Category / Real Life

by Bethe

How I broke my foot… like a huge dork

IMG_7026So here’s the grand story of how I broke my foot…

On December 30, I was taking out the trash and stepped off the half-inch step-down between our garage and our driveway, rolled my ankle, and fell straight to the ground. It hurt, but I sort of do things like that all the time, so I figured I’d be fine after the initial shock wore off.

Wrenn saw me gasp in pain as I went down and came running over.

“Mama – do you have a boo boo?”

“Yes, mama has a boo boo.”

And then she reached out, laid a hand on me, closed her little eyes, and prayed, “GOD, HELP MOMMY TO FEEL BETTER!” with as much conviction as I’ve ever seen anybody pray.

And then she opened her eyes and anxiously asked, “Mommy, do you feel better?”

Oh sweet child, I love your spirit. And no, mommy didn’t feel better. But it was still the kindest prayer ever.

As the minutes passed, my foot started to hurt worse. I was pretty sure it was broken – but I’m also no wimp. I was in the midst of my annual “It’s New Year’s so I must organize my whole house” project (it’s a thing, y’all), so after sitting down for 15 minutes, I was back up, organizing every drawer and closet in my house, and prepping for our New Year’s Eve party the next day.

The following day, I cleaned the house, decorated for the party, took Wrenn for her first haircut (bless), went shopping, and then came home and an hour before our guests arrived, I cried to Mr. Right because MY FOOT HURT SO MUCH I COULDN’T STAND IT. But not enough to run to the doctor, because, hello, we had a party to host. Pass me the Advil, please. (I’ll admit – I mostly just wanted some sympathy from Mr. Right.)

I stood on my foot through the entire party, and the next morning (New Year’s Day) was at the urgent care office near my house when it opened getting x-rays. Indeed, I broke my foot (my fifth metatarsal) and will get to wear a fabulous knee-high boot for about six weeks. But I’m also going to live – no surgery. Praise the Lord.

The boot is kind of annoying, but not really a huge deal. After birthing a baby, this broken foot is about a 3.5 on a scale of 1-10. And there’s some perks: I never have to worry about finding matching shoes, or even matching socks… there’s no pressure to wear heels (not that I wore them anyway)… and the boot is a great conversation starter with strangers.

What stupid way have you hurt yourself? I’d love to hear your story in the comments, so I don’t feel like I’m the only one.

by Bethe

Our Plan B Christmas

Croup* stinks. For toddlers, and also for adults. I know this because I’ve had it for 10 days and STILL have a fever, a horrible cough that keeps me up all night, no voice, and a runny nose that not all the Kleenex boxes in all the world could handle.

Merry Christmas to me.

PlanBXmas1Gosh, I sound like such a Scrooge, don’t I? It really wasn’t THAT bad. I managed to take Wrenn on a few outings during my week off, but as the week went on, I felt worse. And worse. And worse. And then on Christmas Eve, I felt like death, and between my germs, Wrenn’s germs (she’s on the tail end of croup – she got a 4-day head start), and a tummy bug that attacked one of my relatives, Christmas Eve with Mr. Right’s family got cancelled.

And then I had to cancel Christmas Day plans with my family, since I didn’t want to expose my two baby nephews to my germs. I’m not sure what made me more sad – missing Christmas with my family, or missing a chance to cuddle my 3-week-old and 6-month-old nephews for a whole day.

It was a total bummer, y’all.

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Since we hadn’t planned to spend Christmas at home, just the three of us, it wasn’t like we had planned something awesome to do. We had no fun food to cook, so we grabbed take-out fried chicken for our Christmas Eve dinner. Thankfully, Christmas night, both of our moms dropped off Christmas leftovers so we were able to eat a proper Christmas dinner, albeit it from the microwave on a plastic plate. It was yummy nonetheless.

I was super bummed at first about all our cancelled fun may or may not have thrown myself a pity party on Christmas Eve, but then we wrote a letter to Santa, set out cookies, and the magic seemed to come back a little. Wrenn was REALLY into Santa this year, and also totally confused about why he came when she was SLEEPING. So silly, if you think about it. Girlfriend wanted to HANG OUT WITH SANTA.

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Christmas Day ended up being pretty wonderful. Wrenn loved opening presents, and we all played with her new toys, took long naps, and got to briefly see family that night as they dropped off food. Mr. Right was able to sneak in two bike rides in that beautiful 75-degree Christmas weather, and I got to spend the day relaxing – something I, well, rarely do.

