After a three hour wait at the orthopedist, we were thrilled to hear Glenna will need no further surgery! The bones are still in place. They put a hard cast on her, and she returns in 3 weeks. Hooray!
We're so thankful. We're thankful for so many, many things through this!
1. For God's watch-care over us.
2. For our friends and family who pray for us, and who take the time to make cards and gifts for Glenna.
3. For the tax return that should cover anything our insurance doesn't.
4. For John's timly installation of a shower head with a spray hose!
5. For the bathrooms downstairs finally being repaired!
6. For the right orthopedist on duty that night in the ER (we've been finding out just HOW good he is through others).
7. For Glenna's speedy recovery! She's now going her second day without any pain meds or dizziness!
8. For Glenna being able to move her fingers. :-) The only one we're a little concerned about is the thumb, but the ortho today was able to get her to move it correctly, and now she has instructions to keep practicing.
I could go on and on!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Broken Arm
While I have a moment, I thought I'd jot down info on Glenna's broken arm.
Tuesday night she went to music practice as usual with Dad. Kelly and I were determined to do some much needed house cleaning, so we stayed at home (Ty was at work). I received a phone call around 9:30 from Mark Liebert, saying my little girl had broken her arm and an ambulance had been summoned. I didn't even ask questions, just said I was on my way.
Since I was "practically in my jammies," I rushed around to get dressed, put the dog away, etc. My beautiful daughter, Kelly, stopped me by grabbing both of my hands, took a deep breath, and then began to pray for her sister. I am so thankful she did that! It was exactly what I needed. Her prayer was so sweet I began to cry . . . not because of Glenna's arm, but because I realized my Kelly had a REAL relationship with her Abba Daddy. My heart was so full! I was instantly calm.
We arrived at the church to see all the grim faces waiting for us. The ambulance and paramedics were already there. I went into the Fellowship Hall and saw my little girl on the ground with her arm at a gruesome angle . . . she had broken both ulna and radius bones in her right forearm, and they were almost at a 90 degree agle. Glenna's fingers were blue (no circulation) and they had given her nitrusoxide (sp?) to help her breathe since she was hyperventillating. I was so thankful John didn't try to take her to the hospital himself. When this happened to Ty, Patty was able to slip a book under his arm and tie it with a t-shirt so I could take him myself, but there was no way we were going to move this arm ourselves. (Patty wasn't there, LOL! We tease her that she would have duct-taped it and sent us on our way. Margaret B. suggested the ambulance.)
As soon as Glenna saw me, she asked if her sister was there, too. I took one look at the arm and decided I didn't need to look at it again. I stayed at her head and kept her calm while they braced the arm and got her fingers pink again (whew!). Between gasps Glenna told me her "Green Monkey" (a gift from Allie and Kelsey Linduff when Glenna was 5) was in the JV room, so he was immediately fetched. We've decided we need to write an adventure story about Green Monkey . .. . Green Monkey Goes to the Hospital or something like that! He rode with her on the stretcher, stayed with her through x-rays, was tucked next to her side when they sedated her and set the arm.
I wonder if we would have received such fast attention if Glenna hadn't been brought in on the stretcher? Granted, we were there from 10 pm to 4:30 am, but there were 6 children waiting for Glenna's bed when we checked out. Ty had to wait in the overflowing waiting room for 30 minutes. When they finally saw him and realized he was in danger of losing his hand, they moved us along. I wonder how long Glenna would have waited?
Everyone we were in contact with at Florida Hospital South was wonderful. They used the live-motion x-ray while they set her bones -- they looked beautiful when they were done. We go back on Wednesday for her hard cast, and we'll find out at that time whether she'll need further surgery or not. This is our prayer! She left in a wheelchair with gifts from the hospital; a teddybear and hair ties and bands.
Mary and Danny Gines were SO wonderful! They came to the hospital with a bag of snacks and water for us. Mary called people for prayer right away. She even sent an email to her parents in Israel, so Glenna had people around the world praying for her! When Mary came, she brought love notes to Glenna from herself and Bekah and Barb Walter. I read them aloud to Glenna and she sleepily mumbled, "I LOVE my church." (Glenna recognized that this is the body of Christ reaching out! Taking care of each other like we're supposed to.)
The difference between Tyler's recovery and Glenna's has been remarkable. Ty's bones weren't even set for a week, and then he had to recover from surgery. Glenna can already dress herself and do most things for herself. She walks around with her arm in the air to keep the swelling down, so the running joke is to say, "Yes, Glenna? Question?" Swelling is our biggest concern. I'll be thankful when her hard cast is on and she'll have even more mobility. They also feel her nerves were stretched but should recover; her pinkie and half the finger next to it felt "rubbery."
I'll try to get a picture of "arm girl" after John gets home, as he has the camera.
