"Sew" Much for Monday!

What a day! Today was the kinda day that made me grateful to have a blog in which to contain and preserve it! The challenge now is how to do it justice with a few words and pictures. I'll give it a shot-

Up early this morning because Tom was leaving again to work with Scotty Hicks and Matt Stevens on a job site, and Sam was sleeping diagonally in my bed. Would you believe the Tooth Fairy forgot to come last night and leave Addie some cash for her lost, lost tooth? It seems the Tooth Fairy had mistakenly put the cash under a pillow in Mommy's room! She must've thought Addie had slept in Mommy's bed last night! Once Tom got back home about ten, and told us he had a lot of work to do, we opted for another Dollywood day.

Yes, I know it was supposed to be record high temperatures. Yes, I know 98 degrees is dangerously toasty, but I have the compulsion to get my money's worth outta those passes. Besides, Sam and Addie really wanted to go. Drew is camping at Elkmont with Silas' family and Chelcie had lunch plans with Jamie, so what was to keep us from making a day of it? So off we went, just the three of us.

We stopped at McDonalds on the way up to grab a quick bite to eat and to save us from having to buy Dolly Food at inflated prices. The kids were happy with that especially since the toy of the day was Kung Fu Panda! I mean, how great could one day possibly be?!

We headed for River Rampage first thing! The kids were nervous about riding it again, and I could tell Addie was having flashbacks to her "stomach problems" from last week, but we pressed on and had a great, wet ride.

Then it was on the Country Fair where we rode the Ferris Wheel, the Veggie Tales roller coaster, the blast off rocket thing-y, the Scrambler, and the swings (twice). Addie quickly made friends with a little girl from Virginia named Erica (see pictures) and Erica promised to ride the Veggie Tales coaster with her, so I could ride with Sam, then she chickened out at the last minute and Addie had to ride alone! Can you believe the nerve of that girl? Actually, she was a sweetie and was just too scared to ride in the first car, but Addie wasn't and we had a blast!

We capped off our impromptu trip to Dollywood with a quick slide down the Smoky Mountain Slidewinder! This one's our family favorite because of the special memories it brings of past moments of panic. We shared a frozen lemonade (3 straws) and headed back down the mountain about 3:00.

We were home by four. It's 48 miles to Dollywood from my driveway. Just a little documentary FYI.

I checked my Reach Them email and am scheduled to meet with Candice at 1:00 tomorrow, Anthony and Rick at 10:00 on Wednesday, and Jesse at 12:00. It's going to be a busy week, but I love it that way! I feel like we're making progress and heading in right direction.

About 6:30, I really wanted to go for a walk, but Tom convinced me that a bike ride would be better, so we helmetted (is that a word?) up the kids and began what was sure to be another Crawford adventure. Sure enough, we were not even through the Colonies when I was scolded for not making Sam bring his new helmet. The one he was wearing kept sliding forward and blocking his vision. I made some minor adjustments to the helmet and it was determined that the helmet could stand as is.

Once we were through the Colonies, we chose Mulligan's for dinner due its close proximity to...the Colonies and our way back home...uphill...

Sarah Anderson and Hannah McNamee coaxed us into purchasing a strawberry-banana smoothie. I had a pizza florentine, Tom chose the Mulligan's meatballs, and Sam and Addie split a pizza and chicken fingers. I don't know what our total bill was, but I'm sure it was a lot more than it was worth. We had to ask for our check. I doubt we'll eat there again.

On the way back home, Tom and Sam went on past the Colonies, but Addie and I headed toward home. We were almost to the top of the big hill when we saw the boys gaining on us. We tried to stay on our bikes and ride up, but it was just too steep, so we pushed our bikes up the hill and got passed by the boys. We turned right by the playground to avoid the woods and the remaining hill, but it turns out that was a WRONG turn for us.

The boys went riding past us while we continued to push our bikes uphill. Sam and Tom were way past us, out of sight. It wasn't until we were riding our brakes down the hill that I realized Sam had had a bike wreck. Tom was already on the phone telling my mom to bring a wet towel and the car. He asked me to call Ed to bring his truck for the bikes. Turns out, Sam had bumped his head, scraped his elbow, and cut his chinny-chin-chin! Poor boy! There was blood all over Tom, but fortunately the cut was small and Sam did not lose any of his teeth!

Papaw, Grandmom, Sam and I headed to Baptist West Emergency Room to see if stitches were in order. Sam did not take the news that he was to be sewn back together very well. The knowledge of his stitches to come was much harder to take than the actual stitches themselves. He had to have two stitches in his chin. Now he has more whiskers than Drew! The whole hospital ordeal took about 2 and a half hours! Once we finally arrived back home, Addie had made Sam a get-well card and had given him one of her tooth fairy dollars! Sam says he doesn't like hills AT ALL, and will never ride a bike down a hill again. In fact, he said he doesn't even plan to WALK down any more hills! And that includes our driveway. We'll see if he can hold out.

It's 11:23 and time for me to call it a day. Thank you, Lord for doctors, bicycle helmets, and sweet sisters!