My big honken cast!!!!!!!

ok, well I (emma) have to have a cast on from my knuckles up to right below my armpit for three weeks, but in seven days i have to get my arm checked to make sure my bone is going back where it goes (cause it's out of its place) and if the ligament that is conneced to it isn't putting it back then they have to numb my arm and put it back themselves.

My mom said she thinks it will go back and I hope it does too!! ok so once these three weeks are over than i will get another cast on from my knuckles to below my elbow, finally then i will be able to bend my arm!!!!!!! thank the lord!!!

I have to eat, dress myself, put on my shoes, wipe my nose, brush my teeth..actually I have to do EVERYTHING with my right hand and that is hard since I am left handed. But there are some good points of this accident...I am getting lots of candy, a milkshake from my dad and I don't have to do the dishes for my week. But, it really isn't worth all that since that is the most pain I have ever felt....so don't go breaking your wrist for candy and getting out of chores!!!

I have to go now and elevate my arm.
love,
emma
ps I typed half of this w/my right hand then my mom took over. :)

Emma the swinging monkey

Hello all y'all,

I have a little story to tell you, well it all started when me(gracey) and emma went outside to make a little chair for the little kids. We were cutting and skrewing and then i said, lets go swing on the branches emma, so she said, ok. So we went over there and I went first, then emma went, as she went she said, hey gracey watch this, so i looked up and she was climbing up the branch we hade been swinging on, woo emma i said be careful, so she kept climbing and got on the main part of the tree. There is a big kinda carven out part perfectly safe to sit or stand but the branches around the tree aren't to sturdy!

So she found a good long branch to climb up then she said, watch me gracey and i looked and the next thing i know emma is falling and lands straight on her arm... She wasn't able to break her fall.

She started crying and i went over there to help her up but first she wasn't crying, then she was just saying ow ow ow! Then she started yelling, mommy mommy, then we went inside and she started crying. Mom felt it, looked it over got dad, and right after she came in her wrist started sweeling so mom and dad took her to a doctor here who is a student, mr. vanrockel. His appartment is right next to a pediatric nurse here named mrs. davis, also a student. Mr.Vanrockel said it was brocken and that she NEEDED! to go to the hospital. So mrs. davis had come over and was helping too and said she would drive them to the hospital. So mom, emma, mr. vanrockel, and mrs. davis went to the er.

Mrs. davis and mr. vanrockel speak good french so that helped my mom.

So they left at 7:45 and got back at 10:30.

Both bones in her arm are broken at the wrist and she has a huge cast. Here are some pictures of it.

And here is a pic of my mom I took. She is starting her 7th month. She really doesn't like pictures taken of her but I was able to get this one. Shhh, don't tell her.. :)

well that is the end of my story.

bye bye,

gracey

Liddy's blog... look at this it is cool.....thanks....

tawnee is so cute i love youuuu auntie apirl!!!



alex is really weird like that!!!!!
hi...how r you guys??? im ok!!look at these p's
ilove you sooooo much megan & The fam!!!liddy...

Cemetary

Hey, one last post today.



We went on a walk today. All of us minus Alex and Esther.

Pretty interesting to see how the French do graves and grave sites. Quite a bit different than what we're used to seeing in the States.



Here are some photos. Enjoy.

sf

One More Video

Here's another video of Esther dancing.



Notice the Michael Jackson impersonation.



sf

Yippeeeee!!!!

Hey there everybody!

Hope this post finds you all doing well.

We had a beautiful weekend here in the Big A. Lots of sun and warm weather. Everybody is healthy and there are only a few lingering affects of the recent flu. Othere than that, we seem to be doing well.

I have attached a video here of Esther doing a dance (of sorts).

Hope you all have a great week.

sf

bonjour bonjour tout le monde!

well today is sunday and we are all about to eat lunch, but i thought i'd do a blog first since i haven't in a while!

well this seems like the longest break i'v ever hade! we have been going on a lot of walks, it it so so beautiful up here in the mountains! today is verrrry windy but a sunny day! And thankfuly the wind is warm!

im not sure if we already put the picture of tawn 0n here but oh well,:-)She was wanting to read the comics Papa Ray and G'ma Judy sends us so....... we took this other picture of the flower on one of are walks. Today we are going to walk up to the old cemetary.

love you all and miss u tons!

