Life keeps happening.

It seems like every time things seem to calm down a little bit, they go right back into an uproar...

We had the whole volleyball injury on Saturday...which meant that yesterday was spent getting her into the pediatrician, who then consulted with a neurosurgeon... and at that point we were simply told to eliminate sports for a month and see what happens.

Given that this is her BACK that we're talking about, Ex1 and I discussed it at length and we decided that we are going to get a second opinion - that way, if the injury really isn't that severe - we don't have to worry so much. But on the off chance that something was missed, we'll know now instead of later.

Today was spent making phone calls to make the arrangements to pick up the xrays from the hospital and then to make an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to get the second opinion. I got that scheduled for Thursday morning, but the receptionist strongly suggested that I come and get the "new patient packet" before then so that I could get it completed.

So I went and picked up the xrays and then made the 60-mile round trip to the orthopedic surgeon's office. On the plus side, now I know where it is so it'll make Thursday morning a little less stressful. The trick will be getting the other 4 kids to school, but Ex1's wife and The Dude will be helping there so that Ex1 and I can both be with Emily at the doctor. And I'm glad that I got the paperwork now, since it took me over an hour to complete all of it. Ugh.

Last night, Alex had Scouts again - and he was absolutely thrilled that he finally got his shirt! He feels all sorts of official now, and has been working on memorizing the stuff that he needs to remember. He likes going to the meetings, and Daniel has fun too - even though he's technically not a Scout.

We found out last night that the one little boy who goes to the meetings is actually Nice Neighbor's grandson - I had seen him at the meetings before, but just never put the two together until last night. So now when he comes to visit his grandmother, he and Alex can play together, which is always a good thing. He's not over there very often so we don't know him well, and he goes to a different elementary school than Alex does so this was a good opportunity for them to get to know each other.

Today was Daniel's first day of all-day kindergarten! He has been looking forward to this day for months. I swear that he's been asking since the first day of school when he could go for all day, and now it's finally here. I dropped the boys off at school for breakfast this morning, and then used my 7 1/2 hours alone to get some things done around the house - not to mention all of the running around that I had to do as well.

When I picked them up from school this afternoon and asked Daniel what it was like to go to school all day, all he could say was that "it was AWESOME!!!!" He's growing up so fast - and I'm just thrilled that he loves school as much as he does.

 The Dude came over this afternoon and we finally got to spend some time together. We took the boys and walked up to a local Mexican restaurant for an early supper. The chairs were all carved and painted and colorful - we were trying to decide if they were handmade or not, and I'm not 100% convinced either way.

 This was the back of the booth where Alex and I were sitting. OK, it looks really really cool - but it's really not that comfortable to lean back against, especially after eating the massive amounts of food that we got.

 I can't decide if the look on his face is cute or evil. I'm kind of leaning towards evil at this point.

After we all ate and got the check, we were amazed at the price. It was about half of what we were expecting to pay. We both looked at the total a couple of times, and then I realized that we were only charged $0.01 for each of the kids' meals - then we realized that this was one of those restaurants where kids eat for free on Tuesday nights.

SCORE!

After we ate, we walked back home and stopped to take a few pictures of the wildflowers along the way. I got the boys bathed and into bed and then The Dude and I hung out while he watched a movie and I filled out the paperwork for Emily's appointment, and then he had to go back to his place to take care of some things.

And now, as usual, it's time for me to work on more laundry and more cleaning and more stuff around the house before I finally crash for the night....