...and great was the fall of it.

"...and great was the fall of it." is a reference from the New Testament, Matthew 7:27.  It's the last scripture in the parable of the wise and foolish men and their real estate choices.

The "great fall" aspect took on new meaning here last night when we had our own "great fall."  And it was epic.  It did not involve our old house falling down.  It involved CAL falling down.  Facefirst.  Hard.

Here's what happened:  our church youth group was honoring the graduating seniors and while CAL has not attended the youth group since she turned 18, she was invited to attend this event.  After some goofy stories about the seniors, it was time for games.  Twenty plus teenagers on an indoor basketball court playing "Criss Cross."  A recipe for disaster.  In the first round, four kids had to hop on one foot across the gym to their respective opposite corner without slamming into one another.  Unfortunately, there was no warning about not slamming into the ground.  This would have been useful information for CAL.  She was the first one out of the gate for her team.  She went out blazing, skillfully hopping on one foot.  She stumbled slightly and jumped right up, moving fast, and then, WHAM!, she went down.  Full face-plant.  No time to get her arms out to break her fall.  She broke her fall with her face.  There was even a little bounce to her head when she hit the floor.  At first, stunned silence and then laughter (I mean, you're going to get laughter with a bunch of teen-age boys hanging around.  You also get laughter from guilty-as-charged arrested adolescent dads - me).  CAL got right up and looked a little dazed but still made it to her corner.  Suffice to say, she didn't win.

By the time I got to her corner, I could see her lip was already swelling.  The moms assembled were quick to take action.  Ice to the lip, which, as it turns out, she pretty much bit all the way through.  And then it looks like her nose got broken again.  A full Marcia Brady "oh my nose" moment:

So it was time for a remorseful dad (I really did feel bad for laughing) to take his wounded daughter home.  The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML is far better equipped to handle medical drama/trauma and handle it she did.  It was decided to not make a trip to the ER.  Lots of ice and pain relievers.

CAL's in pretty decent shape this morning.  She refused to go to school, understandably.  I'm not going to fight her on this one.  The delicate female psyche is not to be trifled with when you've used a hardwood basketball floor as a full-stop braking device.  The good news is that her humor is certainly in good shape.  She laughed when she got this text from one of the boys who witnessed the event:  "Hope you had a nice trip.  See you next fall."  I've now got to concentrate on recovering from my "Bad Dad" laughing reaction.  I suppose it's the way we (men) cope when something like this happens.  I really did, and still do, feel badly about this.  You never want to see your child, no matter how old he/she is, hurting.