A Mommy First

Today was the first time I've ever had to take one of my children into the emergency room. Rachel was riding her bike and fell down, splitting her chin open. It required 4 stitches. (The stitches are blue, something she's not happy about as blue is a BOY color.) She was incredibly brave through it, even though she said she was sure she wasn't that brave. She did NOT want to go in, and was sure stitches just weren't for her, thank you very much. She was actually fine when we could get her distracted. She played with a little magnetic table with sand and frogs for quite a while in the waiting room, and even worked a word search with me. It was only when a medical professional came near her that she got scared. When it was just us, she was happy and laughing and cheerful as can be! I did take a couple pictures with my cell phone (who would think to bring their real camera to the ER?), but I'm just too tired to deal with that tonight. I'll try to get them up tomorrow so you can see the injury. It wasn't pretty.
It was a long evening, but she's fine, and the stitches will come out in about 5 days. Hopefully the scar isn't too bad! Overall, my first ER trip probably could have been a lot worse. And she was wearing her helmet which I'm sure saved her from a worse injury.

Besides the injury to Rachel, the worst part of this was the 5 hours I lost in preparing my talk for church tomorrow! That's why I'm still up at 2:00 in the morning. But my talk is printing as I type. Now I just have to stay awake long enough to give it! Wish me luck.

Here are the pics:

My Not Date Night

Last night was supposed to be date night with Scott. We'd been planning it for a while. The original idea was miniature golf, but with my arm being the way it is, that was obviously out. We ultimately decided on dinner and a movie. But I had a bunch of girlfriends doing a movie night that I was supposed to be a part of, so we decided we'd stop by that before we went out. I talk about these girls all the time, but Scott doesn't really know them and he wanted to be able to put faces to names. Or so he said.

I walked in to find not movie night, but a surprise birthday party for ME! I was SHOCKED. I had no idea. And it wasn't just a party with the girls, they invited people from all areas of my life, getting them all together in one place. It was an amazing night. The food was excellent, the company even better, and the activities of the night were hilarious. I had an amazing time. But most importantly, I feel loved and appreciated by an incredible group of people. This is a huge change from a year ago where I didn't really have any friends to invite to a birthday party. I have amazing friends. And I am incredibly touched by all the effort and love that went into planning last night. My birthday is still a few days away, but already this is the best birthday I've ever had.

I don't get it.

I'm curious about something. When did women become PROUD of being irrational and difficult? When did that become something admirable? I have a friend who posted something about women and the "funny" things they do, like when they say "fine" it means they're right, they just want you to shut up and "that's OK" means she's just still thinking about what your punishment is going to be. There were several things on this list, all of which were negative female stereotypes. Within minutes of her posting it, three more female friends posted it as well. They think it's funny. Perhaps my discomfort and lack of sleep are restricting my sense of humor, but I didn't find it funny. I found it embarrassing, mostly for the women who take pride in being that kind of woman. I recognize women in general have their shortcomings, and I probably more than most. But instead of doing something to make that better, most women I know seem to enjoy being able to get away with their irrational and silly behavior because "it's what women do." I don't understand taking pride in shortcomings. I don't understand celebrating irrationalities. If we as women enjoy and promote our faults, how will we ever improve? If we laugh at our failings, who does that help? And what are we teaching the next generation of girls if we applaud this kind of behavior? Perhaps I'm ranting over nothing and I need to lighten up. I just don't understand celebrating such negative behavior.

OK, rant over. :)

Ouch

Friday night I started having a slight ache in my right arm. It wasn't bad, just a twinge when I'd reach behind me. It was still around on Saturday, but it still was just an occasional twinge of pain. But it's been steadily growing. I now have a pretty constant ache from my elbow almost up to my shoulder with some pretty painful shoots going through it when I try to do simple things like brush my hair or get dressed or even little things like opening my refrigerator or trying to lift something. I don't even have to do anything to feel it, I just have to move my arm around. I couldn't sleep much last night because there wasn't a position I could lay in that didn't cause my arm to ache. I hate my doctor and am trying to avoid going in to see her, but I feel like I'm slowly losing the use of my arm. Any thoughts? What could be causing it and what can I do about it?

UPDATE:
The pain got to the point of being debilitating, so I sucked it up and went to my doctor. When I can't even wash my hair or put on deodorant without crying out in pain, it's time to do something. I can do a lot left handed, but I can't do everything and my right arm was almost useless. Fortunately for me MY doctor wasn't available for 2 weeks, so I saw someone else. She was fantastic. After a very thorough exam, she determined I have multiple micro tears all along my tricep muscle. It makes using it at all very painful. You have to use your tricep in almost everything you do with your arm, but using it causes more tears and prevents the old ones from healing. So I'll have my arm in a sling off and on for the next week and I got some pretty nice pain medication to get me through until it heals. It's a relief to know it's something so simple, and as soon as my ibuprofen kicks in, I'm sure I'll be much happier. And I have Vicodin for night time so I may actually get to sleep tonight!

Welcome Connor!

Connor James Carnegie was born yesterday at about 5:30 pm, weighing in at a nice 7 pounds 11 ounces and measuring a bit over 20 inches long. He is the first child for his very excited parents. We are all thrilled to welcome a new member to the family! And my kids are so happy to have a brand new cousin, even if it is another boy.

Is it a play group or a work group?

I was invited to join a rather interesting (for lack of a better term) play group this week. There are only 4 women in the group at a time, and we get together once a week, alternating houses. The idea is to get women with similar aged children so they can play together, but while the kids play, the women work. Today we met at Heather's house. We finished painting her kitchen, washed windows, cleaned her refrigerator, swept floors, vacuumed, and hung a painting. And we were only there for 2 hours. It's amazing how much faster everything goes with help, and there were only three of us there today! (One of them has a very sick mother.) And I was surprised at how much fun it could be to clean out someone else's refrigerator. It doesn't seem quite so much like work when you get to do it with great people working along side you. The group is limited to four so that we each get the group at our house once a month to help with whatever it is we need done. You only have to commit for a month at a time, but you're welcome to be in the group as long as you like. I don't actually know these women yet since they were all in the ward before the change, but I have to imagine I'll get to know them all very well very quickly. Now I just have to come up with projects that will take 4 women 2 hours to do! Any thoughts?