Wow. I cannot believe how fast time is passing me by. Over the last few months, Brady was injured in a football practice (not bad but enough to end his season), Belle turned twelve and Bryce turned thirteen. I am now the parent of a teenager! How did that happen? When did that happen? At what point did time skip 10 years from when I had three kids under the age of 4? Hubby has taken a new job. We have been through Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I have not put up a single post about life in the Shortymom household! I'm horrible!
So I'm here to update.
Brady dislocated his ring finger during a football practice before the last ballgame. This dislocation was so bad that we initially thought that it could possible be broken. So we raced to the emergency room where it was eventually put back into place, given a splint and the official word that his football season was over. For us, the end of the season was a relief after a drama filled season full of disappointment from him and us. Because this is a small town, I cannot go into full detail but we we/are very disappointed on how things went on the football field. So much so that Brady was willing to quit at a couple of different points. He is fully healed now, active in basketball season but unfortunately his finger will never be "normal" again. The size of his knuckle has never gone back down to it's original size and probably never will. We are grateful that it was a minor injury compared to what it could be.
A couple of weeks later was the beginning of basketball practices. Four practices a week between Brady and Belle on four different nights has been keeping me busy. So far Belle's team has lost one game (this past weekend). Brady's team isn't undefeated but he's actually learned more this season than he has previous seasons so we were excited. We were excited to learn that he had a new coach this year, one who works with all of the boys and not just some of them.
Then we came to Belle's and Bryce's birthdays. They each had friends come over (different nights, whew!) and spend the night at the house. I'm still reeling from the fact that I have a teenager and one that's toeing that line. Just doesn't seem right! Their birthdays are so close to Halloween that there wasn't any time for breathing before we raced out to go trick or treating. Bryce didn't trick or treat this year but rode in the car with Hubs, Brady went as yet another ninja, and Belle. Belle was my difficult child this year. Belle wanted to be Chuckie this year from the Child's Play movies, movies she's never seen mind you. Unfortunately we just couldn't get all of the details worked out so we bought a mask and a wig and she went as some zombie thing that really doesn't have a name. They had fun and that was all that mattered.
November brought us a whirlwind of basketball activities, science projects, book projects and getting ready for Thanksgiving that I won't bore you with. Hubby found a new job in the middle of all of this. A job that allows him to be home a lot more often. He is currently working for a job that allows him to stay over night two nights in Tennessee spread out during the week so he's not gone consecutive days. This means he's home all weekend plus another day during the week. We were excited that it finally worked out for him to find a local job allowing him to be home basically full time. Of course we have had our battles during the adjustment but nowhere near some of the battles we've had in the past adjustments. Awesome!
December found us scrambling as we were still running basketball up until the week before Christmas and trying to get the shopping done. There were days I felt as though I hadn't stopped for weeks trying to get everything situated. I didn't even get the tree up until two weeks before Christmas things were so hectic. Unfortunately during all this running, we started getting sick. By Christmas, Belle was improving from a nasty cold she had picked up, I had it full force and Hubs was just starting to catch it. This didn't keep us from having a great Christmas (a
white Christmas!). I will have pictures to post soon to catch up visually on all that has gone on. New Years Eve found us in bed by 9:30pm and passed out cold at midnight thanks to the wonderful sickness. Just so much entertainment at our house!
Just last week we had a rescheduled strings concert. We also picked up basketball practices again and had our first game this past weekend. I hope to have pictures up over the next couple of days of some of the things missed over the past few months. Then maybe I can get into the habit of updating regularly again.
My Christmas cactus that I bought 5 years ago had one bud come out last year but it never open up. Eventually it fell off and I was heartbroken. This year, not only did I have one bud but 5! After watching it daily for weeks, this one finally opened up and two more are right behind it. For those that know about Christmas cactus, this one is not a forced bloom but come out on it's own. Awesome!