What's a Little Arthroscopic Surgery Among Friends?

Meet the happy patient waiting for the nerve block and silly gas.

Meet the surgical team: The anesthesiologist...

"I think I've got a booger stuck in here somewhere!"

"That's better. Now I'm ready to work!"


The surgeon and his trustworthy assistant.

"Mommy doesn't let me use knives yet. Can I use my plastic saw and hammer?"



Prepping the patient and discussing the potential outcome.

The paitent understands all the risks involved and is still willing to go through with the surgery.










And then...


The HORROR~ So gruesome we all had to leave! Poor Jay.
The kids and I waited in the waiting room for all 5 1/2 hours while Jay had his shoulder cleaned out. He had a little bone scraped, too, just for fun (only a couple hours were for the actual surgery; the rest was waiting for his blood pressure to resume normal parameters! Dude, you were nearly a slug for awhile there!).

Wild, huh?

When the surgery was over and Jay was stable enough for company, we got to go back and see him. Jacob commented "Well, at least he's still alive!" Yeah, at least!

You think Jay likes having his photos plastered all over a page on my blog? At least they're not nudies! He got to keep his underpants on during surgery! Women never seem to get to keep their underclothes on during surgery. Did you ever think about that?

Jay, at this point you're probably wondering how I got a photo of you on the operating table. Are you wondering if the surgeon emailed me a photo, or do you think they let me in the room to take a photo with my cell phone? Nah, it's not you. I snagged it from Wikipedia. I just thought it was pretty cool. Glad you're feeling better. You've been a good sport, and not the big baby everyone said you'd be. (And now you're wondering who "everyone" is, aren't you? I'll never tell.) Love ya! Glad you're feeling better and ready to take the bandages off tomorrow!

Hugs,

Petrie

Belle of the Ball

One little six-year old girl was a very happy princess last night. Merrilee went to her very first Marine Corps Birthday Ball and had the time of her life! We have waited several years to take her, wanting to make sure she was ready for sitting still during the ceremony and being able to eat like a grown up at a table with adults. She met all our expectations and more. She loved the ceremony, even though it was about 40 minutes total. When it was over she indicated that she was a little disappointed because she thought it would last longer and she wished it wasn't over yet. I had to remind her that the Marines standing up there at parade rest were pretty glad it was over so they could sit down.

Here's a photo from the pageant. A narrator recalls the history of the Marine Corps and significant campaigns, while Marines dressed in historical garb march out and stand at attention. Merrilee impressed me when they got to the Marines from WWII and she said "Grandpa John was in World War II!" Granted, he was in the Navy, not the Marines, but surprisingly she did recall that bit of information right away.

After the pageant and and the speeches from the VIPs, the cake cutting ceremony took place. A piece of birthday cake is always given to the Guest of Honor, the oldest Marine present (who, by the way was only five years older than Jay, and had been in the Marine Corps for less time!), and the youngest Marine present. Merrilee was ecstatic over this cake, however she noted that she didn't think it would be enough for all the people present! It was enough...I had two pieces because the wait staff couldn't give it all away!

Merrilee watched the entire ceremony very attentively from her Daddy's lap. It was so endearing to me watch them spend the evening together. Merrilee doesn't get to spend much time with her dad unless its to ride along on a trip to the hardware store or something. This was a very special night for this young lady. At one point she got down from his lap and came over to me and whispered "I'm Cinderella."

While she was standing on a chair next to Jay during the end of the ceremony and the playing of the Marine's Hymn, I could only keep thinking about the day he might be walking her down the aisle giving her away in marriage. That day is going to come way too soon. I love these two people so very much!

After the ceremony, we had a dinner of prime rib, beans (southern style and a little too spicy, even for me), and potatoes. It wasn't the best meal we've had at a Ball, but it was pretty good.

Then the highlight of the evening for Merrilee...dancing! She had such a huge smile that just wouldn't go away. She spun and jumped and twirled around and had the time of her life. Jay and I were smiling just because it was so delightful to watch her having so much fun.

The dancing ended all to soon (Mommy was tired and we still needed to go back to the Marine Base to pick up the other two kids from child care). Merrilee didn't complain at all about leaving, but she said she was even more excited about the Ball at the end of it than at the beginning, because it had been so much fun. It was so delightful to experience the Ball through Merrilee's eyes and enjoy her enjoyment of it. What a great kid! And what a great thing to have a Marine Daddy!

Fun Thanksgiving Craft Project

I know there are a couple of you homeschool moms, a preschool teacher, and some moms who like to do craft projects with their kids, who read this blog. So I'm posting our Thanksgiving craft project--a handprint placemat--here because it was fairly easy for my kids, took only 1/2 hour, and made a nice project that could be used as a gift for a family member or friend. (Mom, if one of the kids decides to give you his/her placemat, act surprised, okay?)

