Sad news

An avalanche killed my second cousin today. He was a loving husband, father and son. Years ago he freely donated a kidney to his father. The Lord must have needed a valiant spirit and called him home. Our prayers are with his family.

Threads of Happiness

LOVE IT! It makes me want to quilt!

Joelle's Color Wheel Quiltfrom her new book, Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. And here's the fabrics from Purl Soho!

Reading

I love reading. I always have. In grade school, I'd stay up late with a flashlight under the covers reading books like Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables, After the Dancing Days and The Witch of Blackberry Pond. I remember I read this book called "Ghost Cat" and was terrified...I wonder what I would think of it now? Now though I have so much to read - so much I want to read, so much I have to read just to keep up with the world, news, faith, science, motherhood and childrearing, housekeeping, new products and findings in my field, etc. There are Mountains of information out there and my mind wants to download it all - if only there were was the time! Here's a list of my usual reading week: msn news, emails, a number of blogs (on design, scrapbooking, photography, CS2 tuts, decor and recipe/menu planning) scriptures, a number of board books read over and over, magazines (Ensign, JADA, CRA News, JAMA, Office, Parenting, American Baby, etc.).
I just realized how much I read and how much I more I need to. Solution: Sneak a flashlight and the laptop under the bedcovers tonight!

Grab Bag

I just realized while looking at all the post holiday sales...I NEVER EVER have been tempted to buy or will ever buy a "grab bag" or any of those "secret" goodies in a brown bag. You just don't know what you are buying!?! It could be a two headed Purple People Eater for all you know! (I do realize that for some of you this would be a cool thing.) I won't. I can't. Why would you buy something unknown? Oh, I am curious. Powerfully tangerine colored curious. But, not enough to forsake my two dollars! Never mind that by searching my couch I could find 2 dollars in change and satisfy my curiosity! It's the principle! Phooey on all of you making the moolah off the curious that will someday pay for their curiosity like a cat who crosses the street one too many times! But, tell me truthfully: What is in those bags!?!?

Scrappin'

Winter's here!

I'm so glad we took these pics of Princess Pea swinging when we did! The sun was setting and she just kept laughing wanting to swing forever. Now, after snowing all day, there's inches of snow covering the ground - winter is here.

We have just been snug as bugs in our home because first we had the flu and now we have colds. I am trying to disinfect EVERYTHING - from grocery carts to telephones because I'm sick of being sick!

P's new thing is "the pointer". She has now realized that she has separate digits. And she uses them to point quite vaguely at everything she finds of interest.

Earlier we attended the ward Christmas party bowing out early because of P's bedtime. John's up playing Xbox with "the guys" which mostly means across the states UofM friends. I'm here doing my digiscrapping and watching tuts. Tucker looks out the window and occasionally barks under his breath at the offending Christmas lights. Basically, a peaceful night in for us!

Jurors and Verdicts

Okay, so we were a little disappointed by the doctor's prognosis a week or so ago...I'm healing (that's the good thing) in the middle, but the sides are still pretty broken (that's the bad thing). Verdict: TWO MORE MONTHS OF LIMPING AND BOOTING AROUND. Lovely.
Say "sayonara chucky" to the April half marathon. I'll just have to find an autumn one I guess. I was thinking of making a vector-like Tshirt to run in...something with a girl and 2 broken legs, a baby...maybe with a saying like, "Mommy's life IS a marathon!" ....hmmm.... I'm still working on it. I really like all the new things I'm learning on Photoshop. I like the vector girls and the styles. I'm hopefully going to make my own cool brushes too. This is quite the engrossing hobby. My beginner "scrapbooky" pages I now want to redo with all my new knowledge. I'll work on some and then post them. My goal is to have all this year done before it is 2008!
Gotta go now, John's wanting to watch the newest "Chuck" online. Pretty funny show if you don't have to watch commercials!
P.S. Did I tell you that I was selected for Juror Duty a few weeks ago!!! Of course, when you break your legs, are unemployed and you have a baby is the perfect time to serve our judicial system. I sent a waiver and then they sent a postcard that basically said, "See you in May when you are healed!" Quite nervy of them if you ask me to say that! I'm sure that I should be honored by their intentions to help me serve my country.

