Wow, What a Week!

A couple of Sundays ago, we thought we were going to have an exciting and fun week! We'd driven to a couple of different farm stores after church, in search of the perfect group of chicks. These fluffy little gals were just the ones (above). Twenty nine Barred Rock pullets rode home with us in a cardboard box in the backseat of the car. The girls were SO excited and promised to help feed and water the chickens and when the time comes, to collect the eggs. So far, so good! We'll have eggs in four to six months from our fifteen hens and the other fourteen we're raising for a friend. They're happy, hungry little birds and they have more than doubled in size already, plus gotten most of their feathers! Hannah shows her chicks to everyone who stops by and is having the best time ever with them! Since the adorable playhouse that Andy built last summer has hardly been played in at all, it will soon be converted into a chicken coop. It's the perfect size and the three windows will be nesting boxes, with little doors that the girls can raise, to collect eggs.

On Monday, the week got even more exciting as Andy went to the dealership where we'd found our new van, to finalize the purchase! Abigail and Hannah are convinced that having a van is just about the coolest thing ever and Andy and I are just thankful to have a reliable vehicle with enough room for all of us. Frankly, it's also much more comfortable than the car. The Pontiac served us well for just shy of seven years and almost 160,000 miles, but we were out of room. 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Touring Edition, welcome home!

So, two much anticipated acquisitions down and the week should have been calming down. A van in the garage and chicks to care for, Tuesday began. Only, it all went downhill from there. At about 11am, I got a call from the school nurse at Needham. Abigail was in her office because she'd fallen from the slide at recess. She was having trouble calming down and said that her arm hurt, but the nurse wasn't able to tell if there was an actual injury or not. I told her that I'd be on my way but since my office is almost an hour away, I would call Mom, who could be there in five minutes.

In just a few minutes, Mom called and told me calmly to get in my car and come right away, an ambulance had been called to rush Abigail to the emergency room. That was one of the scariest moments of my life and I was so confused! Five minutes ago she'd been shaken up but that seemed to be about it. Apparently when Mom and Hannah got to the school, Abigail hadn't shown much recognition of them. She was acting so disoriented and confused that the nurse became concerned that she might pass out.

That afternoon, Mom, Dad, Hannah, Andy and I spent at the emergency room with Abigail. She was in pain, uncomfortable, not very cooperative and she couldn't keep even water in her tummy. After several x-rays and a CT scan, she finally kept some water down and we were able to take her home, even though she'd had a concussion. That was a relief but it didn't last long! Andy's mom and dad came by and Sharon worked so hard to help me wake Abigail and try to tell whether she was alert and aware. She seemed alright but very, very tired. Around supper time she perked up and ate a little bit. And then began vomiting and didn't stop all night long. Wednesday morning, back to the doctor we went. The short version of the long story is that we ended up back at the emergency room and found out that the concussion was fairly severe, her wrist was broken and overnight she'd become very dehydrated. So we settled in, as much as anyone can in the ER, with a delirious child and a lot of worry.

This picture was taken Wednesday evening and believe it or not, she was really coming around by then. That evening she waved good bye to Sharon and Larry and we were all so happy to see her recognize the time to say good by and the ability to move her fingers! But as Dad and I sat with her that evening, it was clear that things were still not quite right. She had trouble thinking of words and got frustrated trying to form sentences. In the middle of the night, she told the nurses all about our dogs, including names and breeds, etc. Finally, I knew my girl was getting back to her old self!

On Thursday morning our pediatrician was back to check in and she could tell such a difference! We got to go home, to stay this time!!

Friday, the uncomfortable splint was replaced with a bright, pink cast. Even better, a dear friend of mine (Ashley Brown) works in the orthopedic surgeon's office and was the one to cast Abby's arm. What a comfort to a little girl who had been through so much, to see a friendly face and know that Ashley would never let it hurt.

All done!! Immediately she was able to move her fingers more. Still very, very tired though, Abbs fell asleep on the way home.

She rested a lot on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and on Monday she went back to the pediatrician, who said she could return to school Tuesday, but probably only for a half day. Then Mom took Abigail to visit her classmates. They had been so concerned about her and had sent get well cards to her. I think it did them all good to see that she was okay after being gone almost a week! During her absence, Mr. Schwartz regularly checked in on Abigail's condition, which we really appreciated.

Finally, she's just about back to normal. She understands why her activities are restricted (no climbing, riding pony, four wheeler, etc.) for two weeks, but doesn't like it very much. But her right hand is learning to do things she never thought it could, since she's always been a very dominant lefty.

