The Rest of September

He sadly informed me, "Mama. Dis died."

Well. Elijah's surgery was the climax of the month. Then came the recovery. To let you know how that went, here are my two status updates from the following day.

My people. The meds are making the boy crazier. Wilder. Rougher. Hungrier. Keep-touching-your-sister-ier. Call-your-pharmacist-uncle-because-isn't-oxy-supposed-to-be-sedating kind of crazy. He was not a calm and gentle child to begin with. help.... me... ‪#‎IWasToldThereWouldBeSnuggles‬

You wouldn't believe yesterday's drama if I told you, so here's a few excerpts from this morning's. -- Fighting children. Need to unpack and clean house from being gone a week. Girl flipping out over the smallest thing. Boy recovering from surgery. Dead decaying turtle in the tank that somehow escaped James Bruckmann's notice. Giant panic attack. Scooped out living turtle from the watery grave using a dustbin while praying at the top of my lungs.

It's like on Hoarders when they tell the homeowner that there are mummified cats under the piles of dirty dishes.

Yep. Easy peesy.


Caitlyn started cheering at the football games this month, although they don't give us a very good schedule. It makes it tough to figure out how to plan for her games and Elijah's soccer games. (I marvel at the parents who have 2+ kids in sports and handle it well.) She also turned 8 this month and is becoming such a young lady, but still she has the fun and silliness of a little girl.

Elijah and I drove back to Chapel Hill for his followup appointment where we again waited much longer than expected. Thankfully our friend took Caitlyn to a play in Charlotte, so I did not have to deal with kids fighting on the drive. We also enjoyed a trip around the world that weekend at the UNCC International Festival.

The kids and I had the opportunity to visit Monticello for their Home Educators Day. We were slightly late for our tour because on the way up a backseat brawl began over an empty bagel wrapper. While I was pulled over refereeing, one of those wide load half of a house trucks passed us. We then had to follow said truck for 30 miles. In the Virginia mountains. Yay. We did learn a lot about the time period and Jefferson himself, and I learned that we shouldn't take trips to locations more than five miles from our home.

To browse through more photos and stories from the month, click here.



A video of Elijah getting his wiggles out at Red Bowl after our last hospital visit.

Caitlyn's first cheering at the Cowboys pep rally.

An informative video about a plant at Monticello.