It's official...I'm getting old.

I went to a podiatrist last week.  

After poking and prodding my feet and doing x-rays, he diagnosed me with "post traumatic arthritis" in the left foot and probable plantar fasciitis in both.  It's no surprise that the fifth metatarsal joint on the side of my left foot is shot--that's where I've injured it repeatedly over the years.  He mentioned surgery to clean up the joint or, more conservatively, orthotics.

He gave me these beauties to wear at night, too:

which have helped a lot with the heel pain I've got.   I'm not excited to get the bill for these simple contraptions--it's probably a lot!

Next visit we'll do an ultrasound of my left foot and talk orthotics.  I think I'm more inclined to try that than surgery--the doctor I had last summer did not recommend surgery and said that it was risky and didn't always work...so I'm steering clear of that for now!

I thought we'd moved past this...

Ready for another Oscar story or two? 

Be forewarned, it's full of TMI (too much information).

I finally took Oscar to the vet last week because he'd had runny dog doo for a LONG time, it wasn't getting better, and it had finally gotten so that he couldn't hold it in. 

The night before I took him into the vet, he'd been rustling and making noises in his crate about 10:30pm so I let him outside to do his business.

It took me SIXTY minutes to get the dog to come inside. 

This was weird--he wouldn't even come in after I'd tried EVERYTHING, even made a trail of hot dog pieces for him to follow, sort of Hansel-and-Gretel style.  Finally at 11:30pm I grabbed him, put him in his crate, and took another 30 minutes to cool down emotionally.  I was SO MAD!

Well, when I came downstairs the next morning, he'd messed all over his bedding in the crate.  I was still pretty ticked, but I slowly realized that Oscar had probably wanted to spend the night outdoors so that he WOULDN'T mess in his crate because of his upset tummy.

He got tested for parasites and other "bugs" at the vet, and the results were negative.  The vet was stumped, but he did some research and wanted us to try adding more fiber to Oscar's diet.  He gave us some

REALLY, REALLY, REALLY

expensive prescription dog food to try plus a fiber powder to add to his food once a day. 

After one meal of the special food and powder, Oscar's issue was fixed.  This was miraculous to me after all the messy piles of dog doo I'd been picking up for weeks.  I'll be honest, it was the prettiest pile of dog doo I'd ever seen since we'd gotten Oscar back in December!  How's that for an image, ha-ha!

Fast-forward a few days to Sunday night.  We'd had a wonderful day and enjoyed some time with friends in the evening for a couple hours.  When we came home, the first thing we noticed was one of Rhiannon's shirts on the kitchen floor.  We inspected it and Oscar had torn a little hole into it.  Well, we told Rhiannon, that's what you get for leaving clothes on your floor.  But she insisted that her floor had been picked up.  We walked upstairs and found a path of destruction left by Oscar.

Here's the list of things he'd chewed through:

A whole pencil--there were slivers of wood and pencil lead/graphite in Rhiannon's carpet

A chaptick

A strap off of Wade's favorite watch

A pen

Several important papers of Rhiannon's, including her Girls Camp supply list and a special paper she'd gotten from our bishop that day for turning 12 this week

A container of Vaseline jelly

Some of Wade's stuffed animals

Part of Jason's running sock

Part of the sole of Rhiannon's running shoe

HALF of one of Jason's thick wool hiking socks

Some mystery plastic container--maybe the Vaseline one?


Oscar had definitely had a PAR-TAY in our absence!  He'd just had dinner, so he wasn't starving.  It was almost like he was throwing a tantrum since we'd been gone a lot that day to church and our friends' home after dinner. 

The crazy part was that he was so excited and happy to see us when we got home, his tail was wagging, but when he saw our faces looking at the mess he'd created, he seriously turned around and walked himself into his crate, sad face and everything.  He knew he was in trouble.

It's now been about 36 hours--he's had normal bowel movements, is eating and drinking and sleeping just fine, but we are on the lookout for weird stuff he passes the next few days!  Please keep him (and us) in your prayers!

Oh, and he now stays in the crate if we're not home.  We've got to keep him safe from the house, and keep the HOUSE safe from HIM!

Celebrating #15 in style

Jason and I had a wonderful 15th anniversary date this week.  On Friday night we drove up in the mountains for an hour and a half and arrived at Johnny McNally's for dinner.  It's this totally random, isolated restaurant right off the Kern River, and it's famous for its steaks!



This place was worth the drive to get there!

Here's a link to their menu, so you get an idea of all the good food we ate:  MENU

Jason ordered the Porterhouse, and I had the McNally's Dinner Steak.  To splurge at the end, we got their cherry cobbler and could NOT finish it, we were so full!  After dinner we walked out to this bridge and stood right over the river for some pics:

15 years!

South view of Kern River

North view of Kern River

Any other day I would have been so car-sick on the drive home, but I was so full I couldn't think about anything else!

