Then and Now--The Girls

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at how far we have come in the last year! Here are a few pics of the girls following the accident.

Emma had a some black and blue marks on her face, but you can see it didn't stop her from smiling! Isn't she adorable?

Moriah didn't have bruising on her face, but she had a mark on her neck from the seatbelt.

And here they are last month, with Grandma at a pumpkin farm! Still looking adorable and so much taller!



The Weekend Update--1 Year Later

Well, here we are....the one year mark! Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday, and sometimes it feels like an entire lifetime has gone by, but it was a year ago this Monday. However, we'll probably remember it more as the Sunday after Thanksgiving rather than November 28th. It has been a long difficult road, one we would never choose to take, but we have learned so much about our faithful and loving God that we would not otherwise have learned.

Many people have said we have been an inspiration because we faced this situation with grace, strength, and a good attitude. If there is anything inspiring in our actions, it is only because God has walked with us and carried us through this last year. We could not have gotten through this on our own! God was not taken by surprise last November 28th. He is not surprised at what may be going on in your life right now. Whatever your difficult situation may be, He knows all about it. Whether it's an illness, a miscarriage, infertility, financial struggles, the loss of a loved one, a troubled marriage, or a car accident.  God is God, He is sovereign, and He is good. He is willing to carry you through your trials, if you only ask Him. He will work ALL things for the good of those who love Him.

Today we were able to spend the day together, going  to church and hanging out at home. Usually we spend the weekend in IL and we are driving home on Sunday. This year my family came up here for the week, and they left on Friday. As we were on our way home last year, our accident just after 6pm. Tonight at 6pm we were reading through our Thankful Box. Of course, top on our list is just being home together! But here are a few more things that were listed in our box:

food

my mom and dad

our cozy home

emma's smile

food

moriah's laugh

everything God made

food (yep, we like to eat around here!)

my dad

my Ryan

my bed

our cousins

my microphone

my sister and brother

 "Squeaky" (Aiden's toy hamster)

Aiden's mischievous eyes

We are also thankful for all of you that have been a blessing to our family! Thank you for your support, prayers and encouragement over the past year. 



Highlights From Weeks 6 and 7/Fall Break

• The girls have finished memorizing the books of the Old Testament and have moved on to memorizing the 10 commandments.
• We have been reading The Golden Goblet, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, as our read-aloud.
• Moriah has been reviewing adjectives and learning adverbs in grammar.
• Emma is reviewing sentences and paragraphs in grammar.
• They have been studying water and air in science. In one experiment they put a crumpled up piece of paper and put it in the bottom of a glass.  Then they turned the glass upside down and pushed into the kitchen sink which was filled with water. Their paper did not get wet because their glass was filled with air! Even though they couldn't see it, they could tell it was there b/c it kept the water out of the glass and away from their paper!

This week, since we had several appointments, we took a fall break.  It came at a perfect time! The weather was gorgeous and we had time to savor some of the beautiful, warm, fall days!

We played at the park.

Aiden had a friend over and they went looking for "big bucks."

And the girls buried them in the leaves!

 The girls made leaf houses.

Moriah's even comes with a pool!

Their leaf homes are in the country, near a park and a wild game reserve. The reserve is "home to over 200 deer, which includes over 100 bucks." I learned that on my personal tour. :)

Although they enjoy the comforts of country living, they also built a leaf city. The city has a library, store, courtroom, and doctor's office. Moriah is the librarian, shopkeeper, and doctor.

When Aiden, a frequent patient, is in need of medical attention, he lays on the ground with his eyes closed until help arrives. The girls come with the ambulance (their sled) and pull the patient to the doctor's office!

Emma is the mayor and artist. And Aiden, he is the P- Bus Driver (wondering what that

 is? See the quotes below!) 

Here's Emma standing in the middle of their city.

Here they are having fun with friends in their leaf house!

Some of our favorite recent quotes--they are all from Aiden, but he has been one hilarious little boy!

 "Look, Mom! It's the P-Bus!" Aiden pointing to the UPS truck!

Ryan likes to hunt, and he usually takes the kids in the woods to look for "buck rubs." Well, Papa took them out this week and it was a new thing for Aiden. He kept hearing them talk about "buck rubs."

When they came out of the woods, Aiden told Grandma he saw "butt rubs." Then he stuck his little bootie out, and gave it a shake to demonstrate a "butt rub!"

Aiden: "Daddy, you're a good spanker."

Daddy, trying really hard not to laugh, "Thanks, Aiden."

"Mommy, I want to take a snuggle with you."

Aiden, in the middle of the night. "I can't find my keys!"

Mommy, "It's okay, sweetie. Go to sleep, and I will find them."

Aiden was getting ready for bed and he said, "Good night, Daddy. When we wake up, we can tack!" (Which means play tackle.)
Then he quickly said, "Wait, Daddy! I didn't do my piano practice!" (He has to do everything the girls do!)
Daddy said, "You can do it in the morning. Good night."
7:00am  Aiden comes out of his room and says, "I need to do my piano practice!" He climbed up to the keyboard, set the demo to play and "practiced" like a little Mozart!

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII will o-beeeeeeey Your Word," Aiden, reciting his first memory verse!

The Weekend Update/Jaw Manipulation

Well, this was the week we met with the oral surgeon in Brighton for a "jaw manipulation."

