here we go again.... hmm hmm... catch us if you can

Miracle of all miracles.... the orthopedic surgeon had a cancellation today and could fit Punk in. Which was not a moment too soon, from my stand point. Even sending  note to school from hubby and I stating that Punk was NOT to participate in gym because of the injury, sending Punk to school wearing a brace to keep his wrist in place.... the gym teacher decided that since it wasn't an official doctor's note, that he not could but WOULD participate in gym class. We picked him up for his appointment and he showed us the lovely new raw patch on his knee from where he fell and proceeded to slide in gym to keep off his hands. Apparently, only a doctor can keep a student out of a class. Not a parent with the knowledge to know that a radiologist told you NO activity until the bone is set, not the student with the broken bone... only a doctor. So frustrated with schools right now.

Trying to make the most of things

X-rays done today showed the buckle fracture much clearer than the initial scans did. I am not sure if that's normal for them to show up stronger after a few weeks or if it was just because Punk had been (still was?) using the wrist. Good news though is that this bright orange cast (meaning caution... hazard boy coming through) should only have to be on until May 9. Then he might go into a fracture brace again or if enough healing is done, which it should be, he will be cast free.

Seventh grade and soccer just hasn't been a banner year for Punk. Three casts, two quarters of soccer played and one track meet. I am thinking that its pretty safe to say that he will not be returning to soccer next year. I think that we need a year break from, well, breaks.

Stay calm.... We got this

Eight days ago, Punk broke his wrist for the second time. Eight days. Do you know WHEN we can get him in to have it checked/casted? Another eight days. Ugh! I understand that the ortho/surgeon that we took him to the last time is busy but seriously?! Sixteen days of waiting for something that should take 2-3 weeks in a cast to heal? I am so beyond frustrated with this. I did call around and found somewhere that can fit him in on Friday. That's better... only two more days of waiting. I think that I can handle that better. Ok, so I HAVE to handle that better since I don't have a choice in the matter.

Pretty much sums up my mood.

Right now, I feel like life is a huge cycle of hurrying up to wait. Waiting for the ortho appointment so I can stop worrying that Punk is going to do more damage. Hurrying up and waiting for us to get underway on our next "project", which will be building the littles a set of bunk beds for their room. Hurrying up and waiting for hubby's hours at work to return to normal so we can get underway on our home projects. Hurrying up and waiting for spring.... Yes, an early spring was predicted this year and what did the littles and I find today when we went outside? Snow!

I am starting to think that this year is yanking my chain just a bit. I am not quite sure which cosmic power is having a good laugh at my expense but I am really hoping that I am giving them a good chuckle at the very least.

leap of.......

When you get a phone call from the doctor's office, its never a good thing. Just once I would like a doctor to call and say "Hello, I have good news. Nothing is wrong. Just wanted to tell you to have a blessed day." But nope, offices don't do that. Instead they call to tell you that they are sorry, but new appointments need to be made. Things get overlooked. Specialists need to be called.

walking on air

I really thought the call was about Pork. After all, two stool samples have been taken to the hospital and yet, no call has ever been given to us to let us know what the heck happened with his stomach/digestive tract over vacation. Best guess that I have now is that he must have picked up something from the petting zoo in St Louis. But it could have been norovirus or rotovirus as well. Not knowing why he had severe diarrhea for two straight weeks doesn't thrill me. But knowing that his body is healed on its own (apparently) makes me happy.

Speaking of happy, Punk is the exact opposite. After a wonderful track practice tonight, coming home with the expectation that he would be preparing for soccer, I had to break (ha ha) the news to him that we got a call from radiology today letting us know that he, in fact, DID break his wrist again. We need to now put a call into the orthopedic surgeon and have him re-x-rayed, cast, and pulled out of sports/gym until it heals. Wonderful.

The only good news that I could offer him is that they said that he most likely has a buckle type fracture this time. Which is a much quicker heal than his last break. We are only looking at 2-3 weeks instead of 4-6 weeks in a cast. Basically though, just long enough to take him almost to the end of his track season and about halfway through this season of soccer.

