Hey..I'm still here!!

I haven't given up on Blogging! Nothing in my life seems to be 'blog worthy' I know this is going to be a busy month so I will try to post some pictures...for Julie...even if it seems boring!

What we have been up too....
-taking down pumpkin light outside
-getting Senior pictures taken
-celebrating Alisha's 17th Birthday
-hanging snowflake lights outside
-cleaning houses
-hunting
-hunting
-hunting
-oh..did I already type that..oops!
-New Attendees Lunch at church
-Annual exam & Mammogram...Joanne..haha!
-cleaning kids room..they do have a floor!
-laundry
-getting front end work done & 2 new tires on the van...poor girl..she's getting tired!

Well that about sums it up! Our life exciting as it is!

An Operation....

Not the kind of Operation you are thinking of...this is a different kind of operation. It's Operation Christmas Child. Every year we assemble boxes for children overseas under the Samaritans Purse Organization.

If you are unfamiliar with these boxes....let me briefly explain. In short, you make a "Christmas Gift" for a child...the things we put in the boxes range from toys, Beanie Babies, toothbrush, soap, socks....each box is different...no two are the same....packed with love! We pre-wrap the box in Christmas wrap and then the filling begins.

Here is Shelly and Kathy wrapping boxes with a smile.... Some of the boxes being filled...with love of course!

The Beanie Baby table

So, here we are with all the filled boxes.....can you guess how many?? This is the biggest year we have had! There are about 5+ ladies that had to leave early that did not make the picture.

We packed 113 BOXES!!!! I know, that it doesn't look like that many in the picture but this is about 4 hours of work...oh and a little break for tacos!

What a great felling, knowing we are meeting the physical needs of those little ones in another country. I can't go there but this box of goodies can!!!!

Halloween 2010

Trent's school party was on Friday and they celebrated big. They paraded around the neighborhood, had tons of snacks and played classroom games. Here he is trying to get bubble gum out of bag, unwrapped and in his mouth with gloves on.Enjoying orange slices with his teacher Amy.All dressed up for trick or treating. We took Trent and the neighbor Breegan in to Sparta on Sunday night. Kent City had there T or Ting on Saturday and we had our Family Fall Festival at the Ponderosa...and believe it not I have not one picture of the time there....what was I thinking?? Breegan was Dorothy and Trent was a Samurai Ninja. Troy gave me a lot of heat over Trent's costume. "Mom you NEVER bought us a costume!!" and "You would have NEVER let us dress up as a ninja!"...what's a mom to do....I'm weak!Trent and Jack helping Troy haul leaves!Carving pumpkins. Trent worked on his with some help from Steve. Tyler and Alisha worked on there's together. Alisha admittedly said she had never carved a pumpkin! In her parents defense she is the youngest of six kids....you know ya get tired after awhile!So she had to scoop the guts..it was only fair! they planned out their face

they carved it And here is there finished pumpkin....

Ewwww....

Isn't it a beauty? The scar has dissolving stitches....so, no going to have staples removed. They tell us these strips will just slowly fall off. It will be interesting to see what the end scar will look like when it heals up!

Get Ready...

for tomorrow, the bandages come off and we will be revealing the 'real' wound! Just in time for Halloween!

He Made It!

Trent made it through the surgery with flying colors. He was a little concerned about getting an IV...at the hospital they relieved all his fears by promising to give him gas before the IV. He chose Chocolate flavoring..which he thought he would like..but soon found out, by all his complaining, that he really didn't like that smell. Aside from that, the screws all came out with out stripping or breaking the head off...sounds just like they were building a deck!

A pre-surgery shot...A post-surgery shot....Another post-surgery shotThe wound... Notice the Dr.'s initials on his leg make sure they operated on the correct leg...JAC.

The Hardware..all autoclaved and sparkly clean!

Now the long recovery of keeping him down for 6 weeks while it heals. When those screws are removed they leave behind 7 holes in the bone. His leg could potentially break again during this healing process.

He has already wanted to play with the neighbor kids...oh it's going to be long 6 weeks. He did manage to attend school today.

The End....

This is the ending of a tale that began a little over a year ago! Most of you remember..on Labor Day weekend '09...while we were in the U.P., Trent had a 4-wheeling accident and broke his leg.Here is a picture from that day. It was a long day but we were well taken care of at War Memorial Hospital in S.S. Marie MIAfter Trent had surgery, this is how he looked shortly after his surgery. They placed a plate and 7 screws in his leg....After two nights in the hospital, they released him to us..we brought him camping...I know crazy..we slept in the tent that night on an air mattress. Here he is enjoying the campfire. Fast forward...Tomorrow morning he goes in at 7:30am to have the plate/screws removed. Hopefully, this will be the end of this chapter. He has to play carefully on it for 6 weeks as it can easily break again..until those holes fill back in with bone. It's going to be a long 6 weeks.

He plays hard and loves riding his bike. BTW..the other day he was riding his bike to the neighbors carrying a rake across his handlebars...what can you say!!