I can't believe that I have fallen so far behind in updating my blog. This fall has been so busy and I've gotten into the habit of saying "yes" way to often again. I need to re-learn how to say "no". It's a hard thing for me to do.
My parents were here over Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time with them. We made a trip to Waco, TX, to visit the Dr. Pepper Museum. I've got tons of pictures that I still need to go through and I'll get them up soon. We also spent Saturday out at the IKEA store. WOW! What an experience!
Sam (and I) ran in the Arlington Winter Run 1K and Sam placed 3rd overall! I'm so proud of him. He's turning into a sprinter instead of a long distance runner. Here is a picture of him right before the race started. It was soooo cold that morning. The feels like temperature was 17 degrees! We both were wearing so many layers that morning just trying to stay warm.
Here is a picture that Sam took of the both of us after the race. He's getting to be a pretty good photographer too.
This past Sunday was a busy day for us up at our church. It was our Christmas Production. The choir, orchestra, bells and soloists all put on an amazing show and shared our love of God through our music, videos and word. Here is a shot of Andy and I with a couple of our good friends. If you look close you'll see someone else popping in on the picture. That would be our choir director sneaking up on all of us. We had no idea that he was there until we looked at the picture afterwards. It ended up being the best picture taken that night of the four of us. Oh well.
Our AV Team is amazing us all! Here is a quick shot of the sanctuary before the second performance. I wish I had gotten it when the lights were off but my camera battery died before then. I think that this will give you an idea though.
I can't believe that I've not posted anything for almost a month! WOW! We've all been pretty busy and I don't see it slowing down until after Christmas. I'll do my best through the holidays to keep posting to my blog as I hate that I haven't done so recently. I love to write and to share our lives with all of you.
Now on to an update in my participate in the Fall Into Reading 2009, hosted by Callapidder Days. There is still time to join in as it ends on December 20th. I so love these as it keeps me reading and it keeps me reading around Sam. So here's the updated list:
Most of the books that Sam and I are currently reading are from one of his schools lists and we are trying to get all 20 books read by January 30th. He not only has to read the book but also pass the reading test on them. I'm very proud of the fact that he wants to complete the list this year. Last year he didn't have any interest in doing so. The rest of the books on his list are:
We already have 6 of the above books here at home and will be reading them as soon as we get done with the two we are currently reading. There are roughly 10 weeks left until he needs to have them done and I don't see why he can't get them done. I do have to say that I'm enjoying reading all of these books too!
The Fall Into Reading 2009, hosted by Callapidder Days, has already started and I'm a month behind! Right now there are over 200 participants an I'm looking forward to looking through every single one of their lists and seeing what other books out there I want to add to mine. :) If you love reading and books in general join up or at least make yourself a list of books that you would like to finish reading by December 20th. I know that I will probably not finish my whole list but it sure is nice to have one. So here are the list of my books that I at least want to read first. I may add to this list as I go along. Here are my books in no particular order:
1. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke - I'm almost done with this one. I started it awhile back but this might give me the push I need to go ahead and finish it. 2. Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs 3. Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs 4. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini 5. Julie & Julia by Julie Powell 6. A Country Practice by Laura Abbot 7. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
I know that at least I'll be adding to the list the books that Sam and I have been reading. Now that I think of it I'll just go ahead and start a list of the two that we are currently reading.
1. Santa Duck by by David Milgrim - FINISHED and will probably read again tonight 2. Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner and Greg Hargreaves - UPDATED 10/20~FINISHED!
It's that time again! Photo Contest Time! Woo Hoo! Write From Karen is hosting another photo contest. If you'd like to enter there is still time. You have until tomorrow morning by 8:00 a.m. Central Time. This photo contest theme is: Fall / Bonfires / Leaves / School / Costume / Pumpkin / Festival / Thanksgiving / Family! I went through all of my photos and found quite a few that I thought about entering. But then this past Monday I took Sam up to our church to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch there that our youth group is running and of course I had my camera with me. I took almost 100 pictures in about 30 minutes or so and this is the one that has taken my breath away.
Voting starts tomorrow. I'll post the link tomorrow afternoon. Good luck to everyone.
