let joy choose you: October 2010

birthday 1

Eli had his 4th birthday party with his awesome friends at the United Sports Training Center. We LOVE it there! This was a run and fun theme where the kids playted running games, did a parachute, tag and more. I was so thankful to have almost everyone we invited actually come. Eli was very happy to have all of his friends in one place. :)

some running fun

class list of eli's 4th birthday attendees

balloons!

balloons on the parachute!

i made this cake...in case you can't tell (as most people can't anyway), it is in the shape of a tornado. just in case you were wondering, yes that is chad on the cake.

friends enjoying the spread

eli wating only the icing, as usual.

the fam! happy birthday, eli! evie's thinking, 'this party is lame, i want to take a nap'

bite

Me and the fam go to the park up the street. The kids and Chad will play and I will go for my run. It was a typical Friday evening and as I was coming around the loop there was a dog leashed to a woman who I took to be the owner. As I was running up to them to pass, I noticed that the woman was not pulling the dog over and the dog was taking up the whole path so as I passed, I went up on the grass a little. As I did this, the dog jumped up on me. And I thought, 'wow, his claws must be sharp because this hurts'....then I screamed two times because of the pain. I looked down and saw the dog (a medium sized dog) still attached to me! I fell back and it let go. I assessed the injuries and then looked at the woman, who was profusely apologizing. I stupidly was like, 'no biggie' and walked away. I was in shock a bit. Luckily Chad and two friends of mine were at the playground and the two friends saw what happened. They asked if I got her info, if the dog was up on its shots, etc....of course I was too in shock to even ask so I had to run up to her and get the info. Turns out she was the dog sitter and the owner was away. I felt bad because she was crying and I am sure just as traumatized as I was. I went to the doctor the next day and he said there was some tissue damage, but it would heal fine with antibiotics. The below photos show the damage....so don't look if you get queasy easily or happen to be eating something while reading this post. Problem is, now when I run I am super scared of dogs and don't want my kids touching any we don't know anymore. This experience has taught me that with any kind of animal, you just don't know what will set them off.

This was on my hip...you can see my hip bone a little on the right. This was the bloodier one.

This was on my left thigh. This is the one that had tissue damage.

And this is the bite a week later actually getting better. I bruise easily.

famous!

In September, Eli got the chance to be on a Philadelphia news show called Good Day Philadelphia. A friend of mine and her daughter who is just like Eli was going on the show to help play with toys and promote Discovery Toys, a distributor that sells GREAT learning toys. They were doing a demonstration and needed a boy with brown hair. We got there early so we walked around the city a little which we never get to do, but we need to do more because it was wonderful! We saw the liberty bell and we told Eli that the constitution was signed there. He asked what the constitution was and said it was a list of rules....so he responds "Like not being allowed to say 'butt'?" Here are photos from our adventure. Thanks Cathy and Ella for thinking of us and inviting us! We had a great time!

Yes, they do match and yes, they did it on purpose.