Tada!

I've been sitting here for at least 10 minutes trying to figure out what I want to write. My week has been hectic, to say the least, and I think my brain just gave up. Monday, Seth left for the week. My basement began flooding before he left, but we both thought it was all the snow melting. That blasted snow, feet of it, heaped all over the place, melting and coming into my basement. Though, the hubby left, the snow left, and the water was still there. Being sucked up with a wet vac and dumped by yours truly every few hours. That sentence doesn't even do it justice. Six gallon vacuum times three trips up the stairs equals eighteen gallons emptied every couple hours. Exhaustion. By the way, water doesn't know when you need sleep. But that isn't what I'm supposed to be writing about.

I can't end there. Honestly, it gets better. I finally threw a hissy fit and called Seth during his conference to leave a hissy message about me being alone with water, puppy, and five children. He called me back and told me to call a plumber since obviously something else was going on with the basement. It was a huge detergent cap stuck in the pipe leaving the house. Added to it were a few socks, a ball, a Lightening McQueen car, and (get this) on the very top was a keycard to the Addis Ababa Hilton. We were there in MAY! So that drain has been clogged since before May. My washing machine has been draining into the nether-regions under my house since May. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more ridiculous situation...if I hadn't already experienced the shut-off-valve-shooting-off-causing-dining-room-ceiling-to-collapse scenario. That (hopefully) will top all other 'stupid house stories' for the rest of my life.

With all of that said, today was the highlight of the week. I woke up with a fear that we would get to the doctor's office and they would tell Sally that she couldn't take the cast off. That didn't happen though! I'm pretty fried, but managed to throw my camera into the diaper bag this morning. It was still there when we got to our appointment after lunch so I documented our visit.

Sally's terrified of The Saw. She only started to ask about it a few days ago, but knew that was the only way out of the cast. A few tears escaped before The Saw Man arrived, then she let loose with a complete meltdown. As I held her down I heard myself saying, "Well, do you wanna just live the rest of your life in this thing?" I'm so compassionate. Meanwhile, Josiah's screaming bloody murder from the stroller because he, also, is so compassionate. Who wants to cry alone?

She's mustering a smile for me, but still pretty nervous. This time around there wasn't an odd collection tucked into her cast. No rotting dimes, no barrettes, just lots and lots of glitter (due to her glitter and gloss make-up kit).

Sally strutted her stuff right out of that office. To my (and everyone else's) amazement, she refused to put the cast back on and wanted just her old brace. She's got a 'little' belly and we had to squeeze her into that thing. I think, if given the option, she'd rather stop breathing and fit into the brace than wear the cast. At home, the Bigs were so thrilled. Everett looked at Sally and said, "You just look SO cute!" Eli told her that when she gets to church she'll walk into her class and they will say, "Hi, who are you? You don't look like the Sally that we know."

It's been four months since she's soaked in the tub. I had to drain the bathwater once just so she wasn't sitting in filth. Even after that, the water was brown the second time and had (skip this if you have a weak stomach) bits of flesh floating around in it. You may opt to skip the last picture if that made you cringe.


Though her back is healed and strong, it doesn't look like a completely healthy back. She'll probably never look like you or I, but as time passes and she gets older, it will change. We are hopeful that she will gain some weight once she isn't taking so many medications. Then hardware along her spine won't be so evident. She's standing up straight without assistance, to me, that's a beautiful sight.