Captured!

I'm sure I can speak for many people when I say that a good portion of my week was spent either glued to my phone or the television trying to get the latest news on the happenings in Boston. And, of course, since that is my hometown, more or less, the events of the week have struck me on a much more personal level.  The Boston Marathon is something I went to every year as I grew up.  Indeed, Patriots Day was a big holiday for us which started in the early dawn hours at the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.  We usually watched the marathon somewhere around the middle of the route although there were a few times that I do recall, in the later years, watching it at the finish line.  I'm not a runner but there was always something so exciting watching the lead wheelchair/man/woman coming down the road.

On this particular Patriot's Day, I was sitting at my desk working when I saw the breaking news.  Within a few minutes, I started getting text messages from my brothers as to whether anyone had spoken with my dad who often goes to the finish line, even by himself, to watch the end of the race.  No one could reach him and my mom, who was at work, wasn't sure if he had gone or not.  Fortunately I had gotten an email from him about an hour before this had occurred and I was pretty certain it hadn't come from is iPhone.  That saved me from being in a complete panic!  As it turned out, nobody heard from my dad for a whole hour after the bombing.  He eventually called us to say he had been outside doing yard work and was completely oblivious to everything that had happened.  

Have you heard those statistics about teenagers who send and receive like thousands of text messages a month and you think to yourself, "What in the world?"  Well, I was that teenager this week.  My brothers, dad, and I must have sent hundreds, if not, thousands, of text messages over the course of the week as we shared breaking news, information, and opinions as things unfolded.  This attack was so different than others when it came to media and communication, that is for sure.

Anyway, the whole thing is terribly sad, of course.  I cannot dwell on the loss of the 8-year old boy or I can't control the tears from coming.  It's also been interesting on how to handle this with the kids.  Aubree and Brady (obviously) are pretty oblivious to what went on but Calleigh has been curious.  For the most part, I've tried to keep the TV off because I don't think it will do her much good to see any of it.  However, she did see enough to ask these questions:

Calleigh:  "What happened?"

Me: "There was an explosion."

Calleigh: "What's an explosion?"

Me:  "Something that's caused by a bomb."

Calleigh: "What's a bomb?"

Me:  "Something that causes an explosion."

Calleigh: "Oh."

I think I handled that pretty well, right??  She also heard some stuff about the two guys and wanted to know all the details about them...what were their names, how old were they, what did they look like, etc, etc.  Then on the way home from church she asks me, not that we were even talking about it, "Is the 19-year old old the one that had the curly hair?"  I guess she's been paying attention!  We didn't mention that anyone had gotten hurt or killed so she certainly did not know the extent of what happened.  

On to other things...Last Sabbath afternoon, Calleigh had her investiture for Adventurers.  This was her "graduation" from Eager Beavers to Busy Bees that she will be in next year.  I stayed home with Brady since he was still recovering from the croup/cough and it was right during his nap time (and mine!).  But Grandma did go so that was special.  Last year Calleigh had won the Little Lamb of the year and I warned her not to expect to win it again this year...which she did not despite not missing a meeting.  She did miss out on collecting the offering this year, which you get extra points for, because we missed her month when we went to Boston/Maine the first Sabbath in April.  Oh well!  It was worth it.  Anyway, Aubree is very excited that she will be joining next year and will be a Little Lamb so this makes it one step closer for her.  

Besties

Aubree got a little goodie "bag" so she was happy.

Aubree claims she is going to marry Kolden so she can be Braelyn's sister-in-law.  Not that Kohlden doesn't have a ton of great qualities too or anything...

Calleigh got all her Little Lamb stuff from last year and all her Eager Beaver stuff for this year and made a "set."

Sunday morning we had the pleasure of Duncan's brother Russ, and his wife Saray, coming for a visit and seeing our house for the first time.  Yes, they live in Longwood, a 30 minute drive, but hadn't been able to make it out yet.  The kids were very excited to have them here.  We showed them the house and we all took a walk down to the lake where we saw many gators (this was the closest I've ever seen some around the dock down there).  The kids and I stayed home to have lunch while Duncan took them to see down town Winter Garden where they happened to be having a festival going on.  During nap time for Brady, Duncan came back and took the girls down there to take part in the festivities.  

At the festival

Monday turned out to be a big day for Calleigh.  As I've mentioned, she has two loose teeth on the bottom.  Well, about two weeks ago, we had noticed that one of her top teeth was slightly loose as well and in fact, the adult tooth was already trying to grow in.  This wouldn't be that big of a deal but Calleigh is one of those kids who has an extra top adult front tooth.  We had no way of knowing if this was that extra tooth (which is completely misshapen per the x-rays) or if it was a regular tooth.  I called her dentist and they wanted her to come in to get checked out.  So Monday morning off we went.  At her dentist, they have the parent stay in the waiting room and just take the kid back.  After she had been gone for about 10 minutes, the dentist summoned me in to tell me that indeed, it was the extra tooth and it would need to removed.  To do so, they would also have to pull her baby tooth to get to it.  We could either do it right then or make an appointment to come back.  I opted to do it right then and he explained that they would give her some gas to relax her first and then they would give her a shot to numb the area although she would probably not even realize they were giving her a shot.  She would only feel a some tugging when they pulled it.  He went on to say that we were very fortunate that the tooth started coming in because in many cases it does not and then they have to do surgery to remove it which is a much bigger deal.  And with that, he was gone.  I was kind of thinking, "Wow, my five year old is about to have two teeth pulled and I don't even get to see her to see how she's taking this news or holding her hand as they do it." but since the dentist seemed to know what he was doing, I just followed suit.  

