Summer Plans

have been hereby changed. Of course, being us, it's because something new happened. Something that is NOT good. Aren't we lucky to have such interesting lives? Here's the plan change cause:I have seriously sprained my left thumb. As in, this would heal faster if you'd broken it. As in you'll probably be immobilized for 12 weeks. As in, you have to see the hand surgeon because surgery is a distinct possibility, and we don't want you to lose mobility and use of your thumb.
I can't go cycling because I can't grasp with my left hand. I can't really garden for the same reason. I can type, though. I can probably knit, although I still hurt a lot, so I haven't tried. Right now I'm taking ibuprofen, but at night I'm taking tylenol with codeine. Yes, it's that bad.

I did this yesterday morning. Wednesday started out kind of strange anyway. I woke up to thunder. As The Collar and I ate breakfast (the boys were already at school), the power went out, and was out for about an hour. During the hour the power was out, The Wiz had an accident at school so I had to run him new clothes. No power at school = dark bathrooms = scared The Wiz. I get to the school, he changes, I head to the grocery store for the soup ingredients, GameBoy's lunch supplies, and ice cream (most important). Any way, I get home, and start carting up the groceries from the garage. I start walking up the stairs, step on a dog toy, and down I go. The thumb was hyperextended, and it HURT. A lot. It hurt so much I started crying. There were no words. None at all.

I decided I jammed it. I picked myself up, picked up the groceries, and carried them upstairs. Then I brought up the second load of groceries. I put the perishables away, and realized that I still hurt. More, in fact, than at the time of injury. So I called The Collar, and told him what I'd done. However, I didn't decide to go to the ER or UTC (urgent treatment center--cheaper and faster) at that point. No, I decided to check my e-mail. I made an ice pack, and rested my thumb/hand on it and tried to read the email. I couldn't concentrate on it. My left thumb area was now twice the size of my right, and it hurt even more. I decided that I should go to the UTC (I despise going to the ER), and get it X-rayed. I even took the splint from my last thumb injury.

The first thing the UTC doctor said to me was that no one needed any training to see that there was something pretty seriously wrong in my case. Just what I wanted to hear. Then he asked me to make a circle with my thumb and forefinger--nothing doing. Then I had X-rays, and tried to read (which I couldn't). The x-rays came back with nothing broken, but instead he thought that I may have torn the ulna-collateral ligament (UCL), which is BAD. Worse than a broken thumb or hand. So here's a script for tylenol with codeine, put on your splint and don't take it off, and here's an appointment with the hand surgeon. That will be on Tuesday, so I'll let you know what he says. Maybe things will be better. Maybe it's not so bad?

The not-so funny about this: Monday the dermatologist released me from his care. Two weeks ago the ENT did. Both said, "Stay away from doctors for awhile!"

So, I won't be gardening much this summer. Or cycling. Or doing much that requires two hands.

Maybe the neither of the boys will break anything now? I really hope not...

Surprises!

I've had a few surprises the last couple of days. First, when soccer starts in March, you don't expect to go to a game and come home with striped feet. It was at least 80 F out there. (Today, it was a record: it reached 82.) GameBoy's team defeated this team too--8-0. Second, when you have a dermatologist's appointment the next day, you don't expect him to be nonchalant about said sunburn. Basically, he said that I'm so fair, I'm going to burn. I'm currently skin cancer free, but most likely I'll have a recurrence or two (or ten). Growing up in Kansas was not good for my skin.

Another surprise is how straight A's are celebrated at GameBoy's and The Wiz's school. GameBoy was able to have the straight A's lunch (complete with medium frosty) and they gave each kid a bag of loot: a miniature light saber, a baton, a cup, and other things that I can't remember at the moment.

And finally, I received a surprise from my SP. I think that she's from the West Coast, but I am not convinced that I know where. She sent me a great package, too. Of course, there was yarn:

The Wiz saw the box, and decided that this yarn is for him. He likes the colors. If there's enough left over, I might make him a pair from the left overs.

She also sent me wonderful gardening gloves (goatskin, which make the best gloves for gardening in my experience) and flower seeds (hollyhocks, columbine, and Canterbury bells). Maybe we'll be able to plant flowers this weekend.

And finally, a really great t-shirt. Do you think it's me?

Soccer!

Today was day of the first games. Both boys played: GameBoy at 9:30 am and The Wiz at 11:00. It was WARM. As in I wore shorts and a t-shirt and was comfortable at the early game.
GameBoy's game went well. For the first 15 minutes, I thought the two teams were evenly matched--but then the Tigers took off. GameBoy and his team won in a shut out. He's quite pleased.