Sam's Flag Football team is still undefeated! Then again they did tie their last game so I should say that their status is: 3-0-1. This group of boys is just amazing not to mention their coaches and all of the parents. The boys not only practice hard, listen to their coaches and parents but they also have fun together. Their last practice, which was last Tuesday, was dreary. It was cloudy, windy, cooler and then it started to rain (again) towards the end of their practice. In fact it has been raining off and on most of that week. Come game time on Saturday the fields were pretty wet and their games aren't played until 11:00 in the morning. This was the game that the boys really started getting into playing the game. It was a wonderful game to watch. They are not having a game this Saturday because of a conflict up at the church where we are playing. They were going to have a game this past Tuesday evening but it rained most of the day so it was cancelled. Here are just a few pictures from some of the past games.
Here is Sam taking the flag away from the other teams Quarterback as he was doing his handoff.
The ball was being passed to Sam but the other team intercepted the ball.
The boys were pretty happy after a touchdown!
The team coming through the banner as their team was announced.
Tomorrow, or possibly later this evening, I'll be posting a photo for a photo contest. If you'd like to participate in it head on over to Write From Karen for all the details. I can't wait! I took Sam out this past Monday when they had no school and got some good pictures of him at the pumpkin patch at our church.
I HAVE A JOB! Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would have this job. I am now the crossing guard for Sam's school! This job will allow me to still be at home for Sam before and after school as well as being able to do things while he is in school. I'll work an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Since we only live one block away from the corner that I'm posted at it won't even take me long to get there. Not to mention that if Sam is out of school so am I. If he's sick (depending on how bad he is) I could even take him with me. He'll just stay in the car. Of course, if he's too bad I can just get the sub to fill in for me. But I've got to tell you...this really is an answer to prayers.
Can you believe that it's already October? I sure can't! Seems like the school year just started and now we're already 6 weeks into it. Where oh where did the time go. Sam is doing great this year in school. He has an amazing teacher and Sam hasn't received a single "sign-in" along with getting some pretty amazing grades too!
We have however changed Sam's medicine. Since this past May Sam grew 2 1/2" but he lost 10 lbs. So now he's 4'7" tall and only weights 63 lbs. Unfortunately I don't know if this medicine is working or not. He's now having problems with sporadic emotional swings along with what seems like agitated hyperness. On the upside he is eating much more now so I guess you could say that at least we've taken one step forward. I'll be calling the doctor to see if we can't move his next appointment up and either change the dosage or the medicine again. I know that the right medicine is out there for Sam as we had one that worked as far as helping with the ADHD it's now just finding the one that will do that and let him gain some weight. UPDATE: We have now returned to the original medicine that we had left behind. We will work more on the weight gain. He did however gain 2 lbs in the past 2 weeks!
We all seem to be terribly busy these days and that is one reason I've fallen behind on this blog.
Sam ~
Flag Football is going great! They are still undefeated! It is wonderful to have Sam on a winning team again. For the past few years with both soccer and basketball he has been on great teams with great coaches but he hasn't won a single game. Now we have all three! Great team, great coach and we're winning. Now if we could just get our weather to cooperate so that they will have practice this week.
Now that Sam is in the 4th grade he was eligible to try out for the schools Percussion Club. You need to know that Sam has been wanting to play the drums since he could pick up a stick and bang it on a pot. He found out last week that he made the club! We were all so excited and proud of him for making it. I now have a drummer in my house.
Sam has also joined again for the second year the Battle of the Books at school. They get together once a week after school, read 5 books through out the year, and then they "battle" at the end of the school year against other Elementary schools that have read the same books.
I'm not sure yet as we haven't received the information yet but I think that Sam will also join the Running Club at school. If he does it will be his third year doing so. With the Running Club the past two years he has ran 3 different 5k's!
