Teeth and Growing.

This week has been full of reminders that my kids are growing up and there is nothing I can do to stop it.  In one week we did course selection for middle school for Carrigan and course selection for HIGH SCHOOL for Merrick.  You read that right.  Somehow, my once little boy (ok he was never little but you get the point), is off to high school.  He took field trips to both high school choices this week and when I picked him up his commentary was, "Mom, high school is terrifying.  There are like grown men. They all have full beards."  If this was Merrick's takeaway, I can't imagine how the kids who aren't 6'5"felt.

As yet another signal of growing up, Merrick got round two braces this week.  This was scheduled for a few months ago, but with all of his heart and ankle stuff, had to be rescheduled.  Braces hurt and he spent the next several day struggling to eat much of anything.  I think things are turning the corner though and hopefully he will be able to eat again soon.

With all the registering for new schools and getting braces, Elsie was apparently feeling left out of the growing up and decided to lose another tooth.  This tooth has been fairly wiggly for about a week, but had been hanging on.  On Friday, I picked her up from school and she burst into tears.  She said that she had swallowed her tooth.  She had been eating a granola bar at snack time and felt something hard in her granola bar. She "tried to crunch it and couldn't so she just swallowed it".  Turns out it was her tooth and she was DEVASTATED.  She was unsure if the tooth fairy would come and she had cried most of the rest of the day after that.

I scooped her up and whispered to her that I was so excited.  I had heard that when you swallow a tooth, the Tooth Fairy brings you something extra special.  Merrick and C.C. had never done that so I had never gotten to see what it was, but now we would get to find out.  We spent the rest of the afternoon turning our frown upside down and wondering about what it might be that the Tooth Fairy would bring.

Turns out that the Tooth Fairy came through.  In addition to the usual money, the Tooth Fairy also brought something extra special.  Thankfully, Elsie is feeling much better about the whole experience.

So its been a week of reminders that my babies are growing up.  If anybody has found a way to stop that from happening, please loop me in.  I don't know how much more my mama heart can take.

Somethings Never Change

It's been an interesting week.  Merrick was off Monday due to a teacher grading day and the girls stayed home on Thursday because there was a potential safety issue at their school and we where not taking any chances.  Add to that an early release and an all-day career fair and it adds up to be an out of rhythm kind of week.

There is one thing that never changes though, and that's sports demands.  Carrigan had volleyball, although I didn't think to get any pictures.  Boo for mom.

Elsie had softball.  They were running drills and Elsie started off at first base.  It was just a little too perfect as that has been Merrick's happy place for so many years.

As to be expected at this time of year, Merrick had baseball.  This weekend's games, on the whole, were not fantastic, but there was one moment that will certainly be remembered.  Merrick was on third base and decided to steal home on a passed ball.  Unfortunately, tall Clifford men weren't made for head first sliding and it didn't go as planned.  His face ended up hitting the turf and his helmet came off.  It caused him to scorpion, with his feet coming up over his head.  Today, he is sporting the battle scars, but the important thing, as evidenced by the fist bump to his teammate, was that he beat the tag and scored.

She did it!

 This was a pretty routine week.  Merrick had practice most every night, physical therapy twice, and an orthopedist appointment.  Carrigan had volleyball.  Elsie had softball. We had a plumber come to start addressing our tub leak.  Jeremy and I both had work.  All in all it was another busy, but unremarkable week.  One small highlight was that the orthopedist was happy with Merrick's progress and, while he still has a fair amount of swelling, she said he does not have to come back and can just continue to see the PT.  The real highlight of the week, however, came just after the orthopedist appointment.

For Elsie's birthday, what she really wanted was to get her ears pierced.  I knew that we had to get it done somewhere that they would do both ears at the same time (not the piercing place we took C.C.).  After a lot of research, I decided we should just do it ourselves in the comfort of our own home, with all the stuffies and emotional support a girl could ask for.

Since her birthday, despite really wanting them done, Elsie has been too scared to pull the trigger.  On Tuesday night, despite not having mentioned it before, Elsie was in tears that we had not pierced her ears that day.  I promised her that we could do it the next day if she really wanted to. On Wednesday afternoon, after Merrick's orthopedist appointment, I confirmed that Elsie was still wanting to move forward on piercing her ears.  She was still all about it so I called my mom to come be piercer number 2.