Anyway, I always like to incorporate some academic skills into craft projects, so I started by marking measured dots on the front of a regular piece of construction paper. We used fall colors. About 1.5 inches from a short end of the paper I made a row of dots every 1 inch. This end of the paper is the end that will NOT be cut all the way through. I did the same at the other end of the paper but closer to the edge, as this is the edge where the cutting will start. Then I told the two older kids to use their previously learned skill of using a straight-edge to draw a straight line between two points. They were told to draw the line from the dot at the NO CUT edge all the way through the other dot to the other end of the paper. Then they had to cut along their lines to make parallel strips all attached at one end. This was the background of their placemats.

I had already cut strips of other colors of paper. The strips were 1 inch wide. Each child chose two colors which were different from the color of their background. The strips were woven into the placemat using alternating colors. (No, that's not Merrilee's Diet Coke!)

After all the weaving was done to within about 1.5 inches of the open end, the strips were snuggled in tightly and the ends were glued to the background. This prevents the strips from slipping out later. I completed all this for Katie Mei because she's a menace to society when she gets her hands on scissors.

When the placemats were all glued in place, the kids painted their palms and fingers with brown paint and made brown turkey handprints on their placemats. (Katie Mei had just awaken from her nap and she was a sweaty mess, but she was happy being painted!)

Then they used red, brown, green, yellow, and orange paint to add finishing touches to their turkey prints.

After the paint was dry, I used clear contact paper to cover the front and back of each placemat. The kids now have a nice little wipeable placemat to use for the next couple weeks. And if the placemats are still in decent condition after that time, I have a nice momento of their handprints and artwork to put in their folder.

Happy Turkey Painting!

Petrie

Homeschooling stuff

We're into our fourth month of school this year, though we've only actually gotten in about 50 days so far. Our move took a couple weeks out of our schedule. The state of Georgia allows homeschoolers a full year to get their 180 days in. I don't think we'll have any problem getting it done by May or June, since we don't take off much time for Fall or Spring break, and the kids don't get two full weeks of chaos for Christmas. I usually can't handle the lack of routine for that long!

Jacob is not officially registered as a student this year. In GA, only children 6 and older have to be registered for school. However, Jacob is doing official Kindergarten work, and by the looks of things, will probably be doing first grade work before the end of spring. The Kindergarten curriculum for phonics and math are pretty easy, and he's doing 2 and 3 lessons a day for most of the year so far. He is also picking up reading a little faster than I expected, so we'll see how far he gets in that.

Katie Mei continues to work on little skills, such as colors, shapes, counting, the alphabet, and fine motor skills. There are some days she will sit and concentrate on one thing for a good half hour, and other days she is just annoyed at having to do anything for more than four minutes and will start bothering us to play with her. It's interesting having a toddler underfoot while I'm trying to teach the other two, but we're making it work. The main thing is to keep KM occupied, and sometimes that means stopping everything to play with her baby doll for a few minutes.

But no matter the inconsistencies, the frustration, the confusion, or anything else that makes homeschooling irritating sometimes, it is such a blessing to be able to watch the kids learn and enjoy learning. I cannot imagine not being the one to witness Jacob reading his first sentence by himself, or watching Merrilee's face light up when she "gets it" upon learning a new science concept. It's just too marvelous watching my own kids grown and learn, and getting to see what makes them tick. Kids in our neighborhood get on the bus at 7:20 am and don't get home until 4:30 pm. That's 9 hours a day they're gone! And then they have homework to do after that! I just cannot imagine being away from my kids 9 hours a day. I'd consider four hours pretty long, but 9 hours...just impossible.

Anyway, here are a few highlights from the past month or so. As I was sorting photos into files on the computer, I realized that trying to choose the ones to go into the "homeschool" folder was a little sketchy. When you homeschool, there are just too many "teachable" moments, so the whole day becomes school. Technically, I take the kids to the zoo and aquarium as part of their education; I do the same with teaching Merrilee to cook, letting the kids help me plant flowers, letting Katie Mei glue leaves onto paper, etc. So if I actually put all the education-related photos into the homeschool folder, the folder would pretty much include almost all our photos. So I'm just picking out the photos for this blog that are strictly academic. Enjoy.

Gluing leaves onto the autumn tree

Jacob making words with consonants and vowels he chooses.

Everyone working quietly...it only lasts for about two minutes, but it's nice while it lasts!

Merrilee doing an experiment to grow and observe crystals.

Katie Mei stringing Cheerios. We did this on the morning we visited the zoo for the first time. She wore the necklace, and I'm glad she did. I forgot to take a snack, so she ended up eating the Cheerios in the car on the way home.

Katie Mei kind of came up with this activity on her own. I drew circles, squares, and triangles on the paper and gave her felt pieces to match. She would pick up a shape...

study it...

then she would look for a matching crayon.

