Quiet Little Lessons

A couple of nights ago we had a really good/bad storm. Good if you like high winds, lightning and thunder. Bad if you don't. And bad if it really was a teeny tiny tornado--not sure.

The next day (yesterday), we were out running errands and drove by a neighbor's/ward member's/friend's house who I know is on vacation. I thought, as I drove by, "Hmm...everything looks okay. Can't really see the back...."

When we got home, I got a phone call from my friend. She had heard about the storm and wondered if anyone could/would check on her house. I told her that we had driven by and everything looked okay. "I didn't really see the back, but it looks fine."

That afternoon, James and I were out and about and we drove by again. This time I slowed down and looked more carefully. "Yeah, still can't really see the back, but it looks good," I thought. As I got to the end of the street, I told James that was just going to whip through the alley--just to make sure. Now I get totally confused in our alleys. They wind around and I have no idea where I am. So...I got to a T in the alley and wondered, "Where the heck am I? Which way do I turn to get to their house? Ok...I'll just turn right." And right in front of me was a street. My friend's street. I'd just passed their house. Didn't see anything--nothing stood out.

James said, " That's their house!" Me: Oh! Yeah! It is! Ok...well, looks okay then. James: Yeah, except for their gate being down.

Uh, what? We came back around and this time I knew where I was going. We saw this. Don't ask me how I didn't notice it the first time by. Thank goodness James was there to keep his eyes peeled.

I asked James if he knew why I kept thinking about the back of the house. In his most matter-of-fact voice he said, "The Holy Ghost." Duh, Mom. I like those times when you don't even know you're listening to the Holy Ghost and you follow through anyway. And I like it when my boys are around to experience it and it's not a FHE lesson or a sit-down-and-read-the-scriptures-and-talk-about-the-Holy-Ghost lesson. It just happens and it's real life.

Then Richard and Chris got to experience "service," by going over last night and this morning and replacing the fence posts (they'd snapped off near the ground) and reattaching the fence piece. All in all...good lessons all around.

The Last 12 Hours

Last night we had this:
This morning we had this:

and this:

And now we have this:

Ya just gotta love early summer in Texas!

Although, as I look out the window--the sun is shining from the east, but dark clouds are coming in from the west. It's gonna be an interesting day! (Bet we're not going to the water park.)

How Does This Happen?

We've given up clocks in our bedroom. Both Richard and I use our cell phones as clocks and alarms. Here's Richard's phone:

Explain to me please how the alarm on this phone can go off at 5:00 this morning when it *didn't* go off the last two days. 5 am! Yeah, I never did go back to sleep.

But at least it wasn't some loud, annoying alarm sound. I was awakened to the sounds of the phone vibrating on the table followed by the soothing tones of Enya. If it hadn't been for the buzz of the vibration, it wouldn't have been quite so annoying. Well that and if it had been at, say, 8:00 and not 5:00.

Larry's All Grown Up!

I couldn't resist taking some new pictures of Larry the Dog. And of course, if I'm going to take pictures, I have to blog about them. And upload them to facebook. Yeah, it's the second day of summer and I'm bored. (Read previous posting.)

We call this his dead dog position.

After I took the "dead dog" picture, he turned around. But he's watching me.

Let's strike a traditional doggie pose.

I am DONE taking pictures! In his defense, he wasn't "going after" me or anything. I was trying to take a picture of him with his mouth open and right as I went to snap the picture he lifted his head. Looks fierce, doesn't he? Yeah, whatever. Come on over and meet him. He'll jump on you and pee on you. Real fierce. Though he did growl at the UPS man today. Guess he doesn't like it when someone just runs up to the door, knocks, and runs away.

Not How I Wanted to Start Summer

It's been two weeks tomorrow since I felt the "pop" in my left calf. It's been 5 days since I went to the ER to make sure it wasn't a blood clot. I'm still trying to get in to see my regular doctor and follow up. Now my shin looks like this--and yes, it hurts to press on it. (Can you see the yellow down the middle? It was hard to get it to show up.) The red spots are the chigger bites from a week ago. I really hate chiggers and will make darn sure I have bug repellant at cub twilight camp next week.

This is the ankle. Pretty, huh? Interestingly enough, the ankle doesn't hurt. Doesn't hurt to touch. Doesn't hurt to move. Doesn't hurt to twist. Doesn't hurt at all. But it's swollen and bruised. Again--ignore the chigger bites. Guess I've ruined my career as a foot model. I took one pic with and one without the flash. I wasn't sure which one showed up better. Still don't really know.

