3 Little Pumpkins
Here are the kids with their final pumpkin outcomes. Notice Boo's is far from finished and will remain that way. We are on a No knife strike here in the house, which will most likely be going on for awhile!
3 Pumpkins, Can you guess which one belongs to who?
Bea has gone back and added more 'decoration' to her since it's carving. She LOVES her pumpkin! She doesn't like 'him' being left outside while she's at school and she always tells me to make sure to feed pumpkin breakfast and lunch, LOL!
Bubby with his masterpiece, he created the design all by himself, as usual :)
Boo with the claw, showing of his pumpkin, he literally only got the top done (hadn't even scooped it out yet!) before the accident.
I hope everyone else's pumpkin carving was a little less eventful :)
Labels: Alabama, pumpkin
Carved Fingers Update *Warning Graphic*
**WARNING!! I have added a picture so I will post a disclaimer that this could be considered a graphic image and may not be suitable for children or queasy adults :)
Boo has an appointment tomorrow morning with our Primary Care Dr and then we'll get a referral to take him to the hand specialist off base. Hopefully we can get an appt. with the Specialist on Monday, or Tues at the latest.
He has 4 stitches in his pinky finger and 3 in his ring finger. They are both splinted until we find out about the tendons and I told him it looks like he has a claw. He can bend his ring finger to a 90 degree angle but cannot bend any of the top part by himself. He also could not bend his pinky very well when we changed the bandages.
Changing the bandages/re-setting the splint was an interesting experience. I had originally planned on doing it this evening with the help of Mr. B, but when Boo got home from school the gauze had slid off and some of his stitches were exposed and the bandaging was bothering him. So we set off to re-bandage it.
It was then that it was confirmed that I could never be a nurse. There is just something about seeing stitches, ect on my kids that just makes me weak and want to pass out. I had several moments of light-headedness and feeling the need to sit down, and the start of a cold sweat! It was not fun. Thankfully Boo was able to assist and we got it done quickly before I actually passed out. I will be saving this part for Mr. B from now on!
For some reason I can easily look at the picture but seeing it actually on him does me in! Also if he says something hurts while we're looking at it I start to go weak in the knees! I hate it when my 'babies' are hurt!
Here is what Carved Fingers look like:
Pumpkin Carving 101: What NOT to do UPDATED
**UPDATE at bottom
Well this was supposed to be a nice little post with pics of the kids and their pumpkins...guess not...sigh.
It all started with the Pumpkin Patch at Bea's school where she got to bring home a pumpkin yesterday. Then since it was here she wanted to carve it, which her and Mr. B did. This caused Bubby to want a pumpkin of his own to carve, so Mr. B told him he'd get him one today.
As promised Mr. B arrived home from work with a pumpkin for both Bubby and Boo. After dinner Bubby successfully drew his pumpkin face and carved it with success.
Boo had drew his face on and was carving it while Mr. B and I watched him from the kitchen table. He had just stopped carving and walked over to tell us something and then returned to his masterpiece. A few seconds later he yells I cut myself. We jump up and walk around the sink to him. The serrated steak knife was sticking out of the pumpkin and when he went to grab it out he missed the handle and grabbed the blade!
His pinky and 3rd finger were cut and bleeding badly. We quickly wrapped it in a towel and elevated it above his heart. After looking at the badly cut fingers it was decided he needed to make a visit to the ER where he and Mr. B are at this moment. His pinky looked the worst it was a deep, wide gash and we could see white something.
I am now anxiously awaiting an update from Mr. B, he and Boo are in the ER and waiting for the Dr.
My post with pumpkins and pics will have to wait until tomorrow as right now the thought of pumpkins is making my stomach knot up!
So I would say do NOT use a serrated steak knife, and make sure you grab the handle! And to think we were gonna skip pumpkins this year...if it hadn't been for that darn pumpkin patch at school!
I'll update later....
UPDATE:
They were at the ER for a little over 3 hours in which time a lady peed on the floor by them and a bum came in looking for food, so it was a fun experiance! He ended up with 7 stiches BUT they think he severed his tendon as he can't fully bend his ring finger so we need to go see a hand specialist and see if surgery is required...ugh! His 2 fingers are currently stitched and splinted, so he can't use them.
Now off to see what we need to do to get the referral the ER doc wants him to the hand speicalist in 3-5 days and with 2 of those days being a weekend we need to get moving on this.
Had a Bed Day
Ok so I'm really cracking myself up with these titles lately, LOL!
Today we went Mattress shopping! Something really exciting huh?! It really wasn't at the top of my 'things I WANT to do list' but it was required since we left our Queen mattress of 9 years in Misawa and threw out Bea's full sized mattress.