Scouts has started back up again too and along with that is Popcorn Sales! Sam has stated that he wants to sell $2500 so that he can get his college scholarship started. So far he has sold right around $300 and we've just gotten started. Since I don't work and Andy doesn't work where he can take the forms to work it's up to Sam and I to get it out there. There is also a website where you can purchase popcorn! Trail's End is the site and this is the link directly to Sam. I would appreciate it if you would help Sam earn this scholarship! Please just remember that if you are close enough to us or you are family/friends that I will see over a holiday break (and can mail me a check) please just contact me directly to order and don't order online. I'm trying to save some of you the shipping. THANK YOU!!!!!
Andy~
With the beginning of the school year here Andy has been very busy with work. He is gone pretty much every day...all day. He is giving classroom presentations during the school day and then during the nights and weekends he is doing in-home interviews and college fairs. For those of you that don't know Andy is a recruiter for Full Sail University.
Me ~
I too have been busy with the beginning of the school year. First and foremost I get Sam to all the above. Our choir just finished recording and we'll be having a concert on November 1st along with debuting our album! This will be an amazing concert. Our orchestra will also be performing. Just to wet your appetite here is one of the songs that is on our album. It's an early release! The only way that I could share this number with you is to set this song to some photos and make a movie out of it. So without further ado here is the First United Methodist Church, Mansfield TX, Chancel Choir singing "Joyful, Joyful"
Handbells have started back up and our concert is also upcoming. In fact it's right around the corner. The date is October 18th and if you're in the area come on over.
I am also tapping again. I love this group of women and I look forward to every class.
Since the school year has started so has PTA. I am the Treasure again this year and as most of you know the beginning and end of the school years are the busiest times for the PTA. It's a lot of fun.
SO...now you understand why I've been "lost" from here.
This week over at I ♥ Faces the photo challenge is "Candid". While at Sam's football practice tonight I took some pictures of a little boy that was there waiting for his bigger brother to finish practicing. He was just too cute! If you'd like to see more "candid" photos click on the icon above.
This year Sam has started a new sport. He's always done soccer in the fall and spring along with basketball in the winter. Sam has been begging us lately for him to do football. So this fall he is doing flag football with the Upward program. After the weeks worth of rain that we got here they were finally able to play their first game this past Saturday. Sam's team WON! He hasn't been on a winning team these past few seasons as in not winning a single game so it was so great to see his team win. Sam mainly played defense at the game but did get a chance to play offense too. Here's a picture of him going after a flag on the opposing teams player. I love the look on his face. There is such determination which he has a lot of and if he wants (after watching him at practices and this game) I can see him going a long way with football.
My dear friend Rachel will be having surgery tomorrow morning. She is having a hysterectomy. She just wrote a wonderful letter to her uterus on her blog and I'd love it if you would head on over to her blog The Science of Music, read it, and leave her a comment. And before I forget...pray for her, her family, the doctors, the nurses and all of those that will be there for her.
This week over at I ♥ Faces the photo challenges are "Contemplative" & "Pets". I'm going to enter both with the photos below. If you'd like to enter a photo you only have until 12:00 Central time today to do so. Like to see more photos? Click on the icon above!
First up is my contemplative photo. I took this photo on the first day of school this year. Sam didn't realize that I had the camera focused on him while he was getting himself together after he got out of the car. I love the deep contemplative look on his face. I really wish I knew what he was thinking at that moment in time.
The second photo is from a trip to the Ft Worth Zoo this past summer. It's of a lizard but I can't for the life of me remember what lizard he is. I'm sure someone here visiting might know and if you do please let me know in the comments. I do know that I really do love the colors on him!
This morning at church our Sunday School started a lesson series on "What Does It Mean to Be United Methodist". We did the first lesson which was "Wesleyan Heritage". I was teaching this one this morning and it was nice because I was able to bring in some pictures of when Andy and I went to St. Simon's Island, GA, which is where John and Charles Wesley also preached. I shared pictures of the churches where John preached along with 3 older hymnals that belonged to my Grandfather when he was a Methodist pastor. I also shared with them my Grandfather's Book of Worship. It was nice to share my Methodist heritage with them.
Today at church was also our Kick-Off Sunday. The choir and orchestra presented two great pieces of music. The second one that we sang really touched me to the point that it moved me to tears as I was singing. They were happy tears for sure and God truly was there this morning. The name of the song is "God Is Here" but unfortunately I can't remember who wrote it. The words go like this:
There is a sweet anointing in the sanctuary There is a stillness in the atmosphere. O come,lay down the burdens you have carried For in the sanctuary God is here.
