Gratitude #3

Today I am grateful for the fall weather. I have had a fire burning all day and I am toasty warm. The fog has been blowing by my windows all day and the ground is soggy. I just decorated for Halloween and Ali is setting the table "fancy" in anticipation for the missionaries coming for dinner. There is home made chili in the crock pot and corn bread in the oven. I found my ipod and we are listening to music. The kids made a witch craft and they are taped up to our window as part of our decorations. I enjoyed having Cameron home for lunch and making his food and then eating it with him.

I am also grateful for cell phones that have free long distance to my favorite people. I love long phone conversations that make me happy. I can't imagine living without it and I am grateful.

Gratitude #2

I am really trying to think of those things I should be grateful for. Today it is my children I am grateful for. I had parent teacher conference today for both of my girls. I arranged to attend alone sans any children which really made it a mommy's day out even if it was only for an hour. I love the feeling of not having to buckle anyone in and just getting in the car and going.

I attended Ashling's classroom first. Ashling knows all her sounds and recognizes all her letters. She won't be tested again in kindergarten she is that good . And she can count to twelve but missed 13 and went straight to 14. (I guess she is a littler superstitious.) She is socially doing all the things she should be and she loves school. She is a pleasure to have in the classroom. I liked my appointment with Kindergarten.

Next I went to 3rd grade. Ali has a new job today and is in-charge of getting the door and any errands the teacher has. Ali's desk was clean and nothing was in it that shouldn't be. I was told that Ali is reading on a 4th grade 7th month reading level. She is good at math and quite smart at spelling. She is learning cursive well and she likes school. The only concern we have is that she slow down a little.

I am grateful for kids that are smart and who love school. I am grateful that they are not getting in trouble and that parent-teacher conference could be a good experience. I am grateful that my kids can be getting a good education and that their teachers are both so wonderful. I am grateful.

Gratitude

I haven't been very thankful for much lately. Instead I have been thinking of all the ways I want things I don't have. I guess that President Monson's talk about Gratitude was heard by my mind and I will try to involve my heart in it sometime soon. It was probably meant for me.

I know I should be grateful for a lot.

My 3 healthy children

Living in the mountains

The rain that poured on us yesterday

The ways we have found to support ourselves without a full-time job

The internet

T.V. shows that distract me

Pictures my children love to make me

Ali's soccer games

It is going to be cold this week!

Apples that I can pick

What are you grateful for?

It's Broken

Monday morning Ashling came upstairs and claimed she had kicked the wall and her foot hurt. This was while we were getting everyone ready and so I just kissed her forehead and pretty much ignored her. (She was not crying but just whining a little.) Emily also told me that Ashling had jumped off her bed but I assumed she meant the lower bunk bed and wasn't that worried since this was mostly tattle-telling and I really don't like that. I forgot about it will all the other things going on. Ashling went about her morning and didn't say much until we were in the car where she told me it hurt again. I was dropping them off at school and so I still didn't look closely and she was still not very upset.

In the afternoon she came home from school still whining a little about the foot. At this point I looked at it and then had Cameron come and look. It was swollen and looked painful. I decided to call the doctor and make the appointment. I didn't really think it was broken but I already had an appointment for Annika and so I just decided to make one for Ashling too.

By Tuesday morning Ashling wasn't complaining much and I was sure we were taking her to the doctor for no reason. After sitting in the dentist office for 1 hour we went to our doctor's appointment. We waited in the waiting room for quite a while and the doctor came in. I voiced my concerns that probably nothing was wrong and then we watched her walk. She did fine until she was asked to walk on her toes and she couldn't. We took her to get an x-ray. When he looked at the X-ray he at first thought it was fine and then saw the three small breaks on her three smallest toe bones down in the foot. Everyone was surprised that it was broken when she was so easily walking on it. The doctor didn't splint it but just referred her to the specialist for Thursday.

Thursday we went to the ortho doctor. It was a nightmare. We waited for 3 1/2 hours to get her cast. They tried to find a boot small enough for her so she didn't need a cast but there were no boots that small. We were the last ones out of the office. The only consolation was that they cut the cast right after putting it on so that we can take it off when we are done. They did this so that we don't have to pay for the cast to be removed since our insurance ended on Thursday. It was the only nice thing about it.

Ashling is now running with her cast on. She still has not let it slow her down. Her only complaint is that the cast is sweaty.