The Break

One Wednesday, not too long ago, I was telling Dustin how super excited I was because the next day I had nothing scheduled for Luke's preschool time.  No grocery shopping to be done.  No dry cleaning or project supplies to pick up.  No classroom volunteering or Art Masterpiece supply stuffing.  No visiting teaching or doctor's appointments.  No kids to watch or library books to return.  The house was even clean and I was all caught up on laundry.  I was seriously giddy at the thought of having absolutely nothing to do.

Dustin was equally excited and told me not to do anything.  So I made big plans to take nap.  Not one of those 10 minute power naps to get you through the day, but one of those "I woke up at 4 am and I am already ready for the day to be over" kind of naps. 

About 5 minutes after laying down, my cell phone starts to ring.  I silently yell at myself for forgetting to turn the sound off, ignore the call and tried to fall back asleep.  Then the little voicemail notification dings at me.  If I weren't so tired I would get up and turn it to silent but I'm just.so.tired.  Next my home phone starts ringing.  I realize someone is pretty serious about getting in touch with me.

I get up and check the caller ID.  And then I realized it was the nurse's office.  The worst number to ever appear on any mother's caller ID.  The voicemail sounds something like this, "Hiiiiii, this is Linda from the Nurse's office at school.  I've got Ellie in here.  She hurt her wrist in PE and we've iced it and she says it still hurts pretty bad, so you might want to come down and check it out."

I'm pretty mad at this point, and groggy from just having fallen asleep.  I'm just sure Ellie is faking an injury to get out of school.  But since I don't want to get turned into CPS I hussle on down to school, march into the Nurse's office and then I see the arm.  It's black and blue and swollen and it does.not.look.good.  If I had left the voicemail message it would have sounded something like this, "OHMYGOSHPLEASEDONOTSUETHESCHOOL!  I'm not even going to pretend like I can fix this arm."  But I guess that's why I never wanted to be a nurse.  I'm not so great at staying calm when broken bones or bodily fluids are involved. 

Off we go to Urgent Care.  Ellie was such a trooper.  Despite having a broken arm, she is smiling and trying to laugh even though she wanted to cry.  I am always amazed at how brave and tough she can be.  And to top off what an amazingly perfect kid she is, we managed to be out of the Urgent Care and get her an Orange Julius picked up before I even had to pick Luke up from preschool. 

We spent the rest of the day making strawberry jam and watching The Odd Life of Timothy Green (I loved that movie, why did no one force me to see that sooner??).  Plus the crying.  When we finally got home it all came out.  "I'm going to have  cast for my birthday!"  "How will I take AIMS?" (This is actually a little more difficult than I thought, but thankfully the school has been great on checking into accommodations) "I can't shower!!!!!!"  I assured her that she would make it through and the sun would indeed shine after the storm. And then I did her homework for a week since it just so happened to be her right arm.

On top of that -- my visiting teacher brought over a gift for her.  Our neighbors brought treats.  Friends brought ice cream and her Primary teacher called.  It was so sweet to see everyone shower her with love.  Only 3 more weeks in the cast.  We can't wait!!