He is here, God is here To break the yoke and lift the heavy burden. He is here, God is here To heal the hopeless heart and bless the broken.
O come,lay down the burdens you have carried For in the sanctuary God is here.
Then it was on to the message from our Sr. pastor...which is always good but this morning really hit me hard. This morning our pastor started a sermon series on "Rethink Church" with today's message being "What If Church Was a Verb". Now we are not the only United Methodist church doing this type of series. This is a national one that thousands of Methodist churches will be a part of. There is also an advertising campaign that is nationwide. I'd like to share with you the full video that was presented to us during church this morning. Please take the time to view this full video as it is VERY POWERFUL!
I'm hoping that he won't mind but I'm going to share with you part of our Sr. pastors letter in our bulletin this morning.
"For generations, many folks have thought of church as a building, something we do on Sunday, an institution or even a place to go. A church is far more than that. Yes, it is something we are (a people), but also something we do (a mission). God has called us to more!
Our church is already a significant part of this emphasis. What defines the biblical Church is not just traditions and buildings, but our faith, love for God and each other, spirit-filled worship, passion, evangelism, mission, a faith that is solid and real, as real as the Jesus we trust, follow and serve. Church is a "verb"." Rev. Mike Ramsdell Senior Pastor
WOW! Think of it...church as a VERB. That is powerful. So powerful that I am now sharing here with you how I feel that church is a verb. I think I've always seen the church as a verb. One of my earliest memories of a church being a verb is when the First United Methodist Church in St. Charles, MO, took in some Vietnam refugees. I remember being at their house watching every one getting along no matter how different we were and sharing in some wonderful food. Granted I was a very young girl at the time but it has stuck with me all these years. Heck, I may not even be remembering it all correctly but obviously I remembered it as the church as a verb.
Now fast-forward many years. The churches that we attended as a young married couple in Nashville TN helped in with Room in the Inn program. It was a program that helped the homeless have a place to sleep, eat, and get some much needed rest and hospitality. That was the church as a verb. Those churches helped us when we were moving away and moving back there. Those churches were there when we adopted our son and going through every single process that we went through to get him.
On to the present. This past spring when our landlord was foreclosed on and we were left with having to find a place to live in a single weeks time it was our church and members of our choir and Sunday School class that were there for us helping us pack up and move into our new place. It is our church that has helped my husband through some very tough emotional times that he has had in the past year. It is our church that has gone to Mexico (and other places through out the world and our own nation) to help those in need. It is my tap class that I have found a wonderful group of ladies not only to dance with but that will listen to my prayer requests and pray for me. It's a bunch of friends visiting another friend while they are in the hospital. It's even the great ladies of my Sunday School class that come together once a month to play Bunko and have a great time. I honestly could go on and on about how our church is already the verb. It is the church that is always there...but it's not a building...it's the people there at the church, in our Sunday School classes, in the activities that we are involved in and the open doors. We go out into the world every week after our church services and we become the church. It's fellowship with fellow Christians that make a church a church and that church a verb. We are the verb.
Our pastor wanted us to think of how we can become the verb...but honestly in my own personal experience: WE ARE THE CHURCH AND WE ARE THE VERB!
Running behind as usual with my sky photos for Looking At The Sky On Friday. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos taken of the sky this week and today it has been raining all day. So either I take a picture of gray skies or I can share with you some photos that I took back in 2007 when we were living in Louisiana. These were taken at a friends house that is actually an old plantation house that belonged to a Dr during the Civil War. We were there with our Sunday School class having a crawfish boil. Here are some pictures that I took of the sky with some old buildings and one with the plantation house. If you'd like to see more sky photos then head on over to CrAzY Working Mom and take a look around or feel free to look around.
I can't even begin to tell you how many posts to my blog that I have written in my head while I've been out and about this week only to get home, sit down and completely forget what I was going to write about. And it's happened yet again today. Every thing has started back up in these past few weeks. Sam has started flag football, choir and handbell rehearsals have resumed, my tap dance classes started this week, PTA board meetings and just getting all of the money going with that (I'm the PTA Treasure in case you didn't know) and everything else that goes along with school starting again. I've been a busy beaver lately!
