Multitude Monday, a day late

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post which is part of a series started years ago on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that is a favorite of mine. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing, gifted writer and an inspiration (not to mention a mother of 6)!

"One Thousand Gifts"::

2883. Lydia's smile
2884. reflecting on another year and all that it held :: ALL IS GRACE!
2885. New Year's with the Newman family
2886. friends who listen to your whining and complaining and still love you
2887. 24 hours shared with dear, dear friends
2888. double stuf oreos with peanut butter :: my favorite!
2889. Buffalo with my mom and Sara
2890. a few new orders
2891. fun surprise blessing in the mail :: letter stating that a nearly $1000 repair that we did to our van in 2011 (not covered under warranty) will be reimbursed by Chevy due to some manufacturing defect that they've discovered. Praise God! (now to find that receipt from the service!)
2892.  provision right when you need it
2893. mom's oncology appointment scheduled :: finally the results we've been waiting for and a plan from here on out
2894. excitement of this week for our church
2895. a great swim meet for the kids
2896. the look on Joe's face when he saw his 4 BLUE ribbons!
2897. a special "cast bag" on loan from a friend so that Rebekah can shower without help (well, except for getting said cast bag on and off -- she needs help for that)
2898. more crafting
2899. getting back into the swing of running
2900. another beautiful morning sky
2901. 5 years of Elijah. Praise God. I remember that day so well.
2902. Sara's dancing
2903. looking through all the pictures we took over Christmas

this one is SPOT ON in capturing their personalities

Anna's new shorter (and straighter) hair

4 generations of girls

Happy January! May you realize all the blessings the Lord brings your way in 2013 and take the time to make note of them.

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here on Ann's wonderful, amazing blog that I read each day. If you've never checked it out, do yourself a favor and click on over. She's an amazing writer and an inspiration!

"One Thousand Gifts":

1779. Christmas picture taken, cards ordered, cards in-hand and waiting to be stuffed . . . and it's still November!
1780. a fresh haircut on my VERY shaggy first-born
1781. Joey leading his class in the pledge at Grandparent's Day ::
1782. safe travels, despite van troubles
1783. seeing deers in ditches :: not on the roads!
1784. our baby girl loving on her grandpa even though it had been nearly half her life since last she saw him
1785. family
1786. boots & skirts {my favorite combo!}::1787. a great family Thanksgiving program following the yummy meal
1788. a nice post-dinner walk
1789. a breath-taking sunset
1790. so very much to be thankful for!
1791. grown-up dinner . . . and kids old enough to take care of themselves {the joy of 13 cousins together in the house with no adults in site!}::1792. hand-in-hand walk with grandpa ::1793. new power tools!
1794. home again {and safely, praise God!}
1795. a good Nancy Drew mystery to pass the time
1796. a letter from Melvin {our Compassion kiddo} waiting for us when we arrived home :: something else to be thankful for!
1797. a great church close enough to walk to when the van won't cooperate to get you to your own church on a Sunday morning
1798. a pretty successful 4th-grade-girl intervention
1799. being in touch with your feelings ::

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

numbers

We're home! It feels so good to be home again. There really is "no place like home"!

I now present you with our road trip 2011 in numbers ::

• gallons of gas used :: 247.8 gallons {at an average of $3.49/gallon that equals about $865 in gas -- WAY cheaper than flying 8 people to Florida and then renting a monster-sized van once we got there!}
• time logged in the van since we left :: 81 hours 39 minutes
• number of days away from home :: 15 days
• number of nights spent sleeping in a hotel :: 4 nights
• number of nights spent sleeping {or NOT sleeping} in the van :: 2 nights {while driving through the night}
  
• number of nights spent sleeping in our rental house in Florida :: 7 nights
• number of nights spent in a house en-route :: 1 night {with Kirby's grandma at her daughter's house in Indiana}
• number of different state license plates spotted along the way :: 44 states {we never saw Colorado, Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, Hawaii, Washington DC or New Hampshire -- we did, however, see a few Canadian plates, but we didn't have a handy dandy game thing to keep track of those}
• audio books listened to as a family :: 3 books
• days spent at a Walt Disney World theme park :: 6 days
• number of fireworks shows watched in Florida :: 2
• pairs of mouse ears purchased :: 6 pair
• number of fights between kids during the van trip involving hitting, kicking, pinching, yelling or hair-pulling :: too many to count
  