Tuesday night she went to music practice as usual with Dad. Kelly and I were determined to do some much needed house cleaning, so we stayed at home (Ty was at work). I received a phone call around 9:30 from Mark Liebert, saying my little girl had broken her arm and an ambulance had been summoned. I didn't even ask questions, just said I was on my way.
Since I was "practically in my jammies," I rushed around to get dressed, put the dog away, etc. My beautiful daughter, Kelly, stopped me by grabbing both of my hands, took a deep breath, and then began to pray for her sister. I am so thankful she did that! It was exactly what I needed. Her prayer was so sweet I began to cry . . . not because of Glenna's arm, but because I realized my Kelly had a REAL relationship with her Abba Daddy. My heart was so full! I was instantly calm.
We arrived at the church to see all the grim faces waiting for us. The ambulance and paramedics were already there. I went into the Fellowship Hall and saw my little girl on the ground with her arm at a gruesome angle . . . she had broken both ulna and radius bones in her right forearm, and they were almost at a 90 degree agle. Glenna's fingers were blue (no circulation) and they had given her nitrusoxide (sp?) to help her breathe since she was hyperventillating. I was so thankful John didn't try to take her to the hospital himself. When this happened to Ty, Patty was able to slip a book under his arm and tie it with a t-shirt so I could take him myself, but there was no way we were going to move this arm ourselves. (Patty wasn't there, LOL! We tease her that she would have duct-taped it and sent us on our way. Margaret B. suggested the ambulance.)
As soon as Glenna saw me, she asked if her sister was there, too. I took one look at the arm and decided I didn't need to look at it again. I stayed at her head and kept her calm while they braced the arm and got her fingers pink again (whew!). Between gasps Glenna told me her "Green Monkey" (a gift from Allie and Kelsey Linduff when Glenna was 5) was in the JV room, so he was immediately fetched. We've decided we need to write an adventure story about Green Monkey . .. . Green Monkey Goes to the Hospital or something like that! He rode with her on the stretcher, stayed with her through x-rays, was tucked next to her side when they sedated her and set the arm.
I wonder if we would have received such fast attention if Glenna hadn't been brought in on the stretcher? Granted, we were there from 10 pm to 4:30 am, but there were 6 children waiting for Glenna's bed when we checked out. Ty had to wait in the overflowing waiting room for 30 minutes. When they finally saw him and realized he was in danger of losing his hand, they moved us along. I wonder how long Glenna would have waited?
Everyone we were in contact with at Florida Hospital South was wonderful. They used the live-motion x-ray while they set her bones -- they looked beautiful when they were done. We go back on Wednesday for her hard cast, and we'll find out at that time whether she'll need further surgery or not. This is our prayer! She left in a wheelchair with gifts from the hospital; a teddybear and hair ties and bands.
Mary and Danny Gines were SO wonderful! They came to the hospital with a bag of snacks and water for us. Mary called people for prayer right away. She even sent an email to her parents in Israel, so Glenna had people around the world praying for her! When Mary came, she brought love notes to Glenna from herself and Bekah and Barb Walter. I read them aloud to Glenna and she sleepily mumbled, "I LOVE my church." (Glenna recognized that this is the body of Christ reaching out! Taking care of each other like we're supposed to.)
The difference between Tyler's recovery and Glenna's has been remarkable. Ty's bones weren't even set for a week, and then he had to recover from surgery. Glenna can already dress herself and do most things for herself. She walks around with her arm in the air to keep the swelling down, so the running joke is to say, "Yes, Glenna? Question?" Swelling is our biggest concern. I'll be thankful when her hard cast is on and she'll have even more mobility. They also feel her nerves were stretched but should recover; her pinkie and half the finger next to it felt "rubbery."
I'll try to get a picture of "arm girl" after John gets home, as he has the camera.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
JV Games!
I had so much fun with the JV at the Trek 24/7 Games! We placed dead last on our circle, but we had clean runs of every game, great attitudes, and tons of laughs. When line judges come to me after the games to say, "You have some GREAT kids, Coach!" it's all worth it to me, especially when there were some poor sportsmanship displays around us.
This is us with our gansta "JV" sign. (See it? The "J" and the "V"? I made it up myself.)
I don't know if I've had a better time and lost so badly before! LOL
In Bible Bowl, we were felled by an article and a conjunction; "the" and "and." When Timothy got up to say a LONG verse, I tracked it carefully in my own notebook. To me, he said it word-perfect, but two judges and the quizmaster said he left out "the," so I had to accept their decision. Jessie left out "and" in the Micah 6:8 verse. Those two little words cost us 80 points and first place! We were dropped down to 7th, and our other team placed 6th. It was all so interesting since none of us had ever quizzed on this material before. I was thankful to see I was on the right track for writing questions for quizzing. There were only a couple I hadn't covered.
