Puzzle Fun

Cadence's favorite activity lately has been doing puzzles.  Specifically a new princess puzzle she got at the dollar store.  The first few times she needed some help, but now she can do it all by herself.  She is so proud of herself when she completes it.  I must admit I'm pretty proud of her too.

She can even complete it upside down!!  The other day she had finished it again and she brought it to me to show me.  She ran back into the family room with it and tripped and fell.  I called out "Cadence are you okay?",  she answered back "I'm okay, but my puzzle isn't".  Such a funny girl.  Didn't take her long to fix it again though.

I think we may need another visit to the dollar store to get a couple more puzzles.

When It Rains it Pours

Saturday was a cold, rainy, miserable day.  In the evening Jason and I were sitting in the living room talking and I happened to say "I hope that little leak in the ceiling above the hutch in the dining room that we noticed last summer isn't leaking again".  Jason glanced up and noticed a huge wet spot over the hutch.

When we looked closer, the leak was actually dripping all over my wood hutch that my dad made me years ago.  We started to cover the hutch, but then decided we didn't want to risk getting it ruined, so we emptied it and moved it out of the way.

The drywall was starting to swell so Jason poked a hole into it breaking through the plastic barrier and water came pouring out.

We're not quite sure what we are going to do, but I'm praying we can figure something out.  We know we need a new roof, but that is not in the budget right now.  For now, the forecast is for rain this week so my dining room will just have to be in a state of disrepair for awhile.

We sure didn't need this right now, but I'm trying to not get too down about it.  The joys of home ownership.  When it rains it pours!!

Musical Happenings

We've been busy at the Atwood house.  School and lessons will soon wrap up and we look forward to a slower paced summer - I hope.  Last week was the boys' band concerts at school.  It was a great concert.  Bowen's band played first.  I was amazed at the improvement since the November concert.  They sounded so great.  Bowen has loved learning the clarinet and has even asked that we rent his instrument for the summer so he can play it.  He's really good.  Ashton's band was excellent as well. Ashton plays the trumpet and does well and enjoys it.  I look forward to what they'll learn next year.

Cadence and I are enjoying taking violin.  She and I have decided she needs a little break and will start her summer early.   But she did pretty good listening to her teacher, she's just a little young.  A few months off and we'll start up again.  I've enjoyed the challenge and hope to continue my lessons.  Maybe someday I'll be good enough to play a little something in public.

Until she's ready for more formal lessons, she'll just keep singing around the house.  Cadence is always singing.  She sings little songs we sing together, or ones she learns in nursery, or just makes them up - constantly.  Here is her attempt at the ABC song.  Her alphabet needs a little work but the singing sounds pretty good!

I love it when our home is filled with music!

Not the Best Start

Not the greatest start to our summer, Ashton broke his wrist on Saturday.  He and Bowen went to 7 11 to buy slurpees.  Bowen was on his scooter and Ashton was on his rollerblades.  On their way back Ashton got going a little too fast, got into some rocks and came down on his wrist.

I got a call from a very concerned lady who had stopped to help when she saw Ashton fall.  Another lady had stopped right afterward who happened to be a nurse.  I am so grateful for these women to assist my boys when they were hurt and scared.  Bowen said to me later that the Lord was sure looking out for them that day.

Jason jumped in the car and got to the scene.  They were back in a few minutes and Jason was pretty sure it was broken.  A quick sling and ice pack and off to urgent care.

They decided to put Ashton under general anesthetic to put the bone in place before putting on the cast.  Unfortunately, Ashton had a reaction to the drug and was flailing and screaming so they ended up giving him two doses of sedative as well.  They've told us in the future to make sure he isn't given the drug katamine.

They finally got the cast on him and Ashton and Jason were able to come home.  Ashton was pretty loopy from the drugs and it took hours for him to finally be able to rest and fall asleep.  His arm was sore the first couple of days but it is feeling much better now.

Now Ashton couldn't just have a regular cast that his friends and family sign - NO!  He painted his to look like Iron Man.

We have a follow up appointment at the Children's Hospital next week.  They will xray his arm again and make sure everything is healing properly.  Hopefully, then they can tell us about how long he'll have the cast on.  Sure hope it won't be for the entire summer.