Daily Tasks And Revving Up for the Game

Saturday is the BIG Michigan-Ohio State Game! So I dressed Princess Pea to give some school spirit.

Last Night's Dinner: Shrimp Tacos Rated: 5 stars! SeaPac Fiesta Shrimp, Cabbage, Joe's Salsa, Tomatillo Ranch Dressing and Tortillas
Tonight's Dinner: Spaghetti and Meatballs (Rachel Ray recipe modified) Meatballs: 1 pounds ground sirloin,2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 egg , 1/2 cup Italianbread crumbs, a couple of handfuls, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, 2 cloves garlic chopped, handfull dried onions, Salt and pepper 425F for 12 minutes serve with whole wheat noodles and modified sauce, romaine salad


Princess Pea's New Game: No Hands! She stands and balances and then you let go saying, "no hands!" letting her stand for a few seconds before catching her again.

My Project: ModgePodge Christmas letters and "His Gift"
I painted and modge podged a cardboard letter "C" for Christmas and did the same thing to some used formula cans. On the cans I'm going to put either He is the Reason for the Season or His Gift and then have the family put a gift they will give the savior every week in December.

Halloween Day 2007

Which pumpkin is the cutest? Princess Pea with our basket of mini pumpkins we grew in our yard!

Here is the Piece de Resistance! Her as: THE ZEBRA

Princess Pea's First Halloween

Here's pics of our house a la Halloween!
The witch on your right and the quilted pumpkin on your left are made by my Mom! I played with that pumpkin every Halloween when I was little and now PrincessPea will too. My favorite is the haunted house, cats and witches silhouettes we made for the outside decor!
Our Halloween started early as Hubby got ready for work in h work. PrincessPea and I enjoyed our morning cleaning and getting packed up to go visit Daddy at work. Believe it or not, but the whole morning consisted of dressing, breakfast, diaper chais costume - Evil Genius Mad Scientist. L3 always has a costume contest and Hubby's coworkers have a lot of fun dressing up fornges, clean up after breakfast, a few laundry loads, bottles, naptime, packing the diaper bag, getting costumes ready, finally getting me ready, waking up from naps, more diapers, costume change and packing car with stroller, diaper bag, baby, dog, crutches, me...oh, yeah go back into the house and get cell phone and turn off all lights...out of house time: 12:15pm. Only to realize the car was on E for EMPTYof gas! Arrgh! Now this wouldn't be so bad usually, but when you have been off your feet for 6 weeks there are a few difficulties like: not knowing where my credit card was placed after being borrowed to run an errand for me. But, luckily I had $20 cash! But now I had to not only get in and out of the car with my big booted sore feet but also figure out someway to pay inside with PrincessPea not left alone in the car! Needless to say, I did it. But let's just say Hubby is in charge of keeping the cars on F for FULL until I heal completely from now on.
We did make it to Daddy's work though. And all of his coworkers came trouping out (because of the tight security, 8 month olds are not allowed inside.) All the coworkers were all dressed up soooo great, but the best was the 1986 David Bowie from Labrinth costume! (Please imagine how a sock roll allowed a completely acurate in the downstairs region!) Classic. I'll try to get a pic to post. The coworkers are the best and so sweet. Despite all our challenges to get there, it was really nice to have somewhere to go and visit for a bit.
Then we left them to go back to work.
And we packed up our menagerie and headed for home. When we got there, AuntieSh and Grandma had stopped by to say, "Hi". CuzKate called and suggested we go out to lunch, so we all met at the Citrus Grill. LilL has grown up so much. Pea sat in the high chair and was distracted from eating crayons and paper by using my keys as a rattle and using a soup spoon as a baton. It was a nice visit.
Back home and then not long after Hubby arrived home too. We did a brief visit to UncleCh. and AuntLi's. Then mosied home for the Trick or Treaters and homemade taco soup (great easy recipe - remind me to post it!). We gave out handfuls of treats to about 30 treaters. PrincessPea the Zebra loved seeing all the people. And Tucker didn't bark once at the strange monsters prowling our neighborhood!

