Well, this past week held a rather eventful…event. On Tuesday, Joseph was out practicing on his friend’s skateboard and fell. He came in saying his arm hurt. When he pointed to the center of his arm, Paul scrounged up his old splint from the Army, fashioned a sling to hold Joseph’s arm in place, and took him to the Urgent Care down the road from us. They did an x-ray, found a fracture, and put a hard splint on it. A few days later he was able to get a full cast for it. He’ll go back in a couple of weeks to have it checked out again. The other eventful event is Easter! We woke up, the kids checked out their baskets, and then we went to church. After getting home, I made rolls and then the kids dyed eggs. We finished up with a simple dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, and broccoli with strawberry pie for dessert. Now to buckle down and get ready to start another week of work, school, and everything in between!
Waiting on x-rays.Splinted and slinged up.We sprung for the waterproof cast…it was more expensive, but he can shower with it.I bought some milk at the store that came in this fun glass bottle. The company changes up their designs every once in a while. I have one that has the Alamo on it, but this bluebonnet one is so pretty. I wanted to use it as part of a display, but couldn’t find any fake flowers that seemed to fit (I’m kind of picky about my fake foliage). Then I stumbled upon these burlap roses. They’re perfect!Instead of getting something that was fake but trying to look real, I opted for something that was just…fake. They aren’t trying to look real, though, and I think that was what worked for me. Plus, they go with my decor perfectly!Easter dessert! I love how quickly this pie comes together (especially when I use a pre-made pie crust and use frozen strawberries to make the filling).Checking out their treats.He was happy to get his own board, even if he can’t use it for a bit. We also got him elbow and knee pads as well as wrist guards. We bought the board before he broke his arm, but added the other things after.She was happy to get this. It’s a mouse that you can program to go in paths to find its cheese.Trying out the mouse……and trying to figure out a way to still use that board.Paul surprised me with the Corelle set that I had on my wish list. It was fun to use them for Easter dinner.
This past week was a bit of an adjustment for some of us. It was a bit hard getting up early again. It was a pretty good week, though. Paul and I even squeezed in a date night with friends to go see the comedian, Jim Gaffigan. It was a pretty funny show with bits about getting older, dealing with technology, and the joys and pitfalls of parenting. Abigail had a crazy dream early one morning about a gang of rattlesnakes that attacked her (they were talking rattlesnakes with poisonous horns). She woke up right before they actually got her. Since this happened right before I got into the shower, I told her to go ahead and get dressed and head downstairs to watch some PBS. By doing that, she was already ready when I was and we left the house for school totally chill for the first time in forever. This prompted me to try again the next day, waking her earlier and letting her have a more relaxed morning rather than letting her sleep until the last minute and then we’re both stressed, trying to leave the house on time. It worked! It’s been nice not feeling that stress in the mornings. Now we just have to make it through a short week (we have Friday off for Good Friday) and then it’ll be Easter weekend!
A while back, Joseph’s science teacher told his class that the scientific term for spring was “vernal” and that she thought it was a weird word. Well, Joseph and some friends decided to start using it more often as a way to joke with her. This turned into forming the “Vernal Club” and making up a dance and everything. His teacher was such a good sport about it all. She told them she would make them shirts for the Vernal Equinox. He told me, but I thought she was joking. Nope. She made them shirts. I laughed for about 30 seconds when I read what they said. The phrase, “Live, Laugh, Love” has been poked fun at tons of times, but this has to be the best. I love awesome teachers that care for the kids they teach!And then there’s this: the Converse…the Nintendo shirt…and he had just come in from skateboarding…is it really 2024? It feels kinda like 1984. 🙂
So…it’s been a couple weeks since I last posted something. Usually I’m pretty good about posting every week, but I hadn’t been taking many pictures leading up to spring break. I was busy with report cards, we were passing some sort of respiratory illness around (first it was Abigail, then it was Joseph, then me, and then finally Paul), and life was just…crazy. It did slow down a bit this past week due to spring break (thank goodness). Paul was working for part of it. He did take one day off so we could take the kids to Six Flags (we decided to get passes for Six Flags rather than renew our passes to the zoo) but then he was sick at the tail-end. Both kids were pretty mild (they mainly had fevers and congestion) when they were sick, but mine (right at the beginning of spring break) was more like severe congestion (but no fever) for about 3-4 days. Paul went full-blown sinus infection, poor guy. He recognized what it was, went to urgent care, and they gave him a steroid shot and some antibiotics (hooray for doctors that trust that we know our symptoms of these repeat illnesses we get). He started feeling quite a bit better, which is great!
The hawk is back! Paul joked that it was sitting there waiting for a rat to appear (have at it, my dude).I put up St. Patrick’s Day decorations, though now it’s time to pull out the Easter stuff!!Abigail loved getting to be in the book character parade for Read Across America Week. Since my class is out in the portables, we opted to stay outside and cheer for the participants as they went from one wing to another.My students recognized her and cheered really loudly when she walked by. She loved it!Fresh bang trim!!I love when the old leaves fall off as the new ones are growing in. I think “new leaf” green might be my favorite.I also got a trim…and love my new teacher t-shirt. My students get a kick out of it, too.Since I was all sniffly at the beginning of spring break, I took advantage and read my next book club book. It was so nice to just sit and read. 🙂Spring break vibes: Joseph practicing skateboarding (using a borrowed board) and Abigail bubbling.She also pulled out the sidewalk chalk.I did take them to the zoo one day since our passes were still good for a bit longer. They’re doing a lot of construction, so there were a lot of places blocked off. Both kids were also a bit underwhelmed. Abigail liked seeing the animals (it was fun to see the Jaguar on top of his temple), but after one trip around our normal haunts, they were done. Joseph aged out of interest a while ago, but this was the first trip where I felt Abigail had, too.This was one of the first time we’d actually seen the capybaras.She had a hard time spotting the lions at first……so I zoomed in for a picture and then showed her. The marvels of digital photography!I was totally getting rhino vibes that day. It was crowded and starting to get a bit warm at this point.She did have to get onto the lion statue one more time.This…is the first picture I took at Six Flags. We decided to get passes because a) both kids love amusement park rides, b) it’s a lot closer to us than the zoo, and c) it seemed like a natural transition now that the kids are getting older.She loved this teacup ride (I loved that she did it solo…I don’t handle spinny rides very well).She also loved this dragon.On the carousel.Paul took Joseph and I took Abigail. Joseph loves that there are bigger rides here.After lunch, we swapped kids. Paul took Abigail to get a souvenir (it’s Krypto the dog from Superman…Six Flags is Looney Tunes and DC superhero themed).On the Green Lantern planes.On the Looney Tunes bus.In front of the Six Flags sign.He convinced me to go on a couple of big rides with him. It was so fun!Abigail had an egg hunt for Primary Activities. She loved it!I loved the sunset as we were getting ready to go home. 🙂We’ve got lots of potatoes……and some tomatoes……and some more potatoes……and an actual tomato!I made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot for St. Patrick’s Day today. 3 out of 4 Darrs liked it (big guess on who didn’t, ha).I thought it was cool that it actually looked like the picture on the recipe, ha.I also made soda bread. We decided that next time, it would be even better with some jam instead of just butter.