Dem Bones #TBTStories

I am joining with Jessica, at themomcreative.com today, for her inaugural Throwback Thursday Stories link-up. Her idea is to go beyond the 'old' photos, and share the stories behind the pictures. If you have read my blog, you know that I love sharing vintage photos, and this is a perfect opportunity to share and record the stories, the feelings, and the memories those photos invoke. Thanks to Jessica for her great idea, and I hope to be a regular participant. I'm guessing that I will be a little lot more 'experienced' than most of the other bloggers, but I think (hope) there is value in community no matter our age or season of life. (Besides, I always enjoy hanging out with the cool, young moms.)

Speaking of 'experienced', I remember my dear mother-in-law loving to tell the story of one of the grandkids telling her that she wasn't old, she was 'expewienced'.

Be sure to click on the button to visit Jessica and the other #TBTStories bloggers. Better yet, join in the storytelling! It's sure to be lots of fun.

I'm sharing an Easter photo of our five, circa 1995. That means they were 12, 10. 9, 7. and 4. The story behind the photo is that if you look closely, you can see two broken arms. (David and Adam, on the right side of the picture.) And there's more.

There were actually three broken arms that occurred at our house in an eight day span. Our niece, Caroline, spent a lot of time at our house back in the day, and she got things started. The kids were at the house, and I left Jim in charge while I went to a meeting or a grocery run or an errand of some sort. When I returned to the house, there was an emergency room discharge paper on the counter.

That's never good.

Turns out Caroline had fallen jumped out of the swing and broken her arm. (As an experienced mom, I have learned that sometimes the full story doesn't come out until much, much later.)

Five days later, David had a friend over, and the boys were playing basketball in the driveway. There was a flagrant foul which resulted in a bad break just below the elbow (or was it just above?). I should add that the foul was not inflicted by the visitor, but by a family member. Oh, brothers.

After an x-ray, our beloved Dr. Hansen sent us on to Cincinnati where we spent the night at the hospital for a late night surgery to put two pins in his arm. My mom went along to the hospital, while Jim stayed home with the other kids.

Three days after that, Adam was pushed, tripped, thrown off the footstool. I knew the arm was broken, and I couldn't. even. do it.

There were tears. His. And mine.

And I sent Jim with him to the ER. Because I couldn't. How could three kids break arms at our house? In eight days? Oh, brothers, and swings, and cousins, and fouls, and tripping, and kids. will. be. kids.

Annnnddd….a week later, we left for spring break at the beach. With two broken arms. I wanted to tell people we had been in a car accident.

Unfortunately, those weren't the only broken arms in the family. I could do an entire broken arm post, starting with my own broken arm from a first grade game of Duck, Duck, Goose. I can even show you my cast. (And the kids' casts, too, of course.)

Thankfully, kids' bones heal quickly, and moms learn that, much as we would like to, we can't clothe them in bubble wrap. But we would if we could. That's just how we roll. (Maybe if we were better at rolling, we wouldn't break so many bones!) Lol.

Have a great #TBTStories day!