Let me just say, sitting still is not Elsie's forte.  The fact that I was able to mark and subsequently get them pierced in the locations we were intending was nothing short of a miracle.  For the most part, the piercing went off without a hitch.  We did have a small issue where we couldn't, for a moment, figure out how to get the piercer to release off her ears after it was done. Thankfully, my mom figured out you just had to slide it down off the earing to release it and Elsie was soon free.

It took us about a month and a half to get it done, but it's finally behind us and she could not be happier about the result.  

Spring Break and Easter 2024

 It has been a busy week, with Spring Break this past week and Easter today.  We stayed in town for Spring Break this year and we definitely made the most of our time.  In light of that, I apologize for the picture dump that is about to happen.

After almost 13 years in Oregon, we finally made it the 5 minutes across the river to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum.  Merrick and Elsie's excitement to be there ebbed and flowed, but C.C. was in it to win it.  We made candles, cloth dolls, and journals.  We loaded a wagon, played dress up, solved puzzles, played games, felt furs, and filed a land claim.  Really, the only boring part was a movie that we watched, but all in all, it was lots of fun.

Tuesday, we took a break from the fun and did some yard work and shopping.  We were also going to hang out with our Brown cousins, but the day took a turn when Nana fell down the Brown's stair and had to be take to the hospital in an ambulance after losing lots of blood.  She ended up needing 5 staples in her head, but is ok.  I have pictures from the ordeal, but they are a little gruesome and I promised her I wouldn't post them.

Wednesday, we were back to the fun and Jeremy took the day off and joined us.  We started the day by spending WAY to much money at the Nike Employee store.  We then went to Next Level pinball museum and arcade.  We have been there one other time and it is always a blast, although a bit of sensory overload.

Thursday, we did take two on hanging out with cousins day.  Merrick spent the day at the Brown's and we had Isabel over here.  Thankfully, this attempt at hanging out was all fun and didn't involve a trip to the hospital.

Friday, we wrapped up our week of fun with bang.  The kids and I visited Fort Stevens at the northern most beach in Oregon.  The draw to this beach is the famous ship wreck on the beach.  That was really cool to see, but my kids had way more fun with the sand dune there.  We camped for the day at a plateau at the top of the sand dune and spent the day building, playing frisbee, and running a jumping off the edge of the plateau and sliding down the dune.  While there, we also traveled up the beach to where the Pacific Ocean meets and the Columbia River.  We also went to the ruins of the old battery of Fort Stevens.  It was this really cool bunker built into the side of a hill.  You could climb up and explore all three levels, just to end up at ground level at the top.  We ended the day at a diner and got milkshakes for the drive home.

Today is Easter.  We have been so blessed this week that, in addition to all the fun, C.C. has had a video to share with us each day with an Easter message.  We missed a few days, but have made it a priority to make them up.  Even though we are working hard to keep the true meaning of Easter in our minds, we did enjoy a visit from the Easter Bunny this morning.  We will go to church in just a little bit and we will wrap up the day with a family dinner here this evening.  It is shaping up to be a wonderful Easter.

Let the Good Times Roll

This weekend marks the start of Spring Break.  The week leading up to now felt like a bit of a sprint to the finish, trying to wrap things up at work before the break, lots of activities, and parent/teacher conferences.  We made it though and now we have a week of Spring Break possibilities ahead of us.

Before I move on to Spring Break, I need to take just a second for a parent brag.  Both of the girls had fabulous parent/teacher conferences.  Their growth this year has been amazing.  They are both on Target or beyond academically and they are both strong leaders in their classes.  Merrick begged me not to participate in parent/teacher conferences this time, and I agreed as middle school conferences have proved to be a waste of everyone's time.  They did, however, have an assembly this week at his school where they passed out character awards.  Merrick was given an award for his perseverance and I can't think of anyone more deserving.

Now back to Spring Break.  While we have yet to do too much to officially celebrate, the girls have wasted no time in getting the party started.  Friday, they set up a fort in their room, and while they have made some adaptation, they have slept under it since.

Yesterday, still not in the Spring Break grove, Jeremy and I worked on taxes.  The girls took advantage of the time to keep their party going.  They made homemade ice cream in a bag and had a blast tossing it back and forth and shaking it to get it formed.

