Thankful

This isn't the message I thought I would typing this evening, but it is one that has to be done. Most importantly, all four of our family members have arrived intact at Grandma and Grandpa's house. However, this will definitely be one Christmas trip we will never forget.


Please keep in mind, all FOUR of us are okay. We are healthy and whole and thankful to be that way. Our story could have ended very differently. This story is told from my (Kelly's) perspective, but has been pieced together from listening and talking through events with a number of different people.

On Saturday morning, we left for Rochester for our Great Christmas Adventure 2008. We were excited and happy to be making the trip, ready to be on vacation for the next week. After driving 3 hours, we stopped to go to the bathroom (necessary when traveling with this pregnant chick). About 30-45 minutes after we got back on the highway, something went wrong*. Our car (my truck for those of you who keep track of these things) started to swerve and spin on the highway towards the median. We were traveling at highway speeds when our car entered the median**. When the car hit the snowbanks/dirt in the median, it started to roll over. Bystanders reported that our car rolled several times across the median and came to a rest just before the shoulder of the highway lanes going in the opposite direction.

All four of us were taken by ambulance to the University of Iowa Emergency/Trauma Center and fully*** checked out. Here is a quick run down of everyone's conditions:

John- Many, many cuts to his head/hands/shoulders from the breaking glass of the windshield. The cuts on his head required staples to close in several places. One of the fingers on his left hand was severed (cut almost all the way through). We are supposed to get more information about what is going to happen with this finger tomorrow. Various bumps/bruises.

Kelly- A bruise on the right side of her face, a bump on the right side of her head. Very stiff muscles in neck/upper back.

William - A small bruise on his forehead, a very small scratch on his left leg.

I can't tell you how incredibly lucky our family was yesterday. Things could have turned out very differently for our family and I'm am completely overwhelmed by....how huge this accident could have been. Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life, although I didn't realize it at the time. At the end of the day, we felt we were incredibly blessed and lucky when all four of us could just be in the same room with each other.

Over the next few days/weeks our family is going to need some time to process what has happened. We know that at least one guardian angel was watching over our family yesterday keeping us safe. However, things aren't going to be easy. John will have some recuperation time after his significant hand injuries. Belongings (including my car), have been lost. Feelings are fragile and close to the surface. I have more to share with you, but it is going to take time before things on this blog get back to the normal, fun, lighthearted news more typical of my writings.

So, I'll close for now - but keep this in mind: family is one of the most precious gifts out there. I came close to loosing mine this weekend. Grab your family right now and appreciate that moment you have together. I'm glad I still have the chance to.


*We're not sure what went wrong. The road conditions were fairly good, we weren't changing lanes, going around curves, passing other cars, etc. It feels like whatever it was came out of nowhere.

**In this case, the median was a large area with a ditch in between the two different directions of the same highway.

***We were at the hospital for a LONG time. They were very exhaustive in their examinations/monitoring. Although I was uninjured and appeared to be okay, I got a lot of extra attention due to our pregnancy. Because I am pregnant, they required me to be monitored for 6+ hours with fetal monitoring equipment/ultrasounds before they would let me leave the hospital. I was the last person to be discharged.

Leaving tomorrow...or why I hate all dogs today

We are leaving town tomorrow and have a lot to tie up tonight. Here are a couple cute ones of the big boy:


We've taken out some of the baby toys to get William used to seeing them around the house. By doing this, we're hoping he won't try to dump his new sibling out of the swing or steal toys away from them. Also, I've had my neighbor's 9 week old baby here for a few hours this last week and it has been good to see that everything still works.

Feeding a bottle to Ernie in the swing. Honestly, he was feeding Ernie the bottle just before we took this picture.

Stacking and sorting. Notice all the squares are together, all the circles are together, etc...

Now for the rant: or why I hate all dogs. Most of the people in our neighborhood own dogs. It appears that most of the people in our neighborhood put their dogs out to relieve themselves without tying them up and just call them after an hour or so has passed. As a result, many, many dogs relieve themselves in our yard. We [read: John] spend time every week picking up dog waste in our yard even though we do not own a dog. We [read:John because I am not allowed to go near the cat box] also scoop out our cat box every week - so that end of things is taken care of also.

