Big Chief "Broken Elbow"

Casey in the emergency room of our local hospital in severe pain. He had just been given some pain medication through his IV and I got out my cell phone to photograph his adventure!!!
Look at the size of his broken elbow and arm compared to the other arm!!! It swelled up even more and has continued to swell. He can not have a hard cast until the swelling goes down next Wednesday (maybe). He is still very swollen today. So we will see if he gets casted next week or not;-).
His elbow and arm began to also turn a nice color of purple. He does have a soft cast, but, every movement is very painful for him. He is taking pain meds round the clock, sleeping in the rocker-recliner, and keeping an ice pack on his arm to hopefully get the swelling down.

Casey resting in his chair in lots of pain!!!I made him lay on the patio today so he could get a little fresh air. He was not too happy about leaving his easy chair;-).

Well....Last week was a bit crazy. It seems we have a new Indian Chief among us named Broken Elbow. Casey was having a wonderful time with DeeDee and Trisha riding the ATV. They were all running like wild cowboys and Indians over the prairie. Life was all good. Here are a few pictures of the girls and Casey in their vehicle. I am always telling them to respect this toy and use it with caution. After each hill run they would return home to report in to me. Then they would get a drink and refresh before trading drivers and passengers. Only Casey, DeeDee, Karissa, Christian, and Trisha are heavy enough to ride in my opinion.

They go to an area near our house where there are huge hills of dirt to ride on. The kids have been going to ride on these same hills all summer and nothing had changed. Only there was one huge problem when Casey and DeeDee switched hills. A construction of a new neighborhood is being built near the dirt mounds. When Casey (driver) and DeeDee (passenger) went up the side of this familiar hill, all was the same, until they began to descend.

There on the other side was a sudden drop off where a bull dozier had scooped out a huge chunk of dirt. They flipped nose first into a roll over. Thanks be to God that they had on helmets and were wearing their seat belts. However, Casey broke his elbow and fractured his humorous bone by his elbow!!!! DeeDee was not injured, but, they both had seat belt burns on their necks.

Casey has now learned how extremely painful a broken bone is and also has developed a great respect (maybe fear) of our ATV!!!! It is a wonderful toy and I am thankful Duane bought a type with a roll cage for safety. Guess Casey is out of the ATV for the rest of the summer and can not swim either until his hard cast comes off some time in August. He will miss the swim season (for the most part) this summer and he must be very careful with that arm for one year to completely allow healing.

So it was quiet a day we had last Wednesday. The other awful part was that I kept looking at my watch and thinking "Wow...Casey and DeeDee have been gone way too long this round of riding. I pray they are okay". Naturally when they are out riding it makes me nervous worrying about them. Unfortunately, Casey did not have a cell phone with him as it had run out of charge!!! Gee, I guess he should make sure the cell phone is charged before going out:-).

When they stopped rolling over...Casey said (as they hung upside down) he was afraid of gasoline or something else and so he unsnapped DeeDee (she dropped to the ground) and told her to get away from the machine. He then unbuckled his belt and dropped to the top of the roll cage in extreme pain. He told DeeDee to run over to the construction workers and get help. Fortunately, a good friend of ours, was working in one of the new houses being built and got Casey out of the ATV. Casey was in so much pain he could not get to his feet and move away from the ATV.

Katie Aunna had been begging all day to ride and I would not let her...thank the Lord!!! She was disappointed that she was not allowed to ride;-(. The second picture is of one of Casey's riding buddies on his off road bike. In the next picture Katie Aunna begs one last time to ride and is told NO. It was this run that Casey and DeeDee experienced the rollover!!!

Our friend called Kisty at work and she came to pick Casey up and bring him to me. I could not leave as I had six kids in the pool. So Kisty came rushing across town to the scene of the accident. Also, one of our service trucks was in the area and two of Duane's employees turned the ATV over and drove it home for us. God bless them for being so thoughtful and helpful. Kisty brought Casey here and we decided Kisty should take her medical POA for the kids and take him to the emergency room. He was so sick with pain!!!

I called my girlfriend at her work and she immediately came home to watch the kids while I went up to meet Kisty and Casey in the ER. The other kids were swimming while the bigger kids rode the ATV. I started pulling kids out of the water right and left while my GF was on her way. Duane was OUT of town working. So, anyway...this is the story of the big chief "Broken Elbow" as the kids called him when he got home!!!!

I also have other news to post about. But, first my cousin Debra (lives here in Clovis) mentioned that I have not put any pictures of our pet Gracie Belle on the blog. So here is Gracie Belle Gartner looking very content in this picture. I was thinking maybe (in the next photo) I should attach a handle to her back and she would make a nice dust mop......hahaha!!!!!

Anyway...the big news for today is that John-John swims beautifully without his floaties. My goal for him was to swim this summer without them and today this has become a wonderful reality. I have to brag that he can swim under the water and pop up for a quick breath and back under to swim. Also, he can swim to the side and grab hold when he needs a breathing break. He is so COOL!!! He has also been asking to go pee-pee in the potty now and never has a pooh accident. He has been dry for five days today!!!! Looks like he will be in big boy undies by end of summer. He is doing so wonderfully!!! The best part for me...NO MORE DIAPERS!!!!

Here are a few pictures by special request also. My cousin in Seattle wanted me to post a picture of Duane and I...so here it is;-).

In the above pictures I thought John-John was so cute playing outside today. I am also proud to announce that John-John has removed his floaties and is a fish like the rest of the bunch. He is NOW ABLE TO SWIM!!!! Yeah for John!!!!!! Hope you enjoyed the update. Who knows what excitement will occur next week. Hope it is a little calmer here.

The pictures of the girls are pretty cute, too!!! They had a matroshka and each SISTER represented one of them;-). I thought that was pretty cool that they knew the nesting dolls were sisters and so are they. So they proudly held as their representation of being sisters and wanted me to take their picture;-).

Oh...BTW....I am still on my cleaning binge and have completed several items on my "to do" list. Garage looks great, our classroom is ready for the new Fall session, and one of the kids closets is straightened out. My next task is to have something very interesting to tell you about next weekend. However, I must clean out my huge closet first. I will explain further later;-)))). Many blessings to you!!!!