Baseball/Softball Injury #2

Lucky me! I have the 2nd sports related injury for this season. This past Monday at Joe & my coed softball games and overzealous teammate (male) ran into me out in right field. I was watching and waiting for a high fly ball to come down and out of no where the right center fielder slammed into me. My left foot got the brunt of the injury, but I am sore on the entire right side of my body. Luckily my foot is not broken, but here it is 3 days later and still swollen. The bruising is just starting, I'm sure it will get much worse. In the meantime, my doctor has me wearing a boot to protect my foot.

Wednesday morning I was not wearing my boot while getting Jared dressed for school and learned the importance of wearing the boot. Jared was being silly and accidentally stepped on my foot. I cried out in such pain, all the boys immediately sprang into action. My boot was brought to me, an ice pack and many kind words. I don't think they have ever seen me is such pain. Needless to say, I keep my boot on whenever children are around.

Hopefully I'll only have to wear it for a week or so. No softball for a week also, bummer. If it's not feeling better within a week or so, I have to go get it re-x-ray'd to see if there is a minor fracture that didn't show on the first x-ray. It's beginning to feel better but still very tender.

Until then here is my new fashion accessory.

This picture is to show the swelling. My feet usually are veiny, like the right one. You can also see the bruising beginning just at the base of my toes. Pretty cool!

The top of my foot took most of the force, but you can see how the swelling goes to the side of my foot also.

My new protection!

Interestingly enough, they found on my x-ray that I have a bone island on my left heel. They say it's nothing to worry about, but could give me problems in the future. I had to google it to figure out what a bone island is and I still don't fully understand. But basically it's a birth defect in the bone and I never would have known it was there except for the needed x-ray. If I begin to have pain in my heels I'll need to see a foot doctor for treatment. Something to look forward to!

On another note, I start my new job with 911 this upcoming Monday! Had my last day of preschool today, it was bitter sweet.

Jacob Baseball Pictures

I finally made it to Jacob's Baseball game. He is playing kid pitch baseball. As you can tell by the pictures, he is really having a good time!
More pictures??? Come on, Mom!

2nd week of ball games...Injury #1

This past Monday we all attended Aaron's ball game. I sent Jacob, Tyler and Jared off to play for a while and watch the ducks at the pond. 3o minutes later Tyler ran back reporting that Jared is bleeding. When asked what happened, no one knew. The older boys had been playing a game with some friend and didn't see what happened to Jared. What little I got out of Jared was that his fell down the sidewalk. I assume that he was running down one of the hills on the sidewalk and tumbled, skidding on his face. Luckily, no broken teeth, just a bloody nose and scratches and scrapes. I took these pictures a few days later just to document the injuries. Somehow I need to teach Jared and Aaron to put their hands up and protect their cute mugs! (see earlier post of Aaron's injuries, they are almost identical!) As you can tell, he is just fine. No worse for wear! Boys! It's always something!

It's official, Spring is in the air...

At our house, Spring = Baseball season. Not only do we watch baseball, we play baseball. This year 3, yes 3, of our 4 boys are playing baseball. Aaron is playing T-ball, Tyler coach pitch and Jacob kid pitch. Calendaring 3 sets of games and factoring in my graduate classes 2 nights a week, not forgetting scouts on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and trying to figure out when everyone will eat has been quite the task. But it seems to all be working out....Thanks to Grandma & Papa being willing to help shuttle on the super busy nights.

I only have pictures of Aaron's first game so far. Of course he forgot his hat for the first game. Aaron loves playing. He is one of the few who "gets" how to play. He hits really well and can throw farther than anyone else on the team. We are working on the catching, but it will come. He is having a great time. He plays his games at Discover Park, over by San Tan Mall.

Luckily Jacob and Tyler both play their games at the same field. This has helped us be able to get everyone to their games. They play at the McQueen fields off McQueen between Guadalupe and Elliot Roads. At the game I attended for Tyler last week it rained and everyone got soaked while watching and playing. Good times.

Jared loves to attend the games with both Mom and Dad. How do you entertain and 3 year old at a T-ball game? Take lots of silly pictures of said 3 year old.

Here are a few of our favorites...

Good times!

Play Ball!

Butterflies

Today our cocoons have begun birthing butterflies. There are 7 out so far. 1 died trying to emerge and 1 still has curled wings, but we are hopeful that the rest will birth healthy butterflies. The plan is to keep them until all have come out and then release them outside. Here are a few pictures of the early birds. It made for an interesting morning, trying to get my boys to stop watching butterflies and get ready for school.

Cocoon Stage

This year for preschool I ordered live caterpillars for our study of caterpillar week. Of course the caterpillars did not arrive until after we completed the week, but it has all worked out perfectly. I delivered caterpillars to every one's home and kept the rest home with me so we can monitor them during school, and so my boys could enjoy them too. I started with 32 caterpillars, gave 9 out to students and my nephews, 1 caterpillar died and pictured here are the remaining 22 in cocoons. Of course I didn't even think of taking pictures of the caterpillars, which I am kicking myself for not doing.

It was just like our own live "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle book at home. We skipped the egg stage and started with very small caterpillars. Each day they grew and fattened up. I will take pictures are the butterflies emerge from their cocoons. An up close view of the cocoons. Really cool looking. Hopefully 22 healthy butterflies will emerge in about 7 to 10 days.

The cocoons are on napkins that came with the kit. The instructions said to tape them to the side of the enclosure but, some of the tape didn't stick so I just lay them on the bottom. In this picture you can see that 1 cocoon fell off the napkin. I didn't want to disturb it so I just left it when it fell.