Once Upon a Broken Arm...

Our first broken bone...20 years of raising children and my last and final baby is the first to break a bone *sigh*

So on Monday. Jacob called me at work at 3:30 (after soccer) and told me that he thought he hurt his arm. I asked him what happened and he told me that at lunchtime he had fallen backwards off the slide and caught himself on his hands. His right hand buckled a bit but he got up, dusted himself off and went on into school. Teachers looked at him, he could move everything and nothing was swollen so he went on about his day - schoolwork, gym and then soccer.

So when I got home he was playing with his wrestlers but nursing his right arm a bit. After much discussion with Mom and Dad I called JAmes and told him that we needed to go down to the Janeway with Jacob "just to make sure everything is fine" I mean, he was playing normally, moving normally, just whimpering every now and again...

So off we trek to the hospital. As we are there Jacob tells us what happened and he said "I was falling and I thought - I can totally land this!! and then I fell and I thought, what the hell?? I had that landing nailed!"

LOL!! That's my son for you....

Anyway, X-Rays were taken and sure enough, much to our surprise, he has something called a "bulge fracture" which is just a small fracture below his right wrist -which meant a cast for three weeks....

SO all is fine, he had a big old white cast on - the emergency room doctor did it - and he was fine for about...ohhh 12 hours. Yesterday morning he walked downstairs and realized that the cast got in his way and prevented him from playing PlayStation and with his wrestlers. WELL All hell broke loose. He screamed and ranted and raved and cried and banged his cast on anything hard and tried to wet it and finally tried to get a hammer to hammer it off.

I called the hospital almost in tears and asked for help LOL!! Down we go again and the proper cast people put a super cool, super light, super functional cast on his arm...thanks be to Almighty God...

What a week!

Man does time ever fly! Last week went by so fast that I didn;t even have a chance to enjoy it!

We had a bit of bad news last week too. Sheryl and Neil lost their baby. Sheryl was 12-13 weeks along and something went wrong and she miscarried. It is all very sad and was pretty scary at the same time. Thankfully she is back home and doing fine...physically. Emotionally, it is not an easy thing to deal with so we'll wait and see on that one. I do feel so bad for them both though...

In other news, we have just 4 weeks til the wedding...and you know what that means?? That means a) Crunch time with getting everything ready and last minute details and b) stag and stagette!!! Woo fun times fun times. I think Amanda is a bit nervous about Coreys LOL!! I'm sure it will be fine though...and as for hers well I am trying my best to plan it but I really suck at this stuff so I have some helpers. We have the party bus rented so thats cool and then I think just drinking, drinking, more drinking, party bus for 2 hours and then downtown. There. Stagette planned! now I just have to invite people....

Do you hear what I hear....??

Noise. Sound. Have you ever stopped to really listen to what's going on around you? Today I took a a moment. Just a small moment and I opened my ears to what was around me:

- birds chirping...it must be more than 10 because it is a chorus of chirping. Birds calling to one another, come see my nest! come feed my babies! Look at me! Look what I can do! here I am!

- Above the din of small birds a crow is calling - harsher, deeper - caw! caw!

- the river is rolling over the rocks and splashing on the banks, I can hear it from the back door just rushing down the river bed.

- children are playing in the front. Little girls are squealing, boys are calling out to one another. I think they must be playing basketball because ever now and again the ball bangs loud on the backboard.

- skateboards and scooters are out in force. The wheels grind on the pavement...

- a car passes by. No..not a car. It is a motorcycle...the engine revs loud.

- my back door is open, the wind takes it for a second and the hinges squeak in protest.

Suddenly, I hear another sound. Footsteps pounding on the stairs and then "Mom!! I need my water gun!!" Jacob turns the corner and throws himself into my arms. All sound disappears as my other sense takes over. He smells like sunshine and little boy sweat and BabyFaces suntan lotion SPF 50. I breathe him in before he rushes away again...

Sometimes, I think I notice too much. I feel too much...too strongly. But on this day I stopped and I listened and I noticed...

Summer. Summer is finally here. I never thought we would make it.

A good week so far

So we have had a good week so far. By good week I mean that everyone is getting up and going to school without fuss, all hands are going to bed without fuss and nobody has thrown any major fits.

And by "Nobody" I really mean Jacob - but I don't want to single him out sooooo...

I have decided that I need to keep track of these things. I have a tendency to over-generalize I think and one bad day automatically means that the week is ruined...and that is just not right. So this week we have had 4 good days so far! Brilliant!

Now, if someone hears me say that it has been a bad week just smack me up the side of the head.

Mothers day

So it is Mother's Day. Usually I am not fussed on these Hallmark holidays but this year I plan on sitting back and just enjoying it. Why not right?

Jacob made this for me at school...it's a little heart card booklet thing where he wrote nice things about me...very sweet. "my Mom is beautiful because she loves me" I mean COME ON...how can you stop your heart from melting when you see THAT written in that small handwriting? And you know, Jacob is not the most loveable child. I'll admit that he is more lovable than William who really can be quite the iceberg when he wants to be but Jacob can can certainly keep up with him is he wanted to. LOL!! It amazes me sometimes how I could be rearing two small people who are SO unlike me...

Anyway...a picture for posterity:

Now...I'm off to have a nice long hot bubble bath...and then out to dinner with the whole family. Isn't Mother's day SUPER?

Blockbuster and Jennifer - the Saga

Man Blockbuster is pissing me off lately. I am seriously considering writing a strongly worded letter...

