Some Journey

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CVPC Retreat

Chattanooga Valley PCA had our annual Missions Conference/Family Retreat at Hidden Hollow Resort this past Saturday, and, as usual, it was a great day of fun and fellowship. Well, except for Bobby Dale's dang stinking dog who *deliberately* (I know the minds of evil wet dogs) got out of the lake and walked over to me and shook all over me. Twice. I really do not like dogs. I love you Bobby, but Mug is not my friend.

I have finally gotten the pics up. . .well, the last batch is loading, so by the time most of you get up and see this Monday morning it will be up. For those of you who may be online now (Scott, Matt. . .) the last few might not be up for a bit yet. I really didn't "weed out" as many pics as I might ordinarily, just because I decided that "telling the story" was more important than trying to show off my photography skills (or lack thereof), so be forewarned, if you are on dial up, you might find it a bit overwhelming.

Click here for the Slideshow

and

Click here for the Gallery

First Fracture

I was waiting until I got a picture, but haven't had time, so here's the scoop without the pic for now:

Saturday while we were at Sam's football game, Joseph and Noah decided to play on a railing along the edge of the practice field. It was only about 3 feet high, and grass beneath, so I let them. Suddenly, Joseph lost his balance and fell, which probably wouldn't have hurt him much, but he tried to stop his fall by putting his arm out straight beneath him. As a mom, sometimes you just "know" stuff. I was pretty certain as I watched him land that he had broken his arm. I picked him up, and began checking him out. No bones sticking out. Good. Arm looks nice and straight. Good. I began feeling along the bone. There was definitely one spot that was more tender than the rest of his arm, but he didn't scream like I expected if the bone was broken. I called Mom and asked her to bring some ice to the game, and told J to take it easy.

Stephen and the big boys headed off to the Vols game directly from Sam's game, and I took the younger three kids home. Over the course of the afternoon, it became obvious to me that Joseph's arm was not okay. The doorbell rang and he ran to answer it. The moment he tried to turn the knob, he collapsed into tears. However, since it was Saturday afternoon and my only choice was the ER, I was hesitant to go shell out a $150 copay if it could wait until Monday and pay $25 at the doctor's office instead. There was no swelling or obvious displacement. I checked the internet. It's okay to wait 24-48 hours under those conditions, and, for the record, Joseph was not inconsolable. We iced it and gave him tylenol, and I put my wrist brace on it (I have it for Carpal Tunnel) until I took him to the doctor on Monday.

On Monday the Dr. took an XRay, and sure enough there was a simple fracture down the ulna exactly where Joseph consistently complained of pain. They put him in a velcro cast, almost identical to the brace I had him in (just so people don't think I'm completely calloused making my son wait two days to go to the doctor; I did basically what they would have done), and said he has to wear it for 30 days (he can take it off for baths). He's doing well with it, though he's a little worried about it getting healed in time for wrestling. I have assured him that since wrestling season doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving, he should be good to go, but he's already trying to make me promise to take him to watch all the practices even if his arm isn't healed. The strap between his thumb and forefinger was bothering him, but I've created a bit of a. . .well, I don't know what to call it. I cut a cotton gardening glove so that it just had a thumb and forefinger and slid that on under his cast. Seems to work. Oh, and we have to spray the thing with febreze every day, cause it's already starting to stink! (It's leather with a fabric lining).

So that's the latest. Our first broken bone in 12 years of parenting with five kids. Had to happen eventually, I suppose.

By the way, the main reason we don't have a pic up is because Joseph wanted to wait and get a picture of him and his friend across the street, Holden, who broke his arm the same week. Unfortunately, Holden has the stomach bug right now and is, um, unavailable for pictures. Hopefully by the end of the week he'll be feeling better and we'll get a shot of the Casted Crew.

MS Football

The CCS MS football team (Ethan's team) played Temple last night and it was, um, a bit of a blow out. It was loads of fun for the team and a good confidence builder, and 2nd and 3rd string players who haven't gotten in a game all season go to get in some good playing time. Ethan made his second interception of the season (pictured above), and this one was quite a bit more spectacular, IMO. He said his favorite moment was when he looked up a realized, "That's my ball." Sam finished up his practice in time to come water boy during the second half, and I must say, now that I'm spending time on the sidelines taking pictures, I have really come to appreciate what an important role Sam plays. I have gotten to witness what it is like on the sideline without a water boy, and with water boys who don't do a great job, and I can honestly say that Sam's presence on the sidelines makes a very positive difference.

Click below for more pics from last night's game:

Slideshow

Sam's Game

Sam's football team played McCallie on Saturday, and, I gotta say, it wasn't real pretty. Sam had to leave after the third quarter to make it to Knoxville to get spoiled by Uncle Dan (and ultimately end up getting spotted on the JumboTron by friends at school). Also, just before the game, Joseph fell off a rail he was climbing on and suffered an injury which will get it's own blog entry later. In the meantime, here's a slideshow from the game:

Slideshow

Woo-Hoo

As of today, my www.IbachPhotography.com website has paid for itself!!

Labor Day Photos

Sydney spent Labor Day weekend in Nashville at my aunt and uncle's house relishing an entire weekend with no brothers, and getting to spend a lot of time learning to ride horses with Ann. Sydney has developed quite a love for horses, and this is her second weekend in Nashville. We were, quite honestly, a bit surprised at how much she has already learned in just two weekends with Ann. (What a good teacher! ;) ) Ann bought Syd her own riding helmet, which she is extremely proud of. Syd also got her first good riding injury, scraping up her hand a good bit while trying to negotiate a tree limb on a trail ride.

Stephen and I took the little boys (the big boys had to stay behind for football practice) and drove to Nashville Monday to pick up Syd and get treated to some really yummy hamburgers from the Grillmaster, Todd. Syd was pretty proud to get to lead her brothers around and "teach" them a bit of what she's learned.

God has also graciously provided Sydney with a friend her own age at church now. Maren is one of six kids who are homeschooling with Georgia Virtual Academy, as are my little boys. They live exactly four minutes from us, and have a wonderful place with horses, chickens, goats, puppies and a cow! Syd got to spend Tuesday afternoon hanging out there with Maren so that she didn't have to endure Ethan's football game. It turns out that Maren has a riding helmet almost identical to the one Ann bought Syd, and 8 year old girly bliss just doesn't get more giddy than those two were, romping around in their helmets. Even when their attempt to ride together, bareback, trotting in circles resulted in getting thrown to the ground, they never stopped giggling. It's so good to see Syd enjoying this new friendship (and I'm enjoying developing a friendship with her mom, too!). Anyway, God is good and we had a great weekend. Here's a slideshow from Nashville:

Labor Day in Nashville Slideshow

Sam's First Game

Sam had his first full game today, and lost to Baylor. They did okay in the first half of the game; however, one of his team mates suffered a head/neck injury as the result of a late hit, and had to be taken to the hospital to make sure that everything was okay. The boys had to sit in the sun and wait for about 20 while waiting for the ambulance, and they seemed to not be able to really get back in the game after that. Sam played both defense and offense, and only sat out a couple of plays. He was disappointed in a couple of passes that he missed, but made a couple of good tackles and a punt return. I have assured him that for a 5th grader playing his first game ever (on the 6th grade team against 6th and 7th graders) that was a showing to be proud of, but Sam struggles with focusing on his mistakes sometimes (hmmm, where does he get that?). Here's a slideshow of the pics I took from today's game:

Chargers vs Baylor Slideshow