• loads of laundry done since returning home 12 hours ago :: 3 loads {with more to come and quite a few done in Florida as well}
• miles logged since we left home on June 14th :: 4,016.1 miles
• length of time our trip will stay alive through stories, pictures, jars of sand, thoughts and memories :: forever {at least that is the hope}
  

After nearly 2 years of saving, dreaming and planning, our big summer Disney vacation is already over. It really was a great trip and I'm so thankful that we could do it. {Many, many, many people helped to make it possible for us to go in one way or another.} I really do think the kids {most of them anyway} will remember it forever. But, it's so very good to be back home!

garbage

In case you ever wondered what trash looks like for a family of 7 {nearly 8, but really at this point the baby makes no trash at all, so we can't really count him or her this time around!}, this is it.

Yup, that's all.

And we weren't even gone at all this week. When we're gone it sometimes barely covers the whole bottom. But, on the other hand, then there's that 3rd week in March when we have 3 birthdays and make more trash than this . . . or we decide to do a major garage clean-up . . . or there's Christmas or something. But, on a normal week, this is about all we make . . . thanks to reuse, upcycling, recycling and composting! Not too shabby, I'd say.

In other randomness, Kirb was on campus at Northwestern last night and happened to be driving the van. A student came up to him and asked "Are you the shuttle?" Kirb told him no, but when he was ready to leave about 10 minutes later, and the real shuttle still hadn't arrived he introduced himself to the guy and asked if he wanted a ride and proceeded to drive the student to his off-campus dorm a few miles away . . . what a guy. I guess we're just askin' for that kind of question by driving our big vehicle.

This 'n that

Here's a few new things going on around here::

• My friend christened our van "The Stoll Haul". Pretty cute, huh? Maybe that will be enough of a hint that people will stop mispronouncing our name so that it insinuates that I take things that don't belong to me . . . I guess that means I'd rather have my name bring people mental images of a stinky, smallish section of a barn that needs to be mucked out! {no, our van doesn't actually say "stoll haul" on the side . . . you can do amazing things with photo editing!}
  
• Rebekah fell off the monkey bars at school on Thursday. I got the call from the nurse {she's my buddy . . . we often have reason to chat on the phone . . . unfortunate as that often is!} while in Target with the two overtired and ready-for-a-nap "littles". We checked out, called the pediatrician's office on the way to pick her up to tell them that we were headed their direction. We, then, spent nearly 2 hours at the clinic getting x-rays and finding out that Rebekah potentially chipped the bone in her elbow. We don't know for sure because they didn't intentionally x-ray her elbow . . . she was complaining of pain in her forearm, so they x-rayed that, but got her elbow in the picture as well {bonus!}. The forearm looked beautiful, but -- unfortunately -- there seemed to be something "floating" in her elbow that looked suspicious. The sent the x-rays to Gillette specialty hospital downtown {where Lydia had cranial-facial surgery when she was 7 months old . . . sounds like a big deal huh? I wanted you to think that. Actually they just removed a dermoid cyst that she had near her temple. It was all over in half and hour and she went home hardly knowing what had happened . . . I can still picture what she wore home from the hospital. But, I digress!} and they thought it looked ok, but couldn't be sure because it wasn't really a great image of the elbow itself. They sent us home with her arm wrapped and in a sling with instructions for complete immobility of the arm and to "lay low" for 4 or 5 days. Then if it hasn't gotten better or feels worse we have to have it re-x-rayed. I really have no idea what you would do to fix a floating little bone chip on the tip of your elbow anyway . . . I can't image it would be a very straight-forward fix! Sleeping comfortably is a challenge {especially when she is plagued with sleep issues anyway!}, but apart from that she seems to be feeling pretty good and the pain is under control. What a trooper!
• Kirb is home again {he got home Thursday night} after being in Fargo as a workshop speaker at a conference he was attending with some co-workers. Some crisis always comes up when he's out of town, so I guess the whole arm/elbow thing shouldn't have been too much of a surprise. But, we're thrilled to have him home with us safe and sound.
• Lydia will be 8 tomorrow . . . yikes, I'm not at all sure how that happened!