PlanBXmas3 Now Christmas has been put away, the pine needles have been vacuumed up (mostly), half of my decorations have been donated to Goodwill (yay for simplifying), and I’m in full-on New Year’s organizing mode. And I’m heading to the doctor tomorrow to beg him for SOMETHING to make me no longer contagious. I’m starting to get a bit lonely over here.

*I was convinced I had croup, but when I called my doctor today, he said croup only lasts about 5 days. He doesn’t think it’s croup – so it must be the plague. It’s the only other possibility.

by Bethe

Wrenn has a snow day

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We Texans have had our entire year’s quota of snow days this week. Today was our first opportunity to get to actually get out and PLAY. But of course, as Texans, we’re totally unprepared when it comes to having snow clothes (now when it comes to 100-degree play clothes, we’re golden). This was my attempt to pair every warm item in Wrenn’s closet to come up with something snow-worthy. Fleece footie pajamas + boots that are too big (so the pajamas will fit inside) + her vest + her jacket + a random hand-me-down hat.IMG_2537 IMG_2538

This was Wrenn’s first real experience playing in the snow (last winter she couldn’t walk, which limits the snow playing). She had no idea what to do!IMG_2539 IMG_2542 IMG_2544 IMG_2551

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And because I want to be real with you, here’s how the brief snow soiree ended… in hysterical tears. Girlfriend was COLD and HUNGRY and OVER the snow. So we quickly got back in our pajamas, had a snack, did some cuddling, and she was good as new. I promise.

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I’m so thankful to have my entire family home safe (those roads were scary today!) and cozy. And, I’m thankful that we’ve got good friends who live just a street away who are up for last-minute dinners during bad weather. It’s good to have playmates!

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by Bethe

Lately: Real Life

Wrenn

1. Wrenn is on day 15 of fever. First it was croup (which Mr. Right and I also caught a milder version of), then we think she was teething, then the doc said the croup fever may linger for awhile, and then over the weekend she had some weird allergic reaction to something on her feet that’s making them blister and itch horribly (it’s not hand foot mouth, because we’ve both had that before and the blisters are different). And yesterday, on day 14, her fever was 101 (today she was fever free for a few hours before it crept back up to 100). Poor child has had a rough go of it and has been on quarantine for half the month. She’s getting a little stir crazy, as are her parents. (But again… praise Jesus for her asthma, which is still being controlled well by her meds.)

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2. Last weekend we took ourselves temporarily off quarantine to go to the rodeo with Mr. Right’s family. The rodeo for them is kind of like the Super Bowl – my father-in-law is a team roper and my husband grew up showing livestock for 4-H. So, the family starts planning for the rodeo about five months early. Little Wrenn, of course, had the perfect outfit and considering it was 75 degrees in February, it was a glorious day. Wrenn LOVED it and sat through almost the entire two hours… it was such a joy to watch her experience it, wide-eyed.

3. Our new ESL semester started back last week and it was SO GOOD. We had been praying for new teachers and God provided three new ones, plus some new students. Not to mention that seeing our students after a two month break is SO SWEET. We love our students so much, we’ve had one stay at our house recently, we’ve been to graduation parties and family gatherings and shared many meals with them and been to their homes. They’re some of our dearest friends. So, after a two month break, you can imagine how happy I was to see them again.

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4. My dishwasher broke. I joked that I feel like Little House on the Prairie, but I must admit, of all the appliances to bite the dust, I’m glad it was this one, as I’m kind of a hand-washing pro. That’s what happens when your husband is a great cook (you do dishes) and when you’ve got a baby (you do lots and lots and lots of hand washing). It’s actually a little bit therapeutic. Now, if I still don’t have a new dishwasher by next month, I probably won’t speak of it quite as fondly.

5. Our dog ran away. Harley the Wonder Schnoodle, the dog I’ve had since college, snuck out when we were loading the car and we didn’t know it. He was gone almost an hour, and thankfully we discovered through our neighborhood website that a kind neighbor had taken him in. God bless technology. So glad he’s home.

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6. With all of this quarantine business, I’ve had plenty of time to catch up on some quilting. Stay tuned for a Work in Progress post on my scrappy quilt. She’s pretty.

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7. I’ve been blogging for the Fort Worth Moms Blog since last summer, and I’ve got a post up this week that features a fabric bunting tutorial and also a free Valentine’s print download. I hope you’ll go check it out. (And leave a comment on that post so the editors feel warm fuzzies toward me… cool?)

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il_570xN.665559259_8u9tHave you downloaded my quick and easy budget? It’s available at Texas Lovely on Etsy.

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