Parents Homework

Hank loves it when I take home homework from his teacher. He laughs that I get homework not just him. So I take as much homework as I can possibly take because he sees how important doing homework can be. I do still have my regular homework from my own school, but this is just an added bonus of homework. I took some pictures of the parents homework. Oh yeah those really are excercise bands, the students do different workouts a few days a week. At least my tuition is paying for something worthwhile.

Morning After

So we did get some snow. And more then I thought we would. Although it is not still snowing there is snow on the ground. (sorry the first picture is sideways)

....1st Snow

It is really only October 11th? and we are having our first snow fall. Hank caught a few on his tongue. I hurried inside and turned on the heater in our house for the first time. The sparkly pieces in the air are the snow.

Music Class

So Hank gets to have music class once a week. He loves it and is getting really good at singing and he enjoys playing a different instrument each week. I am glad that I am not the music teacher :) He drew the music that he was learning on the board the other night. This board serves many uses in our house but in general you can find different words and drawings on it almost every day.









If you ask him he will tell you it is "half note, half note, ton, ton, ton, rest, then repeat" He also claps it and is so cute while doing it. Maybe he will learn to play an instrument some day but at least he will know how to read music.

..He used the camera..

So I finally let Hank take one picture with our new camera. Here are the results. At least I don't look that horrible. And in case you are a detail person and are looking at the clock, it is not 9:45 at night when this picture was taken. Our clock is just resting his arms and is stuck at 9:45. I put new batteries in (according to Hank that was the problem) and he is still just too tired to move his arms.

..work weekend..

So last weekend we had a work weekend. I went to IKEA for the first time on Friday and purchased a kitchen table and a few other things to help get our kitchen organized. After unloading the car on Friday Hank was dissapointed that we would not be working right away. He said the cutest thing "We are going to eat dinner at a kitchen table again mom?" I realized that we hadn't done this at our house for a long time. Mostly because we just didn't have the room for a table and chairs. So after we realized that we wouldn't be working because we needed some different screws we went to the store to purchase them so we would be ready for work on Saturday morning. Hank is awesome at reading the instructions (IKEA's are usually just pictures) so he was in charge of seperating the hardware and putting the table together. I was in charge of hooking it up to the wall.


Showing off his abilities to follow instructions, and his work ethic



First Meal at the new table.



So the kitchen table is now in place, we have eaten dinner at it three nights and both of us love it. The new tradition is to: talk about your day, what was your favorite and least favorite part of your day (stole that idea from my sister). He has also used the kitchen table for homework. When the rest of the kitchen is put together I will post some pictures of how great it looks :) And to show why the space was so limited that our table hangs from the wall. It is small but it is perfect for us. There is also a bar that hangs up close to the ceiling above the table that our pots and pans hang from. Sounds like we are starting to do "normal" family stuff!

Hank

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Going to go Private

So I think that I am going to go ahead and go private. While I like that other people can come visit my blog. I don't like that people from all over the world are coming to see it. I know why they are I just don't like it. So if you are a person who wants to continue reading please post me a message and I will try and send invites.

Thanks!

...Gymnastics...

Hank has started gymnastics again and he loves it this time. Here are a couple of pictures taken a few weeks ago. Even with his hurt finger he tried everything. His favorite is the balance beam of course. Although I think he will like the bars once he can actually hold onto them. It is both a good and bad thing that there are other boys in his class this time. He does like it because then he isn't with all girls, but I noticed they tend to distract each other quickly.

Here is Uncle Bri and Hank in the backyard of his new house. Looks a little like somewhere else doesn't it :)

Sorry I don't know how to rotate the pictures after I put them in the post :)

Some Updates

I am going to try and update a little bit.....