The Wiz and I had our first game this season later. The players have gotten much better. They actually scored 6 goals! Much better than last season. : ) Yes, we did lose. The Wiz got his first goal, EVER. He is extremely proud of himself. We still need to work on The Wiz crying when the other team scores, and not continuing to play when he falls down. He tends to get up and wander back over to the side lines. He's not hurt, but he feels like he should be.

Well, I need to find us some lunch. I am hungry, even if the boys are not.

Signs of Spring

Free toes! Grass too.

Forsythia blooming

The pear tree will be in full flower by next week.

Today's bike ride.

And so it begins...

Tonight when the boys and I came home from choir rehearsals, The Collar handed GameBoy the phone. A classmate had called him. A girl classmate. He talked to her about 5 minutes or so, and then told us about her.

She had asked him for his phone number, and he said no, he couldn't give it to her. So she called his best friend, who gave it up. It must be that she like likes him. GameBoy was pretty happy about this.Maybe now he'll start taking showers without being forced again! Or maybe not.

Back to school

My spring break is over. :(

Due to last week's clean up event, I have decided that the boys in this blog need nicknames. The initials are so boring!

L is, of course, The Wiz. Eventually, we'll all forget why. Maybe.

M is GameBoy. Not because he plays his game boy constantly, but because he loves to play games of all kinds--Scrabble, Might and Magic, Pokemon, dominoes, etc. and ad infinitum.

B is The Collar. I don't think that needs any explanation.

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Anyhoo, I am back in school. We have all of 5 weeks of classes left after this week. Yesterday, only 8 people showed up to my 35 student class. Grrr. The ones that came were treated to the easiest pop quiz of all time, for extra credit. I had much better attendance at lab this morning, but how on earth do they expect to do well if they skip out after an hour?

GameBoy has a lot of good news. He came in 4th place at the Regional Governor's Cup for Science, tying with a fifth grader from our church. He also earned straight A's on his 3rd quarter report card. Soccer has started, and he's a happy camper.

The Wiz won't be happy because today is SCIG day. We haven't seen his report card yet.

Knitting has been happening. I have finished the front of GameBoy's sweater, and cast on both sleeves. The Collar's sweater back is now about 9" so only another 7.75" and it will be time for the arm holes. Yes! I made a bag from knitted gifts (no picture) and haven't worked on my socks or my shawl.

Running is going extremely well. Today I ran for 32 minutes and managed 2.7 miles. I am improving very quickly. Hopefully I'll be able to get on the bike soon, but the rain will need to stop.

That's the news. It's just boring and quiet around here right now.

Yes

it's definitely cycling season.

After a lovely hour-long ride (15.0 mph, 15.27 miles), I made it to our driveway, unclicked my right foot from the pedal, and tried put down my left foot. Oops.
The damage is pretty minimal--bruises on my elbows, bruises on my ribs, a deep bruisee on the palm of my left hand, and the lovely mess you see on my calf. Maybe this is the injury for the year.

Just Call Him the Wiz

Warning--gross post ahead. I've decided to save this for posterity so I can remind him later on how much FUN he was.

L, as many of you know, marches to the beat of his own guitar. (Drums are definitely too mainstream for this kid!) As parents, B and I walk a fine line between telling him certain behaviors are unacceptable, and trying NOT to put ideas in his little head. Generally, if we tell him not to do something, he won't do it, but he will find a loop hole somewhere. The letter of the law is what he's after, and most definitely not the spirit of the law.

Apparently, L decided sometime last week that the bathroom was too far from his bedroom, yet again. (He has been known to use cups, piles of dirty laundry, etc., and each time is told that it is wrong, and he has to use the toilet. It stops.) The bathroom is all of 20 feet from his bedroom. Apparently, he decided that instead of leaving his room, he'd just pee off of the end of his bed, onto the wall. This of course soaked the carpet, was on the wall, the window, and part of the bed. Lovely.

However, neither B nor I could figure out where this smell was coming from. At first, it was just a slight unpleasant smell, and we thought that Maisie had snuck one of her moles into his room for later. Then it became worse, and was obviously a urine smell. We thought maybe it was Murfy going into decline again or maybe Maisie because she's pretty stressed out due to the doughnut spare dog. We still couldn't find the source. It continued to get worse. L disclaimed all knowledge.

Finally, Sunday night I asked yet again. He denied knowing anything about it, but gave me his signal that he was lying. I told him if he didn't tell the truth right now, he was going to be grounded. So, he 'fessed up.

I have used Simple Green, pet enzyme cleaners, and vinegar on his carpet at this point. It's much better, but I need to work on it a bit more today. His room smells like coleslaw.

What is he going to come up with next?

