The Worst Part is...I don't even have a good story!

Okay the simple explanation is: I dislocated my shoulder. The broader diagnosis is that the shoulder is back in, but apparently I streched or pulled my bicep tendon. In order for it to heal I'm not supposed to use the arm at all. The best way to keep me from doing that is to have me in a sling. The doctor said 7 days. But if it's still sore at the end of 7 days I should wear the sling for another week. He concluded by saying that it could take 3-4 weeks to completely heal. (No way I'm wearing this stupid thing for that long.)

The worst part about the whole thing is that I don't even have a good story. At least the last time my mom broke her arm she was able to tell people she did it riding a razor scooter down the hill. (At 49 years young.) But I don't even have that. I was lifting a five gallon gas can into the bed of the truck. That was it. Then suddenly, excruciating pain, I dropped the gas can (spilling gas in the process, naturally. Don't worry dear, it was on the ground, not your pick up.) After I got over the initial shock of feeling like I was going to throw up and pass out all at once (but with my left arm still numb and tingling) I realized something was very wrong. And that was it. A stupid gas can, my arms and shoulders moving in a motion they perform everyday and suddenly, a ridiculous injury. So it looks like my in-laws will be seeing a lot of us over the next week, as even dressing myself and changing diapers have suddenly become feats requiring extraordinary patience and talent. I'm sure they'll love that. Today Gideon even helped in the kitchen. At any rate we'll see how well I do over the next 7 days. I don't want to wear this idiotic thing any longer than I absolutely have to. It ought to be a fun experience chasing around the world's most active 14 month old with one arm. I'm not really sure I'm up to it.

As for the video, Gideon begins every morning by running around the house calling for "Dada, Dada, Dada." It's very cute, but also a little sad because he never find him of course. The other day I got a little bit of it on camera. Although, as is usually the case with him, when the camera comes out he stops doing whatever he was doing that I wanted to capture and starts doing something else. (And trying to grab the camera, of course.) But anyway, enjoy.

picture from the car show. everything else was a honda, toyota or a nissan, a bunch of scooters and 8 american cars

For Grandma Cindy

Mom wanted to see a photo of Gideon's latest battle wound, so here you go. This was sustained yesterday while I was pulling weeds in the back yard. It doesn't look very bad in the picture, but if you look at the corner of his right eye, you'll see it.

Tuesday was Nana's birthday. We went to the Hard Hat Cafe for dinner. They just opened the brand new place in Idaho Falls a couple of weeks ago, so we'd never been to this one before. (They had previously been located in Rexburg and we've eaten there) but this was a new experience. The coolest part about it was that they had a play area for the kids. So while you're waiting for a table or waiting for your food, your munchkins can go crazy.
And boy did mine ever! He loved it.

After dinner we went home and had birthday cake. Well not so much cake as ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone. They were amazing!

And other than that we've just been taking it easy this week. Yesterday we did some yard work and then some housework. About the only exciting thing I have to report is that Travis went back to work a week ago, and since they're so far behind, they're going to start working Saturdays so that they can maybe get home by the middle of August. Fingers crossed that he'll be able to come home that soon and that they'll have another job for him when he does come home. (Apparently that's a concern right now as well.)

Presents from Daddy

We got a care package from Guam today. In it were a T-shirt for me and a variety of treats for us to share. What a thoughtful daddy we have!

Very thoughtful, yes, but I don't think I'm brave enough to try the Crispy Seaweed just yet. It was a lovely thought though sweetheart.

Gideon liked the box.

But he liked the treats too! Actually he liked throwing the treats into the box and taking them back out again. But hey, whatever keeps him happy!

How Redneck Are We?

So funny story. And it started much too early this morning. My son decided for some unknown reason that 6:15 was a reasonable time to get up. Usually when he gets up earlier than I'm ready, we go downstairs, turn on the Disney Channel and he plays while I veg and try to wake up. So that was the plan. Until I turned on the TV. It came on, made a loud pop and went out.

Our television is finally dead. I guess I can't really complain though. It has to be at least 15 years old. Travis bought it after he was done with college and brought it to our marriage with him. We've actually been talking about getting a newer TV for years, but as long as this one still worked, it wasn't high on the priority list. It broke the first or second year of our marriage and cost us $350 to fix, so we made the decision back then that if it ever broke again we'd not fix it, but rather invest in a new television.

So today I went TV shopping. Needless to say that after visiting six stores, spending hours online and getting contradicting information from every available source, I'm feeling only slightly overwhelmed. Still I think I found the one that we're going to go with and the place where we'll make the purchase. I've discussed it all with Travis and he seems to be on board with the decisions I've made. (Of course, if he were here it could be different, but since he's not, he doesn't have much choice really.)

At any rate it's going to be at least two to three weeks before we get the cash together to pay for it. (And yes, I'm insisting that we do this on cash not credit. And naturally this happened when we just returned from vacation, so we don't have a lot in the way of extra funds lying around.) So in the meantime I went out to Travis's travel trailer (which is sitting in our driveway making us look quite redneck) and stole his little TV.

And this picture is what our living room looks like now:

I know pretty bad, right. It doesn't really help that Travis has this very expensive surround sound system, but he's never bothered to get wall mounts for the speakers, so they all just perch on top of the TV. I think when the guys come to install the new TV I'm going to inquire about the wall mounts and see how much more they would charge to hang the speakers. But hey, at least the little TV works for now and if all goes according to plan, we'll have a nice new one in a few weeks.

On a happier note, our family photos finally got here and the frame shop is done with them. I know you can't see them very well, but they turned out fabulous. My father-in-law came over tonight to help me hang them. So that's at least something that looks nice.

Hope you're all having a great day!

Two lovers point. Long story, but they jumped

Yes Still more Pictures!

