Finally It Was Twilight!

Was all the anticipation worth it? Well, of course. I loved the book and the movie did not disappoint. Katie and I got to the theater at 7pm for the 12:01 am showing. Her friend, Ashley, got there about the same time, then the cousins arrived about 8pm. It was pretty cold, but the kids stayed entertained. I actually thought the time went by really fast.

They let us into the theater about 10:30 pm. We got good seats and were all excited until a young theater worker came in and told us that if we got up to go to the bathroom or get concessions, we might lose our seats. Well, that got everyone all excited...."What do you mean we can't go to the bathroom?" "Don't you want us to buy popcorn?" "I've been waiting in line for 5 hours and now that I have a seat it isn't mine to keep?" The obviously out-of-her-mind theater worker said we could all get up during the movie to buy popcorn. Say What!?
Anyway, we all decided that no one was going to take our seats because everyone around us would not allow it. So, Katie got up to go to the bathroom and while she was gone, the manager came in and said, "I have an announcement. I want to apologize for what you were told. You, of course, can get up to use the restroom, get popcorn and candy or whatever else and no one will take your seat." We all clapped and could tell he was exasperated.
When Katie came back she said she heard him telling the out-of-her-mind girl, "You told them what!?"
Tyler thought we were crazy and I don't think he was wrong. I was so tired, but it was an experience I'll always remember.

Finger Update

We've decided to document Tyler's finger healing progress, since we posted his graphic surgery pictures. Sorry to those of you who really aren't interested in seeing the gory details, but we are preserving this for posterity. Ha.

Here is his finger after his last appointment.

The nurse took out all 16 stitches, then the doctor came in and removed a 2" piece of gauze from inside his finger!!!!!!! Holy cow. We did not know they left that in there, but they did it on purpose. After the Doctor pulled the gauze out, then pulled Tyler off from the ceiling, we checked out the wreckage. It looks like a fake finger to me. Like a scarecrow finger. Weird. Hopefully, it will heal the way it's supposed to. Lesson learned here is....don't let an infection go on for months and months and months and months before doing something about it.

A Truly Ghoulish Halloween

Halloween turned out to be a very ghoulish day. I must warn you that at least one the pictures at the end of my post are graphic. I'll start with the non-gross stuff....

Kelsey was a "cereal" killer. We looked all over for a gothic costume, but nothing was what she wanted so she decided to be a "cereal" killer. Katie on the other hand has outgrown costumes and had to be coerced and threatened into wearing some kind of costume by her friends. She really hates Halloween. She ended up throwing on some cat ears and pinning a tail to her rear. They both looked pretty darn cute.

Kelsey's day went like this: I went to Kelsey's class and helped with their Halloween party. I had them make spiders out of twinkies and ding dongs. The kids had fun and were pretty creative about it. Kesley and I went over to our church Halloween party, then Kelsey went trick or treating in the neighborhood with some kids, then up to her Grandpa and Grandma Calton's.

Katie's day went like this: She stayed after school for the after-school Halloween dance, which is apparently a make out session for many. I think she will avoid them in the future because the teacher's don't pay attention to all the nasty stuff going on so everyone has to see it. Then, she went to her friend's (Nicole) Halloween party and had fun. After that she went with some other friends to the Haunted Forest to be scared. I thought she was going to cry before she ever left (like I said she does not like Halloween). But, she survived and said it was not as scary as she thought it was going to be.
Now for the gross part of the Halloween day. While all the other stuff was going on, Tyler's day went like this: Tyler had had an infection in his finger for months. Actually in the summer I mentioned he should see a Dr about it, but he said it comes and goes and he'll be fine. I wish I had taken a picture of his finger on last Saturday when I had to rush him to the on call Dr, but I didn't think to document it until he had been on his antibiotics for a number of days. Here is the finger on antibiotics...

To make a long story short, the Dr. x-rayed his finger and saw that the bone had a problem, he referred him to a hand surgeon. tyler went to the hand surgeon who said it looked like he had an infection in the bone and they should do surgery to clean it out. So, on Halloween morning Tyler and I went to the hospital. The Dr's PA came out after surgery and told me that after they cut Ty's finger open, they cleaned out a bunch of pus, then when they got to the bone there was a hole in it and an abscess. They found something like a foreign object that had been there for quite sometime. GRAPHIC PICTURE TO FOLLOW...Anyway, here is the gross picture they took after cleaning his finger. You can see the hole in his bone that they had to clean out.

