A family of 5, with 3 big little monsters... trying to keep it together, making it one day at a time, all by the Grace of God!
Today we all wore red to honor a little girl, Allison, that passed away 2 years ago today. She was a blessing to so many, missed by all. There were people all over town, and all over the country wearing red for her and her family today. What an honor to be counted as knowing and loving her and her wonderful family.
This is what happens when you let your youngest child goes to your bathroom to brush his teeth.
OSM.
This evening at church, both of Jakob’s teachers made a point of telling me how sweet Jakob is. One even had tears in her eyes telling me of Jakob’s gentleness with another boy in his class. You see, usually I hear of how Jake did “OK”, “not bad” or other “not great” comments. It is wonderful to hear the amazing stories of your child being loving and caring and helpful.
Jake was in class sitting in a circle with the rest of the class. Another boy (one of his friends) got really embarrassed and buried his head in his hands on the floor. Jake got up from where he was sitting and went over to this boy and rubbed his back, not saying a word.
Despite Jakob’s broken arm, he was the only one who got up and got a chair for a girl who arrived late and didn’t have a chair. Out of 12+ kids in his class, he was the ONLY one. His teacher made a point of telling the class what a gentleman he was in front of the whole class! What a much needed boost for JAKOB!
Now if some of that sweetness can take over the orneriness!
Love you Jake. You ARE a sweet boy and you amaze me everyday with your kind heart and love for other people.
It is official. He broke it. Dr took another x-ray and said Jakob was lucky he didn’t have a displaced fracture – that would have required surgery. Yikes.
One final pic of the bruise and the “before”
Here is Jakob in the process of getting his cast.
I asked her to make the part that goes in between his fingers and thumb extra-strength – Jakob has broken that part before. So she did! I like her.
Then we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Great Grandma broke her left elbow, too, so we had to get a picture of the 2 broken people and their arms.
Grandma wasn’t wearing her splint anymore (she didn’t like it and was tired of it, she didn’t think the Dr said it was OK for her not to have it on anymore… Silly Grandma!) But at least she was wearing her sling and using her cane!
Of course everybody had to get in on the pictures!
Chris was at school or we would have had a pretty good family picture!
A bit belated, but better late than never, RIGHT?
Simmons Family Christmas – Great Grandma and Grandpa and 14 other adults, 13 kids ages 10 and under. 19 people total and we were missing 4!
All of us had dinner at Great Grandma and Grandpas favorite Chinese restaurant in Salem. It was crazy but fun! The kids all got slinkys from their Great Grandparents and had a blast entertaining everyone with what they could do with the slinkys!
Christmas Day at my parents - (funny, I don’t think we actually got a picture of the adults WITH all the kids…)
All of the kids ages 10 1/2 to 3 1/2
The 17 of us were crammed into Mom and Dad’s house for most of the week after Christmas, then we went up to Olympia to Jenn’s for New Years.
It was so wonderful to have all of us here - Sarah and her crew from Australia for almost a month, Jenn and her brood from Washington for the week after Christmas, my boys back from their dad’s (boy,that was a hard one this year…).
I love having family right here. It makes everything else seem not as bad and the good stuff all that much better.
Didn’t bounce this time.
This pic was taken about 15 minutes before 
Yes. Jakob is broken. Not just a broken arm, but his elbow.
The smile on his face is deceiving. He is mad at having a broken elbow, mad at not being able to do all that he wants to, MAD at things he feels like he is “missing out on”. Mad at the tree in our front yard that he fell out of. And the word ‘mad’ is being very mild. Very mild.
Tuesday we will see the Orthopedist and find out where we go from here. I am going to push for a cast to go on this kid. I mean, HELLO!?! It is JAKOB! If they say “just make sure he is careful and keep him ‘down’” I will look the Dr. straight in the eye and say, “CAST HIM.” Unless they give me a really good reason why he shouldn’t have a cast, I fully expect to come home on Tuesday with Jakob in a full arm cast.
Tonight I took off the ace bandages and carefully washed his arm with a warm washcloth. Poor Jake is itching so bad, I was willing to at least try it! With ulterior motives of course - I wanted to see that elbow! He wasn’t very happy with me taking pictures, but gave in eventually!
This bruise is 3 or 4 times the size it was the night before… I am definitely going to keep an eye on that.
You can also see the swelling from almost the arm pit to mid low arm. That has gone down maybe a ‘smidge’ but not much.
Maybe if he would STOP MOVING AROUND so much!!! Yeah. Right. Anyone wanna take that task for me??? Anyone? Anyone?????? PLEASE?
Stay tuned for more pics and details… Hopefully those details won’t be that it is worse. Or that he has fallen and broken it further.
Yeah.