Anyhow, today I went out to get the mail and I carefully picked my way across the front lawn to avoid the land mines. I got close to the mail box and sped up when all of a sudden I started sliding. I looked down and found that I had slid an impressive distance on a pile of dog *(^&%*%&^%. In my new shoes. Not happy. Not happy at all. So, I therefore declare that dogs are no longer my friends. They may be man's best friend, but not mine.*



* I realize this has a lot more to do with the behavior of my human neighbors than the dogs. The poor innocent dogs are really not to blame. Their owners should take responsibility for the behavior of their dogs. However, when you are cleaning off the bottom of your shoe with your toddler in the background saying "Yucky mama. Mama yucky." you can't help but be unhappy at the one who put the poop there in the first place.

**Of course I don't hate YOUR dog! Your dog is cute!

Scrambling

We're making lists and checking and rechecking and rechecking again. We're getting our craft on and biting off more than we can chew. But! Things are getting done and we're leaving town in a few days. Then, Christmas will officially be started! In honor of this, here is my top favorite things about this time of year:


1. The holiday cards: I know they are cheesy, but I love getting real mail! Even better when it is from people I really like and care about. I love the pictures, the updates, and keeping up with what is going on with everyone's lives. So! If you haven't sent me one yet, get up! You have work to do!

2. Full houses: I love the chaos of too many people in one house. The noise, the constant activity. Somewhere in this house, something is always happening. The comings and goings the games and inevitable missing items. The jokes, the hugs, the sleepy breakfasts with too little sleep. This has always been my favorite part of Christmas. With a 2 year old who needs to nap, I'm finally getting to see why it is better to have a little bit of space for everyone. But, in all honesty I can't think of anything more fun than camping out all night long under the Christmas tree with 15 family members and waiting for Santa. As long as there are cookies.

3. Cookies! For the first time in weeks we don't have treats sitting out on our counter from a party or event that we are attending. The only reason for the lack of treats is that we are leaving in 2-3 days and won't be home for awhile (unless you are looking to break into my house. Then you should know my neighbors with the big, mean, biting dog will be staying here on and off while family is visiting.). No word on the gestational diabetes testing that was done last week. In just a few short days I will consider myself clear, results or not for the holidays!

4. Traditions: I love the traditions that my family works to keep alive: we all have matching stockings. We drive to North Dakota nearly every year to be with family (in 29 Christmases, I've only NOT been in North Dakota 4 years, all of which have occurred after we got married - it is called compromise. The weather has never kept us away) We celebrate Christmas Eve with my mom's parents and Christmas Day with my dad's parents. We attend the candlelight service on Christmas Eve. The new ornaments every year (note: get on this for our kids soon) which all add up to a huge collections of ornaments and stories. The yearly pictures in front of the tree.

5. New this year: Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. It is bubbly. It is red. It tastes yummy - and it looks great in a wine glass! I'll be drinking me plenty this holiday season as no wine is allowed. Don't let the 7-Up Pomegranate Version sway you. It isn't as good.

The Most Enthusiastic Cow there ever was....

Last night was our church's Christmas program for the Sunday School kids. William is not officially a Sunday School student as he doesn't meet most of the requirements (3 years of age, potty trained, follows directions). However, the director of the Christmas program needed another kid to fill the position of "COW" during the program and she asked me if William could be in it.

Before agreeing, I had to remind her of a few things:
1. William generally doesn't listen
2. William is not going to sit still
3. William is not going to be quiet when you need him to be
I didn't want us to ruin the program for her of the other kids if she had something a little more....refined in mind than what I knew William would produce. She agreed that it would be okay if things got a little chaotic with him involved.

So, without further ado, I give you William's acting debut. The high school kids were playing and singing a song called "Friendly Beasts". Each verse is about a different animal and as they sang, a kid dressed up like that animal walked up to the front and sat down around the manger. William's verse went something like this:

“I,” said the cow, all white and red,
“I gave Him my manger for His bed,
I gave Him hay to pillow His head;
I,” said the cow, all white and red.

And here is how he did:

*His costume is a recycled dog Halloween costume from this year.

PS This video does contain footage of William. It is worth looking at, even if you have a slower internet connection!

Without Permission

I totally don't have permission to be doing this - but I don't think she'll mind.

