Girl's Weekend!

So after a disastrous week and a half of Jim being gone, I managed to make it through the rest of the week and have had a glorious weekend so far! My friend Lori hosted a craft weekend, so I spent my Friday night was spent catching up with friends and attempting to start my first blurb book. Lori was working on quilts for her new baby, and I am SO inspired to start a quilt for Josiah. I have wanted to learn to quilt since 4-H in high school, and since he moved into his big boy bed I've wanted to start one. After feeling the softest minky ever and looking at her super easy pattern, I think I might be ready to take the plunge! Now I just need to find the perfect fabric...

On to today...caught up with my next door neighbor Jess, who I lived by for probably 13 years and now haven't seen in 13 years. So fun to see her!!!! Then I wandered through the Junk Market, Scheels, and the mall for a few hours. Ahhh, the joy of shopping alone...I managed to find not 1, not 2, but 3 pairs of shoes! Two of them are replacing pairs that I've worn regularly for the past 5+ years, so I don't feel bad about those...the sandals may have been a bit of a splurge though. Tonight we met up with our friends Andy and Becca and their two adorable children for a spontaneous trip to the playground at Longfellow and Happy Joes for dinner. Fall weather is just so gorgeous!!!

All fun and no school for the first weekend since I went back to work. I remember now why it's so important to balance life with fun...I could work forever on schoolwork and organizing stuff and always feel behind and overwhelmed. Taking some time for myself needs to go back on my list of important things to do!!!

In Stitches

Tuesday evening started off like any other. Jim had been working in Perham for the last week, and after a week of flying solo we needed to burn some steam. Josiah grabbed his bike, I grabbed Cooper, and we headed out for a walk/bike ride with the neighbors. Fresh air and getting to move did wonders for all of us. After a late supper we started getting ourselves ready to snuggle in bed and wind down. Being totally exhausted from having Jim working out of town for the last week and a half and following my usual routine of getting myself to bed around midnight, I decided when I got Josiah ready for bed around 8:30 that I would also hit the sack. 

I should have known what was coming. While I got myself ready for bed he bounced around my room dancing like a maniac to Elmo's ABC songs. Just as I was finishing up came the dreaded "crack," immediately followed by the telltale wail. I turned to see him picking himself up off Cooper's dog bed (next to the rail of our bed), and as I got there (a whole 10 feet away) a nice thick trail of blood ran right down his cheek. Oh lovely! We quickly headed for the bathroom, cleaned the blood, and discovered a nice 1/2" long cut above his eye. Yessss! Jim's current trip had already yielded 3 bloody noses (ask me about that one someday), and now I was pretty sure that list was going to include stitches as well. After confirming with my personal nurse (LOVE having a good friend across the street in the medical world), I threw on enough clothes to hide my pjs, chucked the ipad in my purse (aka: the greatest distraction ever invented), and headed out the door. I was not excited about this trip, and Jim of course wasn't answering his phone. First emergency room trip as a parent and I was totally running solo. Yesss, again! We checked in and sat down to wait with the other 20+ people. Fortunately we found ourselves seated next to a family with a 4-yr old boy, and Josiah quickly found a friend (thank you, Lord, for that distraction!). 

Jim called a few minutes later to tell me he had just finished working for the day (13+ hours), and since he'd worked late he was....SUPRISE! on his way home now instead of coming Wednesday. I'm pretty sure that at that moment I felt the clouds part and heaven shining down around me. Thank you Lord for arranging that, and thank you Jim for working so hard! Finally at 10:15 we were admitted into the ER, and one of the nurses applied an antiseptic to the cut to numb it and help stop the bleeding. Then we began our second phase of waiting. Here he is with the glop on his face...he looks SO old in this picture!

We counted everything in the room that we could and chatted about the million questions Josiah had about all the equipment and people around. He was so brave, even though he was clearly nervous. He even asked the physician how many stitches he was going to have. We passed away the time chatting and playing a few games on my phone, and Jim finally arrived with minutes to spare. Josiah wasn't bothered by the cloth the doctor draped over his face to shield his view, but when the first stitch went in the change was instant. We went from totally calm and relaxed to crying hysterically, even though he still managed to keep himself pretty still. Thank goodness Jim was there so that there were two of us to comfort and distract. We ended up with just 3 stitches. It was a clean, straight cut, and the doctor worked quickly. Here's the latest battle scar:

5 minutes later he was up and holding onto dad's neck to relax (Mom always gets trumped after Dad's been gone awhile). Another 5 minutes and a little of Jim's humor and he was smiling away. 

One of the nurses came to tell him that an ambulance was there, and she offered to let him go see it. He jumped on that opportunity and off they went! He came back with an even bigger grin and an adorable teddy bear wearing a yellow rain coat and hat. Apparently the ambulances get all the good toys. :) Here he is!!!

We finally made it home at 12:30, totally exhausted, but also a little giddy since we had Jim back. After getting unloaded and having a snack we all made it to bed shortly after 1:00. Wish I could have slept in with my boys...6:15 came fast this morning!!!