Thankfully we have a few weeks before we'll need it but we know it was the ONE thing (besides the Fridge) that we would NEED to have before we could move in. So off Mr. B and I went after the kids were dropped off at school.
It was an interesting experience trying to find the mattress places. Mr. B had looked some up online in the city we wanted and wrote them all down. Out of the 4 he wrote down only 1 was actually located where the address it said it was! And of course that was the last one on the list! The first 2 resulted in buildings that used to be a Mattress store, and the 3rd we spotted, but it was not where the address had indicated it was. Luckily 3rd time is a charm and we decided to check it out.
It was a guy who sales wholesale/discount mattresses that he buys from closeouts, ect. And I'm happy to report that we were able to get a Serta made super comfortable pillow-top queen size mattress and box springs PLUS a comfy full size mattress for the price we expected to pay just for our mattress. And the guy even offered to let us use his truck to transport them to the house when it's ready! We now have a Bed, thus resulting in the 'bed day' LOL!
I am so thankful how easily and stress-free things are falling into place here in AL! Praise God as I can see every day how he is watching over us during this move!
Labels: Alabama
Washers, Dryers, and Refrigerators, Oh My!
Today was spent being productive shopping in Household appliance land at Best Buy. After looking at several washers, dryers and refrigerators we are now the new owners of all three
Best Buy was great, they price matched the prices at the BXtra (furniture store on base) as well as provided FREE delivery AND honored a Lowe's coupon for 10% off. The sales guy even looked up the Refrigerator online at the kiosks in-store and found that it was $20 cheaper at another store so he took an extra $20 off for us.
We were also happy to learn about the Best Buy Rewards program, which is FREE (!), where you earn gift certificates for $ spent in the store. Today's purchase has earned us a nice GC to use towards Christmas.
Another major thing checked off our list!
Sunday, Sunday
Today Mr. B's parents headed back to WV. It was great having them here for the week. It made house and car hunting so much easier to not have to take the kids. Plus it was a great way for the kids to get to spend time with them after not seeing them for 3 years while we were in Japan.
We went and tried out a church today, it was okay but I feel it's too early to make a final decision. I loved the worship music. It is much bigger than what we were used to in Misawa, but here in the Bible belt they are all like that. There is a church on every corner and I'm sure there is high attendance for them all. We'll try another one next week and see how we feel after that. I'm glad we made it out to try one today though, it puts us one Sunday closer to finding a 'home' church.
Bea brought home the class pet, he is stuffed Lion named Rico. She had fun playing with him this weekend.
We also took the kids to Toys R Us for the first time since being back in the States. It was a huge hit with all the kids and provided some great ideas for the upcoming birthdays/holidays.
I may have actually forgotten to post a blog today if it hadn't been for my most faithful reader, Mr. B, reminding me that I didn't. So C and Y you'll have to thank him for keeping me on track and you with something to read!
Bea with Maw Maw & Paw Paw
Boo with Maw Maw & Paw Paw
Bubby with Maw Maw & Paw Paw
Bea with Rico, the Lion. Don't ya just love the Billeting furniture, LOL
Moving is Exhusting!
Wow! Moving is exhausting and we haven't even got to the part where we actually get all our 'stuff' and have to arrange it in a house! It literally feels like we are running errands non-stop all day, every day since Tuesday. It's no wonder I drop into bed each night not even being able to keep my eyes open to watch any TV.
I checked out the Maxwell library on Thurs and was pleasantly surprised. While to others it may seem small coming from Misawa it's great. It had many of the books I've been wanting to read but didn't want to pay for. I'm reading one now. There were tons of kids books and VHS, the DVD selection was small but I guess they figure there are so many places to rent from here in the states.
We officially signed the lease for the house and have been given a move in date of no later than Nov. 15th, which seems like a long ways away when your living in billeting! We're hoping they'll get it done sooner but are planning the 15th just in case. So there is part of the moving experience we won't even get to for the next few weeks.
I've been so exhausted while we're out I haven't even thought about taking the camera with me a taking pictures...thus the lack of pictures lately. I'll close today with a few funny pics of Mr. B acting like the paparazzi taking pics of my siblings.
Labels: Alabama, moving
Mr. B's New Car
Mr. B got a 'new to us' car the other day. It's a 2008 Dodge Avenger and he made the salesperson work for the deal, including running after us as we drove off. All in all they were able to come to a resonable compromise and Mr. B drove away happy.
Front view
Side View
Back view
First Day of School (Again!) in AL
The kids started their first day of school in AL today.
