1st Broken Bone - Ever

This morning I got home from my trip at 5am. I Facebooked a little bit, then laid down on the guest bed until breakfast.

About 7:45 Joelle comes rushing downstairs and mumbles, "Daddy, come up stairs quick." I didn't really understand, then she finally spoke clearly, "Daddy, come up stairs - Mommy needs help."

So I jump out of bed and rush upstairs.


Doreen's standing in the tub, with a towel wrapped around her, hanging on to the wall, sucking air between her teeth like "That hurts!"

So I look down at where she's looking and I see this on her foot. Turns out she started to climb into the shower, but didn't completely clear her left foot and banged the pinkie toe on the side of the tub and she heard a 'pop.'

She thought, "ouch, that hurt, and went to get showering, then it really started to hurt and she looked down and saw this." Oy vai!





So we both quickly changed/dressed and wrapped her foot in ice, towels and an ace bandage. Dropped the kids off at my in-laws place, (I AM SOOOO Thankful for their help) and headed to an Emergency Room.

Once we got in there, she got a wheel chair ride, and a bed ride. All sorts of fun stuff to make up for the hurt of having to be there! :)

The nurses really liked the wrap on her foot. I'm pretty proud of that last sec work!

After a bit of waiting, then a visit from a nurse, a bit more waiting, another nurse, and then more waiting - we got transferred to X-ray for 3 shots of her foot.

Then the ER Doc came in and broke the news. It's completely broken and will eventually heal on 'it's own.






They gave her a refferal name of a Podiatrist Dr to look at it on Monday to see if it's all right or if anything else needed to be done.

Either way, it's a very, VERY eventful morning!

Wheeeew!

Funeral for a Chicken

On the Sabbath that the Ashlocks were visiting, we let the kids go outside and play with the chickens a bit. When they came inside we let the chickens roam a bit for exercise and to get used to our yard and to just scratch and peck till their little hearts desire. Mocha and the chickens got along fabulously. We'd let them out together for about 3 weeks, the first two with close supervision and lots of Mocha training.

Well, when I went to put the chickens up for the night, I could only find Peepers in the roost. No sign of Tweedles. I grabbed my flashlight and found a lifeless Tweedles with Mocha not far away. I can't prove it, but I'm guessing that Mocha took Tweedles out.

I got super mad and then upset we'd have to tell Joelle in the morning.

Well, you can be assured that went over like a ton of bricks! Here's Joelle burying Tweedles.

By the way, we did learn our lesson. Mocha is now kept in a safe place away from the Chickens when they're roaming the yard.






Here's the other little mourners watching. (I had to run an errand not long after this and from what Doreen tells me, they had quite the drama with all three of them crying and very sad. We're extremely bummed about it, but it was a good time to explain evil and how things die in this life, but in Heaven nothing will ever get hurt again!)









Poor Joelle saying a final farewell to Tweedles. We were blessed by the distraction of heading to Summer camp that afternoon.

We talked with our friends and we'll be headed up there for another visit and we'll get Joelle Tweedles 2!

My Different Girls - Swimsuit Version

While the girls were in swimming classes, they each needed an extra swimsuit. We happened to be in Sams looking around and they spotted suits there so we went to look.

It is AMAZING at how different my little girls are.

Joelle got a Speedo, green and blue and all sporty looking.

Natalie got a ruffly light blue suit with little pink things on it and it came with a matching cover.

I have two very precious girls and I love them for who they are, it just never ceases to amaze me how different they are!

Successful Suprise Party

After Doreen got the news she'd passed all her exams and had become an offically registered Dental Hygienist, I wanted to have a little suprise party for her.

The plan was to have it at our friends house before Bible study, and so I contacted some friends to help and it wasn't gonna work that week, so we changed plans to the following week.

Well, Doreen saw a couple of texts on my cell phone that made her wonder what was up, but never asked any questions and when nothing happened, she forgot all about it.

So she was truly Suprised when we suprised her the following Friday evening with some good friends to tell her we're proud of her for all her hard work and study and for a job well done!


We had some good friends come celebrate with us.













More good friends and the Suprised girl herself!














Man, this gal knows how to party!

It was a lot of fun, yet stressful planning this thing.

For starters, choir was going to have a performance and she was planning on a practice on the Friday evening of the suprise party. So I just called the Choir director, my father-in-law and enlisted his help in discouraging that plan.

Secondly, she wanted to know if a friend was going to be available for an event, and I had just talked with that friend and knew her schedule, but couldn't say a word cuz Doreen would wonder why I was talking with this friend.

Lastly, Doreen was trying to plan an activity with some other friends, and I already talked with them and knew they weren't available, and so was trying to act all disinterested, you know to plan it some other time. Finally she found out they were 'busy' and we made other plans.

Boy, it's hard keeping info from people sometimes, but well worth it in the end! :)

Family From Afar

Doreen's cousin, Ryan, and family live in Thailand. They're over here in the US for vacation and were passing through and so they spent two nights with us. We were SO excited to have some quality time with them!








Here's the lunch bunch sitting at their own table having a little party!












Here's the same precious group as we finished up a Sabbath afternoon walk on Collegedale's Greenway.



















During the walk, we found some COOL water for the kids to splash around in and while there, they went 'a crawdad hunting - successfully too!









