Sunday, September 22, 2013

An Independence Day for the Books

Oh boy.  Happy Birthday America.  I need some ibuprofen.  And a nap.  And a vacation.  from my vacation.


This isn't to say this wasn't a wonderful, fun filled July 4th getaway.  But, again, I had 6 kids with me, not including the Collins family of an additional 4 kids.  It was a wild one.  Due to the wild nature of it, I did not take near as many pictures as I normally do.


Kenzie, Addy, & Ayden enjoyed their first camping trip, boat ride, tubing and fishing!  My kids, as usual, had a blast swimming in the lake.



We grown up's enjoyed our deep, thought provoking late night conversations.   Ok deep they were not. Hysterical they were though.


We did not enjoy the 40+ splinters Ayden managed to get in his hands and feet while fishing.

Nor did we enjoy the 19 stitches Jadyn received in her side after a run in with a boat propeller (it wasn't on). I will paint this picture now.  All kids are swimming in between the Mosley pier and the neighbors pier (which has a waterslide the kids use).  This is normal, its where they spend all their water time.  One of the neighbors sons had brought in his small boat and tied it off right where all the kids were and did not pull the prop out of the water.

I do not point this out to point blame just to illustrate how this could have happened. Truthfully, as many adults as we had, I totally believe one of us should have been paying closer attention and realized the hazard here.

The kids were continuing to swim around the boat to get to the ladder, Jadyn swam right along the blade, slicing her side open.  I will spare you all a before picture, just imagine a huge open wound with all the fatty tissue exposed.  It was gruesome.  She comes out of the water, sees blood and screams for her dad.  Rylee and one of the neighbor boys see the wound at this time and go into shear panic and fear.  John (Amanda's dad) and Rusty are the first to realize something is terribly wrong.  Rusty said the look on Rylee's face was pure panic.  Poor girl was sobbing and incredibly fearful for her sister.  Aaron and I notice there is some commotion outside, we head out the door and I see/hear Rusty holding Jadyn's side screaming for me to get a towel.  We run in for a towel, run outside to Rusty and Jadyn.  Rusty says it's bad, we need to get to the hospital.  At this point I haven't seen the wound, but I know my husband.  If he says we are going to the hospital, I know its bad.  We load Jadyn in the backseat and Aaron offers to ride along.

Yes, we leave Amanda and her parents behind with 9 kids.  I think Aaron my have been a little grateful for a reason to getaway.

On the 8 minute ride to the hospital, Jadyn has the chills and wants to go to sleep.  Not knowing exactly how bad this is, I refuse to let her and admit this worries me.  We arrive at the hospital, go into the waiting room, check in, a triage nurse comes over, pulls a towel back and tells she is stable.  I relax so much at this point. Still haven't seen the wound myself yet.


It was pretty quick they move us into a room, although they apologized for the wait repeatedly.  We are from Houston.  This was NOT a wait.  This is when I finally see the wound.  Thank God we were at the hospital and had already been told she was stable or I would have panicked (more than I did).  She was a champ. Got her 19 stitches (13 above, 6 under) with just a whimper.  Biggest bummer about this was that she couldn't swim the rest of the weekend.  That really only took her out Saturday so it could have been worse. She handled that well too!



You know its been a wild weekend when 19 stitches isn't the worse thing to happen. 2:30 am I get a call that my dad fell off of his roof that night, broke bones in his neck, back and shattered his pelvis.  Good ever lovin' grief. 


We loaded up quickly and early that next morning and headed to the hospital.  Vacation officially over.
( This is Jadyn and I just wanted Y'all to know that I didn't notice that I got cut till I got out of the water and saw alot of blood then I started freaking out. The part that hurt the most about it was when they numbed me with shots they put INSIDE my cut and it felt like a million of fire ant decided to climb in my cut and started biting)
me. Also I didn't know that the already started till I asked when they were gonna start and they already did.) 

Friday, September 20, 2013

Our Summer in Numbers


God Bless America

A pre- July 4th celebration occurred at Sagemont Church celebrating the baptism of my mother in law, a concert by Robbie Seay Band and a beautiful fireworks display.


I honestly did not want to go.  It was a Sunday night.  The firework show wouldn't even begin until around 8:45pm.  I am tired just thinking about it.  We were leaving for a camping trip with 6 kids (3 of our own, my sisters 3 kids staying with us, 4 with the other couple) in just 2 days and I wanted kids in bed early.


I am so incredibly glad that we went.  The weather was perfect, baptism service was beautiful, the fireworks were incredible, but the time of praise and worship is exactly what my tired, weary heart needed.  As much fun as our summer has been up through this point, it also came with its challenges.  This night was a breath of fresh air from God himself.  Easily one of my favorite summer nights.  Grateful for a God who knows what I need more than I do.