Lots of news

Chelsea and I went to her Winterguard dinner. For those of you who don't know, Winterguard is a drumline which competes in the winter. You can watch them here. Chelsea is on the smallest bass drum. They finished 2nd in Utah!



Here is the whole gang!












This is a really bad picture of Laura, me and Carol. We meet about once a month for coffee. We now have to be aware of the time because I almost missed a doctors appointment the first time we had coffee!






This is the most recent x-ray of my ankle. No fractures! The screws and plate will come out in about 6 months. The doc says taking these out causes a blood bath so it has to be done in the operating room. Sounds like fun to me. Once I get them out I'll be on crutches for a week and then I'll have to take it easy for about a month. Taking it easy means not running on the road and not jumping off a cliff, according to the surgeon. Guess I'll have to run on a treadmill for a while after the surgery.


This is my dog, Scruffy. Mike got up about 5:00 and Scruffy got up a little while later. Mike decided it was cold so he covered the dog up. Speaking of Mike, he went to sleep last night (Saturday) around 10:00, woke up at 5:00 am. Then went back to bed around 8:00. He's been in bed since then and it is now almost 9:00 pm. He'll be sorry tomorrow!

School's out for the summer!

Can you believe how thick this is? It is my Capstone paper that I have been writing for the past 3 semesters. It is the final paper for senior Social Work major's at Weber State University. It's about 3/4" thick. I am so glad it is done, and actually amazed that I accomplished it. Thank goodness it's over!







Here is the front cover. As you can see, it is so thick it has to be bound!







Yesterday was the last day at my field placement agency. It was a sad day for me. I really love working there and actually hope to go back after I get my master's degree. The owner gave me a really nice jacket with the agency logo on it. I am actually the only one with this jacket! She said that now I will have to come back because I'll be wearing this all the time! Too bad it's getting warm out so I won't have a chance to wear it, unless of course it gets cold again, which it just might!


Chelsea got a Royal Respect pin from school yesterday for having at least a 3.0 GPA and no attendance loss (which means no unexcused absences). We are so proud of her!


My ankle is healing nicely and I am now able to use the elliptical trainer at the gym. In fact, I am on my way there now. After that I am going to physical therapy where I will get to "run" in the pool! I am so excited. I am walking without my boot and if you don't look closely you can't really tell that I have a slight limp. I'm working hard to get rid of that! There is some pain with all this but nothing worth complaining about. At least I am walking. And I know it won't be too long before I am running again!

Chelsea is home, and bearing gifts!

Chelsea was really glad to get home, even though she had a great time in Rome and Greece. She got to see the Pope in Rome and got to run on the original Olympic track in Olympia. We bought her a cheap video camera before she left. It was a great investment! The videos turned out really well and she had a great time recording her adventures.

Chelsea brought home some gifts and here they are:



This is a coral necklace she bought for me. It's even my favorite color!








This is a beautiful Murano glass dish. The colors are amazing.







She also got me this cute apron. She knows I love aprons and I love wine. What a smart girl!






We always get a Christmas ornament from our travels. We already have one from Rome, so Chelsea picked up this hand painted one from Greece.



Chelsea got Mike a t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe in Athens. He loves Rock n' Roll and dragons so this will be perfect for him. She also got him a coffee mug from Greece. Mike used to live in Greece so I know he will really enjoy these reminders.


Chelsea got Harley this t-shirt from Italy. It is her favorite color so I know she'll love it. We'll get this in the mail this weekend.



I am so glad to have my baby home! Mike called this morning from England. It was really nice to hear his voice. It will be nice to have my whole family back together. Only 10 more days until he gets home. In the meantime I am busy finishing all of my papers for school. I've registered for graduate school and am looking forward to getting done with that next year and going to work. Of course, when the time comes I probably won't want to go back to work. I sure do enjoy these quiet mornings. I intentionally get up early so I have time to read my email, read the paper and check out Facebook. I love not having to rush, even if it means I miss out on an hour of sleep!

My parents are visiting

My mom and dad are here for the weekend. They spend the winter in Arizona in their RV and got back to N. Idaho when the weather gets better. I hope it is nicer there than here, although today is a pretty nice day. They love to go out on their 4 wheelers. They put 1200 miles on their machines in the 4 months. They are definitely enjoying their retirement.

Chelsea is in Europe. She was in Rome and saw the Pope in St. Peter's Square. It is Holy Week so that was good timing. She is now in Greece and and got to go to Olympia, site of the first Olympics. Chelsea is crazy about anything to do with the Olympics so this was really amazing to her.

Mike leaves in a few hours to go to England and Germany for two weeks for work. It doesn't seem quite fair that I am the only one who has to stay home. If it weren't for school I would be going with Mike, but I have too much to do.

My ankle is healing quite well and I am walking without my boot at home. I am going to physical therapy twice a week and my therapist is surprised at how well I am doing. I am so determined to run again soon that I am doing everything I'm told. You can see in the photo below that I still have some swelling. The two spots near the top of my foot are from fracture blisters. I still have the pins and plate in foot, but they are now bothering me when I try to bend my ankle. I have an appointment on April 24th to see the surgeon and I am hoping at that time I'll get to get rid of my boot completely and will be able to schedule surgery to get the hardware out. That will mean a few more days of crutches, but then I should be well on my way to healing.

Concerts

Chelsea and I went to see the David Archuleta at the E-Center. There were two other people who opened for him. They weren't too bad. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to say we saw them before they were famous! The audience was made up of screaming girls and older women. It was absolutely crazy! I think I might have been the only person there who didn't know any of his songs. I spent most of the time entertaining (or irritating) friends by updating my Facebook status every couple of minutes. It was nice to have some mother/daughter time though it was a late night for both of us.





















The next night we went to the Genesis Project and watched a band called Rough Draft. There were really good. Chelsea has been playing their music since she first saw them at Winterfest in Estes Park, CO. She has such a crush on Pedro, the drummer. He seemed like a nice boy. She was absolutely thrilled when the band dedicated a song to her and her friend. I left before it was over because my ears were fried. When Chelsea came home she was so excited because Pedro had given her one of his drumsticks. She also got a signed poster and sat with the band after the concert. There was an improv so they all listened together. Luckily Pedro is long gone. He's 19 and even Chelsea said he is too old for her now, but in a couple of years that won't be true. Hmm. I so remember these kinds of crushes.




Here is a photo of Pedro and Chelsea. I think they look like they could be brother and sister but of course Chelsea says it's just the glasses that makes them look similar. They are cute together. :)








Well, concerts aren't just for kids. Earlier in the week my friend Carol brought up the Elton John/Billy Joel concert which is happening in November. I didn't think Mike would want to go, but I asked he said he definitely wanted to go. So Carol and her husband spent the morning getting us tickets. Sadly, we have to mortgage our house to afford the tickets, but that's the way it goes. It is a 3 hour concert with just them, playing all of their best tunes, alone and together. It will be wonderful I'm sure. I copied the picture below off of Carol's Facebook page. We both attend Ascension Lutheran Church, although not the one in the photo. Can you tell Carol is excited?! Well so am I, I just can't believe we have to wait until November to go! In the meantime I think we'll be going to see Pat Benetar in Wendover in July. That should hold us over for awhile, and it is a fraction of the cost of the EJ/BJ concert! (Thanks, Laura for coming up with the abreviated name!)