I do remember that I was going to let you all know that we have finally gotten a new vehicle! It's another van and oddly enough it's almost the exact same color as the one that was wrecked. My shoulder is doing better. I went 2 weeks with my arm in a sling and I'm doing 2 weeks worth of physical therapy. I'm on my second week now. I still can't pick up heavy objects, do anything with my arm that has resistance (like putting on a seat buckle) or just do too much in a single day without it starting to really hurt. I know that even after I finish my PT I won't be back to "normal" but it will be a start. We are all still dealing with emotional issues from the wreck too. Andy had an instance last night coming home in the rain from visiting with a prospective student that had him driving exactly where our accident occurred. He told me that he was very aware of everything and everyone around him at that time. I know that I'm still a very nervous passenger and that when I'm behind the wheel my eyes are watching everyone! Not that we don't normally but it's been completely heightened now. Sam is getting better at being a passenger but he still talks about the wreck a lot. Which is good. We told him just the other day that it's okay to talk about it. We'd be worried if he wasn't.
Sam's first Flag Football game is this Saturday (tomorrow) but with the rain that we have had yesterday, today and there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow I don't know if they will play or not. I went ahead and warned him this morning about it and he was upset about that it might be cancelled. I'd rather tell him now then once it happens though. I have to say that I see quite a bit of potential in him as a football player after watching him at practice this week. He's fast, tall and can catch and throw the ball pretty well! Not to mention that he's REALLY LIKING IT which I'm happy for as it's probably my favorite sport. If we do have the game tomorrow I'll be sure to take my camera with me and I'll post pictures here for sure.
Sam has started back up with Cub Scouts these past few weeks too. He's now a Webelos I. He'll go through two years of being a Webelos so next year he'll be a Webelos II. It's also the beginning of "that time of year". POPCORN SALES! This year he has given himself a hefty goal...$2000! He really wants the college scholarship that the Boy Scouts offer for selling that much popcorn. He sold just over $600 last year and he and I had a late start in selling (I plain ole forgot to get him started)! Not to mention that we're not the parents to take the forms into work to sell for him. I don't work and Andy doesn't have an office to go into to help him out. So it's Sam and I taking the forms and going door to door and asking EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE KNOW. This year they have told us that they have added online ordering. I'll know a bit more about it in the coming weeks when we get all of the selling forms and have our information meeting about selling. Sam has already been selling the popcorn every weekend at their Show-N-Sells here at neighborhood businesses. It's good experience for them and they all have been doing a great job! I forgot to bring my camera to the first Show-N-Sell but I remembered for the second and third one. Here a few photos from those. The first two photos are from last Saturday (and yes, I forgot his neckerchief for his uniform). We were at Discount Tire, had no shade at all, it was in the mid to upper 90s and we were out there for 4 hours! The rest of the photos were taken on Monday and we were at Kroger. We were in the shade most of the 4 hours there but it was still in the mid to upper 90s without much of a breeze. So needless to say that those 8 hours were pretty miserable for our boys but they had fun, sold some popcorn and got plenty of donations.
I can't even begin to tell you how many posts to my blog that I have written in my head while I've been out and about this week only to get home, sit down and completely forget what I was going to write about. And it's happened yet again today.
Tonight Sam and I were watching the moon rise. It's almost a full moon and it was a beautiful orange/yellow color. Then I switched the telescope over to what I was assuming at that moment to be a planet. It's in the East-Southeastern sky right now. Once I focused in on the planet to my surprise I saw 4 moons! Quickly I not only let Sam view it but I also jumped on the Internet to try to figure out what we were looking at. It ends up that we were looking at Jupiter! The moons that we saw are as follows: the moon Callisto was to the east of Jupiter and the three moons to the west of Jupiter were Io, Europa and Ganymede. If our telescope was a stronger one we would also be able to see the red spot as it is currently facing Earth. I'm telling you now that if you have a telescope take advantage of this opportunity to see a planet along with other objects in the sky. If you have kids...let them look. You'll be amazed at how much they will want to learn more about everything "up there"!