Sunday we went to Grandma M's place and she and Papa and Grandma had made a little scavenger hunt for the kiddos and they were all into that!

















TREASURE!

It was sure really nice spending time with the Ashlock family. He's headed over to the Philippines soon to mentor 5 students from Thailand's Mission College as they present an evangelistic series as well as do one himself. 6 meetings going on at the same time. Pray for them and the success of their outreach!

Old & Fragile OR Super Swimmers

Been a while since I've been to this site. Time to post again! Actually, I just need to get back into the habit. My trip schedule has changed at work and while I do enjoy my new schedule (IN on Sun Eve and SC on Wed Eve) it gives me the weekend free and then we fill those days up with stuff and don't get as much just free time as I had before. Oh well - the good and bad of any situation!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago at the company picnic, I ran into two co-workers that both were 'gimpin' around the park.

The first is a lady, who is in the IT department, I play in the racquetball legue. The week previous, she had a game and twisted her knee badly. Turns out, she tore her MCL and the Minicisus (Not sure if I spelled that properly.) The second is a a truck driver, who snapped his ACl after getting a hit and running to second, right after crossing 1st base. OH MY! Both will be out a few weeks.

Those two events have me paranoid now. I LOVE playing racquetball and I'll be playing on in softball league this season. I stretch out before any activity, work or play and am trying to eat better and more healthfully.

I don't want to 'stop' doing stuff just cuz of the risk of injury, and I don't want to get injured cuz I get careless. Guess I'll just have to play and pray for the best!

Getting old really stinks!

Joelle and Natalie have finished swimming lesons this year. Joelle has become a very strong swimmer and has most all her strokes down pat, and just needs few pointers now and then.

Natalie, did all right, she didn't get the full concept of a swimming stroke or tow, but for her size and age, she did really well.

So their teacher passed them both into the next left. Next year, watch out Level 5 - here they come!!!

Top 10 Hymns for People Our Age

A friend gave Doreen a birthday card with this info on it and I got a good chuckle out of it, so wanted to share it here!

Enjoy!

10 - It is well with my soul (But my back aches a lot.)
9 - Nobody knows the trouble I have seeing.
8 - Amazing Grace (considering my age)
7 - Just a slower walk with thee
6 - Count your many birthdays, name them one by one
5 - Go tell it on the mountain... and speak up
4 - Give me that old timer's religion
3 - Blessed insurance
2 - Guide me, o Thou great Jehovah (I've forgotten where I parked!)

and the top hymn for people our age is...

1 - Nearer, my God, to Thee!

Swimming Lessons OR Natural Human Fish

Summer swimming lessons have returned. The girls are right smack dab in the middle of two weeks of swimming lessons - they're in a Level 4 group and doing quite well.











It's fun watching them learn the swimming strokes and how to execute them properly. They're like human fish in the water and are completely loving it! :)

Critter Complex Final Touches OR Critters Galore

We had some final touches we needed to put on the Pester Critter Complex to make it complete - a personal touch if you will...

We added the names of each critter to their House/Roost. Now it is done!

They all have moved in and seem to be liking it a lot. Wheew! :)






We've had some visits with some interesting critters this week. We went over to a friends one evening for him to share his baby parakeets with the family. The girls were really excited about being able to hold baby birds. It was cute, until one started biting Natalie. She dropped it on the couch and wanted to hold the 'other one' that didn't bite. He, he, he





One morning, I went early to the gym to work out and on the way home, found this little guy/gal trying to get across the road, slowly. So I stopped and picked him/her up and took it home for the girls to get a close-up look of Mr/Mrs Turtle and enjoy his/her presense for a while. They did, then we turned it loose, back into the wild - away from busy roads.

Company Picnic or Completely Dizzy!

The bakery holds it's annual company picnic at Lake Winnepesauka every year. (The local small amusement park) We didn't get to go last year cuz we were in Colorado on vacation, but we made it this year and had a ball!

We were blessed with overcast weather to keep it in the mid 70's with no rain and no sun to burn us up. A "PERFECT" day to spend and an amusement park!

The only people in the park are employees and family. It's closed down to the public until after 6pm. It is AMAZING to look and see all those people and realize that it's just 'cookies' that support all those families. WOW!

Here Joelle and I are at the top of the Ferris Wheel waiting for them to finish unload/reload process so we could ride for a bit. You can't see it very good, but it is a very nice view of the area from up there.

Here's a shot of Natalie enjoying the carosel ride. Originally built in 1916, it still runs today and I love the music it plays while you ride!










Look in the back of the 1st car and front of the 2nd car and you'll see Doreen and the kids riding this mini-coaster. (I stayed off this one, it hurt my back last time we were there and required a Chiropractor visit not long after that ride! :) They all had fun though!!






They have a Lake there, and one of the rides you can do is paddle boats. So Doreen and I each got a girl and a boat each and did all the work paddling out on the lake and back. :)









Natalie and I rode the Tilt a Whirl. Joelle wanted to go down the nearby slide and did so while we got whipped around in that seat. Natalie would giggle every time we got whipped in to a fast circle! Fun times.








The last ride of the day, we did as a family - the log ride. What fun!

Doreen's test results - passed

Doreen's test results - passed with flying colors!