Bet you didn't think that there could possibly be anymore pictures to post from my trip. But you'd be wrong. (I took nearly 400 while I was gone, so just be grateful that I haven't posted everything.)

After the birthday party we went back to Patty & Chuck's and let the kids play while they made dinner on the grill. Their boys, Clint and Cole were so great for the kids and the kids absolutely loved them. While we were there we got to go see Clint play baseball. He's a pitcher on the freshman team at T.H. North High School. He did a great job. I will admit that it makes me feel a little bit old though, knowing that Clint is 15 & Cole is 13. Not only do I remember those boys being born (I was 16 when Clint was born) but I used to babysit them. Now they're the ones helping watch our kids. Crazy how time flies.

Clint teaching Skye to ride a Rip Stick.

Apparently Lydia likes stickers.

Clint and Cole having dinner with Skye and Lily. (I'm pretty sure Cami is back there holding Lily, but I can't really see her in this photo.)

Lily and Gideon got one last morning to play together on Monday. We let them just enjoy it while we packed everything and cleaned up the house a little. It was very sad for us to leave.

Then we went over to Patty and Chuck's to meet Shiloh and the kids. And, as you'll see in the video, Shiloh did learn to master the Rip Stick while she was there. She said it was a lot like snow boarding. I'm grateful that there's no photographic evidence of my feeble attempts to master the stupid thing. I never even managed to stand up on it correctly.

And then we all left and headed for our various places of residence. Mom, dad, Cody and Ryan left Sunday afternoon to get back to Georgia. Jesse and Kelly caught a plane out at O'Dark Thirty on Monday morning and then Gideon and I caught a plane out of Indy later that afternoon. Cami drove back to Florida, dropping Skye in Georgia on the way, and Shiloh headed for the Carolinas.

I don't mind admitting that I'm exhausted. We got back home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Yesterday was spent unpacking and grocery shopping since our fridge was bare of even the essentials. Then I had church so munchkin went to Nana's house. They had just arrived home Monday night from California, so they were pretty tired too. Still I think they were happy to see him since it had been a couple of weeks. I meant to go to bed early last night, but I was up late after he was in bed putting together slide shows and organizing my pictures from the trip. And today has been our recovery day. I did get up and put on something other than pj's. But no make-up and I haven't showered yet. I'd like to say I've been busy cleaning my house, doing laundry and going through the stacks of mail. But I can't even do that. Most of the day I've been playing with pictures and blog posts again, and watching movies. I'm just too exhausted to do much of anything else. Plus thanks to the altitude and dry air I've had nose bleeds and a headache pretty much since we got back. Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better.

Retrospectively I think the trip went great. I was really sad to have to come home. So much so that I'm already trying to plan another trip somewhere just to give me something to look forward to. Because being stuck here with no way out coming up just makes me want to cry. I know I shouldn't feel that way about my "home" but I do. (Most people are relieved to get home from a vacation, I was just bummed.) Cami and I actually talked about this while we were driving last week. Idaho has never felt like home to me in the way that Indiana does. There are several reasons for that, but this is neither the time nor place to go into them. I'll save my rant about how much I dislike Idaho for another day.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos from a fantastic vacation.

Cami's Surprise Birthday Party!

Given all of the activities we had going on over the weekend, and the fact that there were so many people, it may seem strange that we were able to actually pull off a surprise party for Cami. Her birthday was actually on Monday, but since she was going to be driving back home all that day, we decided to have our own little celebration while we were all together.

And boy was Cami surprised!!!

The birthday girl and her princess

For a present, Jonas picked Cami some flowers and Emily gave her a box of "pretty" rocks.

Mom's step-mom, Louise, was gracious enough to allow us to have the party at her house. It was so nice we just went out on the back patio and did it there.

This is Kaleb, he's just three weeks old and he's my step-cousin's baby boy.

Okay in this picture the blonde is Louise, my mom's step mom. The one holding the baby is her daughter, Jean. (So Jean is mom's step-sister.) That's her son Sammy beside her, and Kaleb is Sammy's new baby. His wife, Andrea is standing up behind him. This was my first time meeting Andrea. She's very sweet. And I'm very excited for them and their new baby. (BTW, yes I know it's not fair that Jean doesn't look in any way old enough to be a grandmother. She doesn't even look her age, which is 42.)

Sammy, Andrea and Kaleb with Sammy's brother, Matt.

So Skye tripped over the dog and landed in the grass effectively staining the back of her beautiful white pants, which gave us this gem of a picture. (I don't even think Ryan needs to doctor this one, it's already pretty funny.)

I just don't know what Lily and Gideon are going to do without each other. They love each other so much!

Adam modeling Clint's baseball cap.

Louise took the kids for rides on the golf cart.

Of course Gideon just wanted to drive the thing himself. Louise said, "Well, Cali, looks like you're going to have to get a golf cart for this boy." I told her she'd better not mention that to my husband, he's been telling me we need one for years.

Sunday Brunch

Okay so our photographic journey to the west coast was fun, but let's head forward a few time zones back to Indiana for a few more photos of the happenings there. Sunday morning Michelle and Kevin had a brunch out at their house for family. It gave us all a chance to visit a little more and to watch the newlyweds open some gifts.

It was a nice relaxing morning.

Okay, this is my mom with all of her siblings. From left, Michelle, Patty, Cindy Sue, John and Sandy. John is the oldest then Michelle. Mom's the middle child then Patty and Sandy. It was the first time all of them have been together in a decade, so that was pretty exciting.

The kids got to play some games in the yard and enjoy the sunshine.

We really do have a pretty big family.

Erin and Ben opening their gifts.

The babies having a drink.

How come everytime Ryan gets hold of my camera, I get a random picture of Skye, posing?

The gang's almost all here. Sadly Hillary couldn't make it, but we love her anyway!