Just some pics

When we went to Chuck E. Cheese's last weekend, Brandon got
these dollar sign glasses with his tickets. He needed to take some
"quiet time" on Saturday afternoon and he fell asleep just like this.
Yes, he's asleep in this picture. Cracked me up.

He is still WAY into NASCAR and was pumped
when he found out we got him this new ornament
for the tree this year. (Forgive my poor photoshopping
to take out the distracting pictures in the background!)

The tree is up! Whitney wanted to put the star
on the top this year...with Daddy's help of course.

The two cuties in front of the tree.
One of these years I'm going to have
to break down and buy a more decent looking tree.
We've had this one since we were in college.
Every year I think, "That thing looks so scraggly!"
Oh, well. It still makes us feel festive.

Whitney had a friend over to play today.
You can't get much more pink than this!
Gotta love little girls.

Oh, and take a close look at Whitney's eyes.
What do you think?
Andrew and I think her left eye points IN now,
toward her nose. It used to point out and this recent
surgery was supposed to correct that.
If this one didn't work, I think I'm giving up on Dr. Buckley.
(Don't tell Whitney I said that!)

A personal question

Do you have daily personal scripture study? If so, how do you work it into your schedule? In the mornings, evenings, middle of the day?

In our family, Andrew and I are really good at having couple scripture study. We read together every night before we go to bed.

I used to read on my own in the mornings. I would wake up before my kids and have 20-30 minutes to read and pray before I started my day. I loved it! I'm out of that habit now and am having the hardest time finding the right time to fit it in. I'm going to bed too late to wake up any earlier. So, I try to read at 2:30 in the afternoon when Whitney is down for her nap and Brandon is not home from school yet. Some days it works, but other days I find myself trying to squeeze too much into that nap time and my scripture study gets neglected. Just curious what works for you.

Movie Review, Interesting Night

For our date night this weekend, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the dollar theaters. Has everyone seen it? I had heard good things about it, but was overall disappointed.
**warning--spoilers ahead**
Here's what I liked:
Both this and the first movie have some moments of good humor. I like it when an "action" movie can also make me laugh.
Captain Jack Sparrow is a great character. I love his facial expressions and the way he runs.
The twist at the end when the girl handcuffed Jack to the boat--didn't see that coming.

Here's what bugged me:
Ok, this movie had NO closure whatsoever at the end. I understand that it's supposed to be part of a trilogy, but you can't leave me hanging like that! They honestly could've ended this one with "To Be Continued."
Yes, this is a pirate movie, so obviously there's going to be violence. But there were two scenes where completely innocent people were butchered and they didn't actually show it on the screen, but the off-camera sounds were bad enough. It bothered me.
I should've re-watched part 1 before we went to see this because there were several parts that I didn't understand that I'm sure were continuations of the first part.

Glad I didn't pay real theater prices to see it. Wish I would've known that it had no ending and maybe then I would've been less disappointed.

Ok, enough about the movie.

Last night was a rough night for Brandon. We put him and Whit to bed at their normal time--around 8 pm. They usually talk and read books for a while and we're fine with that. Well, last night around 8:45, we hear him crying in his bedroom. This boy hardly ever cries, so it was I was almost sure he was pretending. Or that maybe he had burned himself on his reading lamp. Andrew went in to check on him and he was truly having a breakdown. Since he had been out of school for the last 5 days, I had moved his backpack from its normal location, a little more out of the way. He hadn't seen it during the whole Thanksgiving break and was afraid he had lost it. That's what he was crying over! And it wasn't just a few little whimpery--he was full-blown sobbing. I felt so bad for him. As soon as we told him that his backpack was fine, he settled down. I went in to help comfort him and also to let him know that he hadn't done one of his homework assignments over the weekend. I should've waited until the morning to tell him that. I think he thought about that homework assignment all night because he came into my bedroom at 6:33--two minutes before I was going to wake him up--and said, "Mom, don't forget to wake me up in time to do my homework." He is going to be as obsessive about school and Andrew and I were.


Wow that was a long paragraph. Hope it made sense.

Thanksgiving

Our holiday was great! How was yours?

Thursday was a mad flurry of cooking in the kitchen.

Notice FOUR pots on the stove...
that Never happens in our house.

Many thanks to Angie for letting us know about
the square tablecloths at Target. It added a nice touch.

Brandon (inspired by Shrek) always wants
to eat the whole big turkey leg.
Last year, the meat was so moist that it all just
fell apart. Andrew tried to be very gentle
this year and it worked!

