The Cast of Eternal Stench

(Bonus points to anyone who knows what I am referencing in the title of this post).

So, remember a few weeks ago when Dax got his cast?  Today was the day when he finally, finally, FINALLY got to get it taken off.

Okay, okay, so it hasn't reeeally been that long.  It has been less than four weeks since he broke his elbow.  So, why all of the hurry to free his arm from the cast?  Let me tell explain...

The cast itself isn't that bad to look at...remember how his whole class signed it?  Pretty cool actually:

It hasn't really even been too much of a hassle.  Seriously, besides the fact that Dax has a hard time getting shirts on and off, it hasn't made too much of a difference in his life at ALL.  He still runs hard, he still plays hard, and he even took his turn as goalie for his soccer team on Saturday (I know, right?  He just kicked the ball away instead of trying to grab it and getting kicked in the cast, thank goodness.  He didn't allow a single goal, in case you were wondering).  Over my objections, Preston even took him on a "very slow" ride on the waverunner last Saturday afternoon at Willard Bay.  Luckily for everyone involved (mostly Preston) Dax didn't get wet, since it was not a waterproof cast.

However, since Dax hasn't slowed down much means his cast has kind of paid the price....the white part that peeks out from underneath was now more of a funky greyish yellowish color.  Some of the names were wearing off.  And...most importantly...

That.  Cast.  STANK.

It didn't stink.  It STANK.  It was STANKY.  I noticed it about a week and a half into cast-ness, after a hot day.  Dax's hair was pretty messed up after school, so I could tell he had sweated off his hair gel during recess (sidenote:  Can anyone recommend a hair gel that will withstand a 3 recesses of 6-year old playing?).  As I put him in bed that night, I caught a whiff of something that smelt like...well, feet.  Only worse.  

Dax had just had a bath, so I checked his feet to try and figure out how they could smell like that.  They were fine and sweet-smelling (well, as sweet-smelling as 6-year-old feet can be, anyway).  Then when my nose moved past his arm again, it dawned on me.  It wasn't feet I was smelling.  It was unwashed, closed in, sweaty dirty CAST.  I got a washcloth and cleaned his hand off as best I could, but it didn't help.  The stank was coming from deep within the cast.  Yay.

As the days went on, the smell did not improve.  It wasn't noticeable unless the cast was very near your face, but if it did get near your face, boy howdy, look OUT.  It was foul.  I mentioned to Dax a few days ago how excited I was to throw his cast in the garbage, and he started to whine about how he wanted to keep it as a souvenir.  Um, sorry dude.  I can't think of any possible scenarios where that is going to occur.  He asked me why, and so I told Dax to try to smell his cast.  He got his hand as close to his face as he could....it was close enough.  He took a whiff, then pulled a face and said, "Ew" in a way that would make Jimmy Fallon proud.  Amen, my son.  Ew.

This morning as I was helping Dax into his shirt, I mentioned how it would be the last time we would have to fit it around his cast!  He looked a little sad, but he no longer asked if he could keep the cast forever and ever.  If a smell is repugnant to a first-grade boy, you know it can't be good.  

Dax was a little concerned about HOW they were going to get the cast off.  He told me he thought they would have to use a hammer.  I told him no, they have a special "pizza cutter" thing they use (carefully avoiding the word "saw").  He wasn't scared at all as they cut that thing off (though the guy cutting it off looked a little concerned about what he might find growing up inside of there).

When they finally cracked the cast open and cut off all the padding, there was nothing but a skinny arm inside.  Well, and some sand.  It was a very dirty, nappy, malodorous, dead-skin kind of skinny arm, though.

The doctor showed Dax the gross interior of his cast, said something like, "wow, look at that," and quickly tossed it into the garbage chute.  Bless you, sir, for not asking us if we wanted to keep it. 

I got the go-ahead from the doctor and immediately drug Dax over to the sink and used up half a bottle of soap scrubbing the gunk off there.  

Ahhhhh...

The sweet smell of non-stank.  

