Easter and a trip to the ER

Thank goodness the trip to the ER wasn't on Easter!

Easter went well. We celebrate with my family each year, as we all live within about 25 minutes of each other (that time would be drastically shortened if we could convince our parents to move a bit further north!). The kids got their baskets, hunted eggs, we all had a nice lunch. Couple of photos:

Fast forward to yesterday .. . I go to the side of the school where Ian gets picked up and he's holding a bag of ice on his hand and crying. He was running and hit some kid's head on accident (don't even ask . . .it's one of those weird, why do you think that's a good idea thing that kids do that Ian ran too close to!) with his hand. He hurt enough they sent him to the nurse, but as recess is the last thing they do at school, I'm sure she figured I wasn't going to get there any sooner if she called me.

I get him home. . .feeling around the pinky is NOT something he wants me to do. He cringed when I touched certain parts. His pinky looked slightly swollen . . .but he's broken this same pinky before and I don't think it swelled at all the last time. So off to the ER the 4 of us went.

After about an hour, the dr. said there was a spot on the x-ray that looked like it could be a fracture. . .nothing like vagueness, huh? So they splinted him. Those little metal finger splints just wasn't the right size for him (it was like Goldilocks. .. one was too small, one was too big . . .unfortunately no just right!), so they put a fiberglass splint on him until we can see the specialist. ROFL .. .this makes it look like a horrible injury, doesn't it?

A little of this, a little of that . . .

Andy and Allison went camping with the YMCA Adventure Princesses last weekend. Back when I was little, we called it Indian Princesses. In fact, when Ian started it 5 years ago, it was Indian Guides, then morphed into Y Guides, then Adventure Guides. Trying to find something that's politically correct. Anyway, they had a great time . . .Allison got in her bi-yearly dosage of horseback riding. She loves it. . . we've thought about finding a place around here to get her some lessons . . .but who knows how much that would run!

Ian was invited to a friend's house . . .poor Alaina was feeling left out. So I made plans to take her to Libby Lu. ROFL . . .didn't realize until I went looking for the website just now that there was such a mass hysteria over it! See this article with accompanying link to the original article in the Washington Post. I will say . . .I did see little girls in silver lame costumes, that I at first thought "What was that woman thinking getting those things at Halloween clearance prices for a birthday party???" I finally figured out it was a Libby Lu thing. I don't know if Alaina just looked too young, or if they offer the costumes only to parties of girls, but there was no offer. Didn't bother me. Nor was Alaina called "Princess" (the only name we know here as one gal said it) the whole time. The girl took the time to know her name and use it. She picked out the tween idol style . .. she wanted that microphone! Frankly, that little 17 year old girl did things with hair that I could've never done! Alaina didn't shake, shimmy, or otherwise "work it". She did, however, love it and came out of there with a ton of lip gloss!

So a couple pics of Alaina . . . .


Ian's friend, btw, got grounded, so they didn't get to have their sleepover. He ended up going to my sister's house and having Pizza and watching Narnia with them.

In a couple weeks, Allison's brownie troop is going to be working on one of the girl scouts history try-it badges. Moms that were in scouts when they were growing up are supposed to bring what they can find from that time in their lives. I've got my sash, but have no clue what the patches and badges stand for. I did find a Badge book from 1980 that I should be able to find out what most of the badges were for. But the patches . . . EEK! I've emailed the GS council and had one lady respond she didn't know anything, another gave me some information, and the 3rd I haven't heard from yet. So . . . anyone possibly know anything about these three patches?

All I could find out about this one is ACE stands for "accomplished, capable, and efficient". The woman didn't know what the requirements were for it.


She had no idea about this one, although she said it sounded familiar:



And this one, she didn't even mention in her reply. I'm wondering if it's the precursor to the current World Thinking Day:



There was one patch that she could tell me what it was (actually I had 3 of them ,from different years). And she was kind to even reply!

Just goes to show you how important it is to journal such things . . . I earned all these darned patches and can't tell you a thing about them except that we took 6 weeks of ice skating lessons and I don't know how many horseback lessons to earn 2 of the badges. Going to take pictures of Allie's try-its now and journal what they did to earn them and start her own little brownie badge scrapbook.

Home Again, Home Again . . .Jiggity Jig

I feel like I've travelled more this past month than I ever have. And that's probably true, with the exception of the long road trip we took last year.

Terri and I had a terrific time at the scrapbooking retreat. Flight there. . .well, not the best flight I've ever had. Bumpy most of the time, and the worst landing I've ever had. Terri and Bud were there to pick me up and we went to eat Mexican. Then Terri and I headed off to the store. Nothing like getting to wonder around scrapbooking supplies when you know there's no one else trying to see what you're seeing (and there's no Alaina to keep up with!).

We ran a few errands the next day, then headed to Joplin. ROFL . .without a map to tell us how to get to the building where the event was. I didn't print one, my printer is almost totally out of ink, and I figured knowing 1/2 the directions wouldn't help much. Terri's printer . . .dead. . . .internet at the store . . .dead. Oh well. We did find the place -- right across the street from the Wok & Roll. ROFL Don't ask me to actually say it, or you'll learn what I had many years of speech therapy for when I was in elementary school!

We noticed there were 2 big groups there . . . .CM scrappers, and people who worked with page kits/idea books.

I finished a book for Ian about the Harry Potter Midnight party we went to last summer.




Concept is from Donna Downey's album book (a cardboard box album), but I had my SIL grab me some HP book boxes when the book came out and used those.

And I spent all day Saturday working on a week in the life book for me, but I'm still no where finished! Terri worked on one project after another. I think just about everyone in the place asked about the wooden blocks she was making. I can't wait to see them completed . . .as she didn't have all the embellies she wanted to put on them.

Oh, I actually won 2 door prizes . . .when does that ever happen to me? I got an online gift cert and a package of bazzill red monochromatics. Very nice.

One note . . .if you ever plan a scrapbooking retreat. . .avoid the "spring forward" weekend! EEK . ..that loss of an hour still has me reeling. Terri will tell you I kept her up until at least 1 am each night! She's such a good sport. . .but really girl, you could go to sleep and leave me to yakking my head off to myself! {grin}

I always love spending time with Terri . . .this was no exception! It was an awesome weekend! So glad we only have to wait about 6 weeks to do it again.