Here we are getting ready to pig out:

Me and Brandon

My cousin, Lee, and our friends from church,
Shelley and Michael

Andrew and Whitney

The food was great. The company was fun. It was a wonderful day. I was most impressed with my pie-making abilities. The pumpkin pie rocked. I also made a chocolate cream pie that was a big hit--especially with the kids. I burned the rolls a bit on the bottoms. The sweet potatoes were so/so. I don't think I added enough butter. I still liked them, but I don't think anyone else did. Brandon kept asking for more, but was just picking off the marshmallows. Andrew did a great job on the turkey. He brined it again this year--yummy.

SHOPPING--does anyone else go day-after-Thanksgiving shopping? This was my second year going. Last year, we wanted a camcorder and a GameBoy Advance and they were both available as great deals, so I ventured out early and scored. This year, our mall opened at 1 o'clock in the morning. There were a few sales that I thought would be fun to hit and I didn't think it would be too crowded since it was the middle of the night. Boy was I wrong! I'm not the only crazy woman willing to stay up until all hours of the night to save a buck. That place was packed!!! I did get some great deals, but I had to wait in line 1/2 an hour to pay for them. And then I found out that some of my items had been mis-labeled and were actually a lot cheaper than I thought they were going to be. Normally I'm happy about a surprise like that, but if I would've known how affordable the stuff was, I would've gotten more! I couldn't handle waiting in line for another 1/2 hour, though, so I left. I got a couple of hours of sleep and then woke up just after 5 to be at Target before 6. There was a gift I wanted (which will remain nameless at this time). I got there at 5:37 am and the line was almost all the way down to the next store in the strip mall. Ridiculous! When they let us in, I walked directly to a particular department, just in time to see the employees hand out the last of the item I wanted. NOOOOOO! I got a couple gifts for the kids and left to see if I could find the mystery gift at another store. Two others in the area were offering it at a good price. Both of them were already sold out. What is up with that? Very disappointing. I stopped and got one present for Drew and then headed home, exhausted. I think I'm still recovering.

Friday night we took the kids to one of our favorite places in the world--Chuck E. Cheese's. Yes, I won the bonus on skee-ball, so it was a good night. :) Whitney wanted Andrew to get a picture taken with her. They sat at the photo booth and I don't know what happened, but Whitney was upset about something and this is how the photo turned out:

That's a keeper!

Today has been a busy day, too. Andrew had to be to the church by 7 am to get the youth set for a temple trip. I took the kids to a birthday party at 9. Andrew performed a marriage at 11:30. Now everyone is taking naps and I'm about to join them.

It begins....

Last year I was being a big baby about staying at our own house for Thanksgiving. It was the first time we had ever done it in our married lives. So, I convinced Andrew to do all the cooking. And he agreed. Wow--what a man!

This year we are staying here again, and I'm over my drama. So, I started the cooking today. Andrew is still helping a lot and will be in charge of the turkey.

This is a yummy jello salad half way done.

It is one of those things that I always had growing up and want to incorporate into our own holiday menu. It is strawberry jello with frozen strawberries and bananas in it. You let the bottom half set, spread a layer of sour cream on top and then pour the other half of the jello mixture on top. Does that sound gross? I always thought the sour cream part sounded yucky, but it tastes so good. Mmmmm.

I'm also following Dave's example and making a pumpkin pie from scratch. Right now I'm wishing that they had some sort of device to record smells--the way videos and photos record images or tapes and cd's record sound. I would love to capture the smell in my house right now. Those spices in the pumpkin pie just permeate the air in here. Delicious! And I don't know when this will happen again. Definitely not anytime soon.

I was not brave enough to attempt to make the crust.
I just bought a pre-made one.

Hope this works out!
(Brandon took this picture. It's always funny to me
to see how tall I look to him. I can't imagine what
Andrew must look like through his eyes!)

Brrrrr...freezing

The weather has finally turned cold here. I'm freezing today! The good thing about NC winters...there are always breaks in the cold temps. I look forward to the next warm spell.

Here's what Whitney looked like yesterday.
Her eye is coming right along.

I think she looks pretty good!

This one's from today:

Other than that pink, fleshy swelling in the corner
of her eye, you'd never know she had surgery 4 days ago!

Our visit with Dr. Buckley went well today. Everything is healing as it should. She was SOOOO excited to see him. Very cute. The annoying thing: we aren't scheduled to go back until FEB 20TH. That seems like an eternity. He said to come back in 2-3 months, but the lady at the desk scheduled me three full months out. I think I might call back and see if we can move it up to Jan.

