No Foolin'

What is the one day that strikes dread into the heart of an educator? April Fool's. You pray every year that it will be on the weekend. No luck this year. It was here in all of its glory. As a teacher in kindergarten, most April Fool's you hear are things like "There is a snake on your head..." or "There is a bear behind you..." It is bad enough that I have kids at home just waiting to strike with the bad jokes, but then to go to school and face it...almost unbearable. :) However, the joke was on me. Not ONE kiddo in my class mentioned it was April Fool's. Had the principal deadpan a few things but that was about it!

On another "not fooling" note, just call us the not so young and the injured. My foot has still not healed. No, I am sure it has NOTHING to do with me hiking last weekend. :) I have been wearing an ankle brace on it which doesn't quite cover the sore part but at least holds it still and in position when I walk. It isn't the kind of pain I cannot bear, though I would sure prefer not to!

However, Mark apparently was envious of all of the attention I was receiving (not really) and decided in true male competitive spirit to outdo me. Last night I ran some much needed errands. I then came home so that Mark could go to the gym for a pick up game of basketball. He left right around 8. At 8:30, I heard the garage door go up. I was so puzzled. I really figured the game had fallen through. Hunter, much wiser than me, said, "Oh, no, I bet he got hurt..." And sure enough he had. About seven or eight years ago, Mark had "blown out" his knee in a flag football game. I still remember trying to take a nap on a weekend when the phone rang. I didn't even answer the first few times it rang because I was trying to sleep. Finally I picked up to hear that some friends were en route to the ER with Mark. About six months later, he felt like he had healed enough and attempted a game of basketball. However, there is something about that basketball jump, he tweaked it again. And last night? He hadn't even started playing the game. He was warming up. Yes, warming up. He did a similar jump to the one years ago and got the same result.

As of right now, it is very swollen. And he is very uncomfortable. He is trying to sleep but keeps moving around. He didn't even go out to work today; he worked from home in a seated position. That tells you how bad it must hurt because he NEVER does that.

Thankfully one of the parents of one of my students had offered me crutches a couple weeks ago with my foot (which I probably should have done...probably still should). I saw her today at the school and asked if we could use them for Mark. Thank you, Stacey, for sharing! My favorite part? When she had used them after surgery, she had wrapped some towel around them for cushion (the part that goes under the arm) and then wrapped a piece of fabric around that...zebra print. I thought for sure that Mark would take it off immediately but so far he thinks it is kind of cool. We will see how he feels about that when he goes OUT to work tomorrow...

We are quite a sight. He was reclining but wanted to eat. I hobbled over warm up his dinner and then limped over to him to give him his food. The joys of it all...

More later,
Reba
PS The biggest/longest joke played on me this year? A few weeks ago, my mom started spotting a sparkly stud on her nose. I asked her if she got it pierced for real and she was very vague. The funny thing is that it truly wouldn't surprise me if she had. Anyway, for the next few weeks, she has had it. My daughter has asked her all kinds of questions about how it feels, how you change it, etc. I found out today via Facebook that it was her April Fool's Joke on me. It really isn't pierced. And the bigger joke? The big kids were in on it...our daughter has been faking her questions/curiosity all along! I don't know if I should be impressed or worry that she can pull that off...