A little bit later, Calleigh came out and was pretty unphased. She had her little box with her teeth in it and a piece of gauze on the gaping hole.  I asked her if she had been scared when they told her they were going to pull out her teeth and she said "Nope.  I was just wondering how they were going to do it."  I thought that was pretty impressive since there are many adults even who would probably freak out about having teeth pulled.  Now Aubree...I know she is two years younger and all but if this happened to her, oh my word.  I'm sure she would be wailing for me and putting on a big scene.  One of the instructions by the dentist was that liquid things like smoothies, milk shakes, etc are good in the first little bit since they don't have to use their teeth.  So off we went to get smoothies.  That seemed to go over well.  Everything went very smoothly over the following days and it all healed well and she is eating pretty normally now.  I made sure that I told Calleigh how great I thought she did with the whole thing which led to this exchange:

Me: "Calleigh, I'm so proud of you.  You did really, really well today with getting your teeth out.  You were so brave."

Calleigh: "Thank you."

Aubree (as she comes and hugs me): "Mommy, aren't you so proud of me for doing potty train?" (poor grammar hers)

Me: "Yes Aubree, I was proud of you a whole YEAR ago when you did that."  

Poor Aubs.  Didn't want to be left out.

The "tooth fairy" did make a visit that night.  Of course, they know it is me but Calleigh was very concerned about getting her teeth back.  She wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to keep them forever when I took them and left the money.  I ended up leaving $11.  I left a lot more than I normally would but given that it was her first tooth and the dramatic circumstances and not to mention, those were the only bills I had, I felt it was warranted.  As I expected, she gave the $1 to Aubree who was thrilled.

Some other things that happened this week:

• Tuesday morning our builder finally, FINALLY, came and took out the old, ugly (in my opinion) granite in our Jack and Jill bathroom upstairs and put in new granite.  That only took about five months.  I'm very pleased with the result, at least.
• Tuesday afternoon Alison came over with Westin.  The extended Edwards family drove down from NH for a week's vacation. They have a rental home in Davenport and were planning to hit all the parks but managed to squeeze in a side trip to see our house.  Heath was fishing so he didn't come and Tyson wasn't feeling well so he stayed with his grandmother.  We were happy to at least see Alison and Westin!
• Wednesday afternoon we had a landscape architect come and meet with us.  I think I've mentioned that were going to be doing some major stuff in our backyard and definitely need a professional to do it.  He looked around and talked to us about our expectations and now he'll draw up some plans and show them to us on May 2.  We're very excited!  
• Wednesday evening we had Allen's brother, Mike, and a friend, Jared, come to our house because they wanted to record us doing a little skit for their production company that will be shown at Loma Linda campmeeting.  Our fifteen minutes of fame.  Ha!  It went really well and the kids even cooperated (not that they were actually speaking in the skit).  We are most curious to see the end result.
• Thursday morning the kids and I traipsed off to the Just Between Friends consignment sale.  I contemplated not going because last time I went (sans kids) the line to pay was extremely long.  But I chanced it and it wasn't too bad and the kids were amazingly good.  Calleigh had the money from her teeth burning a hole in her pocket so she was quite happy to peruse the toys (and buy).
• Tonight I was back over to the consignment sale since it was 50% off while the kids stayed behind and had a movie night with the Isidro's.  They were all (except Brady) still up when I got back at 10:30.  A good time was had by all!

New granite

Crowding around baby Westin.

Brady giving him a kiss good-bye.

The film crew setting up

Action!

Movie Night

Nothing to much else happening with the kids...although I will report that Brady's advancement in talking is  blowing me away.  He's really saying pretty much everything now.  However, even though he can say it, there are still some concepts he isn't quite clear on....for example: 

Me (we are downstairs and it's nearing bedtime): "Okay, kids.  It's time to head up for bed."

Calleigh: "Oh please.  Just five more minutes."
Brady: "No! Two minutes."

That's now been his mantra for the rest of the week.  Every time we say it's time to do something, he'll shout out "Two minutes."  Apparently talking well must make one very tired because he has not woken up each morning all week until between 8:00 - 8:30.  I'll take it!

Alrighty, it's late and I was close here.  Have a fantastic week.  

Spending some quality time with Daddy last Sabbath (we kept Brady home because of his croup/cough.)

There was a man playing the bagpipes this Sabbath.  Not sure why!