura tortures him.

I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Laura can be very grumpy and demanding especially to Alex.

 

My name is "Mom"

A typical Sunday may start with a cup of coffee and maybe some yummy pancakes. My favorite pancakes are blueberry.

On this Sunday, it was Mother's day and Patrick was gone to his cousins wedding. Alex was also away, camping with the Boy Scouts. Eric makes yummy shakes so I suggested he make me one.....

Boy was I surprised when I got a blueberry/banana shake AND blueberry pancakes!

But let me back track a little....

I'll backtrack to Saturday afternoon....

Saturday

On Saturday, I was doing laundry and dishes and getting ready to do some cooking for our neighbors big birthday party later that night, when the power went out. At roughly 2:00 PM a squirrel ran up a utility pole when he was chased by Shadow (another neighbor's dog). We all heard what sounded like a gun shot go off and then a second gun shot sound and POOF!, and then smoke. Somehow two transformers were down. No power in the Hood! Fried squirrel anyone??

An hour passed.

Two hours passed....

Yes, the power was being worked on. Yes, it should be up soon. My poor neighbors were starting to fret with all the cooking to do etc....

Three hours passed...

 Just one hour before the party and the power was restored!! Yeah!!!

I came inside to bake the dishes I'd promised, along with some rice to help out our friends. Then, off to the party and home to bed. The dishes could wait....

Sunday 

I was upstairs finishing doing my hair when the fire alarm went off.

I ran downstairs to find the kitchen was NOT on fire! Whew!  Laura was holding her hands over her ears so I scooped her up and ran outside with Daisy. I hollered at Eric to open all the doors etc to let the smoke out, later I learned it was from burnt pancakes. Daisy ran down the street.....Laura and I came back in a few minutes later. I looked at the time. Oh boy! This was going to be my first attempt at leaving the house since Laura's surgery.... we needed to get the wheelchair in the SUV and quick. I grabbed a pancake and the yummy shake and took it to the car. Then I asked Eric to put Laura's wheelchair in the car and find Daisy. No time to clean up the pancakes. No time to clean up the dishes from last night. It was time to go!!

Off we went!

I was glad to make it to church a little early. I wanted to find a place to sit with Laura in her wheelchair. Unfortunately for us (unfortunately for Pastor Mark) we ended up sitting right up front where there was room for the wheelchair. We didn't have Sunday school so I was sure to tell Laura how we would behave and be quiet etc. About 2/3 through the sermon. Laura expressed her desire for church to be over and remarked out loud that she was oh so BORED! (sorry about that everyone).

After surviving our first trip out of the house, we went to the Scout Hut to see if Alex was back from camping. I ended up dropping Eric off to help the guys unload and the boys said they'd just walk home together. I smiled thinking how well they got along, then I sighed thinking to myself, oh man, I'll have no help getting this heavy wheelchair out of the car....

Daisy met us outside the door. In our mad dash to leave, we had forgotten all about her! There she was, in the hot noonday sun, laying in a big pile of dirt she had dug to keep cool. Dirt was all over the front stairs and ramp too! "Oh great!" I said out loud as I pushed Laura up the ramp and into the house.

"OH NO"!!!! I said as I walked into the kitchen and Laura started singing, "I'm HUNGRY! What's for lunch? Mom, I want........"  I don't know what she wanted.....All I could see were flies! Flies were everywhere! 

The kitchen was full of dishes from the night before and pancake batter and burnt pancakes etc. Eric had left the back door open to air out the smoke and well, apparently flies really, REALLY like to find a free breakfast buffet. LOL!

So, that was my morning. The boys came home, we played, "catch the fly", and ate something. Patrick came home and ended up making steak for dinner.  Here we are messing around in the kitchen. My Mom sent this "hat" and here is Alex goofing off.

Alex

                                                                                     
                                                                               Me

It wasn't that fancy of dinner but hey, things are a little crazy around here these days....

Our dinning room has been turned into Laura's bedroom, we survived  a power outage, burnt pancakes, church, a run away dog, scouts, a wedding and some flies! 

Guess if I can survive all that, I certainly deserve to be called, "Mom".

The boys gave me some tulips.

My tulips opened up oh so pretty!

Dear God,  Thank you for allowing me to be Mom to these three! I have crazy days and don't always feel appreciated or have much time for myself, but I do love my job and I LOVE these children!

Waiting...

We waited 3 1/2 weeks for base to bring us a ramp.

See? We got one!

We wait for the bus to go by, so we can wave at it.....

We wait for our brothers and Daddy to come home...

Is she waiting for her Prince?

Lol!

Daisy waits too.

Maybe it's time for a walk.

But first maybe we should wash the spaghetti off of our face?!