The one armed girl!

We are 1 week and three days out from Nicole's broken arm.  The first few days were rough...she was in a lot of pain and worked really hard to get better.  However, since then....she's been doing great!

She has now learned how to do everything on her own again (except cut paper, because she can't hold it, haha). 

Earlier this week, she made lunch for us.

We figured out how to wash her hair without getting the cast wet.

She even went on a little bike ride!

I try to get her outside for a little while each day, but she usually doesn't last long.  Her arm begins itching really bad.

Wednesday she got a new cast, and got to pick out the color she wanted too.  This cast is much nicer...not as big and bulky.

Her poor little elbow :(

A close up of the two pin...healing well.

The Dr. drew a picture for me of the fracture.  The top drawing shows how the tip of her humerus broke off and bent backwards.  The bottom picture is a cross section of the pin placement

We were learning about mummies the week Nicole got rewrapped...so, this is her...the real live arm mummy ;)

Her beautiful new cast.  She won't let anyone write on it because she wants to see the pink.

Nicole has also received quite a bit of "fan mail" which has been fun for her.  She even got a Dunkin Donuts gift card (Thanks Aunt Tiffy). 

A trip south- Beach Night

We recently headed south for the week to visit friends and family.  We had a great time and crammed a lot into those few days :)

My favorite evening was at the Pier.

 Poor Nicole couldn't really play in the sand because we didn't want to get sand in her cast.  But, Hannah and Nate went for it ;)

The kids had fun looking for shells, and inspecting jellyfish that were being washed ashore. 

Love kisses from this little guy

Oh Nate, you're embarrassing me!

I love my Hannah-girl

She was being so silly...and I had no idea!

Can you hear the laughter?

Trying to squeeze a smile out of her ;)

Seriously...where did my baby go?  Such a beautiful young lady!

haha, she let me stick my finger in her hole;)

Blessed beyond what I ever dreamed

I do believe I have the best family in the world.

The sun is melting

Almost gone

Gone!

Nicole simply adores her daddy!

Looking for dolphins

I think Hannah is going to hock a lougie!

On Pins and Needles

Our second week of 1st grade has been rudely interrupted.  The week started off great with our first day of Classical Conversations, Cycle 1.  This is our third year in CC, and my second year tutoring (well, I only got to tutor 1/2 a  year last year because we moved).  It was a great day!  I had fun tutoring, I have great kids in my class with wonderful moms.  Hannah had her first day of CC, and have the chaos of the first 20 minutes, she made it into class and had a wonderful day!

Tuesday morning we began our study on Ancient Egypt.  We spent time reading about Egypt and began our lapbook.  We also reviewed all of our CC memory work and songs.  It was a fun morning.

Nicole has gymnastics on Tuesdays, so I am trying to go to the library before gymnastics every week.  We made it this week, and it went well (library time is generally very stressful to me and I almost always end up upset with my kids...it's terrible).  We are old enough now (all of us) to begin working on better library skills though.  So...this is the year. We checked out like 25 books! haha. 

Then, off we went to gymnastics.  Nicole had a blast and told me after class that it was "perfect!".  I was happy to hear that because she wasn't to excited about doing gymnastics in the first place. 

We went straight home after the gym.  As I was getting Nathan unbuckled from his car seat, Nicole was walking over to me to get the keys so she could unlock the garage door.  All of a sudden I heard a scream and then crying.  I looked back and Nicole was laid out flat on the driveway. 

******WARNING!!!! STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR WHAT HAPPENED OR SEE PICTURES******

I picked Nicole up and noticed the bottom part of her left arm "dangling".  She cried out in pain and grabbed her arm and put it into an "L" shape.  Immediately I knew it was hurt very badly.  I calming told her we need to find a Dr. right away and got the other two back in the car.

At this point, Nicole was very calm.  She knew she was hurt really badly, but afraid the Dr. would hurt her more.  I told her that we need to get her arm looked at and fixed.  At this point, I thought she dislocated her elbow.  This is a picture I sent to Jeremy while we were driving to the urgent care.

on the way to the urgent care

On the way to the Urgent Care I was trying to remain calm and told Nicole that we should pray.  She said (and I love this about her)..."I already have mom."  Kind of like - Why are you just now thinking of that?  She loves Jesus and truly trust that He will take care of her.  Oh- to have her faith!