Up and at 'em

Yep, so time has shown that I'm not the greatest blogger. But I will endeavor to be better!
Here's what's going on now:
I'm up and at 'em. I rarely use my crutches now! Yippee! I am a bit disappointed that nearly ALL of my footwear is taboo for a while (it seems that 2 inch heels or more are not conducive to healing...who would have thought?) So basically I'm left to look like a cheesy gym teacher in sneakers all the time.

Princess Pea turned into a real Daddy's girl with Mommy down for the count. Since Daddy gets her out of her crib in the morning and has done a lot more of the care taking when he's home than I have the last 6 weeks, I guess it is only fair. Honestly, at times I was sad I wasn't the current favorite - but it is sooo cute to see them together that I just couldn't be truly sad. She just lights up when Daddy gets home from work. If she's in the walker, she raises her hands up high and waves them while walking as fast as she can toward him. Then, when he picks her up, she's a little possum the whole night not letting go!

P now climbs the stairs like she's training for Mt. Kilimanjaro. She also learned to clap today! At first I knew she could clap when you clapped but then I learned that someone can say, "Clap!" and she's just starts clapping - without any actual clapping noises though because she misses her hands every fourth time or so and even when she gets them together it's super quiet. She's just our little light of our life. (Pictures of Daddy and Pea in June at Nags Head. Pea is getting her first experience of the ocean and notice cousin Grace buried in the background! )

You all know how much I love love love Halloween. Not the scary stuff but the make believe cutesy stuff. So I'll tell you what we're all being for Halloween...I know that the suspense has been killing you and maybe a surprise would be great....BUT I thought why not get them thinking about how great we're going to look - now THAT's suspense!
Daddy - MAD SCIENTIST
Mommy - Cute PURPLE HAIRED WITCH
Princess Pea - ZEBRA
Tucker the dog - LOBSTER
Duncan the cat- HIMSELF
Whoa. It is going to be great.

Rolling and crawling

Well, it has been 2 weeks in this wheelchair. I have a lot of admiration for those who spend more time in one than I will. I feel like have been given a teeny tiny insight into their world. I have just 1 more week to go, although the fam warns me not to get too excited if I need to use it during the weeks of crutches. I have been able to cope quite easily the last 2 weeks. The hardest things are not being able to get on the ground to play with Princess Pea and watching Hubby and my Mom transplant all her plants to my yard and not being able help. I entertained the thought of army crawling through the grass to get to dig, but then my legs would start hurting and set me back to reality. Army crawling does sound nice considering all my muscles are screaming to be stretched and used. I think I'm going crazy from the lack of movement. Surprisingly, I have had enough patience to handle most of the limitations the wheelchair has set on my mobility - I think it helps that I know it is temporary and if anything can teach you patience - dental school can! There are plenty of things that could burst one's bubble like: I get stuck routinely in the hallway outside the bathroom or I am pretty slow in the carpet. But overall this house is a wonderful house to get around in. The hallways are mostly wide with tile and the kitchen is big enough to get around in. The bottom cabinets all pull out. The master is on the main floor. It could be a lot worse - like being in my old apartment with 2 stories of stairs!

Dad even built me the OMEGA RAMP that could be permanent from the looks of it in the garage and John and Mike built me a ramp for the back deck. Hubby, Pea and I go on "walks" with me holding Pea Pod and Hubby driving us around the block a few times every night. Sometimes he goes "turbo" and starts jogging. Pea and I love that! It is nice to get outside and breathe the early autumn air. I love this time of year; it is probably my favorite time of year with the leaves and crisp morning air. Summer flowers giving their final salute and pruning and planting bulbs for the next spring. It is a farewell with the hope of a "Hello" in the future months. I can't wait to see those daffodils nodding hello to me this spring!
The very best part of this last week was when I decided to videotape Princess Pea's attempts at crawling - which were just adorable! Either her hands would both move and she'd do a face plant or she'd raise her whole body in the air like she was doing army push ups. But then, right in the middle of my taping, she does it! She's crawling! This tiny little crawl that is absolutely adorable. She's slow so you'd think that you'd be able to contain her, but no, she's everywhere now! She's my little scooterbug!