I contributed to our 15th by blowing a tire on the van and getting two new tires--I figured that was it and I'd be lucky if we got Taco Bell for our anniversary.  But, as usual, Jason was full of surprises and had the fantastic idea to get away from it all and go on a little adventure! 

We had so much fun!  Love you, babe!

Slave labor

Mom:  OK, gather 'round, Rhiannon and Wade.  Today is "Family Chore Day."  I'm giving you two choices.  You can clean the whole house OR clean off the porch.

Rhiannon and Wade:  PORCH!

(30+ minutes later  Rhiannon comes in to get glasses of water for the two of them while I'm vacuuming.)

Rhiannon:  I wish I'd chosen cleaning the whole house!



Too funny--I was really impressed with the job she and Wade did, though--it looked great!

Solo

I forgot to mention something that happened last week that was REALLY cool!  The whole family went to Rhiannon's final band concert of the year and loved listening to her in the percussion section.  During one of her intermediate group's songs, she got to do this:

Ha-ha, okay, she didn't bang on a gong that size, but she was a "featured" soloist during the song.  After it was over, her band teacher Mr. Lacher pointed to her and said, "And that was Rhiannon, playing the gong solo!"

It was too cute!

A First

I don't make pies.  I do

a)  enjoy other people's pies,

b)  stock up on Sara Lee frozen Dutch Apple pies,

c) or, if I'm feeling really domestic, I make a pudding pie by mixing pudding and milk together and throwing it in a store-bought graham cracker pie crust. 

But today I'm trying something new:  my mom's strawberry pie recipe....from scratch, pie crust and all!

Strawberry Pie

(makes one large pie)

Crust:
            1 ½ c. flour
            1 t. salt
            2 T. milk
            1 ½ t. sugar
            ½ c. vegetable oil

Combine oil and milk and then whip with a fork.  Put dry ingredients in and mix.  Pat mixture into a 9” pie pan.  Prick the crust with a fork, then bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool while you make the filling.

Filling:
            1 ½ c. sugar
            3 T. cornstarch
            1 ½ c. water
            4 ½ T. strawberry jello mix
            (food coloring optional and I don’t use it)
            1 pint to 2 pounds strawberries (washed, hulled,and halved or quartered depending on size)

Mix the sugar and cornstarch together, and then add the water.  Boil in saucepan until it becomes thick (I usually get it to boiling hard and then 1 or 2 minutes longer.  And watch out that when it’s boiling it doesn’t spit at you and burn you.  It’s hot!)  Take off of heat and add the strawberry jello, mixing well.  Add food coloring if desired.  Cool.

Add strawberries to fill the pie shell – then pour thefilling over the pie and refrigerate until set (about 4-6 hours).

Here's to you, Mom--pray for me! :)

Update:  I made the pie crust!  It looked okay!  I added the strawberries and made the filling and had a *minor* hiccup when the filling started overflowing from the pie shell (probably too many strawberries).  But it's a thing of beauty and I can't wait to try it tonight!

ps.  Jason is secretly surprising the family tonight for FHE--we're going to go see a little superhero movie that, in Wade's words, "has a 93% 'FRESH' rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has made 373.2 MILLION dollars since it opened on May 4th."

Yeah, it's gonna be a good day!

A thousand more

Jason and I will celebrate our FIFTEENTH wedding anniversary on Wednesday!!! We joke together that it's been 15 loooooooooooooong, wonderful years! :)

I'm feeling a little sentimental this morning, and the Christina Perri song "A Thousand Years" fits the bill:   "I've loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more!"

LOVE YOU, BABE!

A Mother's Day I will never, ever forget

This morning I'm grateful for so many things.

I'm thankful for kids who still love me even when I'm cranky on Mother's Day morning and get upset with them for not waking up at the crack of dawn to answer my beck and call.

I'm thankful for good, hard cries.

I'm thankful for my sweet family who let me cry even more on the way home from church.

I'm grateful for crushing blows, repentance, and forgiveness. 

I'm grateful for Hershey's chocolate bars wrapped in Mother's Day quotes.

I'm thankful for cute cards from Rhiannon and Wade.

I'm thankful for Jason shooing me out of the kitchen and taking over dinner production (it was SO GOOD, too!)

I'm thankful for Ibuprofen.

I'm thankful for my extended family, for their love, humor, and support.

I'm thankful for good, kind friends who were there for me yesterday in Primary when I was barely able to focus and keep my composure.

I'm thankful for our neighbor's leftover cheesecake that she brought over after church along with some beautiful homemade flowers, made from paper of all things!

I'm thankful for heartfelt prayers on my knees to God at my bedside last night, asking for peace, protection, and courage.

I'm so, so thankful that God protected the little boy who accidentally got left outside the church when we were bringing the Nursery kids in from playing in the grass.  His dad found him standing quietly by the door, just patiently waiting for way too long for someone to let him in. 

I didn't know he was missing until his dad brought him into the room. 

It was really, really, really bad. 

I felt so sick inside, horribly aware of what COULD have happened. 

I'm thankful for the little boy's parents who let me apologize.  I hope they can forgive me.

