Let’s call the theme of today “Insanity”.
It was a CUH_RAY_ZEE way to usher in this month of stepping back to enjoy the season.
It started out with some “snow” – lots of huge beautiful flakes kind of blowing around, but no real threat to the roads or the shovels. The girls were super excited about it though, and I admit – it was a beautiful ambiance out the windows!
We got lunches packed, homework checked, big girls bundled up and sent off to the bus stop, and then the babies packed up to take Kaylen to preschool. She was VERY excited to go back to school because it had been a couple weeks with Kendall being sick/inpatient and then the holidays. She loves her little preschool! It is run by a friend of mine from her home, and she is using the “a Beka” curriculum. If you grew up in a private Christian school, you know exactly what that means! LOTS of phonics! But Kaylen has learned to spell her own name and identify some letters at just a few months past 3 and is just absolutely enthralled with the process of learning! (If you are local and looking for a good preschool for 3 or 4 year olds – let me know! She has a couple more openings!)
anyways – Without a nurse, I had to bundle up Kendall and schlep her around
with me, including the return trip back home for speech therapy (in which she hardly mumbled a syllable, and which prompted the SLP to say that we needed to look far more seriously into the communication device ordering – yay), getting her into her swimsuit so she could go to aqua therapy while I ran to Walmart for some dinner and lunch items (with a side trip to STARBUCKS!!!!! For the coveted red cup drink that makes holiday cheer immediately burst forth from your pores!), pick kendall BACK up from therapy, drive back to preschool, bundle everyone back up in coats with lunchboxes and papers, and lo and behold, JUST as we are turning to go down the stairs and out the front door,
CRASHHHHH!!! SCREAMMMM!!! THUD THUD THUD.
It was horrific. It was like a scene from a movie and I can see it continuing to replay in my mind. A fireplace mantel that Sarah has had for as long as I have known her came crashing down on Gracie when she was trying to get her lip gloss from the top of it, pinning her by her face underneath its weight. We both continue to try to wrap our minds around what happened, and how we both reacted, and what we should have done, but the bottom line is that it turned into a VERY crazy afternoon. 911 call, Gracie taken to the hospital by ambulance, me staying with the other kids there still, cleaning up tons and tons and tons of glass and broken things, and then rushing home JUST in time to throw sleepy babies at Ben so I could get to school to pick up big girls to drive them to dance!
{as an update/info – Gracie ended up with no head injury, but did suffer a broken cheek/sinus cavity and broken nose, severing one of the veins that gives blood to that sinus cavity and eye area, which is what led to the overly profuse blood loss that shocked even me. who can remain calm in the face of MOST facial injuries knowing they just bleed like stuck pigs. This was a LOT of blood even for a facial injury. anyways. She will be meeting with a plastic surgeon in a week to see what they can do to reconstruct the gumline, which is also split up to her nose, as well as the cheekbones and nose, if anything. Her spunky little spirit is still definitely intact – but she will have quite a recovery ahead of her! The family appreciates any prayers and thoughts for her!}
Ben spent 
the evening then setting up Christmas lights outside, complete with blue in the trees. I know it’s a hard look to pull off, but there is something about blue Christmas lights that makes me insanely happy. And he knows that. And he bought 32 boxes of Christmas lights in order to make our Winter Wonderland vision come a little more to life. Perhaps with 320 MORe boxes and a few feet of snow, it would be complete {cue angel chorus singing….}
All in all – it was a wild, crazy, completely unpredictable and yet so typical entry into December. here’s hoping for a few calm days hereafter.
Terra