Hank is still loving school. He has only had to miss the two days because of his finger so far. He has been learning how to read sight words and has been practicing his writing abilitites. They have had two field trips so far. One to Cactus and Tropicals and the second one to Wheeler farm. I was a driver to Wheeler farm so I will do another post with some pictures. This week the teachers are all gone to a conference so he has been in after school care all day. I am so glad that they offered this. There are only 10 kids signed up and he is the only kindergarden kid but he said it was fun and when we got there a little late this morning all the other kids were excited when he showed up. They had water day on Wednesday so they played in the sprinklers. Today was PJ day, so he wore his Power Ranger pajamas. I am sure that this morning at the Doctors office they thought I just didn't dress him. Update on his finger - the doctor this morning said it is doing great and we do not have to go back in. It will take about six months to get a good new nail but the old one is hanging in there for now. He is also back in gymnastics and this time around he really enjoys going so it is more fun to watch him.

Macaroni Art Writing in his journal at school

I was lucky enough to receive Strep right after we visited the hospital so I spent the next few days feeling horribly. Hank remembers it as we went to Papa's house and I just slept for two days. If only that were true. While I did stay in Grandmas bedroom and barely leave for two days there was not much sleep going on. And now I am happy to say that I have Strep again. So on round two of the antibiotic. Otherwise I have been busy with work and trying to stay on top of everything he is doing. I have enjoyed attending the Parent Teacher league meetings and being as involved as my schedule allows me to be in all that is going on with his school. I have taken a break sort of from school so I have been able to spend a little more time doing other things.

Pictures

Here are some pictures using our new camera.

This is what happens when we turn our living room into a movie theatre.

Fair. Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the Fair. We had a great time. Hank played games and won his ribbons. He also enjoyed (sort of) riding the pony.

Yuck

Here is what his finger looked like the day they took the bandage off at the Doctors office. He was so sad and I felt so horrible for him. It was only marginally painful, they had to soak it for awhile to get the bandage to loosen up and come off.

Kind of gross but it looked good so they say.

Pictures

This is what he looked like when we finally got home from the hospital the day he hurt his finger.

Such a sad but cute face!
Bandaged hands, the yellow one is from the IV.

Thank you...

I have to say Thank you to my sister for buying me an early christmas present. Thanks to her contribution we are now digital again :) So hopefully I will catch up on posting with some pictures included. I also dropped off my film at Costco today and they are putting it on CD's as well as prints so I will hopefully have some great pictures of Hanks injury and everything else the past few weeks. I am excited and can't wait until I have the time to post the pictures to share.

So far Hank really wants to use the camera and I won't let him. He is a little upset about it but I want this one to last for awhile. Maybe I will purchase him a camera for his christmas present. I need some opinions on that is five years old too young to own a digital camera?

10th day continued

Hank was under sedation for about four to five hours. Sedation is weird, it just seperates mind and body. His eyes were open most of the time and he would squirm around. He thinks it only lasted about a minute, and he had a dream he was a little baby again. So for him it was great! For myself it was horrible, I had a sinking feeling in my heart. Hank was hurting and I couldn't stop it. The first set of doctors and nurses took off the fingernail, and dug around then decided they needed a hand surgeon to complete the job. They let Hank stay mostly under sedation while we waited for the next group. When the Doctor got there he couldn't find anybody to assist him so Dad and I attempted to assist. I was holding Hanks arm under the sterile area and as soon as the Doctor touched him he yanked his hand back so fast I couldn't stop him. So I didn't do so well as an assistant. The doctor finally found enough people to come in and assist, but Dad got the job of holding Hanks hand under the sterile area. Thank goodness grandpas are stronger and better suited for this stuff. After what felt like forever they bandaged his hand back up. Then Hank was slowly waking up. It took a long time for the sedation to wear off, they were almost at the point where if they would have had to give him more we would have spent the night. Hank had bargained for a popsicle for grandpa so they both got their reward. Hank had no interest in eating his. I ate most of it, then the nurse came in to check on him and said he could go home since he ate most of his popsicle. I had to admit he didn't eat it, I did so that it wouldn't melt on my hand. I asked what the side effects were, why he needed to stay there. I was told he might throw up but that was about it. I decided to just bring him home. Twenty minutes after arriving home he did throw up, but hey I have cleaned that up before :) Grandma Janet came to visit. Grandpa Ed went and bought the prescriptions for us, an antibiotic and a liquid version on Loritab. Hank threw up a couple of more times then he was fine. Grandpa Great and Uncle Craig came and gave him a blessing. Hank finally went to sleep about 9:30 that night. Although he was given a pain killer to take Hank is tough! He only ended up taking three doses of Tylenol over the course of the next couple of days. And although his hand was bandaged pretty good I didn't let him go to school the next day. He woke up on Friday and told me how he would just stay inside and to classroom chores and he would be very careful with his hand I decided it was better to let him stay home. The Doctors said to keep his hand as still as possible for the next three days in order to let the new fingernail start to grow. That night was the fair so it was difficult but we made it!

