November 2016

 Lately this is life.  Laundry. Just lots of Laundry.  And sometimes, I make dinner in the middle of this. And grade. and bathe children and put them to bed. and maybe find time to sleep. And talk to my husband.  but overall it's laundry.  I'm tempted to become a bunch of nudists.  Well, not really.  a bunch of underwearists.  Is that a thing?

 Pretzel hears what I'm saying.  He's all ready for a bare minimum approach to life.

 One day in early November, my friend Chelsea told me that a replica of the Nina and The Pinta was going to be stationed in Lenoir City.  As a lover of all things history (and considering I teach this stuff) we just had to go check it out.  And naturally we invited Grandaddy to come along with us and eat lunch afterwards - it was so fun! And a reminder of why I'm so glad I was born after the Age of Exploration.  #ittybittylivingspace

 And then...because nothing says fall like leaves - we made a huge leaf pile and went crazy!

 airborne!

 Woohoo! I do love this weather :)

 Ok so, here's the thing.  My fall was going great until November 6th.  I made the mistake of wearing socks while carrying Lucy into the garage.  Basically, I slipped off the top step, landed hard on the ball of my foot and hyperextended my arch.  I also managed to fall flat out on the garage floor while holding my daughter.  I'm kind of proud of the fact that when that happened, I did this impressive spin-throw-twist thing and Lucy ended up just laughing the whole time, completely unharmed.  I realize it doesn't look that bad in this picture but this stupid slip left me on crutches for two weeks and hobbling for the next four.  We are 7 weeks out and after Xrays (no breaks but a bad sprain) and lots of wearing sneakers, I am just now starting to walk normal.  This has probably been the biggest pain in the ass I've had in a long time.  For a solid week I couldn't even take Charlie into daycare.  I had to have Andy or the really awesome people at Kiddie Kottage come out to get my children and then bring them to me when I pulled into the parking lot.  and hats off to my amazing husband for being the one juggling everything for a few days there. I was basically worthless in every way shape and form but gradually was able to rejoin society.

And that's kind of hard with this bunch to follow around.  Thankfully TV has helped babysit them from time to time when my ability to get around has been in question.

 And lastly, we rounded out November with this little guy needing to have his ears checked.  He has had ear infections for the past two months and we got the go ahead to have tubes put in.  Scheduled the surgery for December 22nd :)  Looks like Charlie is getting tubes for Christmas!  But I love that I get some snuggle time with him until then.