Unplugged; plugging in!!

Had a hard time figuring out the grammar in my title!  Guess I should ask my resident Journalism major!  But, he's not here!  In any case, I kind of lost site of my New Years resolution when I found out my wrist was broken.  But, now that the cast comes off in two days, that's right just two days!!!  I am trying to refocus on some things.  It has been difficult to fold laundry, clean the house, cook dinner; I don't recommend breaking your wrist or really anything.  Knee surgery proved even more difficult while I was on crutches this past summer.  But, I need to re prioritize things if I want to stay in this happy blissdom state of mind!  And so I refocus on my New Years resolution which is to check email and Facebook twice a day at home.  At work, I have not limited myself, but I can tell you that I would get a lot more paperwork done if I did. ;)  Once quick check in the morning and another in the afternoon/evening should be sufficient.  I hold a few community leadership roles, but none that are life threatening if I don't respond within 12 hours.  I think 12 is responsible.  The reason I have decided to do this is so I can plug back in to my kids.  Most of the time they run around and beg me to use the computer or put a movie on.  They are addicted to electronic devices as well.  I don;t know why we have toys sometimes.  But, I feel like if I give each kids 30 minutes of individual time a day or even 20; allowing time to cook dinner.  Then maybe we will have better behavior.  I mean we have to.  Removing one child from the running and screaming dynamic that is my house right now could only improve things.  I also wonder if I engage in a structured activity for 20 minutes, if that activity would then carry on for another 20 minutes without a fight between siblings.  By that time another would be engaged in any activity and so it would go.  Sounds good in theory.  Regardless of the benefits in reducing bad behavior.  I know that I would not go to bed at night feeling like I should have spent more time with them or that I was missing them grow up!!  And on that note, I will sign off and head on to get them to school and get my errands done so I have time later to spend unplugged with my kids!

A Cake in a Cast!!!

I had decided I had posted enough about my broken wrist, but this is really an online journal for me so I decided I would post about making Mutt's birthday cake while in my short arm cast!!  Since I enjoy making cakes and we are trying to save money every way we can I decided to make Mutt's cake even though I broke my wrist.  Probably not the best idea, but truly the most difficult part was getting the cake out of the pan once it was cooked (and I guess cracking the eggs).  Making the icing was a piece of cake ;)  especially once I came up with my nifty cast cover (Ziploc bag).  Decorating was far easier than I thought it would be.  The writing was the only tricky part and it is not very neat!  I guess I needed a steadier hand.  I would have guided the right with the left normally, but not really an option due to the inability to move my wrist.  All in all, I thought it came out great in light of the circumstances and now I can focus on making another one for our family party on Saturday!  That one should easier because there is more chocolate and less detailed icing piping!!!  Check out these pics of the decorating process!!!

Who likes the plastic bag cast cover?  It worked.  No icing or powdered sugar on my cast!

Mutt and ESPN want in on the icing action.

Light Sabers!!!

Wine helped me laugh at myself and the process!

In the end the lettering was a little shaky, but Mutt loved it!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday to my Mutt!!!

Today, Mutt turns six!!  I often think how is this possible?  How is it that six years ago he was born?  But, then I look back at all the things that have gone on in our lives and realize of course this is possible.  It times like these; birthdays, holidays, vacations, that I wish I was a better mom. I wish I engaged more with my kids.  I wish I didn't over commit myself to things outside the walls of our home.  These events just serve as reminders of how to be a better person and mother.  In keeping with my focusing on the positives, I decided to post some of my favorite Mutt pictures in honor of his sixth birthday!!  Happy Birthday, Mutt!!  You could never imagine how much I love you!!!



Mutt and Indy
Mother's Day 2005

Mutt's baptism

July 2005

Happy 1st Birthday!!

I'm 2!!

Lovin' Easter when I'm 3!

So big at 4!

Smart and ready for Kindergarten at 5!

Beach

July 2010

December 2010

I'm almost 6!

  Happy Birthday Mutt!!!  May all your wishes come true!!!

This Weather: UGH!!!