Don't worry, there are no vision problems. Those are her crazy glasses from the dollar store.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and called, emailed and texted to check in. Thank you to Megan, who has dealt with plenty of concussions and helped me decide (from Ohio) when to worry and when not to. Thank you to Jent who always knows when to come and give me a hug and will drop everything if I need her to. And Ashley, for the wonderful pink cast and the flowers and visit. And most of all, thank you to all four of our parents, who were with us and (I know) worrying about Abigail but also about me and the baby the entire time. We are SO thankful that Abigail is okay and humbled that sometimes God shows us through really tough times, just how loved we are.

New(est) car: Same song, different verse

Because we enjoyed our car shopping experience so much less than a month ago, Kristi and I set out to replace the '04 Hyundai Sonata I bought in 2006.

The Old Gray Mare had taken me through the epic Uncle Tour of 2008, and the hellacious commute to Marietta (or as the locals say, 'Mayretta') last year. She had racked up 139,000 miles, and while more than one mechanic said she could go close to 200,000, a looming catalytic converter repair was not the kind of dice I wanted to roll.

So I found a 2010 Hyundai Sonata at the Mall of Georgia Team Hyundai in Buford (similar setup to the car dealerships along Shelbyville Road.) It has 32,000 miles on it, and recently was reduced to $13,900. We took it on a test drive, and everything checked out. We haggled a bit, and, surprisingly, got the Old Gray Mare's value up $1,500.

Buying two cars in a month wasn't the ideal plan, but I'm relieved that we have more reliable cars with better gas mileages. And they look pretty cool, if we do say so ourselves.

My favorite feature is the blue numbers and dashboard.

'I always thought a Rogue was a pipe dream'

With gas prices on the rise, and the Silverado's value only headed south, Kristi and I set out to see how we could trade in what she affectionately called Bear.

With all of the recent job changes, Kristi ended up driving the truck daily, and it just wasn't practical to drive while wearing heels. Let's be honest, here.

So we landed at Gwinnett Place Nissan in Duluth, supposedly the largest volume Nissan dealer in the Southeast.

She test drove the 2008 Rogue, and loved it from the start. It's built on a car line, so it's smoother and lower to the ground than trucks or other SUVs. It also gets about 24 miles per gallon around town, which isn't a huge deal since her commute is 2.5 miles.

What surprised me was the amount of negotiating we did for the Silverado. They started out offering us $13,500 for it, then went to $15,300. After we were still about $2,000 apart on what we were offering, the sales manager went into a classic speal about miles per gallon.

Him: "What do you get around town? About 16?

Me: "Yeah, about that. But when you buy a truck, you're not expecting 35 mpg."

We went back and forth a couple more times, and he ultimately put the truck at $17,100.

(The next day I went back to give them the title to the truck, and the salesman talked about wanting us to come back and trade-in the Hyundai there. He mentioned he only made $100 commission on the deal, and the dealership hardly made anything. Who knows if any of that is true. But I can tell you it will be difficult to sell the truck for much more than $17,100.)

Kristi loved driving it off the lot, and after she parked at Steak 'n Shake, she said, "Man, that was a lot easier than the truck." Then she repeated about the same line when we pulled out of the parking lot.

As we drove toward Athens, we recalled our on-again-off-again car/truck search of the last year. Mostly, we had focused on four-door hatchbacks and trucks, thinking the SUVs were a bit out of our price range. Fortunately, the truck held its value enough to give us a mulligan on the purchase.

"I always thought a Rogue was a pipe dream," she said.

Hannah's 4th Birthday!!

Maybe it's because we'll soon be going through all of this again, but this year Hannah's birthday really hit me! It's incredible to watch our girls grow up and change but to think that this little bundle

has grown into this big girl, at four years old, just makes me realize how time flies by.

Her vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds. She may only weigh 28.5 pounds but she's getting taller all the time. Hannah is firm these days in her fashion choices (leggings or sweats, no jeans) and becoming even more independent, she can buckle her own carseat now!

Her play kitchen, with all of the accessories from family and friends has kept her busy nonstop for the past twenty four hours.

Today at her party she was occupied with her dollhouse and immediately wanted to change into all of her new outfits (which include leggings)!

Happy Birthday to our spunky 'little bit.'

She had a wonderful day! She received packages, voice mail messages and texts to wish her Happy Birthday and delighted in every one! Happy birthday to our littlest girl with the biggest voice and a personality that fills a room! We love you SO much!!