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This past week
was eventful so let’s get straight to the recap!
Monday, October 12 (Day 213 of
Quarantine)
Monday, after I
dropped the kids at school, I went straight to Publix to load up on
groceries. I shop bi-weekly, and I had
skipped an extra week since we were on vacation, so we were desperately in need
of lots of stuff.
The rest of the
day was spent in my office on my computer catching up on all things blogging –
editing pictures, writing and formatting posts, and getting caught up on
emails. I was well ahead of the game
before we left for vacation, but by the time we got back, I was pretty much
behind again. Funny how that happens!
We had nothing
to do that evening, so I cooked dinner and the kids put on a “dance show” for
Brian and me after dinner, which basically meant that they had a dance party.
Tuesday, October 13 (Day 214 of
Quarantine)
Tuesday
morning, I had my annual checkup with my midwife, and everything checked out
well. She put in my order for my annual
mammogram so I’ll be getting that done soon, too. Here’s your reminder ladies – get your
mammograms!!
My appointments
with her are usually verrrry long. She’s
everyone’s favorite in town, so she stays fully booked, and I’m usually there
for at least 2-3 hours, mostly waiting.
Somehow, I was in and out in one hour this time, and nearly 30 of those
minutes she spent with me! I’m thinking
they must not be booking as many appointments right now because of Covid, maybe
to keep the waiting rooms at a lower capacity, but whatever the reason, I was
really happy about it!
After my
appointment, I headed to Fresh Market to grab our chicken for the next few
weeks. They have chicken deeply discounted
every Tuesday so it’s worth the trip even though I don’t buy much else
there. I did snag some super cute
Halloween treats to give to the kids on Halloween night, though. ;o)
The rest of the
day was spent in my office on Amazon, perusing Amazon Prime deals since it was the first of
two Amazon Prime Days. The last few
years, I’ve purchased lots of Christmas gifts on Amazon Prime Day, and this
year was no exception. You can really
find some fantastic stuff, and based on what I’ve seen these last few years,
the Amazon Prime Day deals are every bit as good (or better) than Black Friday
and Cyber Monday deals.
Tuesday
evening, Jacob had a baseball game against (probably) the best team in his
league. They whooped us the first two
times we played them earlier this season, but Tuesday evening, we kept it
close, ultimately losing 15-13. The
worst part about the loss was that we were actually winning for most of the
game, by six runs at one point, but we had a couple of bad innings with no runs
scored and we let them overtake us.
Booooo.
Jacob did
really well, though… he was consistent as always with three singles and one run
scored, and he threw two kids out at first.
He batted a fourth time and hit a hard line drive, but the shortstop
caught it. Waaaahhhh. It was a great game, though.
Wednesday, October 14 (Day 215 of
Quarantine)
Wednesday morning,
after slacking off for a couple of weeks, I got in a 2.5 mile run and I ended
up having my best time since I started running again a few months ago.
The rest of the
day was spent seeking out Amazon Prime Day deals while also squeezing in some
work, and then I got in the car line a little earlier than usual to get Olivia
to ballet in time. I don’t know if I’ve
mentioned it here on the blog, but this year she is taking ballet, tap, and
jazz, so her class is a little longer.
Now that we’re
not allowed to go into dance class with her, and because B is working from
home, I’ve started running Jacob all the way back home before her class so he
doesn’t have to sit in the car for an hour and a half. That way, he can have his snack and do his
homework, and I have some peace and quiet in the car to read or catch up on
emails. It’s a pretty long haul getting
back home and then getting back to ballet in time, but right now that’s what
makes the most sense, even though it does require extra driving.
The rest of the
evening was spent at home doing the usual things because we didn’t have
anything else going on. We did Facetime with my brother for my niece's birthday, though. The kids spent the majority of the time making silly faces to make Tucker and Chyler laugh. Haha.
Thursday, October 15 (Day 216 of
Quarantine)
Thursday, I intended to work out, but since it was the only morning I was
going to have completely free all week, I skipped it, and spent all day working
in my office instead. I watched Notting
Hill Thursday afternoon while I worked, and my gosh, I love that
movie. I have been having an absolute
blast watching all of the old 90’s romcoms these last few weeks… they are just
so comforting.
Thursday evening, Jacob had another baseball game, and all of the
grandparents plus my uncle came to cheer him on, so I had to snap a
picture. We all spread our chairs far
apart, and a few opted to wear masks, so we were able to spend some time
together while being safe.
Jacob’s team lost 17-10 because our boys really struggled at bat (lots of
strikeouts), but Jacob was as consistent as he always is, getting one single,
one double, one run, and he threw a kid out at first. He did get a third hit, but was thrown out at
first base. No strikeouts, though!
Friday, October 16 (Day 217 of
Quarantine)
Friday morning,
I dropped the kids at school and came back home for about an hour, and then B
and I headed to the polls to vote. Early
voting started in our city on Monday, and we’d heard that the lines were
nightmarishly long the first few days, so we wanted to wait until they died
down a bit before going.