This weather is totally messing me up!!!  I had it all planned out.  Tomorrow is Mutt's Birthday!  So for the past day and a half I have been making chocolate pirate cupcakes picks.  These will top his school treat for tomorrow.  There are 24 kids in his class and three teachers.  In the evening, we will celebrate his birthday as a family and he has requested a Luke Skywalker cake.  Most of the time I would agree and take on the feat of attempting to fashion a Luke Skywalker cake, but after last year's R2D2 and having a cast on one arm, I figured I better shoot a little lower and convinced him to go with light sabers instead.  If I can squirt icing out of a pastry bag, I can make a light saber!! However, with the uncertainty of what the weather is going to do I am hesitant to make the cupcakes until the last minute.  Thankfully the chocolate will stay good for several days in the refrigerator.  But, the icing will be rock hard after a day and no one wants rock hard icing.  Not only will the weather mess up my cupcake plans, but it is the end of the quarter and so I have a ton of paper work to catch up on.  Thursday is my paperwork day with very little service hours with students and staff.  I even bigger issue I am having with the weather has already occurred though.  Today is a snow day!!  Most of the time I would welcome this surprise, but the county which we live in decided that the kids will now go to school on Monday, a planned teacher workday and be off on Tuesday instead.  Monday in a work from home day for me so I could provide my own child care and even sneak in a day trip later in the day to the Children's Museum.  I originally was going to get my cast off that day and changed the appointment to accommodate my husband's ski plans.  Since I don't have four kids in tow I could go at any time and get my cast off on Monday, but at this point there are no appointments to be had!  Tuesday, I have an all day training and now my kids will be off and I will have to pay someone to watch them while I am at training.  In addition, I planned to ski Tuesday night not that this is a problem necessarily, but it makes things a little more difficult.  But on the bright side, I am hoping that the weather will provide a great evening of skiing!!!  

Post It Note Tuesday: Thems the breaks!!!

 

I can't take full credit for these amazing jokes.  I found them online.  Since, I am not witty enough to think of my own, I got some help ;)

Check out the story below of how it happened.  It is amazing, but probably only to me.  I am most amused by the fact that I walked around like that for a couple of weeks.  Yikes!

How did it happen? The broken wrist story...

In a previous post, I mentioned the story of my broken wrist would be another post.  Well, the time has come...

On December 23, 2010, I decided to take the three older kids ice skating at a local outdoor ice rink.  They had never been skating before.  I had been quite a few times as a teenager, but am by no means "good".  We had invited some friends to go and we were all set to head off.  Our friends told us it was too windy and mom had a belly ache so we ventured out alone.  It was the very first day of our winter break.  Hubby and I are teachers (for new followers).  The session started out great.  The older two kiddos took to it immediately.  Our five year old was a little more cautious so I stuck with him.  I was guarded since I knew I was skiing later in the week and I was only five months out from my ACL reconstruction surgery.  Before I knew it my left leg slid out from under me and all I could think of was my knee.  I broke my fall with my left hand, outstretched behind me.  After I assessed my knee and stood up, that rushing feeling came over me.  I knew I was in trouble.  My wrist was killing me.  I convinced Mutt to take a break so I could sit on the bench for a few minutes and collect myself.  I texted my husband and told him I had fallen, but I wasn't sure if I needed to go to the ER.  He offered to come to the rink and relive me from my ice skating duty so I could go, but I stuck it out.  I skated a little more and then we left.  I went to the ER after we got home.  After all, I had to make a ham two nights later and host Christmas dinner.  This was NOT going to interfere.  And if it was, I wanted to know.  After about six x-rays they told me it was just sprained, offered me some pain killers (which I turned down) and sent me on my merry way.  After all I was merry, it was Christmas.  I was discharged at 8:00, got home, took the kids on a Christmas light tour and by 10:30 I was in the worst pain of my life.  I could not move my arm.  Forget my fingers, they didn't work anymore.  I took some inti-inflammatory painkillers I still had from my knee rehab.  They did nothing!  I was stuck and could not sleep until after 4:00 a.m.  This was not the way I wanted to head into Christmas Eve.