I'm walking better--not limping as badly--but I'm still slow. I was looking forward to getting out for my early morning summer walk every day--even with the dog. I was looking forward to going swimming or to Hawaiian Falls--even if I have to buy/wear a swimsuit. I know it's only the first two days of summer break, but I'm bummed about it.

Everyone around here is tired of hearing me whine about it. So...I'm whining to you--all three of my readers. There...I feel better.

Chores

I want to teach my children the value of work. I really do. But sometimes, it just seems to fall on deaf ears--or rather, grumbling, gripey ears. And then I decide it's easier to do it myself. But I step up to the parenting plate and give a list of chores. I'm trying a new thing. The boys sign up for the paid chores they would like to do that week. Each chore carries a wage.

One son comes to me and says, in a rather bored, annoyed voice, "I finished your bathroom." You know the sound. The one that sounds like they've just pulled a handcart all the way across the plains. Yeah, that one.

I go into the bathroom to check and this is what I find. Hmm. Yeah. Finished.

See the streaks? Okay, so that means that he wiped it down, right? He just didn't care how it looked afterward. The fact that he did it is good enough, right? (Oh, and ignore the portion of the closet on the left. It doesn't always look that way. It's just from cleaning out our classrooms. Really. Yeah.)

Below is my favorite though.

This is the bathtub. Yeah, I don't take many bubble baths. But...if someone (say maybe the person who signed up to clean my bathroom) would at least wipe it out, I might take more bubble baths.

My bathroom is one of the highest-paid jobs. But I'm thinking he didn't really earn the money this week. What do you think?

What Is It With My Legs?

December 2008
I sprained my right ankle badly. I was basically bed-ridden and on crutches for two weeks. Crutches after that along with physical therapy. It took a while but I was back to normal by February-March.

Spring 2009
My left calf had some cramps. Nothing bad, but I would notice that it felt tight when I walked sometimes--especially if I trotted or jogged anywhere. But, of course, I dismissed it.

Last Wednesday, I was getting ready to walk the dog and trotted through the front hall to get my sneakers. My left calf "popped." I didn't fall on the floor, thank goodness, but oh MAN it hurt. I couldn't walk very well. I limped the rest of the week. By Sunday, my ankle was swollen--but it didn't hurt. Weird. But my leg still hurt.

By Monday it was feeling better and on Tuesday it was much better. Even the swelling was gone. But then...the cub scouts had a mini-hike that afternoon. I climbed a fence fine. Then we had to climb down and back up a little creekbed. Going up, I could feel the leg muscle pull again. I limped around the rest of the hike. Coming home, I had to climb the fence again. This time I didn't do as good of a job and I landed on both feet on the other side. OUCH! Back to square one.

I limped around all day on Wednesday and Thursday. By Thursday night, I was worried. It wasn't getting better and my ankle was swelling again. I was worried about a blood clot. After doing all I had to do on Thursday, including a twilight camp meeting, I decided to go to urgent care. My dear, sweet husband went with me at 9:00 at night.

We waited about an hour and a half. Once I finally got in, the doctor was great. He was efficient and thorough. He even apologized for our long wait and waived the copay. COOL! But he was worried too. He said I didn't have all the symptoms of deep vein thrombosis, but I had enough that it warranted an immediate trip to the ER for an ultrasound.

At 11:00 at night, we traipsed over to Plano Presby. Thank goodness they were having a light evening. I had an doppler sonogram on my leg and they x-rayed my ankle. Both tests were negative. Richard enjoyed watching all the cool stuff on the sonogram--which I couldn't see. So not fair.

I was diagnosed with either a muscle strain or something called a Baker cyst. I'm leaning toward the cyst because the symptoms are almost exactly what it looks like.

We got home at about 1:30-2:00. I took a prescribed vicodin and was asleep for the night by 3:00. I went to school today. I tried to stay off the leg as much as possible--using my crutches from last year even--but by the time school was out, my ankle and lower leg were HUGE! I came home, put myself to bed with my leg up and haven't moved from here since. My hope is that I can keep the leg up over the weekend and hopefully have it better by next week. No matter what, I'll still probably follow up with an orthopedist next week.

It is so frustrating to be incapacitated. Today was the last day of school. I have hardly seen my boys since I came home. (Of course Chris is out at a "school's out" party, but still.) Richard is at his school trying to finish up the last things and he's just as exhausted as I am. I had plans for tonight that I had to cancel, plans for tomorrow that I'll probably have to cancel. There are things to start doing with the start of summer and here I sit. Ugh.

Now I know that in the grand scheme of things, this is but a small thing. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any less annoying. So I will grudgingly lie here and rest my leg. I will let people help me and I will assign others the jobs that need to be done. And I will try not to feel guilty.

And...I'll try to come up with a better story than "hiking with the cub scouts."