Sitting at the X-ray table

I carried her into Urgent Care where they were very very nice and accommodating (I had all three with me at this point).  They got Xrays and told me that her arm was broken and that she would more than likely need surgery.  Thankfully they pulled me back in another room because that was when the tears began to flow for me.  My heart was crushed that she was hurt so bad...and that she was being SO tough!  Seriously....no crying or hysterics at all.  A few slow tear drops, and lots of sweat, but she was SO calm!  I knew I had to stay calm for her!

um....pretty clear where the break is :(

The UC people called a few hospitals and determined the best one for us to go to.  I knew I needed to find someone to help me with Nathan and Hannah because I had a feeling I'd be at the hospital for a while.  I called a super sweet neighbor who agreed to take them for the rest of the afternoon (and evening).  I am so so so grateful for her doing this. 

So, Nicole and I took off for the hospital downtown.  We finally reaped a benefit of living near a big city.  Had we been in Naples, we may have had to wait until the next day to find an orthopedic Dr. for her surgery.  But, not here, we went to an ER that had a children's hospital attached and an orthopedic Dr. ready for surgery at 8:00 at night (that was when she actually went into surgery.

The hospital staff was nice.  They did more xrays and examined her at different times.  Nicole continued to be tough...but you could tell the exhaustion was setting in for her.  She dealt well with an IV being put in and breathed deeply through exams that I know were extremely painful.  She actually fell asleep for an hour before surgery happened.  I really feel like she knew the "peace that passes understanding".  She was truly at peace through it all.  We had lots and lots of people praying for her.

Waiting for surgery in the children's hospital

Finally, at 7:50, they took my sweet baby back. She was put fully under and even had a breathing tube put in:(  I had to leave to come home and get Nate and Hannah.  Jeremy told me I would have to fight him if I wanted to stay ;)  So...in lieu of fighting my wonderful husband, I left him there to wait for Nicole.  It's just as hard on daddy as it is on mommy. 

They put three or four pins in her elbow/ humerus bone.  The doctor said it went "perfect".  A few hours later, Nicole and Jeremy were home! 

The doc wrote "yet" on the arm that needed pins...you know...just in case!

I slept with Nicole in the guest room (so thankful we have an extra bed now!).  It was a long night.  Lots of waking up...but we made it.  Yesterday Nicole watched 4 movies and was in a lot of pain most of the day. 

watching movies with brother and sister

Finally, after three attempts I found a pharmacy with her prescriptions available and she is on stronger pain meds that helped her through the night last night.  She is finally smiling and talking like a silly girl! 

She has been very brave and tough.  She has about 4 weeks in the full arm cast.  I'm sure many more pictures will come.

A Special Delivery of balloons from Grammy and Gramps cheered her up.  She also got some beautiful flowers from Yaya and Papa, but doesn't have her shirt on for that photo, so I won't post it on here.

I am thankful that she is ok.  The we have doctors who can help...and felt a heavy burden for the children in the children's ward who couldn't go home that night.  Who maybe had been there for weeks, and had many more weeks left to live at the hospital. 

This morning....about 36 hours after surgery.  First time really up and dressed.  Gave her a little sponge bath and did her hair.  Now, she's back in bed. At least I caught a smile.  (The next picture I took she said, "I don't want to smile anymore)

First Week of First Grade!

Oh my!!!  I can not believe that my oldest is already in 1st grade!  Where has the time (and diapers) gone?  Although many days seem slow, the years are going by fast...way to fast if you ask me.

I have the great pleasure to educate my children at home.  We have considered ourselves as a homeschooling family for many years, but as of Tuesday, we are completely official.  Nicole did not have to register with our state for Kindergarten because she turned six past the February deadline, so last year, we homeschooled, but did not have to report to the state.  This year is a whole new ball game.  She is now officially a homeschooler!!  Woohoo!!!!