A very tiring but VERY good day!
This is us with our gansta "JV" sign. (See it? The "J" and the "V"? I made it up myself.)
I don't know if I've had a better time and lost so badly before! LOL
In Bible Bowl, we were felled by an article and a conjunction; "the" and "and." When Timothy got up to say a LONG verse, I tracked it carefully in my own notebook. To me, he said it word-perfect, but two judges and the quizmaster said he left out "the," so I had to accept their decision. Jessie left out "and" in the Micah 6:8 verse. Those two little words cost us 80 points and first place! We were dropped down to 7th, and our other team placed 6th. It was all so interesting since none of us had ever quizzed on this material before. I was thankful to see I was on the right track for writing questions for quizzing. There were only a couple I hadn't covered.
A very tiring but VERY good day!
Plumbing
I know there are people in other countries who would love to have my plumbing situation.
We have three bathrooms.
The upstairs bathroom is fine, except the kids use it exclusively and I hardly go in there. When I do, I faint, get out the gloves, and start scrubbing! Once in a while they stay on top of it and it's decent.
The other downside is, well, it's upstairs.
Downstairs are two bathrooms; a full bath and a 3/4 bath. In the 3/4 bath, the shower has never never worked. We use it for storage. :-) In the full bath, the toilet doesn't work. For John and myself, we use the toilet in the guest bathroom (and sink) then use shower in the full bathroom (and sink). I can't tell you how many days I've wanted to take a sledge hammer to the wall between the two so I would have ONE complete bathroom. (The only thing stopping me is not knowing if it's a load-bearing wall.)
Today, my darlin' decided to fix the toilet downstairs.
I'm still laughing about it!
He took the toilet completely off and discovered (drat!) tree roots, which means there's a break in the line somewhere. He then went and rented a root-cutting plumbing snake and went to work on the drain. Comically, a few times his rubber gloves got so twisted up in the snake, his wrists were bent inward and he had to holler for us to come and reverse the snake to untwist his hands! (hee hee!). He soon went to leather, which doesn't help with the wetness, so that problem was solved.
Things looked good, water poured down the hole in the floor went down without problems. He told Kelly to go and flush the "good" toilet downstairs to see what would happen.
Bad idea.
Water went everywhere in BOTH bathrooms, and we discovered that his aggressive use of the snake knocked a hole in the bottom of the OTHER toilet!
Pondering what we would do for a bathroom at this point, the girls and I had the following conversation.
Kelly: Good thing we found your gardening shovels, Mom.
Glenna: Kelly! That's gross!
Mom: Oooh, good point, Kelly. Of course, it's awfully cold outside to have our behinds hanging out.
Dad: You guys are freakin' hilarious.
Now, he's off to price not one, but TWO new toilets.
:-D
We have three bathrooms.
The upstairs bathroom is fine, except the kids use it exclusively and I hardly go in there. When I do, I faint, get out the gloves, and start scrubbing! Once in a while they stay on top of it and it's decent.
The other downside is, well, it's upstairs.
Downstairs are two bathrooms; a full bath and a 3/4 bath. In the 3/4 bath, the shower has never never worked. We use it for storage. :-) In the full bath, the toilet doesn't work. For John and myself, we use the toilet in the guest bathroom (and sink) then use shower in the full bathroom (and sink). I can't tell you how many days I've wanted to take a sledge hammer to the wall between the two so I would have ONE complete bathroom. (The only thing stopping me is not knowing if it's a load-bearing wall.)
Today, my darlin' decided to fix the toilet downstairs.
I'm still laughing about it!
He took the toilet completely off and discovered (drat!) tree roots, which means there's a break in the line somewhere. He then went and rented a root-cutting plumbing snake and went to work on the drain. Comically, a few times his rubber gloves got so twisted up in the snake, his wrists were bent inward and he had to holler for us to come and reverse the snake to untwist his hands! (hee hee!). He soon went to leather, which doesn't help with the wetness, so that problem was solved.
Things looked good, water poured down the hole in the floor went down without problems. He told Kelly to go and flush the "good" toilet downstairs to see what would happen.
Bad idea.
Water went everywhere in BOTH bathrooms, and we discovered that his aggressive use of the snake knocked a hole in the bottom of the OTHER toilet!
Pondering what we would do for a bathroom at this point, the girls and I had the following conversation.
Kelly: Good thing we found your gardening shovels, Mom.
Glenna: Kelly! That's gross!
Mom: Oooh, good point, Kelly. Of course, it's awfully cold outside to have our behinds hanging out.
Dad: You guys are freakin' hilarious.
Now, he's off to price not one, but TWO new toilets.