The below image is not mine. I found it out Photobucket (you can click on the image to be taken to it's original site). This is pretty much what we saw except for the fact that to us Jupiter looked completely white. But it still was pretty cool to see.
When we went to the Ozark Empire State Fair I had the list of themes from Photo Hunt with me. I thought it would be a great place to find items to photograph while we were there. So when this photo opportunity came up I knew exactly which week I would share it here with you. This weeks Photo Hunt theme is: ORANGE. I give you orange:
As you can see Sam had an orange jawbreaker in his mouth just after purchasing an orange hat. So you have an orange hat, orange jawbreaker in his mouth and that in turn turned his tongue orange.
What's your orange picture? Click the icon above to see more Photo Hunt pictures!
I'm a bit late getting my photo up for Looking At The Sky On Friday but I finally am here getting it up. I spent all day up at Sam's school helping close down our PTA Book Fair. Then once Sam was home we ran a few errands and then we were off to pick Andy up from the airport. We are now finally all back home and finally resting from our long day. It was then that I remembered it was Friday and I hadn't gotten up my photo that I had taken earlier this week. I'm glad I took a few photos because today it was dark skies with scattered showers. If you'd like to see more sky photos head on over to CrAzY Working Mom and look at all the other Looking At The Sky On Friday pictures!
I'm so excited! One of my favorite books from my childhood and one of my favorite children's authors is coming to the big screen on October 16! "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak! The first video below is an interview with Maurice Sendak. I love the fact that Maurice gave his blessing for this movie.
I was playing around on the Crayola page and found that you can take your favorite photo by using special codes (which are inside specially marked boxes) to access Lights, Camera, Color! Once you have the special code you need to go to their Play Zone and then click on Lights, Camera, Color! Here is what they have to say about how it all works:
"Select any photo on your computer. Lights, Camera Color! drains the color, leaving just a black outline. Then add decorations, captions and word balloons. You can even rotate, flip, stretch or compress the images for a fun-filled coloring experience! Now, print out your coloring page and let the coloring (and giggling) begin!"
Also on the site there are tons of activities that you and your kids can do. There is a section for parents, educators, fun crafts, coloring pages and more! When Sam was younger he had a ton of fun on this site and I'm going to take him here again later today. Not to mention I'm looking for that special code in his boxes!
So...what are you waiting for?
Who doesn't love to get some free ice cream? I know I do. Don't need it but it sure is nice to get it for free and to be able to treet your kid. Sign up now and you'll receive a coupon for a free Blizzard!
I can't believe that it's already September. It seems as though just yesterday we were starting our summer vacation! Now school is on it's second week, September is here and Labor Day weekend is coming up. Sam is now in Flag Football and is already loving it! In fact he wants to practice every night! His first game won't be until September 12th so it will be awhile before we know how his team does. But never fear I'll let you all know. The other night while Andy and Sam were playing catch I grabbed my camera. Sorry for some of these being blurry but I love the expressions on Sam's face so much I just had to share them.
He's catching just quite a bit of the throws that are sent his way. There may be a football player in our future. We'll just have to wait and see.
On a completely different subject....As you may or may not have noticed I've added some items to my sidebar just to the left. I've been accepted by a couple of affiliate programs. I've been extremely picky as to which ones I've applied to not to mention ones that I will share here with you. I'd love it if you could just click on them even if you don't order anything as I'll get some money just for you clicking. I'll be changing them out every now and then and sometimes you may see me writing about them in my posts. So here's to making a little extra money!
I have found a great place to order cards that you can personalize, including custom photo cards, and they will mail them for you! Not to mention that from September 1-7 they will mail one card out that you can personalize (even with your own photo) for FREE! Order your free personalized greeting card from Cardstore.com during "Hope is in the Cards"! My thanks goes to Freebies 4 Mom and her thanks goes out to Nicole's Nickels for sharing this.
