Crazy Week....

Sunday - Alice fell five feet off a boat parked in our shop onto concrete, right on her face. We rushed her up to McCall Hospital where we were so happy to discover it appeared she had no major probems (concussion, brain damage) and only needed stitches. She got two stitches inside her bottom lip and six stitches on her chin (four external, two internal). The chin stitches were blue, so I called her Bluebeard. She was not happy. When it happened she was screaming and blood was gushing everywhere. She pretty much cried all the way to the hospital. She did fall asleep briefly in the ER, but was screaming really good while they stitched her up. Ben had to restrain her and I asked Clyde if he wanted to watch and after at first saying yes he decided otherwise so we hung out in the waiting area.

Monday - crazy evening storms (microbursts) hit the Donnelly area. The trees surrounding our yard were blowing all different directions and swaying back and forth over 20 feet. It would blow like crazy, totally stop and then start again. Then the power went out...

Tuesday - The power was out all day. Normally I would've taken the kids to the beach or something, but Alice's stitches made sand and water seem like a bad idea. I realized I really rely on cooking food for the kids. They haven't quite gotten the sandwich thing down. We ate cereal, yogurt, and PB&J sandwiches. Finally for dinner I realized we did have a small borrowed camp stove so we had hot dogs. Alice hadn't eaten all day. She didn't even want milk or water in the morning. I had to get her to take some with a little medicine syringe. Then at dinner she ate 3 1/2 hot dogs! The power finally came back on at about 9:45 p.m. It stormed a little, but nothing like the night before. We drove around before dinner to survey the damage. It was crazy. There was intense, pretty much catastrophic damage in small areas all over. So one person would have 30-40 trees down and the neighbor wouldn't have much at all. We had a shed on my dad's property that got pulled out of the ground and lifted up and deposited about 30 feet away. The contents were still sitting where the shed had been. The deer farm on Farm to Market Rd. had extensive tree damage which knocked down their fences and scattered their European Fallow Deer (cute little guys) for over a mile. There was a lot of work to be done... Ben and his guys at the ranch had to cut out a lot of broken trees and fix a lot of fence. Idaho Power mobilized an amazing workforce and it is unbelievable that they were able to restore power relatively quickly given the nature of the storm and the widespread damage.

Wednesday - The kids and I went to swimming lessons in New Meadows with Mumsy. Alice couldn't swim because of her stitches so she just got to lounge around in the hot water. It was a pretty blustery morning out. She normally doesn't want to participate but of course on this day she was all about wanting to blow bubbles.... When we got home, no power, again!!! It only lasted about 40 minutes but of course right at lunch time.

Thursday - Clyde and I went to swim lessons alone. Alice was not happy to be left behind. We made a big leg of lamb and had "Cowboy Jack" and Tuck from the ranch over. We also had strawberry rhubarb cobbler with the rhubarb from our yard... yummm! Alice actually opted to eat pickles instead of cobbler.

Friday - As I write this it is raining cats and dogs and blowing again. We just got back from Mumsy's house for the annual summer birthday dinner. She had my Great Great Aunt Laura's trunk from the 1880s restored for me -- pretty amazing! Earlier in the day, Alice and I went to the doctor and got her chin stitches out. She is pretty much back to being able to eat and drink without wincing in pain. The doctor said the laceration is healing really well. It was not fun to restrain her while they picked at those stitches. She let us all have an earful and I thought it really must have scared the other kids in the rooms next to us.

I'm ready for this week to be over! But, it's 4th of July weekend, so we've got a busy weekend. Hopefully things will get back to normal, no more crazy weather and no more freak accidents!