Brandon made this very fun, colorful turkey hat in school today. He looked so cute when he walked in the door wearing it.

Our FHE lesson last night was on Gratitude--what a surprise. Brandon helped with it by sharing the story of the Pilgrims and Indians. I wish I had tape recorded it and could type it word for word. He's a great storyteller. It went something like this:
"Like a million years ago, these people were living in England. They didn't like their king because he was trying to make them go to his church. They decided to leave and come to America. And when they hit the other side they met the people called the Indians. And then an Indian named Squanto taught them how to plant food when it was winter. He teached them how to grow vegetables that they had never planted. And then after winter they had a type of feast called Thanksgiving. That's the type of year we're in right now."
(He's sitting right here by me, so I had him re-tell it, but it had even more details last night.)

We also started a family gratitude journal for the week. I'm hoping we will each take the time to write down some of the things we're thankful for throughout the week. So far some of the things in the book: nursery, dishwasher, big hugs, inspiration, a suitcase, cousins, scrapbooks (No, this wasn't even one of mine!), fall leaves, cemetaries.

Brandon and Whitney update

Whitney has been getting all the publicity, but Brandon has not been forgotten around here. He started a new basketball season. His first practice was yesterday. He is the youngest one on his team. He barely qualified for the league by a couple of weeks. He is also one of the shortest--Andrew said there are several kids that are a whole head taller than him. (I was gone to Super Saturday at church and didn't attend the practice.) It could be a challenging season for him.

Andrew said he has a really good coach who is big on fundamentals and knows what he's doing.

They learned the difference between bounce passes and
chest passes and had to practice both.

He tried to teach them to dribble with their heads up.
Brandon is still learning that one.

They are also learning to shoot the right way--with one hand on the bottom of the ball, the other on the side, and follow through. Brandon made this comment to me, "They're teaching me to shoot the ball this hard way and it's very uncomfortable." I was so surprised. He was shooting the ball the right way from his crib when he was 1 1/2.

Check out these two photos:
They are from a scrapbooking layout I did.

He is SIXTEEN MONTHS old.

I thought it was instinct. If so, I guess he somehow lost it along the way.
Oh, well. Hopefully it will come back to him. Otherwise,
I'm afraid he'll get frustrated this season.

As for little Miss Whitney...

Here is the swelling as of this morning.

I think she looks pretty good. You can obviously tell something happened to her, but I think she looks better than she did with the black eye! Although a little of the bruising is still left behind from that. She was pretty much back to herself today. She was running around and playing. Maybe a little more whiny than usual, but I don't know if I can blame that on the surgery or if it was just a bad day.

As far as the results, it can take up to six weeks for the muscle to fully respond to its new position, so we won't know how well the surgery worked until then. We go back to see Dr. Buckley on Tuesday, but I think that's mainly to make sure the incision is healing properly and to monitor for infection. We give her antibiotic drops and ointment in her eye. She's a trooper about that.

Surgery went well

Yippee! It's over and everything went well. Whitney is lethargic, but seems to be doing well otherwise. If you wanted the short update, there you go. If you want to hear all the nitty gritty details...

8:00 am--We arrived at Duke a little early. Better than being a little late. Whitney is doing great. She is very happy and has not complained at all about not getting breakfast this morning. Do you understand what a miracle that is? This is the girl who comes into my room between 6:15 and 6:30 every morning and 90% of the time, the first thing she says is, "I'm hungry, Mommy."

X marks the spot--fix this eye

9:15 Whitney just said, "I'm hungry" for the first time, but is still happy and distracted while watching movies on our portable DVD player. It's like she just realized she missed out on something (food!) this morning.

Yes, we love technology.
But not as much as you, you see.

10:30 Our nurse, Tina, just came in to tell us that the first procedure of the day "took much longer than anticipated." We were supposed to be going back into surgery right now, but may still have 90 minutes of waiting. NOOOOO!!! Almost on cue, Whit started crying for the first time. "I want some Goldfish. What can I have for a snack?" Talk about heartbreaking.

Feed me!

10:35 I broke out my secret weapon--PlayDoh--and it worked! The crying has subsided for now. I hope it lasts!

She even made herself a patch out of PlayDoh.
I guess she misses it.

11:05 Tina came in to give her "silly" medicine to help her relax and not remember what's happening. She got a much-appreciated drink of Sprite with it.