This is what Ty's finger looks like today...

How Chris spent Halloween day: 7:30 am...I took Ty to the Hospital, sat at the hospital, waited at the hospital, raced over to Kelsey's school party, raced back home to check on Ty, picked up Katie from the nastydance, ate dinner, took Katie to her party, took me and Kelsey to the Ward party, left Kelsey at the party to pick up Katie from the friends party, came home and checked on Ty, waited for Katie and her friend to be picked up to go to the Haunted Forest, picked up Kelsey from trick-or-treating, drove up to grandparents, drove to the haunted forest to pick up Katie and friends, drove her friends home, came home. I think it was 11:00. Have no idea when I went to bed. What an awesome Halloween -- I hate that holiday!!!

FHE Twister

It was Katie's turn to come up with something to do for FHE (family home evening) tonight. She got the great idea to play Twister. I think she wanted to punish me. Actually, she just wanted to have fun and it was fun. Although, I can't believe how painful it can be to stretch and twist in weird ways. I don't understand why my legs get sore as I get older. I guess there's just a lot of miles on them. Tyler didn't play, of course. He would have never survived it. But, Katie and Kelsey were awesome. They could have gone all night.

Katie plans her move.
Then the pain sets in, or she's howling at the moon. Not sure which.
Kelsey is either hanging in for dear life or out. I can't tell.
Definitely fun. I don't know who won this time. I think they fell all at once

Getting brave

So...I took a day off from work last week and decided to get my hair cut. It's been soooo long since I've had a good haircut, plus I really wanted to get rid of my gray. (I know, you couldn't even tell I had gray before, huh.) Anyway, as I'm sitting in the chair looking at the color that the girl said would be good for me, I'm thinking and saying "It looks dark." But, she insists I should go with it. I'm feeling trusting and a little adventurous, so I say, "Ok." Afterall, I have never ever colored my hair. With the exception of some wash in coloring and I had it highlighted once 7 or so years ago.

Well, well, well an hour and a half later, my gray was definitely not showing -- My hair was definitely darker. I think my blond and gray hairs just sucked up the color, like a sponge. It was much darker than I thought even from the sample. Seemed a little shocking to me, but I actually did like the color. I just wasn't sure how I liked it on me.

I got home and Tyler said he liked it and liked it quite a bit. So, I think I can live with it. Both Katie and Kelsey also said they liked it. Actually, everyone at work (who dared to comment) said they liked it, too. And, the young women at my church and the other young women leaders also said they liked it. That's a lot of people saying they like it. So, what I've decided, since I still am not sure if I really like it on me, is that I figure either I look alright with the color or no one dares to tell me how they really feel. Either way I'm stuck with it for a while.

I'll try to make the next post more interesting. I just really needed to talk about his big change I made. Now I feel better. :) And, here's a picture of the color:

There's a first time for everything

Well, this weekend was fun...and interesting. Katie had a small party with some friends. It was supposed to be an "office" party because they were excited for the tv show, The Office, to start this coming week. Anyway, the interesting part was that some of her friends were boys. So, there were three boys at our house hanging out with Katie.

It's hard seeing your little girl grow up. They sure seemed like good kids, but boys nonetheless. I don't know if Tyler will make it through the teenage years. He kept going out to where the kids were and looking at Katie, then doing the two fingers to the eye thing. You know, "I'm watching you" thing. I don't know how to explain it if you haven't seen "Meet the Parents" movie. I thought it was funny. I'm not sure what the kids thought.

I would have pictures to put with this post, except I refrained from taking any. I was pretty sure that would be embarrassing to Katie. I told her later I wanted to take pictures but didn't and you should have seen the look on her face, "I'm soooo glad you didn't, Mom." Yep. Good to follow your instincts sometimes.

Boys at our house is a first, but I'm sure it won't be the last. Better get used to it, huh.

Oh, The Memories

I came across this old 2004 Halloween photo and thought it would be fun to post. Every year we have a Halloween party at my work and you can bring your kids in to "trick or treat" at employee's desks. Usually there is a fun Halloween movie playing too.

They wanted to dress up as babies that year. I think they are so cute! They both look so much older now. Oh, the memories!