Forever

Today is my brother Michael's Birthday. 

 He would have been 30 today.

 But Michael died shortly after this picture was taken.

And it's ok.  My mum sent me these pictures of Michael and our (much) younger family and I was touched by a real feeling of thanksgiving. I know families are forever.  I am thankful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  As a parent myself now, I cannot imagine what my own parents went through, losing 3 sons.  But because of their faith and testimony in eternal families, I have faith and a testimony of eternal families.  I really do know that families can be together forever.  It's not just a song. =)  So Happy Birthday, Michael.  Your family loves you.

Crazy Train

Sam and I were chatting in bed one morning and I asked her why she was so crazy...
Sam - "I got my crazy from Alix.  Alix got her crazy from Erin.  Erin got her crazy from Brooke, who got her crazy from dad."
A little thinking pause, and she finished with...
"And we all get our crazy from YOU!"

Siiigh....

This was last year's Easter Egg hunt....

Here is what this year's looked like...

Siiiiigh. 

We've done a Family-Home-Evening-Day-After-Easter Easter Egg Hunt for 6 years now.  It's one of my favorite traditions.  This year, I just wasn't up for it.  In my head, I was totally planning on doing it a week after surgery.  The reality is, I'm just not that tough... But as bummed out as  I was, I think the girls had fun.  

And it was the first year we didn't get rained or snowed on...

Sam

Alix

Erin

Brooke

 And I promise this is the last whiny post about my knee problems....

My Heros

Mom and dad have swooped down to our rescue following my surgery.  It's been bad enough, but it would have been SO MUCH worse if I didn't have their help.  They really are my heros...

And my surgery went fine.

How I miss you...

This is my closet.  Notice anything about my shoes?

 Here's a closer look... I have realized, since I hurt my knee, that I wear tall heels or sneakers.  

There is no middle ground.  Which is a bummer when you can't wear heels and your sneakers just don't match your church clothes...

On a side note... My surgery is scheduled for March 29th.  A week from today.  5 weeks after I hurt it.  It will be good to get it done and get healing.  I've felt very "on hold" since I hurt it, so surgery is a good thing. =)

You wanna...

Feel like a rockstar?

 Then make these bad boys for supper sometime.  

We tried homemade corn dogs for dinner last night (The joy of 9:30 church is that it leaves us lots of time to mess up the kitchen....).  They turned out awesome.  The girls had a blast "stabbing" the hotdogs and "dunking" them in our batter.  And they turned out just like the corn dogs we (the kids and  Tom, anyway.  I generally save my calories for chocolate...) get at the fair.  I was a rockstar, the girls had fun and Tom did the dishes.  Perfect.

Converts

"Green slime for breakfast?  Are you crazy?"  That was Brooke's first opinion on green smoothies.  Once the girls tried it though, they're hooked.  I have one every morning for breakfast and they always have a little and at least once a week, we "green smoothie it" for dinner.  Who knew green slime could be so great?

(This smoothie is made of 1 small banana, 4-5 cups of spinach, and two handfuls of frozen, mixed, tropical fruit.  And some water to thin it out. It made enough for 5 big smoothies)

Erin described her smoothie today as "A puddle of pure deliciousness!"

(Un)Lucky 7...

Erin and Alix turned 7 last thursday.  7.  It doesn't seem possible to me.  5? Sure.  7? No way!  But it's true.  7.  It was an unusual birthday.  Both girls were sick and couldn't go to school and we had to postpone their party.

This is how Alix felt.

 She was the sickest on their birthday.  

This is Alix and Erin at breakfast when they should have been at school, getting lots of birthday attention... 

 And this is where they spent most of the day.  Erin was a little better off than Alix. 

 I had made mini-cupcakes for Alix to take to their class and brownies for Erin to take. They both wanted to take in different things and how can you argue with that? One of the twin things I didn't think about when they were this big... (Alix on the left, Erin on the right)

 And I can't say I'd ever like to go back to this time, but it's fun to look back on and realize we survived....

 We love these girls so much.  Happy 7th birthday girls.

(And yes, we ate all the cupcakes and brownies and I just had to make more, so they can take them to class tomorrow... )

We're Just Related...

Brooke was helping (her gimpy mom) get a (huge) bucket of softballs down from the high shelf in the garage (our friend wanted to borrow them).  She was balanced on top of the chest freezer, reaching above her head and wiggling this heavy bucket toward the edge.  It was hard and she almost gave up a few times, but stuck with it.  Once she got it to the edge and tipped it down, I could grab it and pull it the rest of the way down.  It was some tricky work on her part so I said...
"Nice job, Brooke!  You must be Wonder Woman."
Brooke - "Nah.  More like her cousin..."

Since that makes me her sister, I'm ok with it... 

Pins and Kneedles....

(Two of the great friends who have been taking care of me while Tom is out of town...)

I had my follow-up appointment on my knee today.  The doctor walked in, sat down and said - "Now let me look through your MRI..."  And proceeded to sit there for 20 minutes (really it was more like 4 or 5...) silently looking at my MRI.  I sat there, all pins and needles (get the title now? Pins and Kneedles?) trying to read his expressions and keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed for good luck.  It doesn't work any better to cross your fingers as an adult, than it did as a kid...  It looks like I've completely torn my ACL and also have some tearing of my Meniscus.  It was a little hard to read the MRI because of the swelling in my knee and some loose tissue floating around and still hard to do a physical exam, since my knee is still roughly the size of a cantaloupe.  So the doctor wants to wait two weeks and re-examine it to determine what surgery I'm going to need.  It doesn't make all that much sense to me, but I'm certainly not the expert, so I'll trust him.  I'd rather be careful than too hasty and do something that wasn't needed.  So I have some surgery, some time in March.  Until then, I can limp around in my brace and try to rest my knee as much as possible.  Done.  Bring on the Soaps and Bon Bons.... =)