Sarah was my friend in high school - she was a year ahead of my in school, and did things like field band and color guard with me. I was there for her 16th birthday party, just before things got really bad for her. I haven’t kept in touch, but I’m glad to see how well she’s doing. Read this article!
I went from one insane, politically-charged project with a super-tight deadline to another. Hence the lack of posting. I am, in fact, actually working on said project right now. Well, to be absolutely precise, I’m taking a break for a few minutes. There’s only so long you can stare at an electronic medical record before you stop seeing detail and start making mistakes.
So, Leah’s gone. Her visit was so wonderful - we adore that girl, and I just LOVE having her around. We have a lot in common, so I didn’t feel like she was a guest I had to go out of my way to entertain… it was just easy to be with her. We didn’t do all that much - just lived my life together and hung out - but it was so much more fun than it normally is! We keep ourselves very busy with people and events - Leah knows now that I’m not exaggerating when I say things never slow down. =)
For example. Just this weekend: I will be working 10 hours of OT, a couple of hours for my contracting company (Sedona Learning Solutions), an hour or so catching up on some web admin stuff for NADDI, AND preparing for, then hosting Zach (the teen boy who’ll be “living” with us for July starting this weekend). Then we have a birthday party and an open house.
But, things are starting to get back on track. I’ll have the time to do the things I need to once this project is finished and stops invading my personal life. Maybe I’ll even have a chance to get out there and take some pictures before it’s autumn.
…seems like every time it rains, I leave my car’s sunroof wide open.
The last time it happened, the car was thoroughly soaked (inches of water in the cupholders). This time, just water on (and not in) everything.
To those of you who’ve stopped reading this blog because I haven’t been posting: I’m sorry. I miss you. Come back! I’ll be better to you!
Leah’s been visiting for the last few weeks, and I have a hard time spending time at the computer when I can hang out with her. And there’s been precious little time for even that because of recent events.
A sampling - in one weekend, we went to 3 cookouts. That week, we had a teen from our church living with us while his foster family took a road-trip. The next weekend, we went to a wedding and our car was totalled. That week, Leah and David bought Rock Band (so we played quite a bit). The next weekend, we almost got another dog, and instead bought a new car. All the while, I was involved in a politically charged project at work with a TIGHT timeline. Meaning I was working OT.
Anyway, stories and pictures are forthcoming. I don’t have time right now, but I’ll start posting again in small bits soon.
So, I hurt my knee when I was a kid, and over the years, I’ve had more and more pain. It started hurting after high school (when I wasn’t active and doing sport-style exercise regularly anymore), but was intermittent - I hurt when I did a lot of jumping and running around. Nowadays, it hurts with the weather and pretty much anytime I do any kind of extended activity - even walking.
Which is why I went to the doctor. When your knee swells just from going up and down stairs and walking the dog, there’s an issue.
Long appointment summarized: I probably have some small tears in the cartilage below my kneecap, and as I’ve gotten less active and heavier (I don’t chase kids anymore - I work at a computer), the muscles are weaker and the knee is getting more irritated. Oh yeah, and the kinds of exercise I’ve been trying to do more of (DDR - because it’s FUN - and bike riding) are going to make the pain worse.
The good news is that I’m not deformed (any more than the rest of you freaks) like my doctor told me I might be, but the bad news I’m going to have to do some physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around my knee to take some of the pressure off of the cartilage. That’s not bad, per se - just time consuming, expensive, and uncomfortable. But hey - if it’ll keep my “early onset arthritis” at bay, I’m game. =)
Oh, and check out the fancy pants I had to change into! Yeah, that’s paper:
Here are some random (and I’m not kidding when I say random) photos from the few days it’s been since I blogged. (sorry, no fun stories this time)
David got a few things done around the house. He fixed the trash can. It’s one of those with a pedal, and the pedal hasn’t been lifting the lid. It’s been like this for a month or so, and I was STILL stepping on that pedal. He finally fixed it for me and it works like a dream. Yeah, coat hangers and electrical tape:
He also mowed. It was time:
We’re trying to teach Jake to fetch (consistently). He’s got the idea - we throw, he retrieves - but he gets tired of it after two throws. On the third, he settles down to chew whatever it is we’ve thrown:
We went to Elayne’s second wedding (to the same guy). They were married quickly and rather privately in March because his visa was expiring and he didn’t want to leave her to go back to Colombia. They had their [already planned] and big wedding this past weekend. Elayne and her dad:
On the way home, the clouds were crazy interesting:
And… the ongoing saga of the bathrooms. So, here’s what the paint looked like when we moved in (it’s HORRIBLE):
And here’s David mixing paint just before we painted the room a solid, non-barf-inducing color:
Today was communion Sunday (every first Sunday of the month is at our church). Typically it’s prepared by two deacons (who buy bread and juice and set up the dishes, etc.) and served by those two deacons, the pastor of the church, and his wife. Today was the first time one of our new deacons was signed up for communion - the more experienced deacon brought the juice and Robby, our Director of Children’s Ministry, was in charge of the bread.
There aren’t any rules - we’ve had some interesting communions (onion bread one time - a disaster, grape Kool-Aid another - a good chuckle). We (the deacons) are welcome to bring anything we want, from Matza bread (crackers) to french bread to white bread to pita bread, etc. Robby thought he’d save some time and get something neat - he found these little bread slice-shaped pieces of… bread. Cute, right? And bonus: no prep time.
Turns out, they were as hard as croutons. Turn up your volume and listen to this:
That noise? That’s a sanctuary full of people chomping on huge croutons.
I could NOT stop laughing. By the end of the crunching (about the time PASTOR says “Jesus is crunchy”) I was gasping and crying. I have never laughed this hard in church. I laughed so hard I couldn’t chew the crouton - so I’m crunching into the Pastor’s recitation of the meaning of the cup. When he finished that speech, he served my row - he hands me the tray and says, “something to wash it down with…”
No sooner than I get control of myself and begin pray - this is well into the passing out of the cups, does my husband lean over and say, “we should give a big slurp to go with the crunching.” Of course, I lose it again.
Robby’s new nickname: Captain Crunch. =)
… has met an untimely end. He died today, on our deck. Our dog did his hound dog thing and killed us a rooster. R.I.P., Dumplin’.
Speaking of new tools, check out my post about ScribeFire over at bloggingamigos.net (a group blog I’m starting to post in).
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