O's broken arm and other stuff

This is for you, Judy...

I haven't posted in a while mostly because I've been tired. A quick facebook post is about all I can muster up most days.

Work is good, but it has been challenging lately as we have a lot of projects all going on at the same time. All of them require a good deal of focused attention from me, and I am still struggling with the technological learning curve. So I come home exhausted in time for a late dinner, but the girls to bed, read a bit, maybe watch some TV and relax a bit, and then start it all over again the next day.

Don't get me wrong... I am really grateful for the work opportunity (and how it is providing for my family). This is just one of the trade-offs in switching to the stability of a corporate gig. I miss the flexibility I once had - it is hard to find time to run, and I haven't surfed in over a month. But I am willing to make this sacrifice for our family.

Although I am tired tonight, my sister bugged me to do some writing, so there have been some things that have gone on in our lives the past few weeks that I'll share with you.

First, two weeks ago, O fell and broke her arm. That was quite an ordeal! We were having a picnic lunch after church with some friends and the girls went down to the playground to have some fun after lunch. O really enjoys the zip line, so she asked me to come down and help her out. So I gave her a slight push and she slid down the line. But instead of holding on and sliding back to me like she normally does, she had trouble holding on and she fell on her wrist. She was screaming so much that we wondered if it was something serious. To be honest, when she gets hurt, it is a pretty major production and attention grabbing opportunity for her, so we never know how serious it actually is. But as she kept crying, we decided to take her to urgent care to get it checked out.

Jenetta took L home for a nap and I took O in the car to urgent care. What made it really clear to me that she was in real pain was that she fell asleep in the car for the 10 minute drive, and when I tried to wake her up in the parking lot, just unbuckling her seat belt made her wake up and start screaming again. It's hard to watch your kid hurting...

Then we went through the ridiculous process of finding out where we can take the girls in an emergency. I took her to the same urgent care that I went to a few years back when I ran my thumb into the table saw blade. We tried to fill out the paperwork, but they told me they did not admit children on our insurance plan. So then I took her to a children's urgent care about another 10 minutes away. This one was packed! There were so many people in there with sick babies that there was no place to sit. I found a place on the floor and held O on my lap as I started filling out more paperwork. Although it was frustrating at the time, I am really grateful for the nurses who told me that if I thought my daughter would need an x-ray, we should take her to Children's hospital because they didn't even have an x-ray machine there and we were 28th in line.

So I went home to be with L and Jenetta came and got O and took her to Rady Children's hospital down in the city, where thankfully, there was only one other family waiting there. They came back much sooner than we expected with O's arm in a sling and confirmation that she had broken her arm and would get it cast the next day. Her cast color matches her school uniform: :)


Later that night, I went with some friends to see Guster in concert. I just love live music. I wish it fit in our budget to go to shows a lot more. This time, I tried out the balcony seating. After the crazy day we had, it was good to just sit and enjoy a show, although you do miss out on some of the energy of the crowd when you watch from above at HOB. Still, it was a great show! Here is one of the videos that I shot.



Because Jenetta's business did really well over the Holidays and because I have been able to work some overtime, it has been a real blessing to save some extra money when we could. I put enough away to be able to get Jenetta a new computer. Since she is on it every day for work, and her old one is so ridiculously slow, it was great to get her a super-fast new one (and to pay cash for it!) So last weekend, we spent a lot of our time cleaning up the office, removing the old computer and setting up the new one.

This latest weekend proved to be very challenging because of behavior. Both of our girls are really struggling with lying right now, and it is very tough to deal with that over and over again. Because they are little, it is completely obvious that they are lying, and they don't do a very good job of covering up their transgressions. But this has led to a lot of punishment, and O is taking new tactics this time that while ridiculous, are wearing us down and have us very concerned for her again.

We seem to go through phases where things get really bad, and we have to take away privileges and make them lead a very boring existence. They seem to get the message and behaviors change, and so gradually, we are able to give them freedoms and privileges back (things like TV or playing with friends, etc.) Then a few months later, things get crazy again, and we have to ratchet up the strict discipline again. It is sad not to be able to trust your kids. Well, to qualify that, it is sad to always trust that one of your children is going to make the wrong choice as soon as she is out of sight.

Anyway, we are in one of those bad phases again, and O seems to be able to think more clearly and express her dislike for her situation. She said something this afternoon that really is key regarding her thought process. When I explained that when you take things you are not supposed to and leave evidence behind, it is pretty obvious what choices you are making - mommy isn't dumb, after all... to which O replied " of course she is!" She has been saying things like she wants to go live with someone else or that we should just leave her behind somewhere or just say how angry she is with us and that it doesn't matter that she broke the rules - it is all on us for enforcing them.

With prayer and persistence, we will get through this rough patch. But it certainly is exhausting. (Although no where near as bad as it was two years ago, for that we are very thankful!)

Finally I will conclude with the thought that although I enjoyed the mini-break this afternoon to watch the Super Bowl with friends, I don't really care for The Black Eyed Peas. Non-stop Auto-Tune? Really???

This is your cranky old man, signing off. Until next time, stay off my lawn!