Labor-Day (disaster) Weekend

Alex got to stay with us this weekend, so we decided to spend the weekend at my parent's house in Kamas. We had so many fun things planned, and we were excited to get going. We've been having problems with the van over heating ever since I took it in to get a lube job (suspicious, huh?). I should have taken it in before we left, but we went ahead and packed some extra antifreeze and water and headed down. We picked up Alex and when we stopped, the antifreeze boiled out of the van. We trudged on and hit the mouth of the canyon. The temp gage rose alarmingly high, so we pulled over. We let the car cool, added h20 and headed slowly up the canyon. Had we any sense at all, we would have taken this as a bad omen and headed home right then and there, but there is nothing that can keep the Moore family away from thoughts of having a good time!!!

We had some fun on Sat. at the Alpine Slide in Park City, Ut.

We had some fun Sunday playing on the trampoline. Well, a little too much fun. My parent's have a 30 foot rope attached to trees above the tramp. The kids were getting wild swinging on it and with 5 kids on the thing, no good things can happen! We decided to separate the big kids and little kids. James was walking over to get the little ones off and *BLAM* Hannah swung into Hunter, kicking him (in the head) off the trampoline! He did a complete back flip and landed flat on his back. I said stupidly, "that was AWESOME!!!" Not realizing, of course that I'd quickly be taking a trip to the ER in Heber. James gingerly picked up Hunter and brought him to where I could see a huge, odd protrusion above his left elbow. Calmly we got in the car and my dad drove us to the hospital. I thought for sure it was just dislocated. I thought of my friend Christie Caldwell and how she helped a couple of VA friend's kids with nurse maids elbow by jerking the elbow and popping it into place. I am SO GLAD I did not try this. After xrays, we were referred to an orthopedic surgeon! Hunter dislocated his growth plate and broke his elbow! He had emergency surgery where they put two pins in his arm. Little Hunter is now sporting a huge cast from fingers to shoulder that weighs about 25%of his body weight! Poor little guy!

I spent the night in the hospital with Hunter, and James and my dad went home. My dad decided to take Alex rock climbing at the rec center Mon. morning. They had just gotten home when I did and it didn't look good. Alex had fallen from a couple of feet up and hurt his wrist. It immediately began to swell and I could tell that Alex was in a lot of pain! Alex is usually pretty tough and hides his pain, but this was looking more and more serious. After consulting with my aunt Julie, who is an EMT and firefighter, we decided to send him to the ER. James took him and luckily after xrays, it appeared to only be a sprain. Alex got a hard brace wrapped with an ace bandage and lots of pain killers.

By Mon night, we were ready to lick our wounds and head home. It wasn't to be so. My uncle had graciously offered to look at the van for us. He had it over the weekend and by Mon night we were hoping to have it back. He tightened the fan that somehow had come loose, thus making our engine overheat (more suspicious) and moved on to a couple of other things that were wrong. He accidentally broke the coupler on the gas tank. He tried in vain all night long to glue it. Tue morning, he decided to scrap the glue idea, and headed to Salt Lake to buy another gas tank coupler.

Have I ever said that no good deed goes unpunished? I'm usually on the other end of this--the good deeder getting punished! At this point, our healthiest option was to just LAUGH (I would cry later on)!

Finally, Tue night we were off. We were late getting Alex back to school, and the girls and Hunter missed school, and James missed work. I, on the other hand, knew that I was leaving the next day for Creative Escape, and was getting anxious!

Now, wouldn't you think that would be enough excitement for anyone? Not the Moore family. From my Creative Escape class, I received a phone call from James. I missed the call, but knew that something was up because James being the amazing man he is would in no way interrupt a class unless it was an emergency! I called him back to find out that Emily had stepped on a tooth pick and it was lodged in her foot between her 3rd and 4th toes, and he couldn't get it out because she wouldn't hold still! OUCH!

Why oh why didn't we listen to my old neighbor Lucy. She constantly warned us about such things! If she could see us now!!!

I told James to have her lay on her tummy and sit on her so she couldn't move her foot. Then try to get it out with a needle and tweezers. It didn't work. So it was off to the ER AGAIN!!! The ER doc couldn't get it, so they called in another orthopedic surgeon. Funnily, it was to be the surgeon that we would use for Hunter's check-ups later on. Tooth pick out, Emily's foot healed very quickly.

I am so thankful for insurance. We acquired insurance on Sep. 1. That is Saturday--the day before it all began. I have to wonder at God's humor at times like these. You see, I had been praying for years that we would all be safe until we got insurance. I really didn't think that I needed to be more specific and ask for us to then be safe once we received insurance! I guess that when you think of how well we have done for the past 6 years, this week shouldn't seem so shocking. If you average it out including Emily's stitches in her chin when she was about 4, that's less than one emergency per year! I wish I could be a fly on the wall when Blue Cross receives our claims! I hope they don't drop us!

We are all doing well this week. For some reason I panic a little easier watching my kids, and I tend to be a little more cautious. In fact, just today, I stopped Connor from sliding down the stairs to the basement on his sled. I told him that he'd break his head open. Maybe it's all for the good. I have learned a lot of lessons this week.