I am just concerned at this point that he has been walking around (running, stumbling, throwing, catching, etc) with a broken wrist for a week. I am really hoping that no further damage was done and that when he get in to the ortho, that it really is a quick heal. 

I hate making Punk unhappy. I hate hearing him cry because he is now missing out on everything that he loves once again because of a broken wrist. I really wish that there was some way that I could make this up to him but I know that having a mom hanging all over you, trying to cheer you up is just not the "cool" thing when you are 13. Instead, I have to just put on a brave face and allow him to work through the grief on his own. Hopefully, he will find his silver lining soon.

one proud mama today

Anyone who knows Punk knows that he loves sports. Loves them! And it makes us all laugh because he hates running. Detests it. He will run for short distances but he just doesn't enjoy the feel of a good, long distance run (and neither does his mom ha ha!) So imagine our shock when first, he comes home and tells us that he wants to join track and our even bigger shock when he sticks with it.

Yes, my soccer star now runs track! 

I think that a major part of it was his coach saying how track helps you build endurance for other sports. Which is true. And that its a great complimentary sport for those that are interested in athletics. Which is true too. Doesn't hurt that one of the coaches is one of Punk's favorite teachers. Having someone you admire tell you something that your parents have been trying to tell you for years definitely goes a long way to cementing that idea in your head.

Punk at his first ever track meet

Since Punk's school has an extra abundance of track members (well over 100), he wasn't selected to "represent" his school in the meets but performs for "personal best". Today, he did the running long jump, 50 meter dash and 75 meter dash. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't out of my seat proud! Just to see him stick with this and really work made me so happy. That he went to his first meet after not being able to practice with the team for most of last week made me even prouder. I wanted to just tell everyone that my boy isn't a quitter but a fighter!

Today's goals were logged and he will compete against those scores on Thursday. I am not sure if he competes in the same activities week after week or if they will end up switching it up a bit. I know that he has no interest in ever running the hurdles or doing the high jump but I do know that he wouldn't mind doing shot put at least once or twice.

art imitates life

First things first.... a trip to the doctor ended up in the cards today for Punk. X-rays were taken and the doctor is pretty confident (99%) that he just sprained his wrist. HUGE sigh of relief! He is off gym for the rest of the week and was told not to attend Saturday's soccer game. He can still attend his first track meet on Monday and can go back to soccer on Tuesday. I feel SO much better knowing that everything is going to be ok and that he just needs to keep the wrist wrapped for a few days. Totally feeling like we dodged a major bullet this time.

Someone is going to be an amazing daddy someday.

The littles, totally unaware of any bullet  dodging, enjoyed a very pleasant morning outside with their paints. Pork, who probably was fondly reminiscing about our vacation this morning, just couldn't seem to leave little Yoshi behind. He found his sister's mei tai carrier and brought me the stuffed toy asking "Pack? Pack?" How can you say no to that?

I think that we ended up spending almost an hour in the sun painting beautiful masterpieces. Our art gallery hung on the garage all afternoon, waiting to dry. SweetPea had a blast painting her new favorite animal "black tip reef sharks" while Pork's art was a wonderful hodge podge of color on the paper, trees, grass, garage door, etc.

Days like today have me yearning even more for a consistent rise in temperatures. So hard to believe that this time last year, our weather had already had enough days hot enough to allow the kids plenty of water time. This year? Nothing yet. I know that its coming and that I need to be patient but spring sport season puts me in the mood for, well, spring weather. And I am not sure that the groundhog and I see eye to this year on what constitutes "spring".

and so it begins again

Its that time again. Sports season begins to reign supreme in our house. Tonight, Punk had his first soccer game of the spring season and SweetPea had her dance class, at the same time. *sigh* It really stinks trying to be the parent sometimes when you need to be in two places at the same time.

day one and he is already worn out!