Fummer/Satumn Stuff

We are settling in to our school routine.  And it. is. BUSY!  On any given day we are juggling carpool, two kids playing soccer, gymnastics, play dates, tumbling, activity days for Arden, Young Womens' for me, not to mention homework, chasing the dog around, trying to fit work, chores, blah blah blah, so the blog is suffering, and I apologize.  Here is some catching up, some good, some bad.

Update on the dog: Olive is settling in and surviving pretty well.  The kids haven't completely torn her in half.  However, Cora has carried her around so much, that when Olive sees Cora coming, she kind of tries to get out of the way.  She likes to chew on everyone's socks and shoes, and really enjoys eating the dried-up worms off of the sidewalk (ew.)

We even took the dog on her first trip to the cabin last weekend, and she was a champ!  Even though summer is still in full swing at home (it has been in the 90s for the last few days), up in the mountains, FALL HAS ARRIVED.

We went on a couple of hikes to soak up some colors.  Here is my beautiful Arden, posing with the beautiful leaves in the beautiful sunshine:

More leaves, more sunshine, more happy.

Aw, look at this!  What a cute puppy following my favorite people!  (If only that puppy could just learn not to pee on my carpet!)

It was pretty warm, so we took a walk down by the beach, and Preston wanted to see if the dog would follow him into the cold water.  She would!

And then she looked HILARIOUS with her little chicken legs under her fluffy little body!  I couldn't stop laughing.

Next day...more hiking, more crazy beautifulness:

View up the hill from our cabin:

Up higher on the hill:

Unfortunately, while we were out enjoying ourselves some late summer/early autumn (fummer?  Sautumn?), my poor grandma was NOT enjoying herself.  She fell and broke her hip last week.  After she finally got to the hospital, the surgery went really well and she has a brand new titanium hip ball.  Dax was so excited to push her in her wheelchair the last time we went to visit her in her new digs at the rehab facility:

We love you, Grandma!  We hope you are back on your feet soon!

Well, that is all I got for now, hopefully I will get back on my blog groove now.

Meet Olive

So, this happened....

Last weekend at Bear Lake, one day we were down at the beach and a big yeller dog came bounding up to us with a stick in his mouth.  We played fetch with this friendly dog for about 20 minutes, and the kids were in absolute heaven.  They were so sad when his owner came to bring him home.  I could see the gears in Preston's head working, but I didn't think they would work this fast.  Last night, he really wanted to take a drive to "look" at some puppies, and we came home with this little girl:

She is a 1/4 Golden Retriever, 3/4 poodle (and she doesn't shed!)  We decided to name her Olive.

She is a VERY sweet puppy, which is good for all of us because she has had to put up with a LOT today.  All three of the kids want to be touching her 24 hours a day.  I have witnessed a puppy tug-of-war with a girl on each end at least 3 times today.  Cora wants to carry her around everywhere like a teddy bear, and so does Arden.  Olive hasn't growled a single growl or nipped a single nip.  She just looks at me, pleading with her eyes for help (like this):

She is only 11 weeks old, and has a LOT to learn, but she can sort of play fetch with a tennis ball, and loves to run around with the kids.

 By the end of the day, she was pretty worn out:

Say a prayer for Olive that she can survive until she is too heavy to carry around.

First Week of School - Oh the Places We'll Go

Back to the first day of school!  Here are the obligatory first-day of school pictures.   

Cora (a.k.a. my baby), is in KINDERGARTEN!

 Dax (a.k.a. my baby boy), is off to FIRST GRADE:

Arden (a.k.a. my first baby), is all ready for THIRD grade (what??):

 

The theme at school this year is "Oh, The Places You'll Go" from Dr. Seuss.  I have always loved that book.  Okay, guys!  Today is your day!  You're off to great places, you're off and away!  

With your brains in your head and your feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose!

First, we chose to take Arden to her class since she was experienced at this school stuff.  I was actually surprised at how nervous she was as we took her into her classroom.  She knew she had friends in her class and we had heard her teacher was good, but she still looked scared and sad as I hugged her goodbye.  Luckily, one of her best friends came in right after her and they sat together for the first week, which helped a lot, especially that first day.