The city had
just opened a new polling place Friday morning, and we thought that it might be
better to go there since a lot of people probably weren’t aware that it had
opened, and WE WERE RIGHT. Oh my word,
that was the fastest voting experience of my whole life! B and I were literally in and out in just nine
minutes. NINE MINUTES, Y’ALL. And the majority of that time was spent doing
the actual voting… there were no lines whatsoever. It felt AMAZING to cast my vote, and now the
countdown is on to see who wins. I’ve
spent more time than ever praying about this election, and I’m eager to see how
it turns out.
B and I decided
to swing by the tag office afterward so I could fill out the paperwork to get
my license plate transferred to my new vehicle, but the line wrapped around the
building so we decided we’d go try again a different day.
When we arrived back home, we had a ton of packages because all of our Prime Day purchases had started rolling in... it was like Christmas Day!
Friday evening,
we picked up takeout from our favorite local pub, and then we decided to go for
a walk around the neighborhood. The kids
came home from school wired, so we wanted them to burn off some of that energy,
plus we wanted to take them to see some of the Halloween decorations around the
neighborhood.
Just as we were
about halfway through our walk, we heard Olivia scream bloody murder, like one
of the worst screams I’ve ever heard from her, and I turned around and saw her
sprawled out on the sidewalk. B and I
were a couple of steps ahead of her and Jacob, so we had no idea what had
happened, but Jacob told us that she had tripped and fallen on the
sidewalk.
Unfortunately,
that part of the sidewalk is on a hill, and it’s pretty steep, so she fell a
lot harder than she would have if the ground had been level. She landed on her knee and elbow and she was
all scraped up, so we thought that’s why she was crying so hard. Her scream was so loud that one of our
neighbors came running out of her house to make sure everything was okay.
She was able to
make the rest of the walk back home (about a half of a mile), but she cried the
whole way, bless her heart. She almost
always recovers very quickly from things like that, so I started to worry when
we reached our house and she was still crying.
I noticed that
she held her right arm still the whole way home, and when I asked her to move
it for me when we got home, she got hysterical and refused. She had scraped her elbow and shoulder, so at
first, we assumed it was just the scrape that hurt, but after 30 minutes went
by and she was still refusing to move her arm, I had a gut feeling that
something serious was wrong. The crook
of her elbow had also started turning reddish, so that was another indicator
that something wasn’t right.
I immediately
called my aunt, who is a nurse, and I told her what had happened to get her
opinion. She told me that she didn’t think
it was badly broken, otherwise Olivia would have been constantly screaming in
pain, but she said it could be cracked or dislocated, or just very badly
bruised, of course.
This was one of
those moments where I truly didn’t know what to do as a parent. Do we assume it’s nothing serious and just
ice it and keep her home to avoid spending four hours at the emergency
room? Do we err on the side of caution
and take her to the ER and run the risk of being exposed to Covid? Nobody wants to go to the emergency room
right now with a pandemic going on, and nobody wants their child to be at the
hospital all night if it’s not necessary.
Ugh.
My mind and
heart were screaming to just keep her at home, but my gut kept telling me we
better take her to the ER just to be safe, and after talking it over, B and I
decided to take her. I gathered up face
masks and hand wipes and snacks for them, and then B and Olivia headed out the
door a little after 7 o’clock. I was
thankful that he took her, so she and I didn’t have to be out alone at night,
but it killed me to not be there with her. They did send us some pictures, though. :o)
Jacob played
video games and I tried to read for a bit to pass the time, and then he and I
spent some time snuggling on the couch looking at the Amazon Holiday Toy book
that had arrived in the mail. We were
talking about Olivia’s fall, and I mentioned that I felt bad for suggesting we
go on a walk since it caused her to fall, and Jacob said, “Aw, Mommy, it’s not
your fault,” and he snuggled up to me. It
just made me melt. Sweet boy.
Thankfully, we
have a pediatric emergency room in town, so Brian and Olivia were able to go
there, and it wasn’t as busy as the other emergency rooms in town. B kept me updated the whole time they were
gone, and everything went lightning fast for an ER visit until they had to wait
on the results from her x-ray. By that
time, she’d been triaged and x-rayed, and B said she didn’t even complain about
any pain the whole time, so I assumed she was going to get a clean bill of
health and be sent on her way.
Wrong. It is 2020, after all.
Her diagnosis
was a “closed nondisplaced supracondylar fracture of the distal end of her
right femur” AKA a small fracture in her elbow.
The fracture was, in fact, so small, that it couldn’t be seen on the
x-ray. The only reason the doctor knew
there was one there was because she had something called a “fat pad” AKA a
small sac of fluid on her bone, and those are usually only present when there
is a fracture.
