Poor Ellie...poor me...

Ellie has broken her fourth thing.

First, when she was 18 months old, she slipped on our 

wood floor and broke her leg.

Then, when she was 7 or so, she was swinging

with her hands on two dining chairs and broke her ear!!

(I know, right?!!!)

Last summer, when she was 10, she broke her thumb.

She did this while swinging on a swing. 

(How does that happen??)

(She just informed me she was 

doing a trick on the swing...)

Last night, Ellie was at a friend's house.

Danica "warned" her to be careful, the mud is slippery...

Ellie was doing cartwheels outside, in this mud.

And, well... she slipped.

(Danica told her so!!)

And she broke her arm.

I don't know who is sadder, her or me...

She is sad because she is realizing that for 6 weeks

she can't do gymnastics, PE, swimming, violin...

Roller skating, and it is her birthday soon!?!

I am sad, because she is my #1 helper.

(ssshhhh, don't tell the other kids...actually, 

Danica is sitting right here with me while I write this.)

Our trip to Costco today was my first challenge.

Here's how my life has changed in one day:

I had to get my own cart.

I had no runner for the item I forgot at the back of the store.

I had to unload my own items onto the belt at checkout.

I had to go buy my own mocha.

I had to load the groceries into my trunk.

I had to put my cart away at the cart return.

I had to unload the groceries at home.

(Actually, I didn't.  

This is where we met up with the other kids 

who will now have to make up for all that our 

hard-working Ellie won't be able to do.)

And this was just a trip to Costco.

I didn't mention all that Ellie does in the rest of life!

Ellie is a gem.

She works so hard without complaining,

and though she will still be here,

there will be a huge hole with Ellie's name on it!

And the rest of us will just have to step up, 

take on the jobs that Ellie does,

and take care of her for a while...

We'll be winning a different way over here 

for the next six weeks!!