First time for everything (gory photos alert)

 Tuesday at noon I got a call from the elementary school. James had gotten hurt at recess and I needed to pick him up "right now" because he needed stitches. I turned off the stove, grabbed my keys and wallet and walked out the door.  

When I got to the nurse's office, the secretary was making him an ice pack. His clothes, hands, and neck were all covered in blood but it had stopped bleeding by then. James explained he jumped out of a swing but then the swing hit him in the head. He had a cut on his ear and on his head behind his ear. I could see the one on his ear but didn't dare peek behind at the second wound. We left with the ice pack wrapped in paper towels and an extra roll.

I drove straight to the closest urgent care and went in first to see if they could see him asap. They said yes so I went back to the car and brought James in. We didn't even have to sit down. The receptionist announced a code yellow and we were guided by to a procedure room. A medical assistant got us settled and the NP gave him an initial once over but said we would have to wait for the doctor. Longest ten minutes of James's life so far. The NP gave him a couple of suckers and a Capri Sun so it wasn't all bad. Poor James was so scared and hurt and just wanted to go home. I sat by him and tried to keep his spirits up.

Once the doctor came in, they laid him down and tried to get the hair out of the wound on his head. James was really crying at this point. Once they could get to wound clearly the doctor gave him shots of lidocaine and that hurt too! Poor kid. Then the stitching began. James winced with every single stitch and cried out in pain. I asked for the doctor to give him more lidocaine and he did but James didn't flinch or feel the lidocaine needle. So it's still unclear to me if he was feeling pain or just really hated whatever he could feel with the stitches. It took about 20 minutes for him to do the 12 stitches (3 on his head, 9 on his ear) and by the end I was holding James's head in both of my hands to keep him still. My heart was just breaking.

Then the assistant cleaned him up as best she could, put on bandaids, and we headed home.

We sent a photo to Justin as proof he was home and okay.

While he was in the bathtub I put everything he was wearing into the washer and about lost it. So much blood.

He spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch. He said he felt well enough to go to his piano lesson later and went to school the next day. 

Here are some photos of the progression of healing. We had to take photos to show him what it looked like. He gets the stitches out in a week.

Changing the bandages that night. It's hard to see but he has a big goose egg too.

 

Wednesday

Today

First time for stitches for any of my kids. I hate these reminders how fragile by babies really are.

March comes in with a bang

"Let's go for a drive," suggested Justin one snowy Saturday night. "Ugh okay." We drove around on the slick roads, he and I. We tried doing doughnuts in the church parking lot then on the way back home we drove into a hole. Wham! Boom! What was that?! Construction crews created a four foot deep hole in the road that was covered with a metal plate. The snow plow that went by a minute before displaced the plate and we were the lucky ones that found that out. Mapleton notoriously lacks in street lights but there were no warning signs of a plate or hole either. I honestly don't know how two tires went in and then up and out of that hole. We turned around and parked right there to prevent anyone else from "finding" the hole and we called dispatch. The plow came back and saw us sitting there and got another guy with a front loader (Justin is going to be so mad I don't know the real word for the equipment) to slide the metal plate back. I don't know if the cops ever came. 

This is the angle we drove through it from. The truck has a nice crack the full width of the windshield and a popped tire.

Sarah's orchestra class got to perform at U of U in this beautiful concert hall. I got to watch it live streamed and took these screenshots.

She had so much fun and they played so well. Afterwards they all went to a pizza restuaruant in SLC and I speak with total confidence that that was the best part.

Justin told the kids they could never guess how "ornery" was spelled. These were their guesses.

I talked Justin into taking me to this breakfast place in Orem that I have wanted to go forever: Tru Religion Pancake and Steakhouse. He worked from home last Friday so I put us on the online waiting list and made him go when we got up in queue. I got a biscuit sandwich and a cinnamon roll and those are his pancakes that I'm trying. I'm not that much of a pig. It was pretty good and I want to go back to try more things. I don't eat breakfast foods very often even though I do love them.

Erica and her friend had a sudden interest in playing flag football, one on one. I thought it had to do with impressing boys at school but I later learned they are playing a Harry Potter themed dueling game they learned at school.

I don't want you to be caught off guard next time you come to my house so I am sharing this photo of Sarah's newly hung elk mount. I don't know how I feel about it. Scratch that, I know exactly how I feel about. Way too big, way too dead. Despite wanting to be the dictator of decor in my home Justin will not give me that title so here we are. She's taking it with her as soon as she moves out.

Saturday we put the trampoline back up and life has been so much better ever since. Sunday afternoons are usually full of fights borne of boredom but last Sunday was so quiet I think I fell asleep for a few minutes. The kiddos decided they also needed a tent outside, the weather was so nice.

This was after I kiboshed the plans of putting on their swimming suits and turning on the sprinklers.

For the first time ever we celebrated honored acknowledged pi day by having Moravian chicken pie for dinner and lime pie for dessert. I decided making yummy food is my kind of holiday.

We are having a windy day which isn't that unusual but the swirling snow on the mountain sure is. I got distracted multiple times while cleaning the house. Brr it looks cold up there.

What you're seeing below is the end of the credits of the 1992 Ron Howard/Tom Cruise film "Far and Away" which was my folding laundry show this week. What in the world is "Fungi the Dingle Dolphin"??

Thanks to google I now know it's an actual dolphin and Dingle is a city in Ireland.

"Fungie first showed up in Dingle in 1983 and quickly became a hit amongst locals and tourists alike due to his uncommonly friendly nature. 

The common bottlenose dolphin actively sought out human company and regularly swam close to tourist boats in Dingle Harbor, while local boat tours even offered money-back guarantees if Fungie didn't show up. 

Fungie also regularly accompanied local fishermen as they sailed out to sea from Dingle Harbor.

Question remains, why was it thanked in the movie credits? If I ever meet Ron Howard...