11:15 She's curled up on Daddy's lap. Looks sleepy.

11:17 Ok, the "silly" part just kicked in. Groggy giggles. "You look silly, Daddy." Talking gibberish. When Andrew asked her what her name was, she said, "Whitney is coming." It's funny and a little disturbing to see her so out of it.

Ready for surgery

11:25 Andrew just took her off to be put to sleep. Bye, little girl!

12:50 Where ar they? This feels like it's taking FOR-EV-VER!

12:55 I'm starving. Finally give up and find vending machines for some snacks.

1:02 Dr. Buckley walks in to report that everything went fine. She's sleeping in recovery but out of anesthesia.

1:30 Tina just came to tell us that Whit was still sleeping and Andrew could go back into recovery so he would be there when she wakes up.

1:40 Andrew is coming down the hall with a crying Whit in his arms. Poor little thing. She is just a little lump--no energy. Her tears have blood in them. That's normal after surgery, but still sad to see.

1:45 Whit drinks a lot of Sprite and is slowly sucking all of the juice out of a grape popsicle.

Finally--something to eat!

2:00 Her eyes must be so sore. She keeps alternating between eating peanut butter crackers, drinking Sprite, and sucking her popsicle--all with her eyes closed.

2:30 We get the AOK to leave. Whitney said, "Yeah! We get to go see Dr. Buckley." Oh, shoot. I forgot she was asleep the whole time that he was working on her. Try explaining THAT to a 2 year old. Luckily, she wasn't too upset about it.

Whitney gets these sunglasses that are way too big,
but help a little bit with the light sensitivity.


She slept most of the way home,
but refused to let go of her Sprite.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I think we have a long, lazy weekend ahead of us. I am so thankful that things went smoothly.

**Surgery Update**

We're scheduled to arrive up at Duke at 8:30 am. No eating after midnight. Clear liquids until 6:30 am.

I'm excited for Whitney and starting to get a little nervous.

Insurance hassle

Ok, so everything is supposed to be on track for Whitney's surgery tomorrow. I can call later this afternoon to get an arrival time for us. But, the annoying part is....insurance. I got a letter in the mail on Monday from our insurance company telling me that they are not going to pay for our last visit to Duke because they have no record of a referral from our PCP to Dr. Buckley. I called them and said, "Duh--we've been seeing him for the last two years. We don't need a referral every time, do we?" (Ok, I was nicer than that.) They informed me that a referral only lasts one year, so they needed an updated one.

After many phone calls between the insurance company and our ped's office, I think we've got it worked out. At least I hope so. It's scary to go into surgery tomorrow and not know FOR SURE if they're going to pay for it or not. I had to pass the buck to Andrew today because he can do conference calls and is better at demanding service in a nice but authoritative manner. They're supposed to call him back later today if/when things are completely resolved.

Potty training update, my current read

**For those uninterested in potty training news, please skip the next two paragraphs**
Potty training has definitely had peaks and valleys so far. This is the routine right now: When Whitney wakes up, I usually put her in "big girl" panties. She stays in them until a. she has an accident or b. we leave the house. Sometimes she will stay in them for several hours and do just fine. Other days she wets them within 30 minutes of having them on. I'm not sure if she's just too busy playing to stop and go potty or if she's still learning to recognize the signals. It has not been at all frustrating yet. Just slowly moving along.

If she has stayed dry in the morning and we're leaving to go out, I put her in a Pull-up. She's pretty good at staying dry in those, too. If she has had an accident, I usually just put her in a diaper, which she is not very motivated to keep dry. She hardly ever stays dry all day anymore. Some days she'll just have 1 or 2 accidents. Other days she only uses the potty once or twice. I think I need to find another way to motivate her. The prize jar is not really cutting it right now.

Here is the black eye, day 5

I think the worst is over.
It just looks like she's wearing heavy eye shadow.
Like this, right??? :)

Here's a cute picture of the kids I snapped yesterday.

Soon after it was taken, they started head butting each other.
End of photo shoot!

I'm reading a new book.
Saints, by Orson Scott Card

Has anyone else read or even heard of this book? I found it on clearance at the BYU bookstore this summer and Andrew and I are big Orson Scott Card fans, so I picked it up. Andrew read it several months ago and told me, "I don't think you'd like it." I haven't been reading much of anything lately, other than picture books for the kids, but decided to give it a try. I don't know that I can recommend it. I'm about 100 pages into it. It is very stressful to read. Kind of like watching LOST. I seriously think my blood pressure goes up during some of the tense moments. And there have been a few incidents in the book that I could've done without. But, what I like about it so far is it has made me so grateful for some of the normal, everyday things that I often take for granted.