We started getting back on the schooling schedule a few weeks ago by adding in our new Spelling Curriculum.  A few friends have suggested Spell to Write and Read and after a lot of reading and prayer, we decided to work on this new curriculum (well new to us).  It has a huge learning curve for me because I don't think I was really taught how to spell (that shows up in my posts often, however I try to just blame that on typos;)  I have learned so much about our English language in the past few months through this curriculum.  So, we started officially working through our spelling lists 3 weeks ago.

The following week we added in Math.  We are a little more than half way through Saxon Math 1.  I hope to finish it by November and move on to Saxon Math 2.

This week we officially began 1st grade with great excitement! We added geography into our mix and really got to know our world. 

Next week we start Classical Conversations again which will mean we will be full force with our schooling until Thanksgiving. 

Without further ado....our first week of first grade!

We had to start off the week with an idea from pinterest.  Nicole told me what she wants to be when she grows up. 

When I grow up I want to be 1) a Police Officer and 2) a Dentist

And Hannah of course wanted in on the action :)

When I grow up I want to be a Tap Dancer

Because we don't have an American flag (yet) Nicole decided to draw one for us to look at as we say the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't know if this is proper flag policy, but I thought it was sweet (Hannah added the pole at the bottom:)

After working with our shower curtain map of the World and labeling and singing the continents and oceans song, we became more familiar with the contents by filling them in with play doh.  I really wanted the girls to know and recognize the shape of each continent and their proximity to each other.

Nicole also worked on her math using linking cubes with our manipulative's kit.

The next day we learned how to read a map...any map, by using a campground map. They learned how to use a Compass Rose and answered several questions about the campground.  I really like this activity.  I used it when I taught GeoDrawing Camp earlier this summer.

While Nicole was doing her campground map, Nate and Hannah were entertained playing with baking soda and vinegar.  Another pinterest idea, we filled a tray (box) with baking soda (after lining with wax paper) and the kids dropped colored vinegar onto the soda.  They played for 45 minutes making small volcanoes!  Nate even discovered if he put the baking soda on the tip of the dropper, then put the dropper int he vinegar it gave a different fizzing effect.  He really liked that!

Thursday Nicole took her spelling words and put them in a chart with the single letter phonograms.  For example, the word "into" was written under /i/,/n/, /t/, and /o/ because those are the phonograms use in the word.  Where as the word "her" was only written under /h/.

Our final project for the week was a salt dough map of the world.  We started by free hand drawing the continents on a piece of cardboard (from a pizza box lid;).  Check out Nicole's drawing!!!  She totally free handed this by looking at our world map.  I think she did an amazing job!

Then we made the dough (maybe the "funnest" part).

This was what Nate was doing as we worked, haha

And we used the dough to fill in our map. 

Nicole's map

After baking our maps at 200 degree for about 2 hours, it was dried enough to paint.  So, we painted the maps.  Nicole did every inch of her map herself.  I was so proud of her. 

Hannah got a lot of help from mommy ;)

After our first week of first grade, I think Nicole is ready for CC to start on Monday.  She has a firm grasp of the continents and oceans and is beginning to learn and understand the Great Circles (equator, Tropics lines, etc).  Hannah at least knows the names of continents, however she's not labeling them right, haha.

OH.....one more VERY Important thing.  If  you look closely at the pictures, you will notice a change in Nicole from her 1st day to her 4th day....she finally lost her "other" top middle tooth.  She has now lost 6 teeth and can only eat Jell-o because she doesn't have enough teeth to chew (just kidding!)  She was Very Excited it came out and I'm happy she won't have food smeared across her cheek anymore from trying to tear food with her molars and not bother her front loose teeth :)

We had a terrific week of 1st grade!  What a blessing to spend time with my kids and teach them!

Other cool books we read this week (we are reading a chapter or two a week out of each)

The Pilgrim's Progress from Abeka - we read this at 'rest time'.  This is an Abeka book I got at a consignment shop for 50cents...it's wonderful!
African Adventures - a cool book we just  bought with stories of missionaries and indigenous believers in Africa and how they deal with living there (you know...with the Lions and such;)
How a Spider Changed a Man's Life - stories that Charles Spurgeon told that have a great impact.  This is a wonderful book I highly suggest for short snippets of wisdom for children using stories and relating them back to scripture.  SO GOOD!