Ryan was sedated in the office and the doctor manipulated his jaw so he could try to find the cause of his limited mouth opening ( 15mm.) Previous CT scans do not show a bony issue, so it was assumed that there is scar tissue. Scar tissue will not show up in CT scans or xrays, but they did rule out a bony cause from the pictures. The doctor's goal was to find a more exact location of  the blockage during this manipulation. Also,  the scar tissue could possibly be loosened by the Dr. while Ryan was sedated. Worst case scenario, the scar tissue would need to be removed surgically by opening the TMJ joint. Working on the joint is rather risky. A local surgeon told us he was not comfortable performing surgery on the joint, which is why we were back in Brigton this week.

So, the good news is that it looks as if the TMJ joint will not have to be opened. Yay! But, the bad news is that his jaw needs to be re-broken. Yep, you read correctly. Re-broken! Yeah, I had to tell Ryan about 4 times before he realized I wasn't kidding. His bite is off and when he opens his mouth (or tries to :) everything shifts to the left, which may be the source of our problem. This may not completely fix the problem, but according to the Dr., it is the first step. Regardless of the limited opening, he said if we don't fix the bite it could lead to problems with the TMJ joint in the future.

We don't have a date set for this yet. The Dr. in Brighton is going to talk with the local surgeon to see if he is willing to do this part (the same local surgeon that did not want to open the joint.) If the local surgeon is willing to do this much then we can have the surgery done close to home. Otherwise, we'll have it done in Brighton. Having it done in Midland would be more convenient for an overnight hospital stay and weekly follow-up visits.

To those of you who know my husband, you probably know he can be a bit umm....lippy at times. You can imagine the wisecracks we've heard about the line-up of people wanting to help with the breaking of his jaw! Ryan said he'll be selling the honors to the highest bidder on e-bay!!

Please pray for guidance for us and for the doctors!

Thank you!

World Teacher Day

Did you know that there is a World Teacher Day?

Well, there is!

The girls discovered this from their calendar.

It was last week (or maybe the week before-they all run together!)

And this was my gift from my two favorite students: a shiny red apple, and this note:

I know there are grammar and spelling mistakes that would give an English teacher heart failure, but this just made my heart melt!

Slug Bug Blue!

We spend a lot of time in the car these days, and the girls have been playing the slug bug game.  They have learned where all the regulars are in Midland. For example there is always one at the library, the 555 building, and by the Circle. Last week I overheard these slug bug related conversations in the van.

Moriah, in a robot voice: "Slug bug scanning, slug bug scanning.....scanning incomplete. Shutting down."

"Slug bug silver!" --Moriah, who now has 2 slug bugs to Emma's 0.

"Oh, I quit!" --Emma's response to above statement.

"Slug bug lellow!!"--Aiden, shouting with excitement as a yellow non-slug bug car went by.

"Oh, I hate those cars that look like slug bugs! They get me every time!"--Emma, referring to PT Cruisers.

"Slug bug re----Oh, it's not there today!"--both girls in unsion, as they realize one of the "regulars" must have taken the day off!

"Aiden, do you want to be our little servant boy?"--Emma

"No, I want to be slug bug blue!"--Aiden

"Okay, how about you be our slug bug blue servant boy?"--Emma, ever so sweetly.

"Okay!"--Aiden, with excitement

"Great, then that means you have to do whatever we say!"--Emma, still with a hint of sweetness.

"Muaahh-ahhh-ahhhh-ahhhh!!"--Moriah, chiming in with her evil laugh.



The Weekend Update--From the Kids' Perspective

• We recently were talking about the accident, and how far we have come. I asked the girls, "Don't you think we have come a long way?" Moriah responded, "No! Daddy still can't run! I want Daddy to be able to run!" She asked if we remembered the night last fall before the accident that we stayed outside and played hide and seek-tag. I had forgotten all about that night! We laughed as we remembered chasing each other in the dark on a warm fall night. I think one of the girls said, "Remember Dad hid up in the tree? And no one could catch him, but he caught all of us?"
• Aiden plays "crash" quite often. He will be driving his Jeep or tricycle in the backyard and have a crash. He lays on the ground and waits for the ambulance (his sisters) to come. Sometimes I laugh watching him play, I don't know if I want to laugh because it's so funny, or cry that this is part of what he plays. He still talks about his real ambulance ride. He remembers that he was in the ambulance with mommy (which is correct) and that mommy was all snuggled up (which to him means having a blanket up to your neck.)
• One evening a few weeks ago we were all in the living room and Emma was sharing a story. Suddenly, we heard the sirens of an ambulance. Emma stopped talking and her face grew dark. She looked at Moriah and said, "It's coming this way."  Within seconds the ambulance passed by the house and Emma said, "I don't like sirens. They make me feel sad and scared." Ryan and I were both surprised by her reaction. As we talked later we thought about what it must have been like for them that night--waiting in the van, in the dark, listening to sirens coming in the distance, hearing them get closer, knowing they're coming for you--it was something I had never thought of and it made my heart ache for my little ones! Thankfully, someone shared the idea of encouraging the kids to pray for the people in the ambulance. What a great idea to help them take the focus off their fears by saying a prayer for the other person!
• Although much has changed for our kids, there are somethings that never change--they still are growing like weeds!! We measured the kids this week and they have each grown an inch since July!
• And they still have fun together! They have been enjoying this gorgeous fall weather, making leaf piles, and leaf houses, and dens--because they are always pretending to be some sort of animal!