It is about a family in England in the 1800's. The husband walks out on them and they are left on the brink of homelessness. O.S.Card is SO good at taking me into their lives and feeling what it was like to be in their situation. The children are forced to work in factories where they are beaten. The youngest son gets "apprenticed" (read: sold as a slave) to a chimney sweep. It is terrible. But, at least I have hope for them that they can make it out of their desperate situation.

Things I've been grateful for while reading this book:
1. Andrew. What a blessing to have a loving, kind husband who works so hard to support our family.
2. An insulated house with a heater. I HATE being cold.
3. My absence of pain. These kids are treated so terrible by their overseers at work. It breaks my heart. They are worked to the bone and are sore every day. The only pains I feel lately are self-inflicted. (I bought a new Billy Blanks workout on DVD. I am sore all the time, but only because I choose to be.)
4. Food. I have never had to worry about where my next meal is going to come from. I am so fortunate.
5. Education. For myself and my kids. And Andrew, too. Sometimes I wonder if Brandon's getting the best education that he can. This book has made me remember that it's a blessing that he can be in school at all.

As I said, don't know if I recommend it, but I am grateful for the lessons I'm getting out of it.

Good Sunday

Here are the latest pics of the black eye.

Day 3. Ouch! That purple is SO dark.
It's pretty amazing to watch the healing process, though.

Thankfully, the worst bruising is right on her eyelid,
so it's doesn't look as bad to the casual observer.

Today was the Primary program at church. I felt like the pressure was on for me. I was the counselor who was in charge of writing the script, but then when I got released I was called as the Primary chorister--in charge of all the music. So, if things went crappy there really was no one to blame but me.

We had 4 practices before the real deal. The first practice went GREAT. The second was so-so. The third and fourth were pretty bad. I was starting to get worried. I've heard so many stories about how the kids always pull through for the program and bring a special Spirit with them. I was beginning to wonder if we'd be the first ward to have a horror story instead.

Phew--add us to the list of wards who witnessed miracles. The kids performed better than they'd ever practiced. They did well on their lines and sang SO WELL. They even choked me up on the last song, "Holding Hands Around the World." (And I'm not the kind of girl who gets choked up easily!)

I tried a new recipe for dinner last night: Quick and Easy Stuffed Peppers. I loved them. Andrew thought they were pretty good. The kids pretty much refused to eat them. Even though they don't have rave reviews from the whole family, I thought I'd share the recipe for anyone who's interested. It's all done in the microwave and is really fast. The stewed tomatoes were too chunky for my taste. I think I'll chop them up a little when I make them next time. Also, it only makes 4 half-peppers and since it's done in the microwave, I don't know how easily it could be doubled.

Quick and Easy Stuffed Peppers

Submitted by: Jen

"This microwave recipe is quick and very simple, and is a good meal for a busy work week. You can use any color peppers you like. Try using garbanzos instead of the kidney beans for a variation on this recipe." Original recipe yield: 4 servings. Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 30 Minutes Servings: 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 large red bell peppers, halved and seeded
• 1 (8 ounce) can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
• 1/3 cup quick-cooking brown rice
• 2 tablespoons hot water
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed and drained
• 1/2 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

---

DIRECTIONS:

1. Arrange pepper halves in a 9 inch square glass baking dish. Cover dish with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic wrap for vents, and heat 4 minutes in the microwave, or until tender.
2. In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes and their liquid, rice, and water. Cover with plastic, and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes, or until rice is cooked.
3. Stir green onions, corn, kidney beans, and red pepper flakes into the tomato mixture. Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, or until heated through.
4. Spoon hot tomato mixture evenly into pepper halves, and cover with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic to vent steam, and heat in the microwave 4 minutes. Remove plastic, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese, and allow to stand 1 to 2 minutes before serving.

Andrew's birthday

Yesterday was jam packed. Brandon and I had one final practice before the primary program. That went from 10-11:30. Andrew had a meeting with the youth at church from 5:30-7:30. So, Andrew and I had this little window of time where we could go out. I was hoping to do something cultural. I searched around online and found a Community Guitar Celebration that was going on all day. Perfect! We got a babysitter from 12-4 and took off. We heard some an amazing young classical guitarist and later listened to a fun Bluegrass band. We love live music.

