I was always told as a small girl...that when life hands you lemons you squeeze the heck out of em', (preferably a full bag), put about a cup of sugar in the pitcher add some water and stir. Makes the best, sweetest homemade lemonade! Well my friends, my lemonade stand is now open for business! What a crazy year this has been! From my dads passing, extended family drama, health and then just when you think it can't get any worse the devil throws stones our way. JUST at the point when he knows you are down to try and shake us and the more we declare that its not gonna work the harder the stones throw! Ugh! I just wanna smack him! My faith is however NOT faltered and I am thankful for the small things! Confused yet?! ME too!

On Monday evening we were over joyed to celebrate the High School graduation of our very sweet "Yexie" as my kids call her! This girl is smart, funny, sweet, tender, brilliant, kind and the most amazing artist you will ever meet! This girl is what I dub as a "good egg"! We love her so incredibly much and we are SO blessed to be a part of HER life! What an honor!

We were having so much fun, chatting, eating. The kids were running around and playing when about an hour and a half into the party my baby girl (well...BIG girl!) was carried over to me in tears, saying "OWIE OWIE" where another friends daughter explained what had happened. They were playing helicopter. You know where you hold onto a leg and an arm and spin around. Well. They heard a POP. And then Emily Grace was in bad pain. Honestly I sized my daughter up and down to be sure this wasn't an "attention" thing. Which she has NEVER been that way...but you never know! I looked her arm over asking her to wiggle her fingers etc and thought, OK. No biggie. This is probably just nurse maids elbow. We will go to Urgent Care for a quick visit where the doc will just pop it back in place. Never heard of NURSE MAIDS ELBOW?! Well, its where you dislocate the elbow. Small kids are notorious for this as was she at about 18 or 19 months old when she used to do the ever so fun "drop while you walk" game! I literally thought I broke my child when she did it eons ago! I think the doctors had a good laugh about me after we left! We loaded her up and she would not un-bend her elbow which was the only part that concerned me. Most of the time with Nurse Maids Elbow they won't BEND their arm. But I wasn't going to panic!


Paul pulled up to the doors and I carried Emily Grace inside while he parked and got the hooligans out of the car. Emily Grace was in SO much pain she was screaming, shaking, crying. It was bad. Every person in that room was staring and they immediately got us inside. You could see the look of sympathy on the people that take your info and check you in!

We were asked about a million questions which of course...I had only second hand information to give. Which makes me feel like a bad mom. I did everything I could to make her feel comfortable. She wanted me on the table with her...so I uncomfortably IN a skirt I might add, laid on the table with her propping her arm up with her lovey my mom made her for the car! Praise the Lord for that! She loves to play on my phone so she took this picture of herself with Instagram! Noah showed us his dance moves as we waited and he tried to make his big sister smile! They were at first concerned it was her wrist. And that she had broken it. I really was NOT convinced by this! We went in for Xrays and she did great except for when you have to move the arm to different positions for certain angles of shots. Ugh. I was in tears. She was in tears! We were a mess! And by then because she wanted me to carry/hold her my upper body strength was deteriorating fast! We got the results back and they said she had a fractured elbow. We would need to follow up with Ortho the next day and they were putting a temporary cast on her arm. Which FYI the ace bandages are FREE! Woo hoo! A freebie! The sling however will run you $5.71. The rest of the bills we will receive I don't even want to open! They are gonna be ugly! We were beat. Exhausted. Drained. I was told to alternate Motrin and Tylenol at the exact times called for otherwise she would be in pain. I set me alarms and I did it. On the dot! We had to prop her arm up above her heart to reduce swelling and don't even get me started on reading over the paper work! It may or may not have said something about how most elbow fractures end up with surgery. I about tossed my cookies right there!


The next day I was beat. She was beat and the other 2 hooligans were active! I iced her, let her lay in my bed most of the day and decided we should probably take a bath before the Ortho appointment as her knees and feet were green from grass stains and she was filthy! I was also dreading the fact that after her appointment I was going to have to leave her to go to work. My 1 night a week I work away from home for a mere 3 hours and I was dreading it! I am full on mama bear when my cubs are hurting or sick! WATCH OUT! It's not pretty!

At the Ortho, I was grilled about every 5 minutes about what had happened. They asked her as well, which of course she wouldn't even look at them! I later find out that the reason for such a harsh grilling is that the number one cause for this style of fracture etc is caused by child abuse. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!! I wanna smack those parents that do this to their children...any children in fact. Someone should do it right back to them! OK. That was mean. But seriously I have a hard time keeping a straight face to send them to time out. The few times I ever spanked (yes...I am not perfect) I cried. Figured out REAL fast...that is not for me! I am a yeller when I am mad. AND a door slammer. But an abuser? Never! I love these children more than life itself and they TRULY are MY gifts from God. They were chosen for me and I will be damned if I let ANYONE harm them!


They were perplexed by her arm. The areas of the major portion of pain etc. They decided they would need to manipulate her arm as they wanted to be sure it was in place. BUT they didn't hear a pop...which was a concern to them. Emily Grace picked a purple cast because apparently a girl in another class at her school had one! (hear we go!) She was SO brave. I was having such a hard time staying in my seat as I watched them "hurt" my baby. It's grueling. Not fun! She will have the cast on for 2 weeks and then they will remove it and take new Xrays. I am just praying we will be done after the 2 weeks of casting!


Watching her sleep last night broke my heart. Hearing her cry as she tried to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but couldn't wipe, broke my heart. She has been attached to my hip most of the day. And I am not gonna lie. I don't mind. One bit! I would be lying if I didn't admit to crawling in bed with her last night just so I could stroke her cheek and kiss her forehead. She declared today a PJ all day sorta day! We obliged and we did EASY things...like play cars (since she can drive with her left hand...duh!) and had easy snacks! We are learning how to take off clothes and put on other clothes. And I am thankful it is warm enough for tank tops! They are a God send! All in all its been an interesting couple of days and I am looking forward to the healed road ahead! But in the meantime...she has asked that we draw on her cast AND she wants me to add glitter and gems! Oh yes. She is mine! We will pick up gems tomorrow!

Have a blessed week!