Around Here: Week 17 2024

 {April 21st-27th}

Warning: 

Before scrolling, be prepared to see an injury.

It's pretty grotesque.

Carly's friend Bracin's reaction to her injury

Reading... A Short Walk Through the Wide World and listening to Moon of the Turning Leaves. They're both really good. 

Letting... the cats help wake up the kids during the week.  It's so cute. They meow and walk all over the kids.  Carly loves it most. 

Attending... the school book fair after work one day with Carly and getting tons of books for my little bookworm.  The spring book fair is my favorite because it's Buy One/Get One free. I also worked the book fair one afternoon after school before Wyatt's game.

Subbing... four days this week, which was really nice. As I approach the end of my student teaching journey and start handing the reins back over to Ms. Betes, I am kind of sad! I love these kids and love being a teacher so much. I am going to miss it!

Sending... the twins to school for SBA (state) testing this week. I hope they do their best!!!

Chatting... with a friend this week about raising teenage boys... and can I just say, it's so so hard? It is a really challenging, heartbreaking, pride-filling, exhausting ride. If you're currently raising 12 to 17 year olds... just know you're not alone. 

Joining... the kindergartners as they visit the greenhouses at our local high school. The flowers were incredible. Especially the Purple Night Sky Petunias. Wow!!! The kids particularly loved the baby goat they got to pet. And they were able to plant some flowers for their mamas. Really a sweet field trip.

Loving... how the skin on Carly's feet reminds me of elephant skin. Elephants always make me think of mothers and daughters. Of matriarchs and aunties. So they're very special to me. 

Feeling... nostalgic for the dollhouse my mom picked up this week. It's an old Little Tykes Playhouse that is exactly the same as the one we had growing up. We had two of the baby, though, and we pretended they were twin boys (named Nicky & Alex, from the twins on Full House), and we also had the van. So many memories of playing with it. I also remember our Scottie dog, Bonnie, sleeping in it when she was a puppy. Now our old cat Molly who lives with my parents sleeps in it. Full circle.

Also feeling... jealous as Hadley snuggles up with Josh in the evenings. He's always sending me pictures of her looking absolutely adorable between his legs or feet on his easy chair as he watches an episode of TV after the kids go to bed. 

Remembering... "SoCaToa" as I helped the boys with geometry this week. Brutal for my old, tired brain. Hah!

Can't... get enough of our adorable girl. Carly got a new pair of sandals- the cutest pastel shimmery pink Birkenstocks from my mom- and a new pink WA hat from Walmart, and she's just the cutest ever. 

Hating... how people are so terrible to teachers. Any public service work (police, EMT's, doctors, etc.) tend to fall under such extreme judgment and criticism, which is tough because I know most people could never do what we do. 

Building... a shelf this week that came in the mail from Amazon for Carly's BabySitter's Club books, and I am so proud of my handiwork!

Attending... the end of the month assembly while I was subbing and getting to see Carly receive an award (which was a surprise for her) and loving her joy at being recognized for her awesomeness. I am so proud of that girl. So, so proud. 

Pretending... to Carly that it was definitely the brothers who didn't put the toilet paper on the toilet paper holder and instead left it sitting on top of the holder, when in fact, it's me doing it. Haha!

Finding... Carly asleep in her bed with her glasses and my booklight next to her.  She's had this lingering cough and it makes sleeping hard. She will sometimes read when she can't sleep. Little cutie. 

Running... to Starbuck's Friday morning before school & work and getting a hot white chocolate mocha with three extra pumps of flavor for me and a cake pop for Carly. It's always a nice treat to do that when I can. 

Suffering... PMS so bad as I've aged past 40.  I am moody, tired, have horrible cramps, am less patient and have awful night sweats during the week before my period.  It doesn't help that the app I use to track my cycle always gives me a warning that it's impending by telling me, "Your period is expected to start in 2 days!" with an exclamation mark. An EXCLAMATION MARK?!? Really??? No thank you. Haha!

Thrilled... that my graduation announcements arrived. They are even cuter than I thought they would be!

Watching... Hook for movie night with Carly.  We rented it for a couple bucks from Amazon Prime.  The boys have all watched it (many times) so it was fun for all of us to watch it with her. Originally, she thought she wouldn't like it, but she ended up loving it. And she enjoyed seeing so many things we quote from the film. ("Peter Pan's my Daddy?!", "Rufi-ooooo!", "You need a mother very, very badly!", "Lookie, lookie, I've got a hookie!", "Good form!", "Have to fly, have to fight, have to crow, have to save Maggie, have to save Jack... Hook is back!", "So Peter, you've become a pirate")

Smelling... lilacs from our lilac tree as I sit on the front porch after school. It makes me happy beyond words to smell those sweet blooms whose fragrance floats on the air as the breeze blows. It's exactly what I dreamed of when we planted that tree years ago when we moved in. 

Driving... to the hospital to meet Josh after he called to let me know that Carly had been accidentally hit with an axe above her eye. I knew it must be bad if Josh was driving her into town to the hospital (his mom lives on 40 acres about twenty, twenty-five minutes away) but I was still taken aback when he removed the towel he had on the injury.  I had to really try and control my facial expression because Carly was looking to me for my reaction.  (I can handle seizures, asthma and internal issues... but I cannot do blood.) Carly was incredibly brave, but I had to laugh when she told the intake nurse in response to his question of what happened flatly, "My brother hit me in the face with an axe." 
What actually happened was that she and Wyatt were using the blunt end of an axe to break open rocks out by grandma's driveway. The rock Wyatt was trying to crack open only broke a little bit, so he lifted the axe to hit it again just as Carly leaned in to look at what was inside the rock. This timing (her leaning forward and him lifting the axe backward) left her bleeding down her face into her eyes and mouth and running into the house to get help. 
Josh cleaned her up and figured out where she was injured and immediately loaded up in the car. His brother drove (Thank you Uncle Samuel!) and Wyatt rode with them. Wyatt was beside himself, feeling terrible about the accident. I was more than happy to hug him and tell him it would be okay before taking Carly into the ER.  

After getting her stitches (for which she was so brave!) Carly heard another little kid down the hall saying, "I don't want to do this! I'm gonna scream!" and then she screamed. She said to her nurse, "It must be hard to work at a hospital!" Haha.  She's so funny. 

We sent pics to Carly's friends' mom and his face when he saw them was so funny.  It really helped distract Carly. 
She ended up with 8 internal stitches and 15 external stitches.  She was incredibly brave and patient, shedding a few, minimal tears, and breathing deeply when it hurt. No yelling, screaming or fighting. I was so proud of her, I ended up telling her I'd buy her the kitchen she's been wanting for her American Girl dolls.  It helped her stay strong even though she was so tired by the time they got to the external stitches. 

In the end, we spent less than three hours in the ER and the physician who did her stitches did amazing work. The stitching literally looked like a machine had done it. I am praying that fine work means she will have minimal scarring. 

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