Book Review

I just finished reading Three Cups of Tea. The book club I try to follow was reading it so I thought I'd give it a try. To be honest, when I first saw the book I almost put it back on the shelf. It didn't look like a book I'd be interested in (a biography) and, after reading the back I figured I'd probably only read one or two chapters (to give it a chance) and then abandon it.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised! I had a hard time putting the book down & even though it took me about 2 weeks to read it, I was sad when it ended because I wanted to know more (it ends about 2003). After writing down some websites that I found in the back of the book, I got online. I am excited to learn that there is another book, Stones into Schools, that picks up where Three Cups of Tea leaves off. I'm hoping to find it at the library tomorrow! If I can't find it there, I think I might have to go buy it!

When I got on the http://www.threecupsoftea.com website, I jumped over to Pennies for Peace. This is another organization that Greg Mortensen founded. I am wondering if it might be something Canyon Elementary would be interested in, or at least Sam's teacher. I would love for my kids to get involved in this kind of philanthropic work. Obviously, I believe education is key (for all kids) and since this charity builds schools, it would be perfect for my family to support!

I have added 2 of the websites from this book to My Favorite Links list - http://www.threecupsoftea.com and Central Asia Institute. I'd highly suggest you check them out. And, if you can find the book - READ IT! I just passed the copy I checked out from the library to my mom!

Thanks Tannie!

Finally! Some good news!

It's about time, right? Nash has been so dad-gum loud all summer I was wondering if his tubes had come out or been clogged once again. That was the tell tale sign with Samantha. So, I scheduled him an appointment with the ENT. We went in today and I told our most favorite ENT Dr. Blotter what was going on. He told me he expected to find "tubes in the ear canal & an ear drum full of fluid." However, much to his surprise (and mine) his tubes are in and his ear drums are clear! After this nice surprise, Dr. Blotter had the audiologist come down and test his hearing. Come to find out, the little stinker, actually has "slightly better than normal hearing." What?! He has decidedly inherited his father's ability to tune me out?! When I told his dad that, he responded "Well, I can't really blame him." Brat. My official diagnosis then is that he must have more Reeder blood in him that I ever imagined! Thanks Great Grandma Ruth! He isn't deaf, he's just loud!

On a side note: Samantha went from 4 am until 1 pm with no Lortab today! Yay. I thought she was on the upswing of things. She was even asking if I'd take her to school. What? But, since 1 pm she's been pretty steadily needing the drugs again. Oh well. Some progress is better than no progress, right?

Now, if only I could get his little brother out of his "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad" Terrible 2 stage, we'd be set! HA!

1st day of school 2010

Today was the first day of school here in Cache County. Nash was super thrilled. Samantha on the other hand woke up at 2 am in extreme pain. She kept telling me that her split was too tight around her fingers. We unwrapped the ace bandage by her fingers and she told me it was still too tight. I got her ice and gave her Lortab and Ibuprofen which allowed her to sleep (sort of) for several hours.

At 9 am Caleb came skipping into my room and woke Samantha up. She immediately started crying about how badly her arm hurt because the split was too tight. I was worried that maybe the bone had slipped out of place again so I quickly got the boys and I dressed and dropped the boys at my moms and headed back to the ER with Samantha. So, this is how Samantha spent her first day of 2nd grade.

After 2+ hours sitting at the ER, they finally decided that by prying her split loose and re-wrapping it with just 1 ace bandage, in addition to doubling her dose of Lortab, that she'd be ok to send home. They never did re-xray it. I'm really hoping the bone hasn't moved still.

Like I said, Nash was thrilled about going to Kindergarten. Caleb wanted his hair just like Nash's and followed him around while I quickly got everyone ready to shoo out the door. Nash's shirt says 50% Ninja, 50% Rock star, 100% awesome!

He saw this backpack (Lego Star Wars) and HAD to have it. What a kid! I keep telling myself he WILL NOT be one of those weird kids that sits in the library and plays Dungeons & Dragons during lunch! Keep your fingers crossed for me! ;)

He said he had a great day. He made a few new friends but "can't remember their names". When my mom dropped him off she said he ran right in and shooed her away saying "Bye Grandma!" He was in quite the rush to get his school day started!

After we picked Nash up we went down and Samantha got to see her classroom and meet her teacher. She seems like a nice lady. She's been really understanding about Sam not going to school until Tuesday. Let's hope we don't have any other extenuating circumstances this year! Sam's not excited about the fact that she needs help going to the bathroom and a friend will need to accompany her. I told her that maybe when she gets her cast on she'll be ok to go herself. She also had to miss her first day of dance class today too. What a bummer time to break a wrist!

At least she's double insured...

Make a digital slideshow

Today at 2:30 I was cleaning the house when I heard Samantha start to cry outside. My first thought was "Oh, great. Now what!" So, I ventured outside and found Samantha face down on the ground bawling like she was dying. I asked her what happened. She told me she slipped.