Dax was really excited to finally start first grade!  He was mostly excited to eat lunch at school and get THREE recesses.  He wasn't nervous AT ALL and smiled and waved happily as I walked out of his classroom.  It made it much easier for me not to be too much of a crybaby.  (Pleeeeease be good, Dax!)

I really had no time to be much of a boob, because I had to head right over to kindergarten with Cora for her first-day orientation.  Cora was kind of disappointed that she only got to be at school for an hour on the first day.  For the next couple of days the kindergartners went in one at a time to do testing, so Cora was really feeling left out of the whole school thing, as she watched Arden and Dax go without her.  Don't worry Cora!  Soon you'll escape all the waiting and staying, before long you will be the one learning and playing!

Dax and Arden seemed to be doing okay the first couple of days.  Dax got in some trouble for playing too rough at recess, but other than that things were going pretty well!  On Wednesday we found a good place to go, and finally took ourselves to the Ogden Temple open house.  It was so beautiful with the sunset!

The kids were really good, and loved to have me tell them about when they were in the temple as babies.  I loved to remember it too,but it doesn't seem that long ago to me.  But somehow my babies are not so little anymore!  But they are still cute:

Finally, Thursday came and it was Cora's official first day of kindergarten.  When it was time for them to go in, Cora gave me a little wave and happily went to class.  She was all ready to go, with her head full of brains and her shoes full of feet.  Oh, my heart hurts a little.

Cora loved her first day!

Only one early-out Friday to go, then Labor Day weekend will be a nice rest.

However....

Around lunchtime on Friday, the school called.  When I saw the number on the caller ID, my first thought was that Dax was in some kind of trouble.  Turns out, I was kind of right.  Dax had fallen off the monkey bars and was hurt.  Preston was working from home, so I asked him to watch Cora while I went to check on Dax.  As soon as I opened the doors to the school, I heard Dax crying from down the hall, and I could tell that something was really wrong.  I got to the office and saw that Dax was holding his right arm.  He wouldn't move it at all or let anyone touch it.  He couldn't even get up from the chair, so I had to carry him out to the car.  I called Preston to let him know I wouldn't be home and headed to the Instacare, feeling pretty sure that we had a broken arm on our hands. Sorry, buddy, but sadly it's true.  Bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you.

Yup, after the Instacare nurse nearly drove me crazy by making Dax stand against the wall to get measured and walk over to the scale to get weighed, we finally got some X-rays.  Official diagnosis: Type 1 supracondylar fracture...a.k.a. a broken elbow.  Bummer!

 Dax got some medicine, a splint and a sling, and started feeling much better.  We were slated to do the annual Zaugg family camping weekend, but of course we couldn't make Dax sleep on the ground with a broken arm.  Lucky for us, the camp out was being held at Bear Lake this year, and we happen to know somewhere near there that has nice soft beds for boys with broken arms.  Dax really wanted to go, and even though he was sad not to sleep in a tent, he decided the cabin would be okay.  So, we decided to pack up anyway and head right out of town.  It was a really pretty weekend, if a little cool. The lake was sooo blue:

I did a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures.  It was a little cold for waverunning, but we tried it a couple of times anyway.  Mostly we just spent time with family, hanging out around the campfire.  Dax was pretty good at just playing at a slow pace, and spent a lot of time just hanging out in the hammock.  Cora and Arden and all the girl cousins had a great time making up dances on the little outdoor stage near the campsite.  We had a fun weekend, and I must admit I didn't feel too bad about missing out on sleeping in the tent.

Dax finally got his cast on Monday, and can you guess what color he chose?  Yup.  Green.

 His whole first grade class signed it for him today, and he was pretty excited.

So...there was some good and quite a bit of bad that first week or so of school.  Hopefully week two can be better.  We are ready to move some mountains.

So, be your name Daxton or Arden or Bray,

Or Corbiecakes Ali Van Allen O'Shay,

You're off to great places,  

You're off and away!

Your mountain is waiting.

So, get on your way.

But stay off the monkey bars.