A little car for a little lady

Anyone want to go for a ride? Jocelyn was so excited she found a car to play in. She was extremely upset when it wouldn't go.

John and I got to go on a date! It's amazing I know. However we ended up taking Jocelyn with us, so does it really count? I had never been golfing before so I went and I got to drive the cart - the best part. Jocelyn did great, she loved the cart and all the goodies that we packed for her. John did great and had fun getting out and getting a round in before the weather changed. After golfing we took the kids swimming. Madison loved to jump off the edge of the pool, touch the bottom and then float back to the top where she expected to be saved and then put back on the side of the pool to start all over again, and again, and again. Drew and Alexis went down the slide multiple times. They would have done that all day if we had let them. Madison tried the slide once by herself. She ended up getting turned around so she was coming down backwards. 

Starting August off right

We had to have a plumber come to unclog our sink. The first plumber came and worked for an hour and could not get the clog out. The next plumber came and worked for about half an hour and 80 feet of cord later we were able to get our sink back! 

The kids thought it was great fun to watch the loud machine jumping around. I thought it was great to get my sink back. Who would've thought that not having your sink for a mere 12 hours would cause so many problems?

The rest of the finger story

All the kids ready to go to the Doctors office to check on Madison's finger. It took another week before the stitches could come out. Getting the stitches out was just as traumatic as I knew it was going to be. Her stitches were underneath the scab! I soaked her finger a little before we left as well as giving her a full dose of Lortab but they did little to help. The doc soaked her finger a little longer and it was still horrid. We asked her if she wanted to get shots again so it didn't hurt or if she wanted us to hurry and get them out, she opted for the shots! It surprised me a little! Once the shots were in she was fine and the stitches came out nicely. Her finger is healing well and the nail is already half grown back! 

We had some pretty amazing lighting storms at the end of August. John caught this picture from the back yard.

One door slammed - one finger missing a chunk

Doesn't she look so calm? Suckers help and so does Grandma. 

Alexis slammed the bedroom door shut and Madison's finger happened to be on the metal latch when the door shut. Madison lost a chunk of her finger. If you don't like bloody pictures then you should not continue to look at pictures, they're graphic! On the way to the Dr's office Madison was able to talk to Grandma JoAnn which helped her to not think about the pain, so she didn't cry for most of the ride to the Dr's office. Luckily we had some friends over who were willing to stay with the other three kids while John and I took her to get her finger fixed. We didn't find her finger until after the Dr's office so it did not get sewed back on. Her finger will forever be 2-3 mm shorter than it used to be.

Madison had to get three or four shots in her finger for a finger block. We didn't want her to feel all the Dr stuff that was about to happen. She didn't cry until the third shot! It didn't last long - she was being so brave!

The Dr tried to pull out the small piece of nail that was left but it wasn't coming so he left it in hopes that he could attach the skin to it as a firm anchoring point. This didn't work either.

Because there was so much blood he tried to cauterize her finger. Yes, she's watching him cauterize her finger and she's very interested.

Since the cauterizing didn't work he put a stitch in, which you can see in the picture. It ended up popping and another one had to be put in.

He was unable to anchor the skin to the fingernail because it was too thick. He ended up anchoring the skin to the skin above where her fingernail should've been. She didn't cry again until it was time to wrap her finger up. It took an hour to get her all sewed up and I think combined with the late hour, 10:30, and all the excitement she was completely exhausted and ready to be done.

There was blood everywhere. She decided to wear the underskirt underneath her sundress and a pair of pants underneath both of those. It took a little more than 32 oz of peroxide to get it all out - yes, I got it all out!

We found this chunk of her finger when we got home. The worst part - two earwigs were crawling on it. I couldn't handle it, John had to go get it. He couldn't bring himself to throw it away so it's in the freezer - yes, the freezer. The kids think it's cool. Madison looked at it a few days after the accident. She looked at it very intently for about 30 seconds and then she looked at her bandaged finger and back to the missing piece. I think she was trying to figure out how it was going to be put back. 

She's healing up nicely, she should be able to get her stitches out in the next week! To be honest I'm not looking forward to it, I know it's going to be painful since it's starting to scab over the stitches already.

Cookie overload

The kids decided they wanted cookies last Sunday. They each wanted a different type of cookie. To appease all the wishes of the munchkins we made three different types of cookies: chocolate chip, peanut butter and our favorite - snickerdoodle! They then went and invited the neighbors to come share with them! 

Raspberry fun

We have some raspberry bushes in our backyard that the kids love to go eat from. They each take their own bucket and go find their raspberries. Very few make it in the house and if they do they don't last longer than an additional minute!

Alexis' shark teeth

In anticipation of Shark Week on Discovery Channel, Alexis started to grow a second row of teeth!

Unfortunately the dentist didn't think this was as cool as we did and he pulled the baby tooth that was in the way.

She was such a trooper, no crying. In fact she was so happy with how it went that she wants me to just take her to the dentist when her tooth gets loose so he can pull it and she doesn't have to deal with it! She thought that the numb lip was great fun and the fact that she got a prize plus a tooth fairy gift was great!