What's a leg worth anyway?

It has been an eventful few weeks for the crew here in Richmond. Here goes. Ever since moving into our new home we’ve been scraping along, spending pretty much every penny that Jarom has made at his new job. Jarom isn’t too worried about this, as much of that money went to things like crown molding and refrigerators and sinks, which are big ticket items that are now out of the way. But Lix was concerned, and after some inspiration from her good friend Mandy Jo, she decided to begin her career as a couponer. So we got a subscription to the Sunday edition of the local newspaper, which Alixa faithfully trims up, putting the applicable coupons in a nerdy binder that is sorted by product and store and would make Monica proud. Jarom isn’t complaining though, because in her first few trips, buying the things that she normally buys, Lix has saved between 30-50% on each trip. She still has to figure out some of the tricks, but she likes it and enjoys spending less money at the grocery store.

After smoking some weed, Jenna got the munchies and made a huge mess

But that is only half of the money equation. Calling on her inner workaholic, Alixa has recruited Kenzie to be a business partner and the two of them have reserved a booth at an upcoming craft fair where they will sell all manner of homemade things for babies. Lix has been running her sewing machine seamingly non-stop as she makes quilts and carseat canopies. She is also making hair clips and hats and blankets. Last week the battery and alternator in the Camry died, costing a pretty penny and prompting Jarom to bring up the possibility of getting a new car. He told Alixa that all of the money she earns through this little venture can go straight towards a new car for her, and I think she is even more motivated than before.



Jarom has had some ups and downs healthwise recently. A few weeks ago Jarom and Lix dropped Jenna off at Kenna’s house for a few hours to go play a round of golf together. Alixa came out on fire, and was leading by 7 points after 12 holes. Then she got tired and the wheels began to come off. Her lead was down to 2 with 3 holes to go when she conveniently used the old “we should go pick up our daughter” line. So she left, claiming victory as she headed home. Jarom stuck around to finish, but began to feel a little off as he finished up his round. I’m not sure if it was the fact that it was about 100 degrees or the frustration of not being able to beat his wife for the second straight time or perhaps a combination of the two, but he was not feeling well. He made it most of the way home before he had to pull over to provide some natural fertilizer for some roadside grass. He became sick a few more times that evening and ended up staying home from work the next day.



About a week later an even more serious event occurred. Jarom came home from basketball late at night and found a box of unwanted glass frames sitting on the front porch waiting to be thrown away. He grabbed the box and began to carry it to the trash can. Unfortunately it had rained earlier in the day and the cardboard had become weak and soggy, and it collapsed under the weight of the frames after a few steps, dropping glass all over Jarom’s right leg, opening a gash and causing him to bleed on his all white basketball shoes. He cleaned up the mess and headed inside for the shower. It hurt and was bleeding quite a bit, but he couldn’t really see it well because of where it was on his leg, so he woke up Alixa to get her opinion as to whether or not it might need stitches. The consensus was that it did in fact need stitches, but at the late hour that meant a trip to the ER and a $100 copay. So they called the mission president’s wife to ask her if she thought it would matter if they waited until the morning. She said that it would be fine, so they wrapped it up and went to sleep. First thing the next morning Jarom headed off to the Urgent Care facility (home of the $30 copay) to get it taken care of. The first question the doctor asked when he heard Jarom say he thought he needed stitches was “when did you cut yourself?” Jarom’s answer was followed by a sigh and this little gem from the MD: “You do know that stitches have to be done within 4-6 hours of an injury, right?” Of course he knew that, which is why he came in to get stitches 10 hours later. What a silly doctor. After checking it out, the doc decided to throw a few stitches in there to hold it closed and hope that it doesn’t get infected [the reason that stitches must be put in quickly is because the risk of infection spikes if you sew a wound after it has begun to heal.] It has been a week, and the prognosis is pretty good. It did not get infected, and Jarom gets to have a huge scar on his leg and $70 more dollars in his bank account, so I think everybody’s a winner.






This past weekend I got left to hold down the fort while everyone went up to Delaware for an extended weekend. Jamie wanted some help from Alixa making some baby blankets for her soon-to-be-new boy, and Jenna wanted to swim in the pool, and Jarom wanted to go golfing with JD and Jesse. Jenna learned to swim using water wings, and was perhaps a little too fearless, jumping off the diving board to her dad and off the side of the pool to her mom, or to nobody. She enjoyed playing with the other kids, even though sometimes she got a little overwhelmed. She is particularly fond of her older cousins Adri and Alli, and will happily chase them or run away from them for hours. The dads liked comparing their children, with Jarom wishing his kid was better at climbing on stuff and Jason wishing his kid was better and communicating and doing silly tricks. You know, the grass is always greener over there. Mostly they just enjoyed the company, and spent a lot of time sitting around chatting. They did force Annie to take some family photos on Monday before they took off, and even though Jarom and Alixa aren’t much to look at, they got some pretty good ones of little Jenna (they are the new ones on the sidebar.) It was a little odd going up to Gramma’s house and not seeing Gramma, but the new tenants were wonderfully hospitable so they’ll probably go back again sometime.

All the grandkids thanking Gramma for letting them use her house

She is a natural, just like her state-champion mother

Alternately enjoying and not enjoying the company of her cousins

Getting our ducks in a row

I guess Jenna was tired of being out of the water

Fortunately, Mom was nearby to save her