Train Show

 

My friend, Beth, told us about a pop up train show near us.  After work, we wandered over.  It was fun. It was a small one, but they had a scavenger hunt and a cute little conductor. My favorite part was the tiny trains in old suitcases.

Escape room in a box

Syl loves any books or papers.  I left my room and was surprised by a cat staring at me from Evelyn's book.

A younger kid hit Jer's car in the parking lot.  Jer takes care of his car and tries to keep it nice.  He was so kind and graceful with the kid that hit him.  He said he kept thinking of the man that gave Sam grace when he did the same.... and he gave this kid the same grace.  I'm so proud of my husband for valuing people and God more than cars.

Friday Night

Friday night, my friend Beth, came with me to pick Ada up from work and pick up some food for dinner.  On our way home, I stopped at the light by Zurcher's and was hit from behind.  We were hit so hard!  There were 4 of us all in a pile up.  The first car wasn't paying attention and didn't try to stop.  They pushed the car in front of them into our car and pushed us into the car in front of us.  The one I hit was barely bumped luckily. He probably got some whiplash though.  The three of us sure did.  Ada has a concussion and sore back.  Beth has a sore back and neck.  I have a concussion, sore back and shoulders, and a sore leg because I had my foot on the break when we got hit.  The girl right behind me was a very young teenager that got hit with her airbag.  She was so disoriented, shaking and a bloody nose.  I felt so bad.  A blessing of it all though was that we were driving right next to an ambulance that immediately stopped in front of us to assess everyone. They said that the person hurt the worst was the passenger in the first car.  I don't know what happened, but it sounded like they weren't buckled and got pretty hurt.  Because of the weekend and because of Thanksgiving, the insurance has taken almost a week and a half to get everything straightened out.  I still have to have a meeting with them on Tuesday and they are towing our car to a garage on Monday to fix it.  It was a total loss like they first told me so Yay!  Our car didn't start again, so they had to tow it off.  I'm so grateful for insurance!  This is our first time really using it, but I would not want to pay the thousands out of pocket that would have happened.... medical bills for 3 people, towing twice and fixing the car along with tow yard storage fees.  Jer came and picked us up.  It was so cold. Ada and I keep having what she calls, "Brain farts." I told her that this is what a mild concussion feels like! I've never had one before.  It's disorienting, frustrating, emotional, and tiring.

 

Fall to Winter

It went from Fall warm and sunny weather to snowy, rainy and cold all within a month.  We do need the moisture, so I won't be mad.  It is a weird extreme though.  Our leaves haven't even fallen from the trees, and we had a giant snowstorm that took two large branches from our trees and a lot from Grandma and Grandpa Robertson's trees.  Evelyn and I stayed here to clean up our back yard and the rest of the family went to help Grandpa with their big branches.

Playing games with Rose and Jack.

Scripture study after a day of Seth being sick.  I think he had croup.  That was the closest I've ever gotten to taking a kid to the ER because of being sick.  We've taken Sam for his EOE and Grandma with her heart palpitations.  I think we've taken Dad twice in the last 17 years.  But he was wheezing so badly that I was afraid of not being able to hear him breath.  The first time we took his oxygen, it was at 68%.  Jer tried several times after and it wouldn't even read it.  Finally, after he'd been sitting in my lap for a while, Jer was able to get a reading in the 90%.  Jer was kind enough to sleep on the couch so that Seth could sleep sitting up next to me in bed.  (I love our adjustable base!)  I sat it most of the way up and he snuggled up next to me and slept.  He had a fever all night and I was up about ever hour checking on him, but he was right there.  When the morning came, he was so much better.

This is our table AFTER I asked Seth to clean up his stuff.  The backpack, 6 books, reading calendar, card game, blue folder and and Math workbook are all his.  He promised me that he'd cleaned up. "I do not think that means what you think it means."

Because Seth was sick, we cancelled HalloLan for friends and told my brothers not to come if they didn't want to be exposed. Both my brothers came, and we had a blast.

Evelyn's cute puppy dog.

Evelyn does acrobatics classes.  She's usually the support on the bottom doing all the lifts.  She loves that she's strong and that she's learned how to drop someone safely.  She's very careful and the kids love all her tricks.

Jer went out on the first snowy day of the year.  There was a pileup on State Street and a truck backed up into his car with the trailer hitch.  I laughed that it was the artist, Eric Dowdle.  I was joking that he'd probably pay for it in puzzles.  We do his puzzles with my mom all the time.  She'd take it.