Feathered Friends

She's not another parrotlet, but she's a darn fine substitution. 

Karmic Situation

3 weeks. 

Torn labrum repair was supposed to be 3 itty bitty weeks of recovery.

I woke up from anesthesia and the doctor broke the news: not just a torn labrum, but a wonky femoral head leading to shredded cartilage. He sutured the labrum. trimmed the cartilage, shaved down the mutant ball joint and drilled little holes in the socket where the cartilage was missing. The idea is that those little holes need to bleed and form scar tissue to replace the cartilage in that spot. WHICH means recovery stretched to 8 weeks.

Crutches for EIGHT WEEKS.

No driving

No gym

No work

6 hours a day in a CPM machine

Sleeping in torture boots

Physical therapy twice a week

Solitary snacking habits completely exposed

This is my life for the next two months. 

I've taken over a healthy chunk of the couch. All my snacks and meds and charging chords and tissues and paperwork and blankets and boxes of whoppers wedged between the cushions.

We have a running theory that someone in our family must have put out some pretty bad karma recently. Megan's got a trick shoulder, head cold and and a raging bacterial infection that has kicked her in the metaphorical butt. Laney is, at this very moment, at urgent care with a possible case of strep throat. Everly has a wart on the bottom of her foot that just won't quit. Mark is just emerging from Covid. 

AJ, Mat and Ethan should look over their shoulders...it's just a matter of time before the next round of plagues hits this house. 

Fresh Flowers

My garden veggies are largely a bust. It would seem the soil needs some amending before next spring. 

But those flowers! They are making my dream of always having fresh flowers in the house come true!

The Canterbury Bells magically emerged two years after I planted them!

Dad's roses are gorgeous and dreamy 

Fun little Bachelor Buttons

A lovely little mix!

These purple dahlias have been a surprise stand out. This is one of the small ones!

I mean....come on. That's bounty of zinnias!

I love these little vases! They are so fun to arrange.

My orange dahlias that were supposed to be pink so I got my money back but secretly love them even more....

Soon we'll have oodles and caboodles of sunflowers. Maybe a few snapdragons? 

You never can tell!

First Day of School

 We are down to the final trio. Megan is taking the semester off of school and building up her bank account while she considers her next move, Mathew is working for a hospital in Rexburg, ID doing IT, and Ethan is happily married to Kassie and working at CED in Sprinville, UT. 

Everly is starting her 6 grade year at CST and pretty excited to be in band and theater. I'm pretty excited to say goodbye to elementary school life! We're movin on up!

Laneybug is a Junior at Olathe South and is confident and self assured. Their class lineup is pretty sweet and after many years of curating and nurturing a solid and supportive friend group, this year is looking promising!

AJ is starting 8th grade and is homeschooling from the start (hooray!). This leaves lots of time for hanging out with mom and saving Mathew's reindeer beanie from getting donated. That was a close call. 

Here goes another school year!

Her inner dragon

Now I know why the bird breeder rolled his eyes when I asked for a parrotlet with a "sweet temperment". 

His words: "Parrotlets are not known for their sweetness". 

She makes up for it with her evening snuggles. 

Silver Anniversary and Crossfit Games

We are mere days away from our 25th Anniversary! Aren't we cute with our readers? 

We planned to celebrate by taking the kids to Aunt Sarah's in Arkansas and then going to the Crossfit Games, but Mark planned in an extra day in Ft. Worth to have a real date. He nixed the long drive to Texas, bought flights and made reservations at Capital Grille. It was perfect. 

The hotel surprised us with a special treat. The restaurant sent us off with a goody bag too...so we had a yummy chocolate picnic after our early dinner.  

We grabbed an Uber to a movie theater and watched "Twisters". Then we took the scenic route back to the hotel. I'm a sucker for an artistic alleyway. 

The next morning, we checked into our Airbnb. It was super cute!

We had the best roomates: Dan and Lauren Smith, Ross and Lauren Terry and Zach Nash...who grabbed the way too short futon in the living room. Game nights, cooking meals, talking Crossfit and investigating the sinkhole hidden under the dining room rug. These were the perfect people to do all of the things with. 

Watching the games in Dickies Arena. We froze our butts off up there. The AC was on overdrive.

We spent our time walking from the arena to the Vendor Village and back, doing workouts (not me, mind you)

finding yummy places to eat, even if it takes a brutal, soul wrenching walk of torture to get there. 

Uber? Uber?

watching for our photos show up on the jumbotron!

eating sooooo many acai bowls,

and hanging out with the sweetest, quirkiest, nerdiest friends a person could ask for. I love these ding dongs!

And just like that, it was over and we were trapped in a plane for 4 extra hours, just trying to make it back home to our babies. 

Well, our teenager babies, which, as we all know, need the most love of all. 

 

Mama Jean Surprise

Just as soon as I unpacked from Girls Camp, we packed right back up and drove down to Arkansas to surprise Grandma Jean for her 78th birthday. She was shocked when her waiter got just a little to snuggly and asked her if he could fill up her water glass. Luckily it was her son, Mat! And right behind him were Jim and Mark and the daughters-in-law. 

 

After brunch, we all went to Sarah's house for a swim party and some cake. No doubt her mama heart was hap hap happy!

All together!

Girls camp 2024

We went to Lake of the Ozarks with the girls from our original Olathe 3rd ward. They have been split into two wards now, so it was nice to be together again.

A few highlights:

Starting out fresh and clean!

Taking a tour of Ozark Caverns

I spent all my time filling this table with food

It was HOT....so so hot. I borrowed this AC unit from Bobby, my favorite chiropractor. It saved our lives. It was the best thing I brought. 

This truck was a close second...I used it to haul everyone and everything up and down from the water. When AJ and I got to a a point where we couldn't handle the heat or the drama or the human interaction or the mosquitos one more second, we would escape to the truck and let the AC bring us back to life. 

Everything in that kitchen was BIG. Big bowls, big ovens, big appetites. Cooking for 35 people is a full time job! 

We made floating lanterns

The final morning devotional

The last photo, a little worse for wear, but lots of love and memories made!