I'll rite more later

~gg

Be Careful!

This is what happens to people who come visit us on a Sunday and eat the food that I cook.

Sunday is my day to cook the meals and what I cook generally barely passes for food.

If you eat what I cook you risk disfigurement or worse!

Hope you all are having a great day.

We are.

sf

The New Guilt

Hello Everyone.


Hope things are going well for all of you on the other side of the world. Things here are a little on the sickly side.


There's an old saying that goes something like this: Guilt - it's the gift that keeps on giving. Well, I've updated it like this: The Flu - it's the gift that keeps on giving.


Shown below is the status of Gracey, Emma, Keturah, and Liddy as of 8:00 AM this morning.

Back to Normal?

Hey folks,


Yesterday was a good day: lots of sun, kids playing outside, several families came over for a BBQ, and nobody was sick. So, we thought "Everything here is back to normal for the most part". Well, it was for about 18 hours.


Thanks to me, Esther now is sick, and boy does she ever NOT like it. I would say she's not the best patient this house has ever seen.


To lighten the mood of this blog, I thought I'd include a few photos that Keturah took yesterday.


Enjoy.



sf

Road Kill Pt. II

Bonjour mes amis!

It's funny how a little stomach flu can throw my little world into turmoil. Not only do I feel horrible, but Janice is left to keep things running around here while I lie in bed recouperating. I feel like such a loser because it is not fair to her. Good news is, though, that I should be back up and running tomorrow. While I've only had one meal in the lasat 48 hours, I think I should be "normal" enough tomorrow to at least be net benefit to the household.

You know something? Lieing in bed here for the last 36 hours or so has got me to thinking about how sick I really am compared to some friends of ours.

Currently, Janice and I know of at least 6 people who are battling cancer. Many of these dear friends and family have stage 4 cancer. Now, I'm no cancer expert but any cancer called "stage 4 cancer" isn't good. When I think about my little bout with the flu compared to what these good people (and their families) are enduring it makes me feel like a selfish little girly-man. I may have thought I was dying, but I really wasn't. The flu is only about 48 hours of feeling lousy. Cancer is a months and months long time of feeling really lousy and fighting for one's life.

Please pray everyone involved in these real-life fights for life.

sf

Road Kill

I hope this post finds you all doing well this fine spring day. Things are moving along here rather nicely although it is funny how life's little annoyances - like getting sick in the middle of the night - can ruin a day's best laid plans.

As I write this entry, I am laying pretty much flat on my back in our bedroom thanks to the bout of stomach flu I seem to have contracted last night. So, spending my time with 2 of my closest friends (Herschey and Hughey), while they do keep me occupied, aren't really my idea of 2 fun-loving, hang-loose kinds of guys.


If there is one thing in this world that I really, really do not like it is throwing up. In fact, I can recall every one of these "fun" events going back to 8th grade.

There was the time I hurled on Thanksgiving day 1980. Then, I hurled again exactly 6 months later in May of 1981. And again on Thanksgiving day 1981. (Isn't this fun!)

I managed to avoid Mr. Hughey for over 10 years but he finally reared his ugly head in 1993 while we lived in Washington. He tagged me again about 6 months ago in Fergus Falls and then last night. YUCK!

I haven't had any sleep since 2 AM this morning and judging by the general condition of my stomach I doubt I'll be getting any sleep any time soon.

Thankfully everybody else appears to be healthy and I pray that they'll stay that way.

Thanks for reading my sad story.

See you.

sf

Ouch!

Hey there folks, how are you all doing today?

You know, something's been going on around here that I thought I would tell you about....

Recently, Ethan has been complaining of sore gums. Janice looked him over several times and concluded that his molars were coming in. OK. So, he starts to wake up at night, in pain so Janice gives him some Advil. After a couple of weeks of this she looks again and notices that he's missing part of a tooth.

So, Janice asks one of the ladies here to help her find a dentist. She does and we then take Ethan see him. He says Ethan has 2 cavities and that he'll need to come back to have them fixed. Well, yesterday was Ethan's 4 visit and he finally is done with the first filling! Apparently, Dentist's in this country only do part of the procedure each visit.

That's not as strange as this: They don't use any novocaine! The little fella has gone thru 3 "procedures" and each time he's been drilled on and poked and all without any pain medication. Yesterday's appointment was not different. The dentist drilled away and packed his tooth. All Ethan did was squeeze my finger a little more tightly than normal. What a stud! I would've been screaming bloody murder.