This was a long post and there are probably some things missing but at least I finally posted it. I took some pictures with my camera but since it is not digital I will have to add them once I get the film developed.

10th day of school

I have realized that I don't post very often :) And lately I seem to run out of time so here is an update on what happened on Hank's tenth day of school.

It was a great Thursday morning, which meant he spent the night with Papa and I got some good sleep. He went to the State fair and entered his sunflowers and then Papa dropped him off at school. Not forty five minutes later I get a phone call from the office of his school, "Hank smashed his finger in the door, I really think you need to come take him to the ER". So in my mind I am thinking OK the office is overreacting, I mean kids smash their fingers all the time right. WRONG! When I got there to pick him up he instantly started crying again. He had his finger wrapped in a paper towel which he was bleeding through and an Ice pack on it. I was told that he smashed it in the hinged side of his classroom door. The scream could be heard throughout the whole school. So obviously we were going to the doctor. After getting Hank in the car I called his doctor to see if maybe they had an appointment, I figured without insurance that would be the best option. The had an appointment at 11:30 and I didn't want to wait that long. Hank heard me say that and he insisted that we could wait, he could even go back to his class until it was time. So we went to a clinic. After they rushed us in to bandage his finger we were put back in the waiting room. Hank instantly found a young boy playing a handheld game and sat right next to him and watched him. Once we were taken back they took an x-ray of his finger. The bone was broken. It is called a tuft fracture. Which means he broke the tip of his finger off. The way the bone broke off it pulled his fingernail out at the bottom of the nail bed. Which in turn exposed all the structure that is that the bottom of your fingernail. Believe me this is not a pretty site! After about an hour, this doctor came in and jabbed around with a pair of tweezers. Hank was freaking out which I couldn't blame him because it had to hurt like crazy. Another Doctor came in and just abruptly said "we will have to remove his fingernail and then stitch it up" Hank lost it at this point, and I was upset. How could you just walk into a room and tell a little kid, we are taking part of your body off!!! So she then said well if you really want to go up to Primary children's they could sedate him, but they will do the same thing so it is just a waste. That made my mind up we were going! So they loosely wrapped up his finger, and the nice nurse also worked at Primary children's so she told him he would be able to get a Popsicle when he was done. On the way I called my Dad and asked him to come up there with me, I didn't know how much more blood and holding a 40lb kid while he was screaming I could handle. Hank was set up in the ER with all the machines on, monitoring heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure. Grandpa showed him how to make the numbers go higher and lower on the machine so he kept himself busy. Hank also learned what all the valves in the wall do, just ask he will tell you the green one is for oxygen. After a couple of hours they finally had enough people that could be in the room at the same time so they could sedate Hank and get his finger taken care of.

