Within a few minutes, I had someone come to wheel me to X-Ray. The X-Ray was one of the most painful parts because of how I needed to move my ankle so they could get the pictures they needed. And, of course, it didn't want to move the way they needed it to without large amounts of pain. But I've been through one labor and severe back spasms that felt like electrocution, the pain from this was something I could handle.
As soon as we got back to the ER, someone was there to wheel me back to be seen. Off we went to the clinic with some awesome nurses that I would have loved to have had on my floor if I'd been staying the night. Great sense of humor and really on top of things. We had the nurse come in, followed quickly by the doctor (who was also fantastic - heck, everyone I dealt with there was fantastic). He took a look at my x-rays and saw what he thought was an old break but wanted the radiation tech to look it over. The radiation tech concurred, so the diagnosis was bad sprain. Within 30 minutes, I had an air cast boot, a pair of crutches and a prescription for Lortab. (Along with a Lortab in my system - I felt so much better!) We were out of the hospital by 6:30, made phone calls to family, grabbed some dinner and picked up the kids. All in all, it could have gone much worse.
Being immobilized like this is both frustrating and freeing. On the one hand, I can't even get upstairs so I'm sleeping on the pullout couch downstairs. It's not the most comfortable place to sleep. I'd planned today to clean out the linen closet and start going through and organizing all my books. Both are upstairs (well, a majority of my books are). The boot is uncomfortable and I'm abysmal at walking with crutches.
On the other hand, it means that I'm being forced to read (right now, I'm reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple) and get some online things done that I've been putting off (like updating my blog). It also means that I'll be able to do the advent calendar activities that I've been putting off doing with the kids because I've been busy trying to get things done in the house.
Our advent calendar is working out pretty good. I don't have the money this year to buy lots and lots of gifts to put in it and neither of my kids needs tons of candy. So I decided to come up with a list of activities to do. Actually, I came up with two lists - one of activities like crafts, cookie baking and decorating the tree, and the other of more giving things, like calling family members and helping out when you can. This is what I've come up with (though not in the order we have it on the calendar):
Advent Activity Ideas
Write letter to Santa- Make sugar cookies
- Make chocolate chip cookies
- Make peanut butter cookies
- Make gingerbread men
- Decorate tree
- Drive to look at Christmas lights
- Watch Christmas movie with hot chocolate and popcorn
- Make snowglobes
Make Christmas Ornaments (Salt dough)Make Shrink-a-doodle ornaments- Make popsicle stick ornaments
- Read a Christmas story
- Make Christmas gifts for Teachers
- Write Christmas cards for family and friends
Make Apple Clove Ornaments- Shop for a gift for Mommy
- Shop for a gift for Daddy
- Listen to holiday music
- Wrap presents
Cut out paper snowflakes and hang them in the windows- Visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop
- Make a special holiday meal with one thing each of us enjoys
- Put out stockings and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
Advent Giving and Thankfulness Ideas
- Tell everyone in the family something you like about them.
- Do something nice for a stranger
- Donate a toy to someone less fortunate
- Donate a book to someone less fortunate
- Talk about what Christmas means to you
- Read the story of Jesus' birth
- Make a list of 10 things you are thankful for
Call Nonni and Pop to tell them you love themCall Grandma and Grandpa to tell them you love them- Call Poppy to tell him you love him
- Call Aunt Robin, Uncle Simo and Layla to tell them you love them.
- Call Aunt Deni, Uncle Mike, Gabe and Mikayla to tell them you love them.
Do something nice for a family member.- Make a video to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
Give out free hugs to someone- Donate extra change to the Salvation Army bell ringer
- Suggest something fun to do the weekend after Christmas
Suggest a tradition you'd like to add to our family holidaysHelp someone with their chores.- Make up a story about Christmas together
- Donate food to Second Harvest
- Buy something from the Angel Tree for someone in need
- Tell one thing you want to do better in 2013
Say Thank You to someone you don't usually thank
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| Our advent calendar with notes waiting for each day 's activities |
The crossed out ones are the ones we've finished. The italics are the ones that we were supposed to do but haven't yet. Technically, the snowflakes are today's activity, but we should be able to do those without too much trouble, along with the other crafts that we haven't finished yet.
The ornaments that we did do have come out pretty good. The kids loves doing the Salt Dough ornaments (it's another one I've found on Pintrest) and they had a lot of fun using the cookie cutters to cut them out. This is what we came up with:
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| Our Salt Dough ornaments |
We still have to paint them (also happening tonight) and put mod podge over them so we'll be able to keep them for years to come. Teddy had so much fun with it that he made making new ornaments every year as the family tradition he wants to adopt.
All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about things. Yeah, my leg hurts horribly, but it could have been broken, which would have been worse. But my house is clean, I've got plenty of books to read and I've got lots of fun things to do with the boys. What else could I ask for?
