Well I haven’t been here in a while

Let’s see, where do I start?

Since my last post was in early November 2006, let’s start in November.

Thanksgiving was a great day as I went with the boys and spent the day with my older sister at her house. It was nice to just spend the day with her and let the kids play. Of course, it couldn’t just be a “nice family holiday.” Nope! Kyle broke his leg while we were at her house. Did you know that if you jump from the backyard, wooden playset’s upper level you might break something? Who would have thought? Evidently Kyle wasn’t thinking. Nor was his cousin Brianna as she was jumping right along with him. Then again, would you expect anything more or less from a couple of 6 year olds?

Fortunately, we had already eaten lunch and had desssert. But off to the ER we went. I have to say that the wait wasn’t awful at all. I think we spent more time waiting on the doctor back in the ER room than we did waiting to get through triage. There was NO wait in triage at all so kudos to the hospital. That almost never happens around here. So a set of x-rays later we knew he had broken his leg and they splinted it for us. We were on our way home. Keep in mind that it is approximately a 1.5 hour drive from her house to our house. Oh boy, this was going to be fun! But aside from the expected “ouch” screams on unavoidable bumps in the road he did ok.

Of course, he’d spend the weekend on the couch pretty useless because it is a holiday weekend after all. Wouldn’t expect more to be honest with you. Isn’t it always the case that things like this happen at the most inopportune times? Anyway, since we already had a level of “patient” status at the place we took Lance when he broke his leg back in August, we showed up at their office at 8am Monday morning – unannounced.

Another round of x-rays. . . yep, it is definitely broken. He had a spiral fracture in his left tibia. Long-leg cast for 3 weeks. Wheelchair for 2 weeks because the cast was so heavy he couldn’t quite manuever it on the crutches. Then crutches. Short-leg cast for 3 weeks. Still on crutches. Fracture boot (removable cast) for 3 weeks. Still on crutches but working off them. While in the fracture boot, his acilles tendon tightened up – only complicates things. When we got to the physical therapist he only had 2 degrees of range of motion in that ankle. He had 15 degrees in the other one. The poor child! So we were onto 3 weeks of physical therapy for that. He has his last physical therapy appointment on Wednesday where she will one final “range of motion” measurement and we’ll go back to the orthopaedist with her evaluation and find out if it is just normal “it will continue to improve” or if we’ll continue the physical therapy.

Since we put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. . . that was the norm this year. We pull the tree out of the box and ummm. . . . half the lights don’t work. . . this after I’ve already restrung 2-3 rows of lights from the year before. Off to get a new Christmas tree. We ended up with a 9ft tree. It is lovely. Storing it is an issue, but we’ll figure something out I am sure. Right now it is in a large tree storage bag in a closet. We also put Christmas lights on the bushes out front of the house. The kids liked the 3 inflatable lawn ornaments.

Now on to December. . .

We were off to Columbus, Ohio. Now I can’t say that this is the most happening place on the planet, but it certainly wasn’t the worst place I’ve ever been. It was a nice quiet place. It was cold, but not horrid cold. He was there on business. I was there on “pleasure.” It was our 8th Wedding Anniversary and I have to say it was nice. The flight home was awful, but overall it was a nice trip.

While I was there, I got to meet 2 of the ladies that I communicate regularly on a parenting forum. That was nice. We’ve been on the forum since 1999 when we were expecting our April 2000 kiddoes, so it was nice to finally meet some of these people. We had a nice lunch one day. Another day one of them drove me around and we headed back to her house for spending the day together.

Christmas was good. I got to talk to my brother on the phone. It is hard to imagine that this time next year he will be returning from the Czech Republic where he has been serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Andrew and Kyle got to talk to him as well. While it was nice to hear his voice, the conversation is all too short. He is dearly missed. He is where he needs to be.

Now onto January. . .

Andrew turned 10 in January. Where did all the years go? It seems hard to believe that I have a 10 year old already. But such is the case. We had a small birthday party for him.

I started back at the community college. I am taking 2 courses – Computer Illustration and Internet Commerce.

The Computer Illustration class is learning to use Adobe Illustrator which was my goal for the previous year that I never did get to. But I am enjoying learning a little more about it. I even used it to create a logo for a web design client. After the first lesson in this class I was already seeing the “possibilities and potential” for Adobe Illustrator in both web design and creating digital scrapbooking kits. Now I am not ready to take on the world with Illustrator, but I can now officially do more than open it up and close it again. *laugh*

The Internet Commerce class is an interesting read. That is about all it is. It is making me think about various aspects, but alas that’s all it is doing. The problem? This is another semester where the professor is NOT an active participant in the class. Pretty much all we do is read, do the homework, take the quizzes/exams, and that about sums it up. This is the 2nd semester where the professor has seemingly “forgotten to show up.” It irritates me, but I need the credit.

And now we’re into February. . .