Day Five

I was only gone for ten days, so we're half-way through my trip already!!

Friday mornings Courtney plays volleyball, so we headed off to play. I was very excited to play as I no longer play on Wednesday mornings at home. The ladies were very warm and welcoming and very, very funny. They stood around in a circle for the first 30 mins, just chatting and getting caught up with each other. They were so funny that my stomach hurt and we hadn't even started playing yet! I did have a good time and enjoyed it very much. Collin did notice the radical difference between Courtney's group and my old group, "Mom! They didn't' even starting playing for half an hour!" In Green Bay we only stand around for 5-10 mins before someone says, "Let's Play!"

Leaving volleyball, we saw a blue heron in a tree. Collin made us back up and take a picture of it. We had never seen a heron just sitting in a tree in a subdivision! It was just different. There are herons EVERYWHERE in Louisiana! We thought we had a lot, but they REALLY have a lot!

So here he is, sitting in a tree between two houses in a very large subdivision. Very different for us. Yep, we're tourists.

The day was warm, 69 degrees!! So when Courtney's kids got home from school, we headed outside to sit in the sun and play.
Here the kids play four square with Courtney and Collin. Collin had never played or heard of four square. I told him it was because his mother deprived him by not sending him to school, he just laughed. He did enjoy the game, so I guess we should introduce his brothers to it this summer.

After awhile the kids decided to ride bikes and roller blade. Courtney's youngest had been napping while we were playing and she went in to check on him and while she was in the house, her son, Matt, took a very bad fall on his roller blades. A very classic fall, the whole feet in the air and landing on his hand/wrist that he used to break his fall. He was in a lot of pain, but didn't want me talking to him and he had cradled his arm when he got up, so I was concerned that he had broken something. When Courtney came out, she was concerned also and had Matt keep an ice bag on his arm.

The decision was made to wait and see if he really had done major damage, or if he was just sore from the fall and would be OK in a while. Courtney's husband, Josh, was almost home with dinner and it was after hours already, so an ER trip was the only way to go, if he needed to go anywhere. So we waited for Josh to come home with the Craw fish boil and hush puppies he picked up on the way home.

Here Matt and Collin take a look at the craw fish. Collin was a little put off by their whole body and eyes. A little too live looking for his taste.

Here he plays with one of them, giving it a high squeaky voice. You can also just barely see the incision on his neck. There is a one inch piece of tape on his incision. It's right at the middle crease of his neck in this picture.

Here the boys get instruction on how to peel craw fish and what parts to eat.

In the end Courtney and Josh ended up doing the majority of the cracking and peeling, because none of the rest of us were real enthused about that part of eating them, but the meat was good.

Here Collin takes a bite with what we call "long teeth". Where you just barely touch the food you're eating, you try to keep your lips off it as much as you can and you swallow real quick! He did end up enjoying the eating part, but never did warm up to looking at them and then cracking them open!

We did end up taking Matt to the ER, he consistently couldn't use his hand/arm normally and there was one direction he couldn't twist his wrist in. He also asked to go to the doctors, which means a lot with him. He didn't even cry when he fell, he's pretty tough!

So we were at the ER for around 5 hrs and yes, he did break his arm. But not a break that had to be set, just enough of one that you could see the line running through the bone in the x-ray. So they put him in a splint and told him to see an orthopedic doctor on Monday to get it set in a cast. Courtney asked if it could wait till Wed. as we were supposed to be in DC on Monday. The doctor told her that would be fine.

Here they work on splinting his arm, Courtney isn't laughing at her son, she's laughing at the two guys. They were very good with Matt and very funny.

Here is Matt waiting for his splint to dry so that we can leave. We left the hospital around 12:30am, I think, it's all a little blurry for some reason...... Then we had to wait for his painkiller rx to be filled, another hour, and then we had to drive 30 mins or more home.....did I mention it's a little blurry??? We had promised Matt he'd get ice cream when we left the ER, so while they filled his rx, we went looking. The first place, I think it was Wendy's, had "already" shut down their machine and the next place, I think Burger King, had a broken shake machine and everything else was closed!! Poor kid, he settled for a Hershey Sundae Pie from BK. We got home around 2:30am. We were pretty tired by then.....and we had to be up for Courtney to coach her soccer team at 9am..........

Now I'm tired just thinking about that night! I am off to bed, ready to start a brand new week, that is going to be awesome.......I think. It's got to be better than the last two weeks! It's starting off well, I don't have to leave until 7:30am to take Amanda to school, because there is no seminary tomorrow! So that bodes well, I hope.....

Oh and we're expecting another inch of snow tomorrow night!! I love the snow, I love the snow!! Did I mention that we snowmobiled for three hours yesterday!! LOVED IT!! It was the first time Brent has had unlimited time to just ride with us, and it's the first time in awhile that we've had time as a family to just kick back and relax. We usually have too much going on to take a big chunk of time like that together. Well, mostly together, Than and Amanda were at a youth church activity......

I have to admit, I fudged a little, I love the snow....AFTER the driveways have been cleared! Did I mention that the snow blowers are still broke?