Family Roundup

Blood....tears...laughter....x-rays....smiles....triumph...they all happened today:

Tornado~ I must admit that I love my Nissan Quest van, including the motorized sliding door on one side. Unfortunately, those nifty sensors that are supposed to open the door in case of obstruction DO NOT WORK!!! Sunshine had just gotten out of the van and pressed the button to close the door, but Tornado tried his darndest to get out in time... unfortunately his left hand didn't quite make it and the door completely closed on his little thumb! He screamed, but I was on the other side of the car and didn't realize right away what had happened. Sunshine said Tornado was stuck and my heart leaped into my throat. I dashed into the car and opened the door to see Tornado's hand with a giant dent on both sides of the base of his thumb. It was dented in so far that it looked freakishly unnatural, so I rushed all the kids back in the car, called the doctor, called Thunder and we were off to the pediatrician. I was a bit freaked out and had to calm down. The doctor ordered X-rays, which, surprisingly, came back clear. I still don't understand how his little hand wasn't crushed!

Sunshine~ On the way to Cloudburst's school (more below) he ran, fell, and scraped his knees and hands, requiring 2 bandaids. Later on in the day he fell inside and got rug burn. Then later still, he was running outside and scraped up his first knee again, in another spot. As Thunder mused, maybe it's time to stop wearing flip flops.

Cloudburst~ Before she starts kindergarten this Monday, Cloudburst had to get a reading and math assessment from her new teacher. She is attending a charter school, which is a public school with a few more rules. We were there during recess and it was neat to see all the kids dressed in navy, khaki and white (the school "uniform" requirements). For reading and math, they split up into ability-level groups to learn. When Cloudburst and her teacher were done, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Cloudburst will be doing reading instruction with the 1st graders! She did a great summer school program that really helped her and she also LOVES to get on the website starfall.com. They have some great phonics games and stories there.

Thunder~ 3 kids, 3 houses, 2 apartments, 2 states, 4 college degrees, 6 jobs, 8 years... yes, today is our 8th wedding anniversary! Who would have thought that a simple physical therapy appointment could have led to all this? True to his style, we decided not to get each other gifts, but just go out on a nice date... but then a Home Depot truck rolled up with a new dryer! Yes, I am very excited about getting a dryer! I've had my eye on it for over a year now and it's great. Thunder is such a great dad, neighbor and friend. In fact, he took our old dryer over to a family whose dryer just broke. He's such a hard worker and has made our family business truly blossom to the point that we need a bigger warehouse. I love ya, here's to many more years!

Lightning (me)~ So, my gift to Thunder was not so glamorous. He has asked for popcorn several times, but I kept forgetting to get it at the store... so I got him a lot of popcorn! I really thought we weren't doing gifts this year... I also cheated death and triumphed in re-wiring the plug in our laundry room. Somehow our builder installed an oven range plug instead of a dryer plug... so tonight I took the time to CAREFULLY install and re-wire a dryer plug. It was a little scary turning on the dryer the first time... but it works!

Whewwwww, what a long post! What a trooper you are to read this far :-)