Henrietta

Just a pretty picture of Henrietta and her friend.

Kaden's Major Accomplishment!

That's right folks, he's reading!!

Solar Flare

We are studying Astronomy this year and we had the amazing opportunity to look at the sun through a special telescope. It just so happens that the sun is very active right now and there are many solar flares going on. We actually got to see them through the telescope! A friend who was with us put her fancy phone up to the telescope and was able to take a picture of it! It was better in person, but still amazing. Some of the solar flares we saw he estimated to be 100 (or was it 1000?) times bigger than earth! It was very cool to see.

The sun is white and if you look at  o'clock and at 5 o'clock you can see two seperate flares, just little white wisps rising off of the sun. The one at 3 looks like an atomic bomb if you look closely, and is a lot more energy than a bomb.

This one is a little blurry but a closer look at the 3 o'clock flare at it's peak. They act like wisps of smoke from a snuffed candle, but move much slower. Each flare lasts several minutes from explosion to extinction.

HOT Meat Goat Classic

Both boys were old enough to participate in the Heart of Tennessee Meat Goat Classic Pee Wee Division-Showmanship.

We arrive, pick a stall, put down wood chips, feed and water then get to work grooming the goats. Haircuts are Mommy's job. Boys do the brushing.

Kolin and Snowflake

All the contestants entering the ring.

The Boys and their goats in the Winner's Circle.

They each got a medal and a ribbon.

Some friends of ours came to the show. These are the same girls that painted the greenhouse. Their parents are beginning the process of adoption. Among other reasons, this is their answer to abortion. Please visit their blog to read more and enter the raffle for a great date night! Drawing is December 1st!

http://www.findingourhiddentreasure.blogspot.com/

Greenhouse Progress

So a few weeks ago I had to go in to the office for three full days. Konrad took the week off and while I was away the boys built the greenhouse!

The Crew

Rhett, Konrad, Mark, Kolin & Kaden

The (Almost) Finished Product

Project Manager Rhett

Since then I have stained all the exterior wood, cleaned the windows and allowed the boys and their friends free reign with paint.

They probably don't know it yet, but all the white boards are primed plywood and will be covered soon with stained wood.

Titans Game

Pregame

Enjoying a refreshing beverage.

After a TITAN Touchdown!

Mor fun pics from the game.

Kolin Update

   I know I haven’t talked to each of you personally and I can’t remember who I told what, so I thought I would update you all on what’s been going on.

    As you know Kolin had surgery on his kidney/ureter two years ago this October. Since then each follow-up ultrasound has been better than the last and his pediatric urologist and Vanderbilt Children’s has been happy with his progress. Since then Kolin has had occasional blood in his urine. After a while we began to notice that each episode occurred after times of intense physical activity. During our checkups I would mention this but he kept saying it was normal to have a little blood in the urine.

   Well, lately the frequency seems to be increasing so one day I called the pediatrician. Evidently I wasn’t making myself clear enough to the urologist because the pediatrician got very animated about it then urologist said I didn’t tell him it was visible blood in the urine. What other kind would I even notice?! Do I look like I have microscopic eyesight? I digress. To make a long story short the pediatrician called the urologist the urologist called and two doctor visits later we are scheduled for either an MRI or a Cat scan (can’t remember) of the kidneys.

   Urologist said he wasn’t worried more curious as to why this is going on. Some causes could be kidney stones or scar tissue from surgery. He also made a note in his chart after surgery that Kolin has a large collection of blood vessels at the top of his kidney where the surgery took place, could be something to do with that or something with a fancy name I can’t remember that means sometimes after heavy exercise there is blood in the urine.

    Kolin is in no pain, it doesn’t bother him a bit when he has an episode. We have ruled out an infection of the kidney or bladder. So we will let you know more when we know more.

1st Broken Bone

  I say first, and I hope it is the last, but Konrad warns me that this is how it goes with a house full of boys. The crazy thing is, he wasn't doing anything crazy! He was just running in a gym and fell on it wrong. They way he describes it, he twisted on it as he fell so maybe that is what caused the break.  He is such a tough little boy, so when he cried out loud the whole trip home from the gym, I had a feeling it was serious.

He was very brave at the hospital. He was put into a hard splint attached to his arm with wraps and ace bandages. He will keep this one for several days until all swelling is gone and then they will put a cast on for 4-6 weeks.  After a long night at the hospital we finally made it to bed around 2am. He woke up once from pain but was able to go back to sleep after a dose of IBU.  He has felt fine today and was trying to play catch with a nerf football. Kolin is being a very good big brother, gentle and uncharacteristically sympathetic. He seems to realize the serious of this injury compared to their normal daily injuries. He did not like his little brother crying from pain. He even carried Kaden's stuffed animal around the hospital for him.

The good news is that the break is above the growth plates so hopefully no surgery or pins will be required. We will go see an orthopedic specialist next week and will know more then.

Scooter

Kolin and I rescued this little box turtle from the middle of the road. Her name is Scooter. By the rings on her shell we think she is about 10 years old. She didn't seem scared of us, kept her head and legs out a lot of the time. Maybe she's been captured before ;) While we had her we researched turtles at the library and on the internet and learned about what they ate and what they need to live. That helped us decide that she needed to be free. We kept her for a couple of days and then took her to a wooded area near a creek and let her go.

Don't Panic...

He's ok, but did have a serious run in with the deck this afternoon. Has a one inch gash on top of his head. He blames his brother of course. He turned the bathtub water all yucky red. It was pretty gross but I think he's going to make it.