When I woke up the next morning, my arm was a little better.  I did a few things around the house, took a nap with ESPN and prepared for church.  I was the reader/communion assistant.  That was interesting.  When one of the church woman asked me to tilt the challis, I nearly died.  I thought it was one the floor for sure.  I made it through and no wine landed on the floor.  Dinner was McDonalds.  Merry Christmas kids!!!!

After that, each day got a little easier.  I had a lot of help on Christmas, my hubby go the ham in the oven.  Some how I managed a baked brie and green bean casserole.  The kids opened my gifts.  They loved that!  Well, I opened some.  I have to admit.  I didn't want to miss it all!!  We had family come into town after the holiday.  We went ice skating again.  The whole family took a ski trip over New Years and I did it all.  However, I knew something was wrong.  I got in the pool (which was about 90 degrees) and pain radiated up and down my arm.  The hot tub was worse.  I knew I had to tell the surgeon.  Luckily, I had a follow up for my knee on the 3rd of January.


When he walked in the room, he asked "what did you do?"  I had told the nurse.  I was in some much pain.  I had been tubing the day before.  It was inflamed and screaming at me.  He said he wanted to see the x-ray.  He thought it was broken.  Shocked that there was nothing there, he took another of the scaphoid.  When it was negative, more shock.  And he sent me for an MRI.  Fast forward to the day after the MRI.  He called.  This is never good!  He told me my distal radius was broken.  He said since it had been so long, I could just wear a brace on it and then the next things is what landed me in the position I am in now.  He said  "no skiing".  STOP the car (I was headed out at the time).  Hmm... that is not really an option doc.  And so there I was with an appointment two days later. 

After showing me the MRI and the edema inside the bone.  The fracture across the bone, plan as day; he said "well, let's put a cast on it, because if you fall on it, you will likely need surgery."  So that's it.  That's how I ended up like this, with my beautiful blue cast!!!!

Looking at the positives: Top 10 Things About My Cast

1. Looks great with a variety of nail polish colors.  My personal favorite Revlon's Ocean.
2. The dark blue color goes with most of my clothing.
3. I get to make up great stories about how I broke my wrist.  My personal favorite is that it happened while wrestling an alligator.
4. It allowed me to ski last weekend.  It even protected me during a fall.
5. Lots of extra attention.
6. I have been forced to slow down and just relax some.
7. If needed, I could use it to protect myself from an assault.
8. It is finally making my wrist feel better!
9. It keeps my arm warm on these cold winter days!
10. It looks cool!

Happy New Year; Happy Broken Wrist!

I am struggling right now with how to start this blog post.  It has been so long since I have posted anything that I don't even remember how to type and this cast is making it all the more difficult because I can barely type with it.  Excuse the typos ;)  Since the school year began, I have been struggling to get myself together.  And I mean struggling.  I have no idea what it was.  During my work day I have plenty of time to think about things and reflect on life.  Sometimes this isn't always helpful.  I have a lot of anxiety all the time, but sometimes it overwhelms me to the point that it is consuming me and crushing my spirit.  Well, finally last week, after months of built up anxiety and stress something happened.  I broke my wrist.  O.k. that didn't happen last week, but that's another blog post.  But, I did find out that my wrist was broken last week.  And after months of worrying about this, that, and the next thing, I had one thing to focus on for two days.  What was I going to do about my wrist.  I have been walking around like this for a couple of weeks, so my surgeon said to just wear and brace for several weeks and it should be good to go since it happened so long ago.  And then he advised me not to ski.  Well, at this point I told him no way.  His response, "I knew you would say that."  And then the next thing I knew it was out of my hands.  He told me if I was going to ski I needed a cast.  Great, I thought, but honestly, this was possibly the best thing he could have said.  You see there is something about me needing to have total control over every aspect of my life.  Also, I focus so much of my attention on 100 things at once, that my head is spinning most of the time.  But, when the surgeon called, and said my wrist was broken and initially gave me the choice of a brace or a cast, I had to focus on the break and what I was going to do about it.  And then when he took the control out of my hands, it seemed to change my entire outlook.  Maybe putting things into perspective more.  Like what matter to me the most was being about to ski and if that meant risking surgery than that was fine with me.  My point is that for now, I love this cast.  It has made me happy and is helping me focus on the positives.  How, I don't know, but it has.