Apparently we have a budding Tough-Guy in our midst.

Hope you all have a great day.

See you.

sf

More Recent Photos

Hello Everyone,

I've posted a few recent photos for you all to enjoy (I hope).

Ethan recently secured a used pair of roller blades. He's actually quite good at using them and except for a few scraped knees, he's none the worse for wear.

The next photo is of me and Ethan at the airport in Geneva, Switzerland. We made a trip there in March to pick up a friend from the airport. Ethan thought the whole thing was a lot of fun.


The last photo is of Ethan who, one night when he wanted to stay up late with the big kids but was obviously very tired, made himself a bed on these 3 wooden chairs. He's actually asleep in this picture. He's not faking it. We have a few photos of him covered in the blanket that Janice put on him. I can remember putting him to bed later that night and when I did he didn't wake up.

I bet the kids were up for at least another hour and a half and even with all the noise, etc. he never even moved. He's quite the man-boy.


Today was a very nice, sunny day here. Janice and a few of the kids (along with the Hellands who are visiting us) went to the Patinoire (the Ice Skating Rink) today. I stayed home and played with Ethan, Tawnee, and Esther. I think they all had a good time except maybe for Payton who said it "was kinda boring because all we could do was skate around in circles".

Nothing else to report today from the other side of the world.

Hope you all have a great day. sf

More Pics, Again

Hey everyone,

We're just enjoying some time off here. It was a rainy, lazy day. No stress and just playing around.

Here are a few more pictures.

There's Ethan and Esther cooking up something. (It is amazing to me that the kids will play with the cooking pots and pans for hours. What imaginations.)

Here's Alex with her boyfriend... I mean the snowman she made when we had snow in March.

The final 3 photos are from our trip (me, Alex, and Emma) to Lyon last month to meet with Matthew. It is a very pretty and modern city. The biggest shock for me was the train station on the Friday night we arrived there. What a madhouse. Trains coming and going about every 4 or 5 minutes and beaucoup people running all over the place. Crazy.

A Few Pictures

A few weeks ago Ethan's school had a parade. The kids spent many long hours making their outfits. You can see Ethan's handiwork in the images below.

After the parade he told me that it was a lot of fun except for the "part where we walked around everywhere".

That was pretty much all the kids did!

Once we all made it back to Ethan's school, the teachers burned this big ol' cardboard clown that the they had made. Not sure what that was about but I do know that the parents and students stood around and watched while it burned.

Then, later, the kids all got together and sang some songs that I didn't understand. One of our friends told us that the words had something to do with Christianity and Islam and other religions being equal. Yikes!


Today has been rather relaxing. Haven't been doing much of anything except playing with the kids.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

sf

C'est Fini!

Hello everyone,

I trust this posting finds you all doing well on this early spring day.

Well, semester finals are over. After 4 days of testing I can honestly say I'm ready to not speak French for a while. There's nothing quite like sitting in a room with a couple of teachers while they ask you a bunch of questions about "whatever". Our final test was something called "Oral Comprehension". It consisted of a 2 or 3 minute radio-style news report wherein the reporter did his Speed Racer impersonation. But, just to make it fair, we got to listen to the dialogue twice and then we could answer the questions. One thing I do know is that it was about cheese made in France that you drink wine with. Other than that, you'll need to listen to it yourself.

I thought I'd throw in a few pictures.

The kids finally conned Janice into playing killer bunnies with them.

I think she had "fun" but it was hard to tell because she spent most of her time (or so it seemed to me) trying to figure out just exactly how to play the cards.

Here's one of Liddy eating the biggest loaf of bread I've ever seen. I know the French like bread but come on.....

I can tell you that it didn't last very long.

Have a great day.

sf

Side Tracked

Hello Everyone!

Sorry for the long delay in getting up a new post. We've been pretty busy around here especially for the last week or so since semester finals are on-going.

I took this photo the other day at Ethan's school and thought I'd share it with you all.

This is the unisex bathroom for all of the kids. I don't think even the most crusty person I know would want to drop his trousers and use one of these bad boys without the slightest bit of privacy. Very strange to our North American eyes to say the least.

More to come in the next few days.

Take care.

sf