A boy and his cast

Oh the popularity. Keven Jr. has been loving the attention of having a blue cast on his arm. When I got home from work last night he bugged me and bugged me for a Sharpie so that the neighborhood girls could sign it. Today he's bringing two markers into school for his classmates. "A boy color and a girl color" he said. I think he's loving all the attention - what do you think?

I still can't believe he broke his wrist!

broken homes and broken bones - nihilism!

Never in a million years would I have expected to have a son with a broken wrist. And here I am with a son with a broken wrist. And it's not even Isaac*! Keven Jr. took off on his bike yesterday evening and went zooming down our steep as a mountain driveway and tipped over at the bottom. He was going too fast. He did what any normal person would do to soften the fall - he stuck out his hand to brace himself. When I got home from work he was crying. About an hour later he was still sort of fumbling around complaining that his wrist hurt. He wouldn't let me touch it. It wasn't really that swollen, but my gut told me that something was wrong. We decided to ice it and wait it out. He didn't sleep well through the night and the first thing out of his mouth this morning was how bad his wrist hurt. It was slightly swollen, bruised and still hurting and he still wouldn't let me touch it. So off to the doctor he went. The doctor took xrays and sure enough he's broken. Diagnosis: a buckle fracture in his right wrist. I swear there's never a dull moment in my house. *Isaac is so clumsy and falls down all the time to the point that his cousin nicknamed him 'spills'. I thought for sure Isaac was going to be the first inducted into the Jones Broken Bone Hall of Fame, but I guess I was wrong. Good thing I didn't bet on it.

BEWARE: Bombs ahead

Not that long ago I posted about the birds nest in the tree in our front yard. I was anxious and excited and couldn't wait for the eggs to hatch and for baby birds to emerge and grew worried that we'd miss all the action because of a vacation we were going on. I have no idea how long it takes for bird eggs to hatch. When we came home the first thing I did was look for Mama Robin. I was happy to see that she was still sitting in the nest, exactly as she was when we left early that morning for California. It was almost as if we never left. And it seemed as if the eggs hadn't hatched. Then Keven and my nephew cut the grass one day and told me later that night about how out of nowhere Daddy Robin emerged and started dive bombing them whenever they got remotely close to the tree. The eggs had hatched and there were babies.... Tonight I caught glimpse of Mama Robin feeding a baby bird from a distance and I went and grabbed my camera to try and get some photos. I managed to snap a few (cautiously and from a distance) but oh boy what a mistake that was.

Mama Robin wasn't too sure of me and my camera so she left the nest and perched on a branch higher up in the tree. Then she started chirping out an S.O.S. and before I knew it Daddy Robin appeared. I retreated back some (I wasn't even that close to begin with) and the next thing I knew Daddy Robin was swooping down trying to dive bomb me. So I went inside and got my big zoom lens thinking that I could get up close shots from an even greater distance and well, that was even a bigger mistake. Daddy Robin was even angrier at me. That's one pissed of Daddy Robin if I've ever seen one! He let me know for sure that he meant business and wanted me to stay away, so I did. I gave up and went inside. After all I didn't want to stress the poor new parents out any more than I already had. And quite frankly he scared the crap out of me!

Maybe next time I'll have better luck. That is if I attempt a next time.

June 1

This evening I left the office and headed for my car in the east parking lot . It was lightening and thundering and raining pretty good but I sloshed through the puddles in my flip-flops just the same only to remember as I was standing nearly in the middle of the parking lot that my car? Was parked in the west parking lot. My efforts to change things up a bit this morning when I arrived to work - late - didn't do me any good. In an attempt to leave work in a hurry because I was leaving later than usual didn't do me any good either. I had forgotten where I parked and just ended up being irritated and frustrated with myself. I need to slow down. On a day trip we took to Lake Tahoe while in California just last week I was in a hurry to make it to the bottom of a set of sketchy stairs (in flip flops) so I could hurry up and snap a few photos of this spectacular waterfall we had stopped to look at. My family was waiting on me to take my photos so that we could start a two mile hike to Eagle Lake, but because I was rushing and not completely focused I slipped and fell with my camera in hand and my heavy backpack on my back. As soon as I hit the ground I knew I was hurt, my knee was throbbing and I could feel a pulsating knot in my lower back on the right hand side. I walked it off as best as I could and continued on trying not to think to much about it when really all I wanted to do was cry; I was in so much pain. On top of that I felt so stupid because I had fallen. Not even five minutes before this happened I had a fleeting thought in my head that I needed to change into tennis shoes but nope, I was in a hurry. And look where that got me. I need to slow down and pay attention. I've been thinking a lot lately about how jumbled my life seems to be. My email is piled up, I've rarely made the time to blog, I've lost my motivation to eat healthy and exercise regularly, laundry is behind, I have yet to unpack my suitcase from my vacation, my house needs some attention, I have notes scribbled on papers thrown into a pile that have no rhyme or reason, and the list goes on. All of that stuff probably seems trivial to most but to me, everything these days seems so overwhelming and unmanageable. And I'll be the first to tell you that I don't like it. It makes me twitchy, and uncomfortable and out of control. And dare I say it - it makes me feel: lazy. Yet I work full time and have two small children and indeed my plate is full and my cup is overflowing. I am my worst enemy indeed. I was thinking earlier this evening that I needed to sit down and write a list of things that needed my focus; what's a priority and what can wait. Of course my job and my family come first and foremost, but there is no reason why I can't mix in everything else. I need to find a balance. And then I read my horoscope:

Have you been indulging in too many goodies, dear Scorpio? You might feel somewhat under the weather today because of all this abundance. Therefore you probably should take it easy. Take advantage of your mood to think about re-organizing your priorities. Is a second piece of chocolate cake more important than your energy and health? Indulging can be important to your psychological sense of self-care, but don't forget about moderation, and don't forget that there are many other ways in which you can indulge yourself....

I'm taking that as a sign. Things do happen for a reason, don't they? My horoscope today could not have been more fitting. It seems to me as if my mind is right on track. Now if only I could get the rest of me to catch up.