Some background knowledge for you: Samantha & Nash recently decided to convert the swing set into a makeshift gymnastics bar. They've pushed the little picnic table up to the swing set, stand on it and jump to grab the top of the swing set. Then, they swing forward once, backward once, and then let go and drop. Yesterday I told them to quit it before someone broke an arm. But, what do I know? I'm just the stupid mother.

I knelt down next to her and saw that her right hand was shaking something terrible. I asked where she was hurt and she said her left arm. I looked over at it and I was privileged enough to see her wrist sticking out about an inch from where it should have been. I told Nash to put his shoes on and run next door to get my girlfriend Amy as fast as he could. Samantha was still screaming. I told her not to move and ran into the house to get the sling they gave me when I had my car accident. I was able to slide her arm into the sling and get her into the house. Amy arrived with Nash at this point. I told her what happened and asked her if she'd be willing to keep my boys. Since she's such a superhero, she of course said yes. I called my sister and dropped her kids off to her at her work and then set out for insta care.

We were in insta care for 2 hours (from 3-5)! I told Sam we weren't going to make it to Back To School night. She was sorely disappointed. After about 3 xrays and all the wait time, we were told we were going to have to go to the ER where she would be sedated, have her fingers put into a finger traction and her wrist set back in place. Awesome! So, I called and got Amy to drop my boys off to my dad.

Once we got to the ER we actually didn't have to wait too long to go back. The wait was going to happen if we couldn't get the orthopedist to come down before he had to go to surgery. Luckily, he made it down fairly quickly and we were able to start. Samantha FREAKED out about getting an IV (big surprise). It took about 4 of us to hold her down to get it in her. They also put 3 monitors on her chest to keep track of her heart rate. Once they gave her the medicine to make her sleepy, the respiratory dr. told me that one of the medications they were giving her was Ketamine. Ketamine is also known as "Special K" on the streets. The dr. then proceeded to tell me that teens abuse it and how they abuse it. Great idea dr.! Tell a mother of the 7 yr. old you're sedating you're giving her Ketamine! Duh!!

Luckily they only had to set her wrist one time and they got it right on the money. The orthopedist gave us 2 "after" pictures of her wrist. He told me that she actually fractured it through the growth plate. Funny enough, when we got to the ER and were back in the room and were just waiting for the orthopedist to show up, the other dr.s there (anesthesia, respiratory, etc.) all asked me "Did you see her x-ray already?!" Yea, she broke it that good. Luckily it was an easy fix that didn't require surgery!

The orthopedist told me to call his office tomorrow and set up an appointment for Monday so we can go in and get a cast on it. She's already decided she wants pink with sparkles. She fell asleep pretty quick after we left Shopko (had to pick up her Lortab prescription). I told her she's lucky it's her left arm so she can still write and that it isn't a leg so she can still dance (class starts Thursday this week).

My sister kindly reminded me "It's like you wrote on your blog the other day. Nash got stung, something else happened to Caleb, and you didn't dare put that Samantha was injury free. Here you go, now she's not!" Gee, thanks! I guess I can tell Samantha "Happy 2nd to last day of summer vacation!"

When she finally woke up last night & we tried to put pjs on her, I realized that her arm wasn't going to make it through the sleeve of her dress. This is a dress my mom made her this spring that she absolutely loves. I told her we might have to cut it to get her arm out. She cried. I called my mom at nearly 11 and asked her to come up. We thought we could just cut the lower sleeve and turn it into a tank top top. Nope. We had to completely cut through the sleeve. Sam cried. She was really upset. My mom told her it was ok, she'd make her something new out of this blue paisley fabric Samantha loved (it's just like Brad Paisley's guitar ;) ). She seemed to feel better about cutting the dress after that. Plus, my mom told her maybe we could make something else out of her dress. Guess we'll see. If nothing else I can put it into a quilt for her, right?

Oh, I remembered what else I was going to blog about earlier today. We went to The Treehouse Museum on Friday with my sister in law. The kids loved it and thought it was great!

Input please

I got a comment in my last post from someone that does a giveaway website telling me if I was interested I could add my blog and my giveaways. Not exactly sure if there's any interest from anyone that reads this for that sort of thing. If you'd give me some feedback about whether I should try it or not, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I've decided to start an etsy.com website. Nothing is up and running just yet, but it is fiercely in the works. So more info on that coming soon. Let me know if you have any great ideas about what I could put on it. I've already got some things started and lots of things waiting for me to get started on them. But, it's always nice for feedback from other people.

Tonight is back to school night for Samantha & Nash. Sam's pretty excited. Nash I don't think has had it sink in yet. I'm excited for them to go and meet their new teachers. That's always exciting. I'm thrilled this year that I can actually help in someone else's class too! How dorky is that?

You know, I had other thoughts running through my head about what I wanted to post and then Caleb came in crying -the other kids haven't been too inclusive today- and now I can't remember what else I wanted to post about! Oh well, it will come!