Boo had a great day and made lots of new friends. He was surprised that all the kids kept coming up to him and asking him his name and where he was from. Of course when he said Japan, that was a huge conversation starter! He's going to basketball pre-tryout practice tonight.
Bubby also had a great day and made some new friends. He likes his new teacher and is excited for tomorrow.
Bea was full of stories and lots of excitement from today. She had so much fun and is looking forward to the upcoming pumpkin patch and costume parade.
I'm just so thankful that ALL 3 kids had wonderful 1st days as it was a bit of a concern for me to have to have them start at 1 school for 6 wks them uproot them and move them to a brand new school.
Labels: Alabama, first day of school
House Hunting & Answered Prayers!
First of all let me say that today's house viewing appointment went well and was fruitful, although we do have to wait 2 wks to move in as it's a new build and still being completed. Then I want to tell you how we arrived at this point...
Back in May when we found out we were moving to AL I was immediately concerned with where our 7th grader would go to school. This caused house hunting issues because we could've lived on base if there was a spot at ACA for him but not if there wasn't a spot. So I decided I was NOT going to stress about the move and schooling issues, I was going to do all the research I could do and then lift it all up to God in prayer. We found out in Aug that there was Not a spot for Boo at ACA.
I started my research and found an area in Timbuktu (real names of cities won't be used) that had a great public school system. We started looking online exclusively in this area BUT my prayer was that God would provide the Right house, at the Right time, and the Right school district, whatever and whenever that would be.
As we were getting closer and closer to arriving in AL we noticed that there were really no houses for us to look at. We really wanted a 4 Bdrm but realized we could probably cram into a 3 bdrm if necessary. Here in AL the rent is higher than BAH (what we get for housing from the military) so we were trying to also find an 'affordable' house to rent as well. We only want to rent because we only plan on being here for 2 years and then head back overseas if we can.
So our list of houses to look at consisted of 3 way out in the middle of nowhere, 1 in a school district we didn't really want because all 3 kids would be in 3 different schools, and 1 that just had renters move out that messed the place up. As I was scouring websites I ran upon a house in a different school district that we decided we could consider. So Mr. B called the realtor and found out that the house had just been rented, drats! But that the realtor had another one literally a lot down from it that wasn't listed yet because it was 2 wks from being finished.
We decided to go look at it because it seemed to have so many great features and with the military discount for rent that the contractor offered it was a house that we could afford. So we went and checked out the house today and decided that it was THE house, it has so many things to offer that it just seemed to be the Right house. Even though it isn't the school district we were originally considering I'm happy with the schools, we checked out the elementary today and will be enrolling Boo in a private school tomorrow.
Thankfully God opened up our hearts to be willing to look outside of the limitations we had imposed on ourselves and our house hunting search!
Now for the house itself! It's a 4 bdrm 2 1/2 bath house with bonus room, dinning room & breakfast nook, with 2 car garage! It's 2500 sq ft which is way more than we've ever had! It's on a quite street near a cul-da-sac where the kids can play. Not only that it is affordable and even cheaper than some of the other options we had listed, and they were less sq ft, further out, ect. We're looking forward to it being completed and getting to move our stuff in!
Labels: Alabama, House
We Have Arrived in AL!
We arrived in Alabama last night around 9:30 pm! It was a 12 hour trip in all from WV. It ended up being 9 hours and 30 mins of driving with 2 hours and 30 mins of stopped time. That included a stop for lunch at McDonald's, stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel and 4 bathroom breaks (2 included getting gas as well).
All in all the trip was long but went way better than expected! The kids did great with Bea doing the best! The boys started to get restless the last hour, but other than that did great as well.
Today we are off to start our house hunting search and have an appt. to look at a house this afternoon. We were lucky enough to have Mr. B's parents follow us down to visit and help out with the kids while we house hunt, find a 2nd car, and enroll them in school, we are so thankful for that!
I also scored a super cute costume for Bea at Cracker Barrel for 40% off! It was great since we'll be arriving just before Halloween and it'll be one less costume to look for. She's also be able to use it for dress up afterwards.
Labels: Alabama, Travel
Good-Bye West Virgina, Hello Alabama!
We are FINALLY on the last leg of our trip and left WV early this morning and will be in AL in the evening! It's a 10 hour drive without stops so we'll see how long it acutally takes us!
While we have enjoyed visting with family we're ready to finally get to AL and find our house and get the kids back in school. We left Misawa, Japan 20 days ago!
We have literally traveled on planes, trains, and automobiles! And if I don't have to make another long car ride for awhile it will be more than fine with me!
I'll update tomorow!
Labels: Alabama, Travel, West Virginia
