And there's the scar

It really looks much better than that by now, I just thought I would put this up since the post about her accident didn't have a picture with it. She hasn't stopped climbing on chairs and tables and couches and counters, but she isn't falling quite as much as before.

Springtime?

While I was putting the kids to bed I was cold. We keep our house at a refreshing temperature so I just thought that I should put on another sweatshirt. After an hour I was really cold, so I looked at the thermostat and it said 60. That is a little chilly even for us. This was a night that David was able to give me a call from the hospital so I asked him for tips on how to get the furnace started again. They were good ideas but none of them worked. I trekked down to the basement and drug out all of the feather quilts and heavy blankets that we had and draped them over the kids, covered Pati up carefully and then we all had a good nights sleep. When we woke up it was 50 degrees inside. We had a fresh 6 inches of snow outside and it was about 17 degrees. Everyone looked so cute with little red noses and rosy cheeks. We drank hot tea, put on snow hats and all swaddled up in blankets on the couch. David got home and built a fire (we had enough firewood for one fire, but we had not used the fireplace yet and I wasn't brave enough to risk a chimney on fire or a smokefilled house). The house warmed up a little and by about 2:00 the furnace was fixed and working just fine.
Maybe today it is a little too warm in here because the kids have been begging to go outside all morning. I finally let them when they finished chores and it got into the 20's outside. I am ready for spring but it keeps snowing! The kids don't seem tired of it, they are inside now eating yet another bowl of snow with honey on it. I feel like I should put up another Christmas tree.

Sundays

Not sure of why all of the medical emergencies in our family happen on Sundays...even better, Sundays when David is on call. Poor Alec spent the entire morning in a collared shirt and tie and we never made it to church. While I was feeding the baby the three bigger kids made their way into the kitchen to wait for breakfast. I soon heard the customary crash of Anne falling. This is a common daily occurance. Somewhere in the area of 5 to 15 times a day Anne falls...from chairs, tables, couches, and then there are the falls because of pushy siblings, slippery socks and some just plain old for no apparent reason. She always yells as though she is dying (Many women swear that they can tell the difference between their childrens mad, hurt, scared and whining cries. With Anne I have given up trying to interpret them. They all sound the same.). I left Pati screaming indignantly in the bedroom and went to check it out since Jan and Alec were yelling about blood. This morning was a little different - she really had hurt herself and there was blood "all over" the kitchen. It always surprises me how much little cuts in the head bleed. When we got it all cleaned up the wound had shrunk down to a generous inch on her forhead...below the hairline. I thought that I would be traipsing back to the emergency room since the gash was pretty deep and looked to be too wide for the super glue treatment (Which I couldn't do by myself anyway...Anne is a wiggler even when she isn't in pain). There are several Doctors that attend the church that we attend - I tried "my" Doctor first (David). He answered my page but was awfully busy and it looked as though I should only use him if I was completely out of other options. I called the doctor that the kids call "Mr. Steve" who lives right down the street and is married to another doctor who the kids call "Mrs. Heather". They weren't home. I had one other option - the doctor who the kids call "Megan's Dad". He was home and graciously gave up a good portion of the morning to put some stitches in Anne's head.
It has been snowing hard all morning but we may venture outside later to break icicles off of the gutters. We already did this yesterday and stored some away in the freezer, but there is a fresh crop this morning and opening the front door is hazardous because it makes ice daggers come crashing down. I think that it distresses the gutters too.
There is so much snow outside that we have a snowman (he really is an icelumpman since the only way to get snow to pack is to build mounds and pour water over it) and a killer snow fort in the front yard - this last week we built two sledding hills in the back yard and are working on an igloo (although I forgot to pour water over that so it is not ready for excavation yet). People don't expect any sign of spring until April.
If there are no other emergencies maybe we will try to make it to night church this evening.

The big storm

Today I was glad for 4-wheel drive. We were hit with about 16 inches of new snow on top of the 12 that were already there. I had fun off-roading it in the big rig at 5 this am as I zipped past all of the honda civics in the world who were trying to swim down the street. Due to the heavy weather, school and most government offices were closed, doctors and patients cancelled surgery, and that all added up to a fairly light day of work, meaning my senior resident sent me home around 1pm when I got my work all done.

Took the kids sledding at our local park, but due to the heavy snow they were having a very difficult time walking back up the hill, so we just made a few passes and called it quits.
Tried my hand at converting video off from the day and have posted it on google for all the world to see.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4260019235756321422&pr=goog-sl

If that doesn't work, you can email me and I will send you the link.

I am now going to be on call for a good stretch, so I may be quiet until March.

Getting to do lots more surgery, and getting to be quite the seamstress.

More later.

David