who needs so many fingers anyway??

I'm sad...I had this huge long post...and it's gone. This will be an abridged version.

Last saturday I went to visit my wonderful friend Nicole. I was going to hang out and eat lunch. Soon after I arrived I got the "we're pregnant!" announcement and I'm so excited for them! I'm so glad that she is a good enough friend to know that even though we've had some sad news recently, I would still want to celebrate with her. Now I can experience it through her eyes and not have to have the "not so fun" symptoms yet...

Sunday we had a great day at church. It was good to be back after so long. The message on Romans 8:28 was exactly what I needed to hear. It is amazing how God meets needs that we don't even know that we have. I think I just needed to cry...to finally let some emotions out...and the service was right where I was at.

Our work week started as normal. Nothing out of the ordinary..until thursday when I got the call from a frantic co-teacher/co-coach at ryan's school. I could barely understand her except that she said ryan wanted me to know he was Ok. To keep a very long story short...he was running past a volleyball pole at full speed and his wedding ring caught on a screw that was sticking out of the pole. He was basically body-slammed to the ground. Unfortunately, the ring didn't come off his finger...it essentially buried itself in it. They called 911 b/c he was losing circulation and they had to cut off the ring (he later told me this was the most painful part of the ordeal)

When the ring yanked up his finger, it removed more "stuff" than I care to mention. When he got to the hospital after a fun ride in the ambulance, his mom and I were there to meet him. (she works there so I got to be in places i otherwise wouldn't have been) After a way too long wait in the waiting room, we ended up in a "room" which was basically a bed and a chair behind curtain #6. Joy...and guy behind curtain #9 needed security. No joke I felt like I was living in an episode of Grey's Anatomy...

I wish I could describe the grossness (is that a word??) of this wound...we took pictures on the camera phones. I could see what I thought was bone...I was later told that it was the tendon covering the bone which was great news...but STILL. ewww...

Round one of x-rays showed a lot platinum in the wound from where they removed the ring. They had to numb it with injections (OUCH) and then irrigate it (dump 3 huge bottles of saline into it while holding it over a trash can) to remove the metal. Then we had round 2 of x-rays that determined they removed enough metal to close it up since there didn't appear to be tendon or ligament damage. (We were initally told we might be going into surgery ...)

He got 15 stitches in ONE finger...that is how jagged and horrible this wound is... I can't believe he was in such good spirits. He got no pain meds at the hospital at all. I guess I can't give him a hard time about being a wimp anymore...

Today we had a follow up visit for a 2nd opinion. The great news...he doesn't think he needs surgery either. Merely a flesh wound....a really, really bad one. Thank goodness i have a strong stomach...I get to change the bandages every night. AND he went to work today. What a moron...

So now here I sit on a friday night at 9:00...they are both asleep. This party is kickin'...

ok...that's enough about that I guess. In the meantime, Audrey has been her regular cute self. She has upgraded her jumping... She has now learned to jump onto things and off of things...and over things. She and I went for a walk the other day and we walked farther away from the house than I'd ever taken her. I was so proud of how she was doing...holding my hand and being so sweet about it. Well, on the return trip she noticed the seams in the sidewalk. She decided that she needed to jump over them...ALL of them. Needless to say it was a long walk back...but I had nowhere to be so I was patient as I could be....although I did try to distract her whenever possible.

Today I prayed over Audrey's lunch as I was handing it to her. I try to remember to do this as often as I can. I always say the same thing..."Dear Jesus, Thank you for our food. Amen" Well, today she piped right in and added her own "amen!" Don't you know her Nana and Papa Pat were proud?! (they had brought our lunch and were there with us)

Some fun new words that Audrey has started using more regularly this week are octopus, shrimp and sea horse....oh, and garlic. She is also starting to repeat what we tell her to a little more consistently so that is fun... We were trying to teach her to shake hands tonight. She was getting the concept :) it was fun to practice...She was running all over steering her shopping cart around the kitchen and we'd stop her and stick out our hands and say "nice to meet you!" and she'd stick her hand in ours...

...and i'm very impressed at her driving skills. she can turn that shopping cart on a dime! At full speed!

Well, there are so many audrey things i wanted to post but all i can think about is ryan's yucky finger so i'm going to finish this later...