My goodness, what a whirlwind February was and March is apparently determined to keep up with its predecessor!

The Taters ended February with a Saturday afternoon trip to the ER to have "pictures" taken of Kole Tater's arm. Why? Well.... let's start at the beginning, shall we? It was the first beautiful, sunshiny day we had in a while that started out with no one in our house waking up ill. We've had relatively mild stuff - colds and tummy bugs, but they've drug their feet making the rounds. So, I got up with a mission that morning. I was going to air out the house and get some major chores done around here, fearful that the weather would do things Texas style and throw a changeup at me before I could say "yee-haw".

The kids were pretty cooperative, knowing that they wouldn't be allowed outside before their share of chores were complete. They all did a good job cleaning their rooms, and headed outside to soak up some rays. That lasted about an hour, give or take.

I was just finishing up vacuuming the living room when I heard someone on the porch, crying one of those cries that didn't sound like it was just feelings that had been hurt. I poked my head out immediately and saw Kole standing there, holding his arm. Uh oh.

I did not panic. We have made the mistake before of snatching up a kid and rushing to the ER, only to find out later that we overreacted. I brought Kole in and checked out his range of motion before giving him an ice pack and some Tylenol. The tears subsided pretty quickly and he fell asleep. When he woke up, his pain was still there, and his range of motion had decreased, so after a little more hemming and hawing, I decided we better head to Lubbock.

This story is already long, so I'll give you just the facts. Arrived at the ER, had x-rays, confirmed a break and found out that we would have to spend the night so an orthopedic surgeon could place a few pins at the end of the right humerus the following morning. This was totally not what I was expecting. I still figured just bad bruising or a sprain. The break really was not obvious. However, by midnight Saturday, I was so grateful I had brought Kole in. He was in a fair amount of pain, even with morphine.

Today, we went in to have the arm re-casted. Fiberglass - so much better than the old school plaster! Very hard and very lightweight. All of us oldsters really missed out back in the day. Kole even got to choose which color he wanted. Kids today, I tell ya. They have no idea...

Next week, back for x-rays. Dreading the inevitable pin removal. Seriously considering checking with insurance on cost to have him put to sleep for that procedure. I remember 5 years ago when Riley's pins had to come out. It was traumatic for her and Mommy both!

Other than this excitement, we also had a Daddy whose giant tooth had to be pulled and he walked around for a week looking like his wife had clubbed him across his jaw. Accompanied by the aforementioned continuum of annoying little viruses that keep rearing their ugly heads, we are beginning March with a very tired Mommy, and 3 kiddos and Daddy who could all use some rest from the drama, too.

I'm glad to see spring springing. I'm praying winter will leave for good and take the bugs with it. I do still love that we've had so much snow this year, though. Texans have to take what they can get in that department. It could be a hundred years til we see it again!