If I scared you away last month with the shear volume of pictures, no worries. This post is shorter by at least ten percent. ;) Buckle up!
November 1, my parents' church had their annual Harvest Stampede. We had a ball!
We also had to take advantage of all this color coordination and grab a quick picture.
And after attending a Harvest Stampede, you can only imagine how tired one might be. Any flat will do to rest your weary body.
We took an adventure to the dollar store to fill our Operation Christmas Child boxes. You may not think of Dollar Tree as a place of adventure, but any trip with Cooper is nothing short of that. Darting through aisles, jumping over shopping carts, and rolling under shelves to catch this little booger....ok, I might be exaggerating a little, but believe me when I say it is exhausting. Even still, the kids had such a great time picking out things to send to these children who may have never received a Christmas gift before.
Meanwhile, my stinking hip was still bothering me, and I couldn't seem to get off my crutches. Of course adventures with Cooper didn't help the matter much, even though I reserved all the superhero moves for GiGi. I decided a little r&r with my handsome hubby was just what I needed, and I suspected GiGi could use a little rest herself. Nana and Poppy to the rescue!!!
While the kids were snuggling up to Nana and Poppy, I was snuggling up to this good-looking guy...
...and eating lots of delicious food. Who would have thought my husband would become a five star chef while living in a hotel for 8 weeks? Yummo!!
I did attempt to go shopping on crutches for a bit.
But, I quickly retreated back to the bed with coffee and the remote. It's a very happy place :)
After four days of r&r with my Love, doing recommended hip exercises, and rolling on a deep tissue massage ball, my hip was still not better. I was starting to think I needed a miracle. Maybe I needed to borrow some pixie dust from the necklace the tooth fairy had left for Lan.
I decided to finally take my stubborn self back to the doctor. It had been three and a half weeks since the initial injury and two weeks since I had re-injured it. I had an early appointment so I drove myself. My mom planned on meeting me later with the kids. I talked to the doctor's PA first, and she sent me to have x-rays. I kind of rolled my eyes thinking I had already had x-rays and this was a bit of a waste. Boy, was I wrong. I got back to the examination room and was greeted by not one, but three medical professionals. I braced myself for what I was about to hear:
"Honey, your hip is broken," the doctor said gently.
"Like, broken?!!" I said, like a blubbering idiot.
"Yes, broken," he repeated.
"So I'm not a weenie?" like an even bigger blubbering idiot this time. (Because, clearly, clarifying whether or not I am a weenie was the biggest concern at that moment.)
Someone should really warn us about how we will react when bad news is handed to us. He did, however, humor me and assure me that I was not a weenie. Then he instructed me not to move another muscle. They would bring a wheelchair and admit me to the hospital immediately to be prepped for surgery that day. As you can imagine, the day was a bit of a blur, but by day's end I had three shiny new screws in my hip and my husband by my side to comfort me.
The next morning, Cory had to leave early to take a test in Houston, so my Mom and Dad and the kids came to pick me up and bring me home. At home, I had the best care possible.
After a couple of days, we started trying to get on with life as usual.
Cooper enjoyed his first cup of hot chocolate.
And PawPaw taught Landry how to make jelly
That is a proud youngin' there.
And a HAPPY one here.
Daddy completed mud school and was officially given the title Drilling Fluids Specialist. We are so proud of him!
We also had to carry on with school. Since my brother and cousin and their families were visiting we had a couple of extra students for our Thanksgiving lesson.
First, we charted out our voyage to the new world.
Then we boarded the Mayflower!
Eli was our Captain
Mr. A was our navigator
Look! They have finally spotted land!!!
At the new world, they met indians who taught them how to hunt and gather food.
Then, they shared a Thanksgiving Feast with the Indians.
And this little pilgrim almost didn't survive the winter. Thankfully we found him some food so he could gain enough strength to make it to shelter.
It was such a fun day, especially spending it with our sweet family visiting from Seattle. We sure do love you guys!
The next day was actually Thanksgiving Day. We had lunch with our big awesome family at MawMaw's house and then came back to Mom and Dad's to set up and decorate their Christmas tree.
A little decorating. A little plunging of the head.... My Dad is a little crazy. And don't worry, the plunger has never been used.
That weekend, we thought we'd take another adventure, this time to Grant's Christmas Tree Farm and Syrup Mill. I hadn't been since I was a little girl, but I could still remember how delicious their biscuits and syrup were and that they had the most beautiful Christmas trees in all the world. Now we were not actually going in search of a tree this time, just some family fun.
Upon arrival, I realized lots had changed at Grant's since I was a little girl. There were lots of fun new things to do, but mainly there were tons more people. One look at the line for biscuits and syrup and we realized we were going to be hungry.
This was probably about the time I realized that Christmas Tree Farms and crutches do not go together.
We ended up not staying very long at the farm, but we did enjoy feeding goats and rams, playing on the playground, riding the hayride, and looking at all the gorgeous trees.
And now, as we head into the Christmas season, I pray that you have Peace that can only come from knowing Christ, our Savior.
Experience the wonderment of Him.
