October 2012 Archives

Can you guess who was super excited about the arrival of my new phone today?

Anita & Brian came down today for a quick visit before we leave next week.

The kids & I spent a long time today getting their physicals for school in Singapore (I'm taking a risk here since the paperwork has to be within 6 months of enrollment and Sarah & Henry don't have places yet!). Henry also got his stitches out today.

Hannah stopped over to say goodbye to the kids today. We wish we could take her with us!

Sarah & Henry had their last day of gymnastics today!

I swear Tamsyn took a photo of Anna & her piano teacher today but I can't find it! Let's just say it was a stressful day!

Poor little Henry! Just after the guy came to assess our things, Henry was dancing to Gangnam Style. I had found a video of a house with Halloween lights synchronized to the song and he started dancing. And spinning. And then his head hit the bricks on the hearth. It was a horribly loud noise. I ran over to him and saw lots of blood. So, I took him to the kitchen to try to clean it up a little and then saw two big gouges in his forehead and I freaked out! I decided to call 911 because I'd never personally seen such large gashes in someone's head and it was very bloody. I couldn't drive him to the hospital alone (I wanted to keep pressure on the wound). It seemed like a million years before the firetruck came (fortunately I had not locked the front door after the assessor came) and their calmness helped me to calm him a bit.

Henry had been dancing in his underwear because right when the assessor was leaving he had an accident. That's why the front door was open. Once the ambulance finally came, I left Henry for a moment with the EMTs and ran upstairs to get his pants and then to get his socks & shoes and my purse & phone.

Craig was on the airplane coming back from Singapore so I had to get someone to get the girls from school and a babysitter to stay with them until Henry & I made it back. Of course this was made more difficult than necessary by the fact that I had only intermittent cell service in Henry's room. I got it worked out (Susan picked up the girls and Tamsyn met them at the house and took care of them until Henry & I got home) and we did a lot of tests and waiting all for four stitches in his forehead. I understand all the tests to be sure there wasn't any other damage, but they didn't give him any Tylenol for the longest time and it seems like they could have gotten him out of there faster than they did the stitches really didn't take that long.

Henry was sleepy for a while (from when we were waiting for the ambulance, in the ambulance and while we waited for attention in the ER) and that made me nervous, of course. Once all of his testing was done I decided I ought to take a picture or two and I don't think Henry really realized he was wearing the head bandage, neck brace, and had his arms strapped down until he saw the picture! Then it annoyed him. He also didn't like being up high on the bed. I had one toy car in my purse and we played with the bear he got in the ambulance (I guess that's where he got it, I never saw anyone give it to him but he had it in his arms!). I sent one photo to the girls so they could see that he was OK; I wasn't sure how worried they were about him.

Finally we were discharged and my neighbor had to come get us in my van. Henry was wiped out and went to bed after a tiny little dinner. It took me about four more hours to calm down after I got all the kids to bed and called my mom & Craig's mom to tell them about it! Craig still didn't even know! He doesn't get back from Singapore until tomorrow late afternoon.

Henry had fun "decorating" his tree house with leaves and seed pods.

Some of the kids from Henry's class met up at the park today for a play. We had to leave a bit early so we could meet up with the guy who assesses our stuff for the shipments to Singapore (so he can plan how many boxes to bring out for packing-day).

Anna's last class is actually next week, but they'll be wearing their costumes and I wanted to be sure to get a good picture this week!

Anna had her last session with her therapist for selective mutism. Her therapist is also moving to Austin so it was perfect timing for all of us to be moving at the same time. Anna will miss her! I'm also relieved that Anna has made so much progress since she started in fall 2010 and I feel comfortable with this whole transition.

We're starting to take "last pictures" with people before we go and slowly wrapping things up in Texas. It's sad and exciting all at the same time!

Making acorn soup for the squirrels.

Anna & Sarah's school had a red-ribbon-week kick-off party this morning. It was hot but we had fun!

Henry loved showing off his classroom to his sisters tonight. They all also had fun choosing a book and a poster from the book fair.

Henry was so adorable all bundled up and watching the rain through the window.

Between me, Sarah, & Grandma, we got Sarah's pink poodle costume perfected! (Thanks for the sewing, mom!)

Grandma came down to visit another time before we move to Singapore. It was during this visit that we found out about Anna's acceptance into Singapore American School and our visa approvals! We decided to depart Texas November 10 and arrive in Singapore on November 12. (We wanted to do it earlier but between Craig's trip there (he was there this week and next) and his meetings here the first week of November, that was the earliest we could go). It's exciting to finally have a date!!

Anna got all A's this first quarter and both Anna & Sarah had perfect attendance. Way to go, girls!

Pet-sitting the neighbor's dog

Anna & Sarah ran the One for Texas this morning while my mom & Henry cheered them on. (Craig was there for this, too, but then biked home to meet the car that took him to the airport so he could go to Singapore/Indonesia for just under two weeks.) I ran the 10 for Texas. I did better last year, but last year I hadn't had strep throat three times back-to-back-to-back!

Craig kept getting flat tires so my mom & I went out to meet him for lunch and bring him back. I don't know how he cycled out there when it seemed like it took us forever just to drive there!

The petting zoo came to Henry's school today! He didn't want to pet any animals and when it was almost time for his class to go, I asked him if he wanted to pet anyone as it was his last chance... he quickly touched a rabbit and then said he was done!

Henry was super excited about the pumpkin patch inside Trader Joe's today!

I used up one of my white background paper rolls so I gave it to the kids to creat some BIG art.

The kids named this koi pond near the mall "fishy forest." They discovered it on a walk to the mall with Craig a week or two ago.

Sarah has already made a really good friend at school (one of the reasons I'm sad we're leaving Texas!) and we had her over for a play today. Hopefully they can be pen-pals while we're in Singapore and they can go right back to being friends when we move back to Texas.

Sarah got to ride home from school with Craig.

(There is a picture of Anna on the tandem attachment from the morning but I need to locate it, sorry Anna!)

Craig & I went to the driving range for our date-day.

This month was all posted to the blog in January 2013. Sorry for the lack of details!!