Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)

I spent about 3 hours at the hospital last night. It was not where I intended to spend that time, but then, I suppose hospital visits aren’t usually planned. Somewhere around 7pm last night, Alex and Ian – in their typical physical wrestling/play fashion, got a little too rough, and Ian fell on top of Alex. Alex cried, a lot. But that wasn’t unusual, as he is often frustrated and angered by his bigger, stronger, faster older brother. But it persisted, so I checked on him… and all seemed normal… so I went back to what I was doing. A minute or two later, Ian came back in and said, “I don’t think Alex was just mad… I heard something snap.”

Oh boy.

So we probably took an hour or so testing it out. Nothing was visibly broken, but the little guy was definitely tender. It became evident that something was probably broken, so Alex and Dad headed off to the hospital. It’s about 25 minutes away, so, the journey is not embarked upon lightly… 🙂

We stopped at Uncle Paul & Aunt Laura’s along the way (it’s right on the way there) to drop something off, and they gave Alex some ice cream, a few hugs, and an empathetic story or two. That was nice. 🙂

I’ve done this before, so I wisely loaded up the laptop with a few movies before we left, and boy did I need them! We actually sped through all the preliminary stuff. Even got a visit from the doctor within maybe 30 minutes of being there! BUT… for whatever reason… it was the night to break stuff. So the X-ray folks were WAAAAAY behind schedule. Oh my goodness. We watched an HOUR AND A HALF of the movie Cars before we got to go get the x-rays taken! Then it was probably another 30 minutes after that before we left.

Alex has a slight – very slight – fracture in his clavicle. They gave him a cute little sling. And he can’t do any sports until he’s “cleared” by the doctor, or something. Do you know Alex? What in the world is this boy going to do???? That’s ALL he does! 🙂 I guess he’ll be doing a lot of reading, playing chess with Ian, and maybe a video game or two. (But he just can’t replace all that sports time with video games. That would be ugly!) 🙂

We stopped at Wendy’s on the way home (at 11:30!!) for a frosty with Oreos, at Alex’s request. Dad got a burger and fries! Ha! (That’s odd… I’m usually the sweets guy!) 🙂

So, the rest of the weekend included some of this:

• Cleaning out the remaining weeds from our flower beds. And, planting some flowers! That took a majority of Saturday. Was a beautiful day. I mean, fantastic! So it was lots of fun. The whole family was in on the project!
• Jen had a baby shower to attend with some friends – which ended up being just a dinner, as the guest of honor decided to have her baby that day! – so she spent Saturday night there, while the kids and I enjoyed a Skyline meal (the real stuff, from the can!) and then walked up to Chill & Grill for some ice cream! We had a blast! I think Mom did too, but we probably had more fun! 😉
• Sunday morning we all went to the mall for a little “cooking” class from Williams-Sonoma. They were demonstrating home made ice cream. It was great! Tasted great and was a blast! Learned a few pointers.
• Sunday afternoon/evening we just played outside – even had a picnic lunch and dinner! It was a warmer day, but fine in the shade. Our neighbors returned home as well, so the kids played a bit together. Annnnd… then we went to the hospital. 🙂
• Before we left for the hospital, I moved our trailer off of the parking spot it has been in for a few years… a friend of ours is coming today (here now!) to make it a parking spot again! We’re going to spend the morning making it a gravel driveway instead of a dirt spot with a recurring (giant) puddle! Cool!!!

So… now that Al is here… 🙂
More later…