Bicycle Weather

It has finally warmed up to the point where cycling is really enjoyable outside. It has reached 70 degrees, so it's comfortable wearing my shorts and jersey. It's not so hot that I reach home soaked to the skin, which is a bonus.

I finally was able to use the new pedals outside. I didn't have the problems I anticipated, which was really nice. They did help me go faster...last summer I was averaging between 15-16 mph, but today (the first real ride of the season) I went 15.3 mph. I wonder how I'll be doing by fall?

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The stats for today's ride: 13.13 miles (Union City route) in 51 minutes, 38 seconds (I slowed down at the end) thus averaging 15.3 mph.

Running and Knitting and Other Things

Yesterday, I ran again. I can only run on a treadmill, but at least I can run there! I ran 20 minutes, walked 10, ran 10, and cooled down for 5. I am trying to get back up to being able to run 40 minutes at a time. I think that I'll be able to do that at least.

I was going to ride my bicycle today, but L threw up last night, so he's home sick. Although he is acting like he feels just fine now. It's really too bad, because the weather is warm and lovely today.

I have been knitting a few things. However, I am going to have to rip the socks I was knitting for myself, because I dropped a stitch and can't figure out how to fix it. So I have been working on other things for awhile.

First, I am making very slow progress on B's sweater. Here's a picture of the back.It doesn't look much different, but the back is about twice as long as it was. It is a nice color, though.

Here is M's sweater back. He outgrew and lost his old hoodie sweater, so I am knitting him a new one. This one is a cotton/acrylic blend, so it should be pretty comfortable for him. I am nearly finished with the back, so I am making pretty good progress. I started it last week, I believe.
I am also working on the Domovoi Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. I am knitting it in laceweight on size 8 needles rather than DK weight. I have completed 2 repeats, so I am making progress. I am using lifelines, every repeat, because I am paranoid about making mistakes. It's not all that impressive yet, though.
Lace never is, until you can block it.

Knottygnome received her socks. To really appreciate them, you need to see them when she's wearing them. The pattern really pops when they are being worn.

Amusing Herself

Apparently, border collie mixes get bored with doing things the "normal" way.

Maisie has taught herself a new trick: blowing bubbles. She sticks her nose in the water bowl, and blows out. So, now we have a bell-ringing, nose bubble blowing dog.

Just the perfect dog for little boys.

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In other news, L's IG hasn't arrived yet. I wonder if we are going to have to put it off for a day. He's also getting a new pump, as the alarm continually goes off during the infusion. The new one supposedly is stronger and smaller so we shall see how that works.

I mailed off knottygnome's socks. I hope that they fit her!

One of my students came by and showed me pictures of her baby that she had two weeks ago. It was nice to see pictures of a new baby with tons of hair. I am also always amazed at how chubby and done full term babies are.

I have one lecture and one lab and then it's officially Spring Break for me. About time, too! This week has been a lot of grading and setting up of lab practicals. The students hate lab practicals, BUT I HATE THEM MORE!

M's going to Regionals for Governor's Cup. Dinner has apparently become M's science tutoring time until then. We've started teaching him science vocabulary. If you know what a word means, you have a better chance of getting the question correct! He's really very excited about all of this.

B's busy, busy, just like always. We are hoping for a free Saturday. Maybe in July.

-----Edited to add:
The IG and the pump came today. Look at the size difference between the two. It has to be better than the old one, right? It's a lot lighter, too. Maybe it will bother L less. Maybe?

Brain Food

M has district Governor's cup competitions today. He's taking exams for science and math (he is definitely ours) and is on the quick recall team. (So far this year, he has been in every single match, for the whole time.)

Because we are a celebratory type of family, we had dinner at his request: meatloaf. He, however, doesn't eat brain shaped meatloaf, so we had thinking cap meatloaf.
Good luck today, M! We're rooting for you!

UPDATED:
M's quick recall team did not do so well. However, the students from his school were represented in every individual assessment category but one. M (a fourth grader competing among fourth and fifth graders) came in 5th place for the science assessment. He was the only fourth grader from his school to place.

Finished!

I have finished the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady. They are from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. I knit them on size 1 needles using Lang JaWoll in blue. They still need to be washed and blocked, but hopefully they will fit knottygnome!

At least one thing worked out today.

Secretly Amused

I found this in L's backpack today. I can't help it, but I find it very funny. He's in kindergarten, and he's already writing sentences in classes. M's only written sentences once, and that was when his entire class was in trouble.
L is definitely not his brother.

No, I did not laugh out loud when I saw this. I asked him what he didn't do in class and he said, "I got moved up to yellow." Why he was moved up to yellow, he doesn't know. He's just happy he wasn't moved to red!