This is a long post so I am going to break it here and finish the story after I get Hank to bed :)

Ribbons

I just realized that I never actually posted that Hank did win two blue ribbons this year. He entered sunflowers in two different categories and won a blue ribbon in each. Along with a small check (for $2) he was excited. The fair was fun, except his hurt finger so he couldn't do anything he wanted to do. We walked around for an hour trying to find a game that a five year old could play with only one hand. He ended up playing balloon darts, and another game where you roll the balls into slots and tally up your points. He was also able to ride a pony which was pretty cool. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures after I develop the film.

Random Thoughts

I decided like so many of my friends and family that I would post a random thoughts post:

1. My sisters husband is leaving for six months. I have shed a single tear over this because I know that she will be fine and he will return home to them. They have one of those marriages that I admire and know that their strength in each other and their belief in God will see them through this tough time.
2. Hank is in Kindergarten. Wow I have a child who is old enough to go to school.
3. Compliment from the Principal. Hank was injured at school recently and it was pretty traumatic and major. (see other post which will be soon) The other night I saw his principal and she said they were all talking in the office and were extremely impressed that when I picked him up I was calm and in control. I handled the situation perfectly and they were impressed. I felt great!
4. Work is a little stressful right now. I have also discovered that I work pretty well under pressure.
5. Money is tight as it always is in this economy. I am going to be able to stretch the budget and I think of all the great lessons Hank is learning about how to live within our means.
6. I need to find the time to devote to adult activities. Meeting some new friends, going out on the town, exploring my own interests.

I think that is enough on random thoughts for today. I will post about Hanks accident and other stuff soon. I don't have a camera right now so for awhile there will be no pictures with my posts.

First Day of School

So I am a little late posting this. He actually started school on August 20th. He loves his teacher Mrs. Fischer. The first day was a half day with a bbq right after. Carole and her kids were still here visiting so they were able to come and see it. Here are some pictures of his first day of school.

Finding his drawer and hook, then his chair and a book to read before class actually started.

Walking out "SO PROUD" He made it and so did I.

Ribbon time again....

Hopefully! Hank will be entering another sunflower in the Fair tomorrow. I hope that he gets a ribbon, and according to him only the blue ones are good ones. If anybody wants to see his flowers go to the state fair on Thursday (which is FREE day) or Friday. They have four different flower competitions so they only stay for a few days. GOOD LUCK Hank! Papa great and Grandma great love to take him to do this. I think they are just as excited as he is.

New Post

So since I have not posted in awhile I figured I would just type on up really quickly....

Today started with me not feeling the greatest! My brother convinced me to go out last night, it was fun and I actually shot a decent game of pool. Then my upstairs neighbor came and woke me up at 9:00 to tell me my car had been broken into. So they broke the rear passenger window to enter the car. They stole Hank's brand new backpack, my backpack and a black shoulder bag. The only thing of monetary value they got was my Ipod which is replaceable so that is ok. Thank goodness that they emptied the backpacks before they took them since Hank had taken his State Fair ribbons for show and tell on Friday. Those would not have been replaceable. I also still have my Anatomy books. But it still gives me a sense of unease. I already ordered Hank a new Power Ranger backpack, some other kid I guess will have his old one with his name on it. My backpack will have to wait to be replaced and the IPOD probably will not get replaced for a long time. I did however find out that the window will only cost $186. I say only because that pretty much is a lot. They will come to my work on Tuesday to replace the window. There were some other items taken that leave me a little shaken up but overall I am glad that nobody was hurt and the items are replaceable. I will however no longer leave anything in my car. Which is good because I always struggled with cleaning out my car now I guess that won't be happening. The horrible part is that I don't feel as safe anymore. I have installed an additional lock on my house because of this. I am glad that Hank is out of town right now so he doesn't have to see me feeling this way, and I guess I will explain everything to him tomorrow. Anyway that is my post. I will post about Hanks first day of school, and his first whole week. He is doing great.

Finally tried to....

Waterski....

I finally attempted to water ski. I actually got up for a minute. It was fun and really didn't hurt my back like I thought it would.