The March Update

While my blog has sat here, abandoned by me, 4.2 million things have happened.  Here is a list.  For your reading pleasure.

1.  Sweet Pea turned 15.  Which I find hard to believe.

I don’t consider myself old enough yet to have a 15-year-old.  Yet, there she is.  15.  She is currently all about The Basketball.  We celebrated her birthday in style and had a large family basketball game with all the extended family.

2.  You might recall that I have had a bit of knee trouble in the past, yes?  Well, dear readers, I have had seven surgeries all together on my left knee.  The original injury happened when I was 15 years old.  During a basketball game, I tore my ACL and medial and lateral meniscus.

Remember how I just had a daughter turn 15?  Would you like to know what she did as a 15-year-old on the basketball court?

So.  She tore her ACL.  She had a tiny tear in one of the meniscus as well.  The situation was quite similar to mine, except:

A) She is far better than I was at basketball.

B)  She hurt her right knee.  I hurt my left.

And now I am looking at Daisy Mae, almost 14, and wondering what on earth I can do to prevent this from happening to her as well.

3.  We took a trip!  This trip was planned well-before Sweet Pea’s injury, so, unfortunately, she had to go on a Caribbean cruise on crutches/wheelchair.  Which, of course, isn’t ideal . . . BUT A CARIBBEAN CRUISE, GUYS!

Planning for the trip about killed me.  Between getting the injured child to all of her doctor’s appointments and physical therapy, plus basketball season still going for the other kids, plus getting my classroom ready for me to go on vacation . . . . I was just about ready to call the whole thing off.  But we got there, and we had a blast!  We went with all of David’s family and my parents. Here are just a few photos.

Best Superbowl Party Ever!  The kids swam, sat in the hot tub, and ran through the buffet line multiple times.

Our family in Cozumel by the ship.  Poor Sweet Pea is in the wheelchair.  Alex took the photo.  Yes, his finger is in the photo.  I don’t have time for editing.

Sweet Pea’s favorite stop was Belize. She plans to locate there in the future. Here is a shot of her sporting her brace and drinking a Sprite on an island off Belize.  She was doted on by the local tour guide peoples.

“But, Moo-ooom!  I don’t want stupid brace tan lines.”

That chair there costs $10 to rent and they just insisted she have one for FREE.  The rest of us plopped our hineys on the sand.

Whilst on the aforementioned island, Jason offered to give me an updated, “Remember, Jason?” photo:

One, maybe two people will understand what I am talking about.

Maybe.

While in Honduras, Handsome Dude chose to use his spending money to buy this musical instrument.  He was extremely proud of the entire situation.

Which is understandable.

David with our 3 year old niece.  She enjoys visiting him because he always has candy in his pockets.  Yes, it sounds weird, but it is true.  He does.  And he will randomly walk by several of his relatives and toss candy onto their laps.  Just for fun.

Anyways.  The cruise was fun!  The best part was ALL THE FOOD.  My kids are ravenous beasts and going on vacation is always stressful when you think about how much eating out will cost.  The beauty of the cruise was that the kids could eat whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, and it didn’t cost us anything extra!

After some soul searching, I decided I would like to retire and become a full-time cruiser.  It is clearly the life for me.

I will be fat and happy.

4.  Surgery.

Surgery day finally came last Thursday.  Because I am her mom, Sweet Pea chooses to believe I know nothing about life.  And since I know nothing about life, how could I possibly know anything about recovering after a knee surgery?  I know I have had 7 surgeries, but is that even relevant?

I tried to talk her through what we would need, such as an ice machine,  and what recovery would be like (slow, a bit painful) and she was not having it.

Not having it at all.

She was planning on going back to school Tuesday (which is today), and not on Friday, which was the absolute minimum the doctor advised.  I am thinking she should maybe return Monday the 19th, which is 11 days out of surgery.

I would like the people to know that even though I know nothing, it is Tuesday.  And she is at home, currently hooked up to the ice machine.  But that is neither here nor there.

Happy Tuesday!