I'm thankful for mistakes that knock you off your feet, turn you to God, and help you learn. 

It's a Mother's Day I will never forget!

Labor of love

I've been productive this morning.  Laundry, dishes, full-blown skimming/vacuuming/chlorinating of the pool, and 1.5 hours spent on our Primary quarterly newsletter. 

Here were the things that were included in it:

• Primary monthly themes, scriptures, and songs for the next 3 months
• Calendar items from  May through August
• Kids' birthdays from April to June  (there were a lot!!!)
• Updates on what we'd covered during the past few Sharing Times
• Thank-yous to those released
• Welcomes to new families
• Congratulations on baptisms, Articles of Faith finishers, and Arrow of Light recipients
• Activity Day Girls and Cub Scouts announcements and schedules
• A step-by-step "what to do" list for families with kids soon to be baptized
• A reminder to practice the song "Love is Spoken Here" for Mother's Day

Three years ago I started out doing the newsletter monthly because I wanted to communicate better with parents. Then it changed to bimonthly. And now I'm doing it quarterly. I love doing it, I really do. It just takes me a long time to gather my thoughts and get it organized! :) It felt so good to wrap it up and send it on its way, though--a little labor of love via email!

Breakfast on the porch

I'd made a huge mess on our little kitchen table this morning making preparations for our Primary Mother's Day card activity. I wasn't done and I didn't want to move it all, so Rhiannon patiently carved out a space to eat her breakfast quickly, and then we took her to school.

When we got back home, I asked Wade what he wanted to do about breakfast, and he suggested we eat outside on the porch table. 

The table was really dirty, so we tackled it with some paper towels and Windex, and then we were ready to go.

Wade had cereal and yogurt.

I had toasted English muffins and a smoothie I'd thrown together with a banana, whey powder, chocolate syrup, and sunbutter--surprisingly tasty!

It was really peaceful and I think we both just wanted to sit there for a while and enjoy the great weather and the pretty setting.  Our roses are doing great, and the grapevine is going gang-busters after a major pruning last summer--it's nice back there!

We talked about what we'd like to do over the summer.  Last summer was the Go-Go-Go/Mom Broke Her Foot summer.  Next summer will be Go-Go-Go again with lots of trips and reunions.  So this summer we plan on having, well, no big plans.  To save my sanity, though, we came up with a few "themes" for each day of the week:

________________ Monday  (errand day?  laundry day?  go with the flow day?)

Invite-A-Friend-Over-To-Swim Tuesday

Library Wednesday

Electronics Off/Board Games Thursday

Family Work Party/Family Adventures/Family Movie Nights on Friday and Saturday

Day of Rest Sunday

Sleep In Every Day! :)


I

am

so

ready

for

s-u-m-m-e-r.

Rewind: Utah Spring Break 2012, part 1

We REALLY enjoyed our Spring Break to Salt Lake City back in March.  On Sunday we went to church with Grandma Deb and were excited to see snow flurries on our way out of the building!

Yeah, I know, it's hard to tell it was snowing, but we LOVED it!

That evening we gathered to celebrate Colton's birthday.  It's always a PARTY when we get together at Grandma Deb and Grandpa Rod's house!

It was fun to see how much this little guy had changed, too...

Sweet cousin Charlie!

Many thanks to Aunt Rochelle who brought some little visitors for us to play with!

Stay tuned...time with cousins, Great-Grandpa Rod, the Provo Sheens, and Grandma Sue and Uncle Max!

Wade's baseball season so far...

Now that the regular season is over, Pinto Playoffs will start this week.  We're excited for Wade and his Red Sox team--so far they're in 1st place!  Way to go, Wade!



Jason is Jack Ryan

   

 IS   

 JACK RYAN!

Boy, did I have a crazy dream last night.  It was a combo of all the Jack Ryan movies, especially Patriot Games and Clear & Present Danger. 

The plot summary was this:  Jason aka Jack had ticked off a bad dude when he killed the bad dude's bad female accomplice.  So we sort of went on a Christmas family "vacation" of sorts, and the whole time we were trying to get away from or fight the bad dude, including a scene in a mall where Santa was sitting with a bunch of kids.  We were by Santa and the big crowd so that the bad guy wouldn't try anything.  I woke up at 3:30 with all of that in my head so I closed my eyes and willed Jason aka Jack to take the bad guy out quickly so I could get some sleep!

Through the whole dream I was focused on 2 things:

1)  Getting as much distance between the bad guy and us as possible

2)  Keeping Rhiannon and Wade with us at all times.

Of course, we were okay because we had Jack Ryan aka Jason with us.  And it wasn't so much a nightmare as just a super vivid dream that I wanted to end so that I could sleep the rest of the night away instead of feeling keyed up!

Crazy!  I'm not sure what it all means, but I do know that:

1)  I love action movies where the good guys win.

2)  A Jack Ryan movie marathon sounds like a good idea all of a sudden.

3)  Jason is my Jack Ryan.