It's easy to order your card:
1. Select any card from the Hope Collection. Includes lots of photo cards to choose from. 2. Personalize your card with photos and a message 3. Address it to the person you want to receive it (if you will hand deliver it yourself it's fun to send it to yourself so you get to see how it turns out) 4. SENDHOPE is the coupon code to use to get it for totally FREE
I did participate in this today and I have to tell you that I had a great expierence!
As you all may recall we were in an accident a week ago (you can read about it here if you don't know about it yet). All of my aches and pains have gone away. All except for one. My right shoulder still really hurts. This morning I called the Dr and went in for an appointment. It has now been determined that I hurt my Rotator Cuff in the accident. I now have physical therapy to do here at home for it not to mention that I'm not to do that much with my arm. For a person that is VERY right handed this isn't going to be easy. He even stated that I shouldn't put any "undo pressure on it whether it's lifting, pushing or lying on it". Well guess which side of my body I sleep on! That's right! My right side! Doesn't make for comfortable sleeping that's for sure. If it doesn't feel better in another 2 weeks I'll need to see a specialists and one that deals in car accidents. In other words a specialists that not only deals in this type of injury but one that will work with accepting car insurance payments. Oh...and since the visit to the Dr's my shoulder really hurts! He put it through the "ringer" during the exam. Guess it's a good thing to have thorough doctor...but dang it hurts even more now.
It really stinks being the "good guy" right now. We're having to pay for everything while the person that hit us, the one that has minimal insurance, the one that didn't get a ticket, the one that will probably not even lose a penny to his name gets off completely free! Once we got home from my doctors visit we got some news on our van. There was $8421.30 worth of damage done to our van. It is now totalled. After Sam gets home from school today we'll go over there and clean it out. Luckily the car dealership is willing to take that as a payoff so we don't own any more on that van. You see we just purchased it last May. The VERY bad side of this is that we now need to purchase another vehicle. We have absolutely no money right now. Our rent payment is due this week (1st of the month) and that will take most of Andy's next paycheck leaving us with some to live off of until his next paycheck. I know that we'll make it through. God is on our side.
I have spent most of these past hours just sitting here (because I'm not to do much with my arm) crying, feeling royally pissed, angry, upset, and hurt right now! I can't verbally talk about it without breaking down. I hate feeling this way but I guess it's a good thing to get it out. Guess that's why I find myself writing it down here.
I know that a lot of other bloggers out there have posted this video. But for those of you that have yet to watch it I'm begging you to do so right now. This is the "PSA Texting while Driving U.K. Ad" that will probably never be shown here in the USA because of how graphic it is. After our accident last weekend, after seeing teens/adults texting while they are driving, and now being a very jittery and nervous passenger I'm now posting it on here so that maybe even more will see this. I don't know for sure but I'm pretty sure that the person that hit us wasn't texting. But now days you never really know who is and isn't. Sam now really watches other drivers and comments on them while we are driving around. I know that even though Sam wasn't physically hurt in the accident that it did drive home the importance of seat belts and paying close attention to your driving. I hope that it stays with him for a long time. I don't text at all and in fact I don't even have a texting plan on my phone. But some day I may and I'll remember this PSA for sure. If you have a teen or know of an adult that texts while they drive either have them watch this PSA or sit down with them and have a heart to heart.
Last night I noticed that the moon was out right after I tucked Sam into bed. I quickly grabbed our telescope and focused it in on the moon and then called Sam out from his room to look at it. This time I remembered to grab my camera! He's really interested in watching the moon, stars and planets. Looks like I created a monster. BUT I LOVE IT! I loved learning about them when I was younger so now I get to do it all over again with him.
Now a question for all of my readers out there. What books would you suggest for Sam to learn more about space?
Here's one of the pictures that I took last night. You can even see the moon in the distance up in the sky.
I can hardly believe that I have a fourth grader now. This is his last year in Elementary School here. It seems like I was just taking him to preschool. So far he LOVES his teacher! This is so great because he had a pretty hard year last year and had difficulty with his teacher. I can't begin to tell you how happy this makes me. He told me today that his teacher is, "making learning fun"! Granted that it's just the second day of school but I'm still doing a little happy dance. I did remember to take some pictures yesterday morning. I'm not that happy with them because he wasn't in the "mood" to have his picture taken. But by golly...I always take his picture on the first day of school and I'll probably do it until he's out of high school. Or at least that's what I'm saying now.