We do have lots of fun planned for this coming week.  Unfortunately, Jeremy only gets to join us for one day of it, but we will make the most of it.  Here's to a weeks ahead of family fun!

Long Roads

This has been a busy but not exciting week.  The first part of the week was consumed by wrapping up the Snickerdoodle Preschool era and filing our last business taxes.  Also early in the week, we had Merrick's MRI on his ankle and we were working with our home warranty company on getting someone to come look at a leak we have in our upstairs bathtub that's leaking into the garage.

By Wednesday, we finally started to make some progress on those fronts.  Business taxes got mailed off, we got a repair man scheduled to come out on Thursday, and we got the results of Merrick's MRI.  The MRI indicated that Merrick didn't break his fibula as the doctor had originally thought, but he did tear both of his ankle stabilizing ligaments and has significant bone busing.  The good news is the doc felt that surgery was not indicated, just lots of physical therapy.

As the week progressed, we saw progress on the other issues as well.  The repair man came out and diagnosed, but did not fix the problem because nothing is quick and easy when dealing with a home warranty company and of course we have to get approval before the repairs can be made.  Merrick also started physical therapy.  I was ablet to call around to find somewhere with immediate openings so at least we didn't have to wait to get moving on that.  He will go twice a week for the next several weeks and the PT is setting expectations that it could be a long road.  He gave him a 20% chance of playing in his first baseball tournament in 3 weeks.  Merrick is determined to be that 20%, but we will see.

Saturday, we had clean up days for both baseball and softball.  It was a divide and conquer kind of situation.  Merrick and Jeremy went to the baseball cleanup and Elsie and I went to softball cleanup.  CC had a primary activity and got out of all clean up.  I will just speak to the softball clean up, which was HARD manual labor, raking rock hard ground to uncover a former field that had been completely overtaken by weeds and grass.

By the afternoon, Jeremy and I were worn out.  Merrick got off easy for clean up in his current condition and Elsie spent cleanup day playing on the playground with her friends.  Thankfully, the girls both had plans in the afternoon that meant that the rest of us could have some relaxing time.  Carrigan went with her friends to see a play of the Hobbit and then went for ice cream.  Elsie had an Auntie day extravaganza that started with lunch, ended with dinner and ice cream, and in the middle included a Target shopping spree, a movie, and a park trip.

Today we are hoping for a relaxing day that doesn't include any hard, manual labor, any complex tax forms, or any trips to the hospital or doctor.  That shouldn't be too much to ask, right?

Go Away Hospital

 I'm going to be keeping it short and sweet this week.  It's late and I am exhausted.  I just got back from 5.5 hours at urgent care and the ER with Carrigan.  More on that in a minute.

This weekend we were supposed to be in Bend for the second, and final state tournament.  That plan got derailed in just about every possible way.  First Merrick's ankle, he had a follow up on it this week.  The doc confirmed the break, but he still has too much swelling for that to be the only issue.  He is still non-weight bearing and he will have an MRI tomorrow to determine what else might be going on.

The ankle wasn't going to be the deal breaker on our trip to Bend though because our Airbnb was non-refundable.  We made plans and preparations to still go and the girls were excited to have a trip that was going to revolve less around basketball than it would have otherwise.  Then, 20 hours before we were supposed to check-in, our host canceled our reservation.  We spent an hour on the phone with customer support trying to get something worked out, but ended up bagging it.

Merrick ended up going to Bend with his coach and we had a weekend at home with the girls.  We did lots of fun things, ate out, went to the mall, went to Starbucks, went to Dave and Busters, and watched movies, but most of the time C.C. complained about stomach pain.

Today Carrigan's stomach pain came to a head.  When we left church with her in tears, we decided it might be a good idea to take her to urgent care.  There they said they couldn't rule out appendicitis and they wanted us to go to the ER.  MANY hours later at the ER they decided that she didn't have appendicitis, or anything that was an immediate emergency and they sent us home with no answers.  We are supposed to keep a diary around the pain and follow up with our PCP.  In the meantime, she was in tears again going to bed tonight.

Merrick got home just before Carrigan and I.  He had a great time in Bend and his team won the Bend State tournament.

I, once again, feel like I need a do over of for the weekend.  More than anything, after our visit for the MRI tomorrow, I need my kids to stay out of the hospital for a bit.