Jessica's Birthday Party

Jessica fell in love with the movie Hairspray, so she decided that would be her birthday party theme this year.  We bought cans of hairspray and wrapped these invites around them.

I've never been very good at back combing hair, but we tried our best to get some lift in the girls hair dos.

We gathered all the makings for a really good movie night

And added a few friends

And I think the girls had a great time!

Hopefully we didn't annoy the neighbors too much.  This is what Mark thought of all the noise of a house full of tweens!

And that his oldest is turning 12 in a few days.

The next day we stopped by the mall for her birthday present from us.

Pierced Ears!!!  She barely even flinched when they did them.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Jessica!

Costco

Dear Costco,

Normally you are one of my favorite places to go to.  But since I have becoming walking impaired I cringe at the thought of visiting.  Seriously, you only have 3 electric carts and 1 of them was broken today.  Macey's has 4 carts and they are 1/4 of the size of your store with much fewer people wanting to use the electric carts.  The only thing that made me continue on my voyage into your store today was the fact I had to pick up the birthday cake. And must they be in the farthest spot in the whole store.  I may have purchased more items if I could have been without pain in your store.  But no, as long as the Boot is on I will have to avoid your store.

All I can say is thank goodness Mr. Lortab was waiting for me at home.

Sincerely,
Walking Impaired.

Singing In The Rain

Last Sunday we had an awesome thunder storm.  We had sent the kids outside because they wanted to bounce a ball and it was driving us crazy.  About 15 minutes later we heard the thunder and rain come.  When we went out front we found the kids playing in the rain storm in their PJs

But we could not stop them from having fun.

Mark decided to teach them "Murder in the Dark" how he played growing up.

When a car came down the street they would yell murder and drop to the ground.  If you get caught in the headlights of the car you are out.

The next day I found out the neighbors behind us could hear our kids out front.  It was one of those magical nights you could not take away from the kids.

Farmers Market

I had been wanting to go out to the Farmers Market at Thanksgiving Point for the last several weeks, but with my foot surgery I hadn't been able to do much walking.  Last Friday we finally made it, with a little help from a wheelchair.  It was a bonus week because the En Plein Air festival was going on.  En Plein Air means "in the open air" used to mainly describe painting.  They have artists of all kinds come and paint all week all over Thanksgiving Point and they display what they have painted and sell some of their work.

Mark said to have the kids wear shorts because there was a water feature they would love.  Jessica didn't believe me, but in the end she loved it as much as the other two.

They were all dripping wet after playing.  They got to pull levers and it squirted water out of different spots.  They loved hiding on one side and waiting for a sibling to walk by and soak them on the other side.

It was a challenge to try and stay on him after getting wet.

But in the end I've decided taking children to the Farmers Market is not beneficial to me.  They got wooden swords (which I'll probably regret) and birthday gifts for friends and in the end all that was left was enough money for a cupcake to share.  I really wanted some of the jewelery, but I guess that will have to wait for another time.

Saturday night Mark and I went to Salt Lake.  Okay, I wanted to go to a friends get together in Salt Lake and I needed a designated driver since I'm still taking some strong meds at time.  On our drive up past the Point of the Mountain we saw this

There must have been at least 50 hang gliders.  In all the years we have lived here we have never seen that many at once.  This picture doesn't even begin to show how many there were.  It was awesome to watch.

And to thank Mark for being my designated driver we stopped at Cheesecake Factory before coming home, yum!

Labor Day

Labor Day started out with a parade in Payson for Onion Days

Mark and the kids met up with his family.  Paige was chilling with the kids while Carole is kicking back with the adults.

They even found a relative's house to sit in front of.  Here is Mark's Mom and her cousin, Joanne.

After the parade it was time to party!  It was Mark's Mom's birthday

So we met back at the homestead in Santaquin for some good food and fun.

Tim and Terra were there along with Sophie.  Mom's brother and sisters came over too.  And of course Mark's siblings were there to enjoy the fun.

And the grandkids had to help blow out the candles.

She was even crowned Queen for the Day.  Just don't let it go to her head!

School Carnival

The kid's school carnival this year was the week after school started.  Mark took the kids because I was still on crutches.  They had a blast

They had some great games.  And the big hit is always getting to ride the golf carts with the teachers.

John participated in the donut eating contest.

You wouldn't think it was that hard to eat a donut.

But he ended up having a stare down trying to get the donut to behave.

But at last he conquered the donut!

And what would a carnival be without a cake walk!

The kids love this event every year.

We as parents have other opinions, but we know they don't count!

Mark's Birthday

Mark's Birthday has come and gone for another year.  Unfortunately it was very anti climatic this year.  It fell on the day after I had foot surgery.  And I was still pretty out of it.  Luckily I did a few preparations ahead of time.

The kids made cards for him.

And the day before my surgery I had prepared everything for his favorite breakfast, Crepes!  I hid them in the outside fridge hoping he wouldn't see.  But I think he did get a peek before the big day.  But the kids were great at getting everything out for his "surprise" breakfast.

To show how out of it I was we don't even have a picture of Mark on his birthday.  His favorite dessert is cheesecake, and that holds well, so it had been pre purchased from Costco and stored in the outside fridge as well.

Even though Mark had to spend the day taking care of me I hope he still had a wonderful birthday.  He is such a wonderful father, husband and friend.

I Love You!

Foot Update

You would think with all the spare time I've had on my hands recently I would have been blogging up a storm.  But I think the narcotic medicine makes me a little off center and I haven't been inspired in the last month of rest.

Warning, if you are squeamish you may not want to read this post.

First for an update of the foot.

After the Doctor took me out of this cast

He put me back in the boot

I thought I'd be able to immediately walk on it, but quickly discovered that the crutches were still my friend.  It took me a week before I could walk without any help from the crutches.

You can see the ankle was bruised a lot.  I later found out that was from the pain block they did during surgery.  As that bruise has healed it has caused the skin to die and peel off.

Two weeks after surgery he removed the stitches.  It is healing properly, just not fast enough for me.  I still have to keep it elevated and iced a lot in order to keep the pain down.

This next week or so I'll be able to start gradually moving into a shoe.  I'm not sure I'm ready for such adventures because he says it will make it hurt more.

Hopefully in the next month I'll finally reach the point where it will hurt less than it did pre surgery.  We can only hope.

I'm just so grateful to a wonderful family that has taken excellent care of me.  When ever I over do it they remind me that I should let it heal properly instead of pushing it and reinjuring.  I don't think Mark wants to go through this again.  And if I ever need to be pampered I call Mark's Mom who has come up several times and taken care of me and the kids.  Thanks to all our friends too who have helped out.  It has been greatly appreciated.

Dinner Time Conversation

Thought you might enjoy part of our dinner conversation last night.  I have no idea where this came from.  Out of the blue . . .

John:  Are we rich or poor?

Dad:  We are not rich or poor, we are middle class.  We are just average.

John:  We need to become poor so we can then become rich.

Dad:  I think you've been listening to Obama too much.

Apparently in John's mind there is only rich or poor, there is no in between.

Too funny!