Before getting in the car to leave.
At the school and just out of the car.
I don't know why but this next picture is one of my favorites from that morning. He was walking towards the school and still had some worries about the day. His feet are carrying him along the way. I just had to focus in on them.
On the first day of school he came home with a sheet of questions that they all got to answer. I loved some of his answers and thought I would share them here.
1. My favorite place is: Silver Dollar City. 2. After school, I like to: skateboard. 3. When I feel sad, it helps to: play football. 4. My favorite time of year is: summer. 5. I wish I were as tall as: my dad. 6. I'm good at: soccer. 7. If I could rule the world, I'd: eat candy. 8. I could make school a better place by: more recess. 9. If I had $100, I'd: make more libraries. 10. My favorite possession is: my dog. 11. If I lived in another country, I'd like to be: famous. 12. On my birthday I'd like to: swim.
On a completely different subject...our van. If you don't know what happened read here. Our van was towed away yesterday. We now have a rental car...it's nice. Don't know when we'll here what the total of the damage will be. Just from when Andy was there he found out that the hood, grill, and front bumper will need to be replaced. What's scary about that is the front didn't have that much damage compared to the back! The sad/frustrating news is that the guy that ran into us has insurance through the dealership that he purchased the truck from. It's a broker and they said that they couldn't get someone out here to look at the van until the end of the week. Wouldn't even do a rental car until possibly then either. So...we're filing with our own insurance and they can fight with his. It's really frustrating that those of us that do have insurance and are not at fault in an accident still end up paying for everything. I'm still really sore. Mainly my right shoulder and elbow. I'm giving it a few more days and if it doesn't show sign of starting to feel better I'll head to the doctors. My headaches are finally gone and my neck and back pain are starting to go away. But I still do feel the aches all over.
Yesterday was supposed to be a day celebrating the last weekend of our summer vacation. It started out GREAT!
We had promised to take Sam out to the Lego store so that he could spend his allowance that he had been saving up. He'd never been to one of there stores and could not wait to go. What was really fun was watching him as he was wondering around the store. He was so awe struck!
I love the fact that he kept his hand in his pocket and on his money. Check out his hand!
We also took him out for lunch at Tin Star. It was WONDERFUL! By that time it was time to head back home. It was roughly an hour or so drive and with it being the tax free weekend her we knew that we would run into some traffic.
Then on the highway home it happened. W.H.A.M.!!! We were hit from behind. We had heard the squealing of tires before it happened. We also hit the person in front of us. But since we were pretty much stopped on the highway (actually due to an earlier accident) we didn't hit them hard at all. They had a small dent in their fender. The front of our van has some damage but the back is where it really is. The alignment is off and we also have a flat tire in the front. I'm guessing we picked up some debris on the road from the accident and it was pretty much flat when we got home. Looking at the pictures just doesn't seem to do the damage justice. In real life it looks much worse. Here are some pictures of the back of the van:
Sam, Andy and I are all fine. I'm pretty darn sore. I jammed my right arm when it happened so from my shoulder down to my fingertips hurt pretty badly. I have a terrible headache and neck/backache to go along with it. It will take time but I'll heal. My emotions are going all over the place right now. Which is driving me crazy. I'm the one in this family that keeps most of her emotions in check. Now I'm walking around fine one minute, sad and crying another, then turn around and I'm raging mad. TIME will heal it all...that I know. But for now I guess I'm living in the moment.
This afternoon while I was fixing our lunches I remembered that I had some cut up peaches that were nearing the end of their life in our fridge. What to do. I got out our blender, poured in all the peaches and their juices, poured in some milk, added a couple of handfuls of ice, some wheat germ, and a couple of Sweet n Low packets. Blended it all up and I had a wonderfully cold peachy smoothie! Sam will not drink any of this so I ended up with 3 cups worth left over. So I poured it into a container and have stuck it into the freezer. I'm hoping it will make for a great frozen dessert. We'll see.