Punk did fine last year attending some of his soccer games without one of us being there. Pickle would ride to the field with him and then they would ride home together. This year is proving that that cannot be the case. I arrived after SweetPea's dance class, in the middle of the second quarter, to find Punk sitting on the sidelines because of an injury. Flashbacks to the fall season, first game, where Punk broke his wrist flashed through my head. I checked and it looked ok... a bit puffy but no where near odd like when the entire field sat for him last season. I asked how bad it hurt and he said bad enough that he just wanted to go home. *double sigh*

Hubby thinks that he just is done with soccer. That playing with kids that are all way taller than him has him quitting. I know that he doesn't want to miss going to his dad's house on the weekends and having a weekend game does cut into how much time he can stay there (since bio-dad refuses to transport for game time, lame!) I guess that only time will tell. 

We decided against urgent care tonight since he can move his hand and fingers, something that he couldn't initially do in September. If the wrist still feels sore tomorrow, I will go ahead and make an appointment. Gut instinct is telling me that he probably just sprained it. Hubby's gut is telling him that its all just a way to get out of playing. I think that I need to just breathe and remember that just because he got hurt last season doesn't mean that he is seriously hurt now. 

happy (belated) 13th birthday

Yes, its a bit late... a day late, actually. But since we finished our grand vacation on Punk's birthday, I had to celebrate with a cake tonight. And its not ALL bad considering that he has spent three of his last four birthdays on a grand vacation. I think that its becoming a bit of a trend for us. 

celebrating becoming a teenager

We arrived back home from Kentucky at about 2am. Late enough to send the kids to bed and not worry too much about unpacking/cleaning/organizing. I see many, many, many days of all those in my immediate future. Hubby got a bonus day off so we used today wisely on grocery shopping, meal planning, SLEEPING....

Punk got to select his favorite dinner for his birthday, a tradition that I adore. He picked quiche... something that I have not attempted since Pork's birth. I will say though, I am really glad that he suggested it. I found out that I could make a passable dairy-free quiche. I am not a huge fan of the veggie cheese in it but eh, I can learn to deal. The rest of the family loved every last piece of all three "pies".

As for the cake.... Punk picked chocolate on chocolate. Boring! So I had the grand idea to spice it up a bit and create my own chocolate cherry cake. I made a chocolate cake, a cherry/almond frosting and then added maraschino cherries all over it. It turned out heavenly! My only fault was that I should have waited longer to frost the cake because by the time that the candles were blown out, the poor cake was melting everywhere!

Tonight was too short of notice for the family to attend but we plan on hosting a party for Punk as soon as my sister comes back from her honeymoon and things settle back down for us all. After ten days of vacation, I think that we are all ready for a little routine in our lives again.

our grand vacation day 10....

second trip to Mammoth

Happy 13th birthday to my Punk

this is what family really is

cave writing from the late 1900s

gypsum... specialty of the snowball tour

cave opening that discovered this passage

dining in the snowball room of the Mammoth Caves 267ft below ground

the men in my life

all the girls took turns wearing my sweatshirt

Pork's first time on a bus

apparently, its bad to accept calls from bats

second family trip here... definitely not the last

first time meeting friends and fellow blogger

downtown Louisville

our grand vacation day 9

visiting the home of county music... Grand Ole Opry House

best Davey Jones out there

eating at Aquarium.. an underwater dining experience

Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, Kentucky

our future Appalachian Trail gang

first time having a real frozen treat

daddy's littlest water bug

flipping over what an awesome time we had

our grand vacation day 8

Crater of the Diamond State Park

no luck finding diamonds but an awesome time

enjoying a break in Little Rock

We made it to another state!

Rest stops on 15+ hr drive days make it all worth it

our grand vacation day 7

Natural Bridge Caverns

caving in the south

PorkChop getting to hang with the big kids

daddy six stories up

poor sick girl couldn't be stopped

Gulf of Mexico, baby!

first trip to the Gulf

USS Lexington

pretty much sums it up

Our grand vacation day 6

World famous Round Rock donuts

Austin, Texas capitol building

San Antonio Japanese tea gardens

Enjoying a VERY rainy visit

scorpion sucker, anyone?

Remember the Alamo

totally rocking at the Hard Rock Cafe

visit to the River Walk