Jennifer works there you see...and she LOVES it. Absolutely loves it. No problems, likes the people, likes the hours, everything is wonderful. At the end of the school year this year she decided to make a few changes. She was exploring her individuality I guess and thought to do something different for the summer. So she wanted her hair streaked. OK...no problem, I paid $120 for it as a "Yay for a great semester" gift and she got blue streaks put in her blonde hair.

Yes, blue.

And it looked SO cute!

Then she went a step further and decided to get her lip pierced. I was a bit offy on this one so I told her to go talk to her Manager at Blockbuster to make sure it wouldn;t be a problem. He told her that it would be fine as long as it wasn't too big and noticeable. So off she goes to spend $90 of her own money on a relatively painful, yet oh-so adorable piercing of her lip - well actually it below the center of her bottom lip - not in her lip, more like just above the cleft of her chin.

Very cute indeed.

So now I have this blue haired, lip pierced, purple glasses, cool scarved daughter.

And Blockbuster FREAKED. *SIGH*

The hair had to go, the piercing was too noticeable (seriously, this thing is the smallest little round ball I have ever seen). OK, well you can wear a bandaid on your chin to cover the pircing but the hair still has to be fixed...our customers don't appreciate that look.

This is BLOCKBUSTER mind you...a freaking MOVIE store.

So she gave in on the hair - went back to the hairdresser and paid ANOTHER $100 to have the blue changed. Of course the only way to change the blue is to go all dark...so now my once blonde Jennfer is burgundy/chocolate brown. She changed the ball on the lip to a clear one...not good enough, their eyebrows are still down.

What the hell???? They SAID it was fine, she changed her hair and now they are still giving her grief!

Man...a strongly worded letter indeed...I am getting madder by the minute.

Shower hangover...

Oh indeed. A shower hangover and not a drop of alcohol served LOL!! It was SUCH a success, I am so thrilled that everyone was there and Amanda got some nice presents and a nice little bit of money. All in all, it was TOTALLY worth the time and effort.

Except I couldn't get up this morning. Which meant that the boys did not get up either. So HEY!! FREE DAY!!! I called in to work for the day off and the boys stayed off school. For no other reason than I was just damed tired.

*insert picture of me shuffling here*

But it was worth it...Jacob spent the day gardening with Mom, I relaxed, William was thrilled out of his socks to have an unexpected day off. It was all fine.

And back to the old grindstone tomorrow.

Busy day!!

Today is Saturday, May 3 and I have a ton of stuff to do...tomorrow is Amanda's wedding shower and Mom, Aunt Cor and I are hosting...SO:

1. Buy shoes to match new outfit
2. Price club for sandwich stuff
3. Put car in to get tire fixed
4. Store for ingredients for Nacho dip
5. Michaels for card supplies
6. Make Amanda's card
7. Mom's tonight to blow up balloons and get a head start on the decorations
8. Head down to the club to make sure it is clean and tidy

Yeah...the day has just started and I am tired already! LOL!!!

Although I am REALLY looking forward to the shower...yay!

The sound of screaming

Have you ever heard a sound quite as shocking and piercing and annoying as a young boys screams of rage? No seriously...nails on a chalkboard are one thing, jackhammers another, the screams of fighting cats perhaps...honestly, I don't think there is anything quite so jarring as a childs screams - not of anguish but of pure hatred and rage.

Thats what I was dealing with last night...when Jacob realized that he had homework to do that MIGHT take him more than 15 seconds to complete. He had to write a story, a story about a pet robot. I even sat with him and told him what letters to write..but oh no, he was having NONE of it. And so the screams started...and kept going and going and going. *SIGH* I do wonder how his throat can take such abuse though, I mean I let out once screetch at the kids and my throat is immediately scratchy. Maybe I don't do it often enough eh?

So 45 minutes after it started - it stopped. He wrote while sobbing...and then at the second sentence he stopped sobbing and got interested. FIVE sentences is all he had to write:

I have a pet Robot named Jake. I got Jake at Walmart. Jake can lift things. He makes me my snacks. I love having a pet robot.

All that screaming and crying and raging and burst eardrums and beating himself up. Over THAT. Worth it?? I hardly think so. What a strange silly boy I have.

So...about Supernatural

I know I know, lame lame lame to be writing about a TV show. But you know, sometimes, something comes along and just blows you away and makes you feel good and you enjoy and for me...this show is it.

Let me preface by saying that I was an X-Files junkie. I was completely head over heels in love with the program. Matthew and I would watch it together and it was our time together - every Sunday night - X-Files night. When he left, I almost couldn't bear to watch it by myself. It was just too weird to be sitting there alone watching Mulder and Scully and not be able to talk to anyone about what was going on.

James and I never really had anything like that. I mean, we watched TV and he had his shows that he liked and I had mine, but there was never one that we completely made our own you know? One that we looked forward to every week - not just for the brilliance of the program but for the very idea of dedicating time specifically to be together and enjoy something together.

And then this winter I stumbled upon a YOu TUbe clip of a CW show called "Supernatural" - and I was intrigued. So intrigued that I started looking for more clips...and I loved what I saw. So I rented the first DVD of the First season...and I was a GONER. James came home one evening and asked me what I was watching and I told him to sit with me...and HE was a goner. From that day forward we watched a show a night. When the Season 2 DVD's ran out we frantically searched for online downloads of Season 3...James would come home from work at about 11:30 p.m. and we would sit at the laptop, fascinated with those gorgeous Winchester brothers. Demons, urban legends, good versus evil...it was all simply awesome.

Finally...after ten years together we found our show. LOL!!! Such a silly thing really but you know it has done us some good. Where before we couldn't find the time to barely say hello in the hallway, now we have a full hour together. And it goes beyond that hour as we spend time discussing and wondering and re-living episodes that we enjoyed the most...its just a good thing.