:-D
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Contentment
There's gotta be something wrong with mornings. Or maybe there's something wrong with late nights that make mornings so wrong? Either way, one of them is the pits.
If I want to have any meaningful conversations with my teens, I have to stay up well past 11:30. I remember my friend Martha being so tired all the time because she had been up until 3 a.m. talking to her teen. I remember thinking that would be so hard to do!
Actually, the staying up part is easy. I love talking with them, hearing their thoughts, laughing at their daily antics shared with me, sharing some of my own. I get wonderful insight on who they are and how they process the things happening in their lives. I come away with such peace because I realize . . . with God's help . . . they're going to be all right. They're good kids, and they're making such wise, yet sometimes difficult, choices. I am blessed!
No, the staying up part is easy.
When the alarm rings, that's when it's hard. I still have one that's not a teen and she wants a part of me in the morning! I have a spouse who tries not to talk to me or, heaven forbid, wake me before my alarm goes off. Sometimes, I'm unable to get much sleep at all and I'm just coming to bed two hours before he gets up (why does God think it's so funny to pair a morning person with a non-morning person?).
My favorite evenings are when I'm tucked in bed with jammies on, and all three kids are piled all over the bed or on the futon in our room. John falls asleep quickly while we laugh and talk, waking periodically to ask why "all these people" are still in his room, add some input, and drift off again. Tyler has us all laughing when he shares the odd experience at the track -- he puts such a humorous spin on ordinary events. Kelly gets us rolling with her witty comments and input. Glenna tries to be a quiet little mouse so no one will notice she's still not in bed, or she gets poked and tossed around by me or her siblings (she LOVES that). We all start to giggle when John snores, wakes himself up with a particularly loud one, hears us laughing, then rolls over while mumbling, "Why are all these people still in my room?"
As for me -- I take it all in and take mental "snapshots" to treasure later. This is MY time with them. There's no one I love to be with more than my husband and my children. I know it's so important to soak it all up before God sends them off for His purposes! My newborn son is turning 18 in April. My baby girl will be 15 this summer. My infant daughter will reach "double hockey-sticks," eleven, in July. I praise God for the women He placed in my life who constantly encouraged me to slow down, enjoy them, and soak it all in. Nothing is more important, nothing has any urgency. I thank God for His conviction to home school so they could be with me even longer! It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the best thing I've ever done.
My house isn't spotless. My desk is a wreck. I feel I always could use more sleep. However, and I believe this is a big however; we are content. God is good.
If I want to have any meaningful conversations with my teens, I have to stay up well past 11:30. I remember my friend Martha being so tired all the time because she had been up until 3 a.m. talking to her teen. I remember thinking that would be so hard to do!
Actually, the staying up part is easy. I love talking with them, hearing their thoughts, laughing at their daily antics shared with me, sharing some of my own. I get wonderful insight on who they are and how they process the things happening in their lives. I come away with such peace because I realize . . . with God's help . . . they're going to be all right. They're good kids, and they're making such wise, yet sometimes difficult, choices. I am blessed!
No, the staying up part is easy.
When the alarm rings, that's when it's hard. I still have one that's not a teen and she wants a part of me in the morning! I have a spouse who tries not to talk to me or, heaven forbid, wake me before my alarm goes off. Sometimes, I'm unable to get much sleep at all and I'm just coming to bed two hours before he gets up (why does God think it's so funny to pair a morning person with a non-morning person?).
My favorite evenings are when I'm tucked in bed with jammies on, and all three kids are piled all over the bed or on the futon in our room. John falls asleep quickly while we laugh and talk, waking periodically to ask why "all these people" are still in his room, add some input, and drift off again. Tyler has us all laughing when he shares the odd experience at the track -- he puts such a humorous spin on ordinary events. Kelly gets us rolling with her witty comments and input. Glenna tries to be a quiet little mouse so no one will notice she's still not in bed, or she gets poked and tossed around by me or her siblings (she LOVES that). We all start to giggle when John snores, wakes himself up with a particularly loud one, hears us laughing, then rolls over while mumbling, "Why are all these people still in my room?"
As for me -- I take it all in and take mental "snapshots" to treasure later. This is MY time with them. There's no one I love to be with more than my husband and my children. I know it's so important to soak it all up before God sends them off for His purposes! My newborn son is turning 18 in April. My baby girl will be 15 this summer. My infant daughter will reach "double hockey-sticks," eleven, in July. I praise God for the women He placed in my life who constantly encouraged me to slow down, enjoy them, and soak it all in. Nothing is more important, nothing has any urgency. I thank God for His conviction to home school so they could be with me even longer! It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the best thing I've ever done.
My house isn't spotless. My desk is a wreck. I feel I always could use more sleep. However, and I believe this is a big however; we are content. God is good.
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