See!  I am back! (and in less than 6 months, which I'm taking as a victory.)    This week has been a busy week, complete with a Memorial Day bbq and s'more roast, a broken arm and a successful (at least I thought so!) mutual activity.  I am hoping that tomorrow is a little breather as Friday starts with the busy again.  I hate the word busy.

Our broken arm was compliments of Elise, again.  It was a reminder that we should not jump on the trampoline on Sundays.  I always remember my mom talking about all of the mistakes she would make in her sewing if she sewed on Sunday and apparently, the same goes for jumping.  Elise made major mistakes in jumping.  :) We don't normally let our kids jump on Sunday and if we ARE on the trampoline, it is as a family just kind of sitting around.  This Sunday some friends stopped by and the kids got restless.  We sent them out for a breather...and we probably shouldn't have.  The up side?  Rachel got to hang along for the doctor visit and enjoy understanding the medical speak from the doctor while I deferred to her for a translation. (after the doctor left, of course!)  And did I mention the cute slings we cranked out?  Elise has two choices, depending on the outfit and her slings come with pockets since she concerned about being short an arm to carry things.  Last night, she loaded up her pocket with little toys that needed to make the trip upstairs.

Do I hate my trampoline for breaking Elise's arm?  Nope.  Maybe I would if a bone had been sticking out of her arm.  Or if it required some horrible surgery?  But as it is, I view this whole broken bone part of childhood to be pretty normal.  We didn't get mad at our couch when she broke her other arm while monkeying around on it.  AND I feel like our trampoline provides the kids countless hours of fun and exercise.  Six years without an injury isn't bad!  Next week we get to go in for a more permanent cast, which I am sure will lead to countless hours of whining from Elise.  We'll just have to remind her that she DOES get to wear a pretty snazzy sling.  I'm sure it will make the itching all better.  

I'm grateful for a broken bone over appendicitis. (which my friend's boy had surgery for)  And I'm grateful for a cute little Lilly that has had a laundry list of injuries in the last 3 days in an effort to compete for attention.  It is borderline cute/obnoxious.

As you can tell from my serious lack of blogging, I just haven't been feeling the drive to blog.  I have been listening to just a little bit of nagging (ok, a whole heck of a lot of nagging) from my oldest daughter with her threatening to take over my blog.  So here is my feeble attempt to get blogging again.  We'll see how it goes, right?

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day in Oregon.  We were in the high seventies and the sun was a shining.  With our morning already being sucked up by piano (I love piano, but we do spend at least 4 hours there each Monday), we declared today to be a sun day and cancelled school.  We got the Woodwards to join us for a trip to the beach where it was just as beautiful, with just a little bit of wind.
Lilly is apparently a little bit scared of waves still so she spent most of her time in the sand.  If a wave was within 20 feet of her, she was running to the rocks.  It was a little ironic because I think she was more likely to get hurt on the rocks than by 1/2 inch of water.  We have our favorite beaches in the area but the big deciding factor between the two is whether or not we want to visit Tillamook Cheese Factory for cheese and ice cream.  Normally, the call for ice cream wins and we are headed south.   The beach that we went to today has a little cave we always have to walk through at some point.  As much as Lilly was petrified of the tiny waves, she had no problem walking through this rocky and DARK cave.  Silly girl.
And the pictures? I left my camera at home.  I have 2 rather mediocre pictures off of my cell phone.  Sorry. :(

And there you have it.  My biannual post to my blog.  Did I tell that my last post wasn't from me?  It was Rachel hijacking my blog.  I am glad I have a 14 year old that can be so on top of things.  She really does keep me in check. (tomorrow I'll tell you all about her dinners that she has been cooking for us!)