Cana Christine [insert friend's last name] was born 12/6/08 at 9:55am. She was 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long. And......

Here she is ! Isn't she beautiful? I think so....


I was able to talk to Jessica for awhile last night and she sounds wonderful! Everything seems to be going really well for them (as well as can be expected with a newborn in the house) and I am so happy! Now, the next thing on my list is to go and get over this stupid cold so I can get my hands on this baby when we are home for Christmas! 6 days and counting!

It's a Good thing...

that it is the end of the year and I am certain my Mother of The Year Award is already in the mail.

A little background:

1. We are trying to get ready to be out of town for an extended period of time over the holidays (extended=more than a week). We have a few gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, Christmas letters to send, groceries to buy, work parties, friend parties, church parties, cats to tend, packing, bedrooms to paint and the small detail of my gestational diabetes bloodwork to get taken card of by the end of next week along with the general stresses/demands of daily life. I'm not complaining. We've done this for the last 7 years of our marriage and I really love our Christmas traditions. It is just a lot of work getting there.

2. I am pregnant and a little hormonal. If I am being fair, I would have to say that I am a little more on the side of crazy this year that normal. I admit it. But, I really don't know what to do about it except decorate the bedroom, bake the 40 different kinds of cookies and then cry about it. All right now, no waiting.

3. NewBaby is currently feet down in my belly. While I love the bumps and pokes, they are becoming stronger every day and becoming uncomfortable sometimes. Especially because the target of many of the pokes/bumps is now my bladder/pelvis area. It is like 48594819819897846513518 times a day you suddenly need to go to the bathroom urgently (if this offends some of you, you may want to check back at the end of March. I fully intend to discuss my cervix with you later in this pregnancy. Just not today). The sensation lasts only 2-5 seconds at a time. This is usually long enough for me to stop what I am doing and move towards the restroom. Then the pressure stops and I realize the restroom isn't quite as urgent as I thought. However, plenty of the time I still do need to go and I take care of business. Not a problem once, but when it happens all day it can make a girl crabby.

4. Yesterday I woke up with a little cold that is making me drag. Everything is taking extra effort and being tolerant of other people is requiring some extra energy. Especially when that other person is two and has some very definate opinions about what they would like to do.

THE REAL STORY
Today I shut William's hand in the car door. It was just after noon and I had was on a roll. We had been to: the grocerry store, the post office mailing Christmas cards, the lab office for my hour long diabetes test and dropped somethings off with a friend. I was on fire. But, I was crashing. I was tired, hungry, had a car full of grocceries to unload, a full list of chores to complete during nap time and a sweet little someone was stepping on my bladder.

I unloaded William from the car and leaned back to shut the door (leaning is now required in order to not shut the belly in the car door). I felt William shift in my arms toward the car door and I realized he was probably reaching for the door as he was NOT happy about me carrying him. Quite suddenly his whining stopped and his body became very still in my arms. I turned to look and saw his little hand trapped in the car door. I had to open the door to get his little fingers out.

Because it was noon, our doctor's office was closed for lunch and John wasn't at his desk. So, I did what any horomonal woman would do. I called my mom. At work. Almost barely holding my horomonal self together. I wish I could publish her phone number here because she did an AMAZING job talking me through what I needed to look for and advised me about what needed to be done. She also told me several stories about how she shut my brother's fingers in the door more than once. No nurse would have done that. However, she already has a full time job and probably doesn't need you all calling - plus I'm not sure I want to share.

Anyhow, his fingers are brusied, but not broken. We're keeping a close eye on the fingers/hand to be sure nothing shows up tomorrow, but he was using it normally only minutes after the accident happened. I am pretty sure I am more tramatized then he is...

Decorating?

One of the 100,000 things I'm working on is picking out and putting together some type of boyish decor for William's new Big Boy Room. I am totally uninspired and don't have any good ideas. All I need is a picture to get me started. Help anyone?


*What I am looking for is a Big Boy Room that will work for a few years without needing to be redecorated. Maybe until he is 10 years old? 13? 18 years old?

None of us follow sports at all which is all I can seem to find. So, boyish but not sporty. Something he will like now and will work for a long time (nothing cartoons). See? What else is there?