Broken or not broken?

Let's begin with a funny story. Okay, not so funny, but still slightly amusing. Callie bonked her head. She then proceeded to have a tantrum because she couldn't see a bump on it when she looked in the mirror. So she ran to her room screaming and slammed the door. Then she really started screaming, since her finger had been in the way of the door slamming. Sigh. It was funny till she hurt her finger.

This is what her pinky finger looked like. It swelled up and the knuckle area turned purple. You can't see the lovely color here, but it was. It also looked a bit crooked, but I couldn't tell if it was because it was swollen or something else.

See, it does look crooked! And slightly bruised. It really was more purple in real life. She consented to have ice on it, so it must have hurt. I put in "Cinderella" and snuggled her on the couch with her blanket and ice pack. It didn't get worse, but it didn't get better.

At 4 I woke Dan up from his nap and asked if he would take her to the ER. He agreed with surprising good nature. I packed a bag of snacks and activities and sent them off. He called at 6:30 to tell me she'd just been X-rayed. Then nothing. 8pm rolled around and I partly watched "The Amazing Race". Still nothing. 10pm came around and I finally called the ER. The abrupt lady said they were on their way home. After she hung up I thought maybe I should have asked how long ago!

It was 10:15 before they came home. Nearly 6 hours!!!! Ug. Callie was asleep and Dan took her right to bed. I asked how it went, sonce she had a ig purple wrap on her finger. He said, "Not broken". That's all he said. They were gone for 6 hours and all he says is, "Not broken." ?!!

Here she is today, wearing purple lip gloss and chocolate chip muffins on her face. I did force Dan to tell me more, but getting info from him was like pulling teeth. They waited a lot, the ER was busy (note to self, if the kid's not screaming and/or gushing blood, don't go!), they waited some more, They got x-rayed, they waited, the doctor gave them a tube of bacitracin, they waited, they came home. Now I am a little confused still as to why the doctor gave them the bacitracin. She wasn't bleeding! At least, not when she left the house, who knows what happened once they got to the hospital. Dan's theory was that the doc didn't want them to walk away empty-handed after such a long wait. Hmmm, nice consolation prize!

So, Callie has a sore finger, but she is going to live. In the future, when I do NOT go to the ER and it turns out I should have, please remember this posting and know that there was a reason!

Time at the Temple

We tried to be a good family today. We dragged the kids to the Temple so that we could help another family go for the first time together. It didn't quite go as planned, but the children had a blast running rampant through the visitor's center. I'm sure they were glad when we finally left!

Here is our happy and eternal family. I will mention that it alternated between drizzling and downpouring all day. Thus the picture of us under the awning, with the reflection of the temple behind us.

Runaway Delaney had enough other friends to chase that she mostly stayed in sight. You see that I was able to get all the green marker off her nose from this morning!

Marian loved posing by everything. She especially liked the Christus statue, but the lighting wasn't good there for a picture.

This was Callie's very concerned face. We were looking at a beautiful display of pictures of Christ, chronicling the events of his life. When she saw the painting of Christ on the cross, she became very distressed. She was so concerned about Him. It was very sweet.

Playing with Markers... again!

Three guesses who found an unattended green marker this morning.

Oh yes, she had a marvelous time. She would not, however, show me her belly for a picture. It too was covered with green. And when I found the culprit marker, I discovered that Delaney had also colored all over my formerly white socks! Aack! Time for a bath and a load of laundry.

Optometrist

I finally got in to see the optometrist today (Thank you Lanie for watching Delaney!). I have been wearing my current contacts for nearly 2 months- well past their "good for" date. I must say, I loved the place I went in Havelock. Dr Banks. Wonderful, thorough man. He's the one who finally explained that I had a minute astigmatism, and that I didn't have a freaky large optic nerve, just a freaky curved one. Anyway, I really liked them for many reasons. Unfortunately, I wasn't due for an eye exam till after we moved.

So I went in today. Very nice lady, took forever, and wanted to do more tests because of my freaky optic nerve, despite the fact that all screening tests were normal. And then, I was charged $155. Aack! The very same thing I use to get, that cost me $60 in Havelock, is costing me $155! Are you kidding me?! The inflation here is that bad?! I don't think she did any tests out of the ordinary, so why was it $100 more?! And, she recommended a new (expensive) type of contact. After wearing the sample ones all day, I must say I am not impressed. I'll stick with my cheaper ones, thank you!

Tricare pays for the standard eye exam, so this exorbant amount I paid was just the contact lense exam stuff. How much are you paying to get a contact lense prescription? Was $60 really low, or is $155 really too high?

Catching up

I hate it when my friends don't post for a while. I want to know what's going on! I seem to have missed a few things, so here is what's happened quite recently....

Our fabulous Primary president decided to take the kids to the Temple for an activity. They LOVED IT! Joshua and Marian really enjoyed it and talked about it for a while. Dan and I gave talks in church on Sunday and Joshua wanted to speak as well. He was still on fire from his Temple trip and gave his talk on that. It was sweet to see that the children were impressed with it.

My cute little man, in the same spot I hope he will be in another 12 years!

My beautiful Marian, who loves pretty dresses and posing for pictures. And I hope she also is wanting to be here, but in 20 years maybe!

This is what Callie did on Sunday. The nursery leader brought her to me just as RS was starting and said Callie had scraped her leg. There was no crying, so I assumed she had knocked the scab off her knee again. Nope, she'd done this and was bleeding all over her fancy pink dress, and my skirt. Poor thing. This picture was taken 2 days later, when she would finally consent to let me get a good look at it without a ton of drama. It was much nastier looking.

For preschool yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch at a local church. They had a marvelous selection and the kids had a blast checking them all out. Here is Delaney, one of the few times she was not hoofing it accross the parking lot. I got distracted once and Delaney had dashed accross the pumpkin patch, accross 2 sections of parking lot and nearly made it to the busy street before I sprinted accross the parking lot and nabbed her. She'll kill me yet!

My cutie Callie, posing for me. She got to pick out a pumpkin and painted it at preschool. We do also have two large pumpkins for carving next week.

And that's the recent activities from this here part. The kids are fantastic. Joshua isn't complaining about Spanish all the time. Marian enjoys school and seems to be doing really well. Callie is incredibly social and loves to play. Delaney just loves to run and run- preferably down the center of the street! Dan is happy with work and already talking about extending our time here and then getting out and becoming Civil Service. Say What?! We'll see.....