Josie Turns Nine, Grenda's Demise

Josie turned 9 years old on Thursday! It was an exciting day for her. I whipped up some chocolate chip pancakes with sprinkles for breakfast in bed. She was very excited to eat pancakes in bed with her bleary eyes and yawns. The next item on her birthday checklist was to open one gift before school, her new cowboy hat was quickly opened to complete her birthday outfit. Her class had a fun field trip planned to the Discovery Center in Boise. I was able to attend as a chaperone AND ride the bus. We snuggled and sang the 4 four songs I know how to play on a ukulele I borrowed from Mr McGrath. Amelia picked up 2 dozen doughnuts during her lunch break for Josie’s birthday “cake.” Josie’s next request was to stay home from MCO and open 2 more gifts. I had her open some little blind bag things called Oodles of Poodles and a Harry Potter Miniverse ball. We had a lovely time discovering which poodles Josie got. She was generous and shared one of her gifts with Evelyn! Let’s consult the checklist: go out to dinner. Ok, we (Justin, Evelyn, Josie, and I) piled into the truck with the chocks to keep the truck from rolling away once we parked. Just a few minutes later the Grenda was crunchified. More on that later. No dinner. Instead we headed home with the Ostlers to eat a doughnut for dinner. Josie wanted to watch the Ewoks destroy the Death Star. Once the older kids came home from MCO Josie opened her gifts and we ate the doughnuts while watching cute videos of Josie plus cute family photos of her growing up. Josie was very sad that her birthday was ruined by the car accident, she was shaking like a leaf around bedtime. I snuggled her in bed and we talked about all the lovely things. I had her do a little EMDR exercises to properly file away those very distressing images and experiences at the car crash. What a stinky way to end her birthday, but we pulled through. 

Monday was almost a snow day! We woke up to 4-6 inches of snow coming down. The snow was just wet, not frozen to the ground. Darn it all! Guess Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction for 6 more weeks of winter was spot on! Amelia stayed home from school Monday, Tuesday, and part of Thursday because she was feeling all shades of terrible. Her throat was hurting, headache, and very swollen glands. My throat was also feeling not great and had a migraine for three days. Everett is also joining the sore throat club. Yay! The students had a lot of fun making snow creations during recess. Melody and Josie made a 3-butted snowman named butt-butt. Students enjoyed playing MineCraft this week as a reward for finishing 5 weeks of intense typing. Justin wanted to get out of the house after dinner, he took the littles to Fred Meyer to get some Valentine gifts. 

Everett got to do a polar bear plunge in the Bledsoe’s pool for YM on Wednesday. He said that was a lot of fun. Brrrr! Phillip had a stake YM activity serving the YW and the YW leaders in the stake. I hear they played some games, had a dessert, and came home with cute bracelets. The YM wanted to show their appreciation for the YW. I love that idea. I went to Walmart using the Ostler’s manual transmission car. Took me a hot minute to get used to a clutch again. The clutch catches toward the top instead of toward the floor. Josie thought my driving skills were quite silly, it was a bit bumpy. I dropped Josie off at Activity Day Girls then went to Walmart to finish Valentine purchases and get some fluffy gifts for Josie’s birthday (like the blind bag things). 

Thursday was Josie’s Day. Poor Grenda. We are really going to miss her. Justin was making a left-handed turn at a yellow-nearly red light…like we all do. Another car made the same decision to get through the intersection. I was resting my eyes, per nasty headache. Grenda caught quite a punch on the passenger front side. The other sedan did not win against ole Grenda. She crumpled the driver’s side and hood into a pulp. The other driver’s airbags did not deploy but he did walk away with a bloody nose. Josie was the most affected, she went into mild shock with a nose bump and the jitters. She had a really hard time calming down. Another guy was crossing the street and said his pedestrian sign was flashing which meant the light was red. The officer did not write a ticket because it was really a 50/50 fault situation. I was grateful the pedestrian stopped to help, gave Evelyn his coat, and stayed to give his statement. I had the girls walk into the Walgreens to get warm while I helped give my statements and grab necessaries from the truck. Amelia and Sara immediately started calling and texting before we even vacated the truck! My phone/watch sent out alerts to Amelia, Sara, Lane, and Debbie. Amelia was freaking out! I finally caught her call once the girls and I were out of the street. Justin is doing ok, he felt the gamut of feelings from fear, guilt, anger, sadness, relief, etc. That was the first “major” accident I’ve been in. That feels lucky. My phone thought I was in a continual accident for the next two days, kept sending out alerts every time I drove the van. I had to remove all emergency contacts to stop the texts. Sara and Dusty came out to help us get back home. The girls waited in their van until the truck was on the tow truck and we were cleared to leave. On the way home Evelyn asked what we were going to do until the older kids came back home. Josie’s request was to watch Ewoks destroy the Death Star, that provided a bit of much needed comic relief. 

Next day Justin got a call from the PD saying he was at fault. An officer came by to give him a ticket and citation. Darn it all. We also went to say goodbye to Grenda. It seems prudent to pay $100 to the towing company, plus the $300 tow fees to just have them sell the truck to the jalopy jungle. Evelyn came to give Grenda a kiss and hug. Whelp, we’re down to one vehicle, two if you count the motorcycle, three if you count my scooter. Ha ha. Amelia was still not feeling well, her neck glands were so swollen on one side you could visibly see the swelling. I scheduled her to see the Dr, the only opening was at the same time as Evelyn’s appointment with Nina. With no extra car to divide and conquer Evelyn ended up doing a Telehealth session. The Dr thought Amelia probably had Mono because of her swollen glands, no temperature, fatigue, and sore throat for 2-3 weeks. He prescribed a steroid to reduce the swelling and antibiotic to reduce the infection. Gracious, poor kid. By Sunday she woke up with a smile and bounced around like her normal self! Everett came down with a slight fever, cough, and sore throat as well. I don’t think he has Mono, time will tell. Evelyn got her mouth stretcher out, she’s had that in since September. Its job was to stretch her bones forward to make room for her molars. Friday the dentist installed a palate stretcher, the type with a key to widen the top of her mouth. Looks like she will have that device in for 2-3 weeks. It hurts each time I crank the device, morning and night. She says her nose hurts the most! Melody came over to play with Josie from 2-8 pm. Melody got bored a few times but we crushed the boredom! The older kids helped Melody and Josie organize a restaurant for dinner. Josie’s birthday dinner was refried beans, red rice, and chicken. Melody was NOT impressed with dinner, she ate a plate full of shredded cheese instead. Melody and Josie were the waitresses. They quite enjoyed that game. 

We had some dustings of snow Friday and Sunday. There are several large snow forts, snow men, and one giant snowball curtesy of Phillip! Josie wanted ice cream cookie sandwiches for her birthday dessert. She was very patient as the process took much longer than anticipated. We celebrated Josie with her birthday dessert Sunday over at the Ostlers. Yum. The ice cream sandwiches were very sugary, still pretty yummy! I made cookie dough as the crust instead of baked cookies. Next time I will do baked cookies.