Us

Happy Thanksgiving!

(a little late)

Wow! What a day! After a crash and burn morning, I got to the church at 11 to decorate for our family Thanksgiving.

My grandma and I "hosted" the entire family on my mom's side. It was so nice to see ALL the cousins there at one time. You know, the older everyone gets, the less likely it becomes that you will get everyone in one place.

There 37 of us total. Grandma cooked all the turkey, stuffing and potatoes and gravy. Each family was assigned a dish, or food group, to bring for everyone. I think it worked out well.

There was plenty to eat, and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Grandma brought games, we sang a couple of songs, and my brother Stephen gave a short devotional on "In everything give thanks".

Fast forward to about 6pm: We had just landed at home when Jesse's screams pierced thru our basement dwelling. We didn't jump up right away, because each of our kids tend to be over dramatic, but Homer's, "Come quick! There's blood all over!" got us hopping.

Long story short, Jesse's forehead connected with a dresser corner, and as with any head wound it looked like he was an actor in a horror flick. He literally had blood covering most of his face and dripping off his chin.

We got him to a sink, found the wound, and decided stitches were needed. I thought I could go it alone, so I took off with Jesse, now settled, with a wet towel and ice pack on his head. (Marlene was already cleaning the trail he'd left on the floor. Bless her heart!)

I did say this was the short version didn't I?!! Well, urgent care wasn't open, I missed the hospital exit, and ER was terribly slow. I have had times I've taken a kid in with a head wound but it had healed too much already and they just sent us home. I REALLY didn't want that to happen after I had driven all that way.

By the by, Jesse was totally calm and chatting the whole time. The bleeding had pretty much stopped. He started to get quiet when the nurse came in with a big blanket to "ca coon" him, and he outright refused to answer if it was numb or not after them began.

It took 3 of us to hold him still, he's the wormiest of my 5, and they poked him 8 times to anaesthetise the area. This started the bleeding again BIG time, and he still only tolerated one of the two stitches they gave him. He screamed and fought the whole way thru the second stitch. ( note to self, Don HAS to deal with Jesse and stitches. I was almost ready to bawl myself.)

He glared at the lot of us after it was all done, and wouldn't even pick out what color band aid he wanted. He did shake his head when I picked orange. So he ended up with yellow.

Jesse was promised ice cream when it was all done. Of course everyone is closed for Thanksgiving, but we did find a gas station and bought some ice cream bars for all. Jesse has been doing great ever since.

Oh! And I found the Mint M&Ms at the gas station. All's well that ends well!

P.S.

I have a bunch of pictures I want to post, but the camera's battery is dead, and like pretty much everything else around here, I can't find it!