In between performances, Andrew got to try out the classical guitars that were for sale. He has been wanting a new guitar for a while now and almost decided to get this one, but backed out at the last minute. I think he wants to save up a little more.

We stopped for ice cream on the way home. Mmmmmm.....Cold Stone..... They have pumpkin ice cream right now--love it!

After his meeting with the youth, we had cake at home with the kids.

The birthday boy.

Why did I choose blue frosting???

Me and Whit. (The only reason my piece of cake
is so small is because I'd already eaten a huge serving of Cold Stone!)

The card Brandon made for Andrew:

He thought it was the funniest card EVER!
"Ha! You're TWO years old dad!!"

Quick update

We had a fun day yesterday for Andrew's birthday. I'll post more about that later. Here's a quick update on the kids.

Here's the shiner on Day 2:

The swelling has gone down a bit.
The bruising has gotten worse.

I loved Amy's advice about patching her eye to hide it. My friend, Nicolle, actually suggested the same thing. I've seriously thought about it. It would be a lot easier than answering questions all day at church today. But those patches are so darn sticky that I think it would really hurt when we took it off. So, I guess I'll just have to have the falling-in-the-bathroom story on repeat, ready to be shared.

The bus fighting incident is still an unsolved mystery.

Brandon's side of the story: Me and Sami were sitting together on the bus. William (the 2nd grader) was in front of us and he kept turning around and ignoring(read: annoying) us and hitting us and stuff. [What do you mean "hitting you"? Was he punching you in the face?] No, he was slapping us and stuff. And then Sami and him starting fighting. [You didn't start fighting, too?] No, I was just sitting there. [You just sat there and watched while your friend was fighting?] Uh huh. And I was saying, "Please stop, William. Please stop, William." [So you didn't hit or scratch William at all?] No.

William's side of the story: Those two little kindergarteners were sitting behind me on the bus and they kept bugging me and hitting me. I know that they're smaller than me, so I didn't hit them back. But then they started kicking me and scratching me.

Sami's side of the story: [What happened on the bus yesterday, Sami?] Nothing. [Didn't something happen with William?] No.

I have a feeling the truth lies somewhere between William's and Brandon's sides of the story. But the driver didn't see it and neither did the two older friends that we know on the bus. So we may never know the whole story.

Would you mess with a kid that had guns like these?

Despite the black eye and the bullying
accusations, both kids are doing fine.

Some moms have all the luck

...Some moms have all the pain. That's me this morning.

First, check out Whit's new sunglasses.

Aren't they cute?

Does she look like she has something to hide??

Well, she does...

Look at this big black eye!

Poor thing. She was using the potty before bed last night. We keep a little step-stool in their bathroom. She had finished going potty and was standing on that stool while I helped her get back into her pj's. Well, she slipped off the stool and hit her eye right on the edge of the bathtub. Oh my gosh. I felt terrible! It instantly swelled up--about the size of a big jelly bean. It was bright purple. She cried so bad. It was heart wrenching.

Extreme close-up

I have a feeling it's going to get worse before it gets better.

When she woke up this morning, the swelling wasn't as localized, but the whole lid is kind of swollen shut. My first thought, "What if she's not able to have surgery next week because of this???" I took some pictures and e-mailed them up to Duke to get their input. Dr. Buckley's in surgery today, but one of his fellows looked at the pics. She called back and said the swelling will probably have gone down by next week and Whit should be ok for surgery. I hope Hope HOPE she's right. I guess we'll find out when we show up next Friday.

The other excitement of the morning...

The bus picks up Brandon right in front of our house. I used to wait outside with him, but now that it's getting cold, I just stand in the front window to make sure he gets on the bus safely. This morning, the bus driver honked and waved for me to come out. Uh oh. That can't be a good thing. She told me that a little boy named William said that Brandon and a third little boy jumped on him and beat him up yesterday on the bus. What? Brandon denied it. I felt that he was put in a very confrontative situation, though, in front of all the kids on the bus. William had two little scratches on his wrist and a scrape on his other hand. I have a feeling William didn't completely make up the story, but I don't really think Brandon would just jump on him and start beating him up for no reason either. I hope to get more of the story when he gets home. The bus driver said she didn't see anything happen. Great. I wish she could either confirm or deny it. That's tough when it's one kid's word against another. I have a tendency to believe Brandon, but he doesn't always tell the truth. I hope he doesn't get kicked off the bus.