Became Blogger by Bones

Well, there are some words that define who I am: Wife, mother, dentist, sister, inquisitive, stubborn, daughter, christian LDS, digiscrapper, gardener, brunette, and now.......blogger. Why now? Perhaps my inner self wanted to express itself and lack of grammar skills to the world or perhaps this is a way to track Princess Pea's milestones or maybe, just maybe... I have two broken legs allowing me to spend enthralling hours of time sitting in one of three places: the bed, the wheelchair, or the couch. And thus begins my illustrious career as a blogger; will I be successful at this new endeavor? Time will only tell... and I do have the time.

Here's the story, Morning Glory: On Thursday, September 6th the A family had successfully married off yet another daughter: my sister, Kristie to the honorable Jon G. Tired from the planning and execution of such an endeavor, we retreated for rest and relaxation to "the cabin" - in the beautiful High Uintas. Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, Lewis clan, hubby and I were loving the beautiful Friday evening in the Basin. We saw 5 deer eating in the alfalfa field just feet away from the cabin. Dad took E. and I took Pea out to see them. ( I am quite sure a 6 month old and 1 year old would appreciate these animals and remember them for years to come!) It is an important detail to note that Pea Pod was wearing the most adorable chipmunk hat - complete with little ears. As I gracefully descended the stairs outside the cabin, I inexplicably slipped on something. I see the concrete driveway become closer. All I think is to protect Livy from the fall. I twist holding onto the handrail to slow my fall. I hear a "crack" and think, "I've broken something." I fall on my backside. Princess Pea's scared and crying. Instantly she's picked up by someone...I don't remember who. They said "The baby's okay." I say, "It's broken" Dad and hubby try to get me to stand up, but I can't. Suddenly I'm boosted into Dad's new Chevrolet truck and hubby jumps in the back. I didn't even know if Dad or Grandpa was driving until we were almost to Altamont. We had 40 minutes of driving ahead to get to Roosevelt Hospital. I was pretty chatty the whole time - commenting on the passing owl, how I was planning an emergency kit and maps to the hospital as a Christmas gift and wasn't thinking I would ever need to use them. Dad is quite other than once in awhile trying to convince me or himself that I couldn't have broken anything by that fall. I looked at my unusually distended ankles and thought silently otherwise. At 7pm,
Roosevelt Hospital was dark. I am put in one of the curtained rooms and overhear a mother telling the doctor about a baby's ongoing spit-up even though she's visited the ER three times. I sit in my wheelchair and wonder where I am in the ER priority list. The baby scale is in my room and I get a glimpse of a large baby that could have played a part in Seinfeld - you all know the episode, so I won't say anything more.
Being someone with some medical knowledge I ask for some ice and to elevate my feet. Eventually, I get radiographs (having to boost myself up onto the bed!) Let's see, what am I needing xrays of?....oh yes, BOTH my legs.
Some time later a young man comes in and says, "You've broken your legs HERE. You will need an appointment with a bone doctor on Monday. " He then walks away. I say to his retreating back, "Thank you.... Dr....?" and he mumbles something without even turning around. Obviously the Seinfeld baby was more interesting or he was missing the end of his Lifetime movie. Sigh.
After asking for copies of the radiographs a couple of times and then asking if I may have some pain killers and perhaps a shot to get me through the 2 and a half hour drive to Salt Lake City, I am handed some crutches. And told I can leave. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOSPITAL! My husband and Dad say, "We're going to wheel her out in the wheelchair." No one came with us. Question: Is this a hospital? Yep, there's the big "H" outside on the building. Maybe that stands for "Who cares?" and they didn't realize that who starts with a "W" instead of "H". Hmmm...
Anyway, luckily, my LDS bishop is an ER doctor in Salt Lake. After consulting the radiographs he said I broke my left tibia and some metatarsals in my right foot. Luckily, this tibia break is one of the few tibia fractures that doesn't need surgery! Hurray! We are so blessed! But I do have to wear a huge boot on the left and a small wrapped boot on the right. Weeks in the wheelchair. Weeks after that on crutches. And three months after that until I can do anything other than a lazy stroll. Yep, I feel the blogger begin to take form inside me - please stayed tuned for: Tile vs. Carpet: a detailed wheelchair analysis of friction!