She picked out the crayon...

colored in the corresponding shape (and I had two of each shape drawn on the paper)...

and then she matched the felt piece to the shape she colored on the paper.

I think I spent more time one-on-one with Merrilee when she was this age, and she had her alphabet and other skills learned in no time. Merrilee was academically very smart and still is. However, Katie Mei has to spend more time on her own, and I think she has more creativity and imagination than Merrilee did at 2.5 years old. I wonder if it's just each of their own natural abilities, or if it has to do with the amount of individual attention they each received. Hmmmm...very interesting.

Happy November, Everyone.

Hugs,

Petrie

Halloween Highlights

October seemed to go by much too quickly. I guess it's because we were so busy moving in, exploring the area, and trying to get into a routine. We're almost there now, but we're also heading into that season when routine gets all messed up once again. So we're just trying to enjoy life and keep up with the kids' education. We're managing to do that with both books and fun stuff.

Our fall season kind of got started with an afternoon when Katie Mei started showing the ability to place eyes, noses, and mouths on faces. So I got out the construction paper, cut out the pieces, and let her go at it with the glue stick. This girls LOVES glue sticks and doesn't behave very well when her task is complete and the glue is taken away. She did a great job making pumpkin faces, and they're still on our window despite the need for turkeys now.

She did these all by herself!

Days after the paper pumpkin faces, we decided to make cookies. Merrilee had been begging me to do this, and I prepared the dough ahead of time, so we were ready to go. This was Katie Mei's first time at independently cutting and decorating cookies. She loved it!

Surprisingly, Katie Mei really is quite adept at tasks that involve finer motor skills. She's doing very well for her age.

She did her own decorating.

Grandma and Grandpa arrived last week for their first visit to our house. We looked forward to taking them to the zoo, the aquarium, and showing them around town. But I think they enjoyed spending time with the kids the most. With Katie Mei growing and changing so fast, it doesn't take long to feel like you've missed out on something if you don't see her daily. G & G hadn't seen her since August and could already tell she'd improved dramatically in her speech and skills. She really is a blast...she's got a personality that is just so animated and unexpected. She's like a grown-up in a little person's body, and she has a sense of humor that takes us by surprise and keeps us all laughing. It was a joy to share her with my parents.

Back to Halloween.... This year I got out of pumpkin carving because Grandma and Grandpa were willing to deal with the muck. This was Katie Mei's first pumpkin, so she wasn't really sure what to make of the mess. In the end, she was glad to have Grandma clean her pumpkin out for her.

Grab it here...

Open it like the big kids do...

Peek inside to see what all the fuss is about...

Stick my arm in to find the candy...

Ewwww...this isn't candy!

In the end, they got their pumpkins carved with Grandma and Grandpa's help. Grandpa even cleaned the table and floor for me. (THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH! YOU REALLY CAN COME TO OUR HOUSE FOR HALLOWEEN EVERY YEAR!) The kids were happy they had their pumpkin faces, and I was glad I didn't have to do it.

The night before Halloween, Merrilee and Jacob, my party animals, planned a little party and invited us. Here is the invitation (the scanner cut off the side of the page, but you can figure it out):

[Those are bats next to a pumpkin] "You are all invited to a party"
"You are invited to a party. It is fun. Everyone can come it is not scary. You can talk, you can play games, you can lisin to misic. It will be fun."

"Party time ya!"

There was music,

Dancing,

And a bat!

The kids finally topped off Halloween with a trip to the Baptist church for a fall festival party. It was rainy in our neighborhood, and most of the neighbors didn't even have their lights on. We decided not to even try knocking on doors after failure at the first house, so we headed into town. The kids got gobs of candy for playing the games and having a good time. And Mom and Grandma didn't have to treck around the 'hood in the rain! Can't beat that!

Katie Mei was the cutest little bat ever, Merrilee was an angel, and Jacob was a very disheveled red ninja.

So this holiday is over, October is a memory, and we are now into November. Yesterday we went to the library for Crafternoon and the kids made the handsomest little turkeys out of pipe cleaners. When I was in Kohl's the other day, the Christmas decorations and little lighted trees were up. Now it's time to spin through decorating for Thanksgiving, planning the big meal, taking down Thanksgiving decorations, Advent season (the best part!), Christmas decorating, church Christmas events, Christmas shopping, tree trimming, Christmas dinner, and all the details in between. You know what? Today the newspaper had printed in big letters "ONLY 50 SHOPPING DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!"

This year I just want to focus on finding a church home and celebrating the season of our Lord's birth with my family. Since when did Halloween become the opening act for the Christmas season? Crazy, isn't it?

Until my next post (I have lots of catching up to do here!), I send my love,

Petrie