The doc put her
in a full splint from fingers to shoulder and told us to follow up with an
orthopedic surgeon a week later to go from there. He said that it’s possible by then that the
fat pad could be gone, and they could remove the splint altogether, but if the
fat pad is still there, she’ll have to have a full cast for a few weeks. Sigh.
She arrived
back at home around 10:45 in great spirits, and I wish y’all could have seen
her sauntering in with her little pink splint.
She is SO proud of that thing and she is loving all of the extra
attention.
We got her
changed into her PJs very carefully and then sent both of them to bed. Side note, I’ve never had a cast or had to
care for anyone with one before, so I had no clue what I was doing. It is really hard to put on and take off
clothes with a cast on… what do you do about long sleeves?! Not wear them, I guess?? Just something I’ve never had to think about
before. Haha.
Saturday, October 17 (Day 218 of Quarantine)
Saturday
morning, Olivia woke up in great spirits again and she was completely
unbothered by her current situation. She
told me she had slept great and that she wasn’t in any pain, so we went about
our usual Saturday morning routine. I
made some pumpkin shaped waffles with our new pumpkin waffle maker and the kids
were so excited about them! They are so
much fun, and that waffle iron is so easy to use! It's sold out right now, but here's the link in case it comes back in stock.
After
breakfast, we all headed outside because it was a gorgeous day, and B and I
spent the rest of the morning doing our semi-annual back porch clean-off and
mowing. B hung the TV outside, so we
were able to watch College GameDay while we worked, and we finished up just in
time to eat a late lunch.
By lunchtime,
the novelty had started to wear off of the splint, and Olivia was starting to
get irritated with it because she couldn’t scratch her arm when it itched and
also because it was making her arm sweaty.
She also hates the sling because it’s uncomfortable. She really doesn’t complain much, though, and
she’s been a real trooper throughout this whole ordeal, but I could tell it was
already starting to take its toll on her.
At lunchtime,
she said her elbow was starting to hurt, so we gave her some Ibuprofen to help
with the pain. The medicine seemed to
work, and she was fine for the rest of the day.
I helped her get a bath later in the afternoon, and she enjoyed that way
too much. She’s been taking showers for
a couple of years now, so she hadn’t had a bath in ages, but apparently it was just
what she needed. And now I’m worried she’s
going to always want to take baths now instead.
Haha.
Friday evening,
we picked up pizza from our favorite local place, and then after dinner, we
watched the Georgia vs. Alabama game. We
were up for the first half of the game and ended up losing in the second
half. Sigh.
During the
game, I got a phone call from a an orthopaedic surgeon here in town, offering
his services to us for Olivia’s elbow.
He and his family go to our church and their kids are at school with our
kids, and they’re friends with my parents, so my mom had reached out to his
wife to ask for their recommendations. Elbows
just so happen to be his specialty, so instead of offering a recommendation, he
just told us to bring Olivia to see him first thing Monday morning, and to not
even worry about making an appointment.
It was so kind of him to do that, and we were very grateful that he
offered so we didn’t have to wait a whole week like the ER doctor had said.
Sunday, October 18 (Day 219 of
Quarantine)
Sunday morning
was cinnamon rolls and church, and I planned out the week ahead. We had a light lunch at home, and then headed
to my parents’ house to give them their 24 bottles of TJs Two Buck Chuck that
we had picked up. Lol. My momma and daddy gave the kids some special
Halloween masks and we stayed in their back yard (socially distanced) for a bit
to chat. Olivia was excited because she found a four-leaf clover! I couldn't believe how quickly she found it!
When we left
their house, we headed to a temporary pumpkin patch that was set up in an area
of town fairly close to our house. We
used to have a huge pumpkin patch here in town when the kids were small and it
was one of my favorite things ever to do, but they closed a few years back and
we were heartbroken. We’ve not really
ever known where to go since then, so we’ve just been getting our pumpkins at
Publix which isn’t very fall-ish.
I was excited
to see that this one was set up like a farmer’s market and it was really
cute. It was small, but it allowed us to
have that fall experience which is the most important thing overall. ;o) We
picked out a great big one to carve, along with three smaller ones to sit on
the front porch with the big one.
Afterward, we grabbed
some gourmet shaved ice since they were set up next to the pumpkin patch. B and I aren’t huge fans of shaved ice, but
the kids love it, so they were excited.
The rest of the
afternoon was spent working while the kids played video games, and then I made
my momma’s famous baked ziti for dinner.
It’s one of our favorites of hers and B had specifically requested it,
and it hit the spot for sure! We hadn’t
had it in a long time.
Since our plans
to watch a movie were canceled unexpectedly Friday evening, we decided to watch
something Sunday evening instead. We
didn’t have enough time to watch a full movie since it was a school night, but
we let the kids watch Toy Story of Terror, which is an October
tradition. It’s the cutest!
And that was a
wrap on our week!
