Where have we been?

It's been four months since my last entry. And there is a good reason for that, which I'll get to in a minute. But let's recap where we've been.First, there was the county fair. It was our first fair as a 4-H family and it was lots of fun. Hot, sticky, dirty fun. Except for the fact that someone stole our single stroller out of our front yard coupled with the fact that the van was in the shop all week which equaled me trying to schlep a double stroller out of the trunk of a VW Jetta everyday, it was wonderful. Molly did really well with her projects and had fun riding and running around with her friends.
Then there was this, which was considerably LESS fun. That's what I did to my hand trying to kill one of the leftover 4-H chickens. It's not just a cut. I lacerated the tendons to my index finger. One surgery, and approximately three-thousand occupational therapy appointments later, and I still can't make a fist. Not even close, really. My surgeon is talking about going back in to free it which is just joyous. Fun stuff.

So that, really, is what's been happening here. I was one-handed completely for 6 weeks. Have you ever tried to change a diaper one-handed? Wash a pan? Fold a towel? It gave me a whole new outlook on how much you really do need two hands. How many times as a mom have I said "I need both of my hands"? "I can't pick you up, I need both hands." "I can't do ___ while holding the baby, I need both hands." Lemme tell ya, folks...you NEED both hands. Really.
We're hanging in there, though, and getting back to normal. It's fall, which is my favorite time of year and Halloween is this week, which is my favorite holiday, so we're up to our eyeballs in being all crafty and fun. Yesterday we did handprint bats, and skull cupcakes. Tonight we're having bats, cobwebs and brain for dinner.



Oh, and for those of you wondering...trick or treat is tomorrow, and no, I have not yet started Bodie's costume. It wouldn't be a holiday if I didn't spend the night before pulling an all-nighter in front of the sewing machine.

We also have a new addition to the family. No, the vasectomy didn't fail, much to my disappointment. This is Lexi. Lexi is Maggie's cat, and Maggie loves her very much. So much so that she may, in fact, kill her with love. Or by some other means. This morning I found Lexi in the washing machine. Later I found her in the end table under two quilts, a sleeping bag, a stuffed bunny, and one of the skull cupcakes. She gets carted around in this pumpkin a lot, and when she's not in there, she's in the shopping cart, or being drug around by her neck. Lexi takes her frustration out on Dave and myself by randomly attacking our toes and eyeballs in the middle of the night. Isn't she cute, though? Dave talked me out of putting her inside one of the actual pumpkins we were carving. Puh.