You and Me Goin' Fishin' in the Pool

This week has been full of excitement! On Tuesday Jordan graduated from Maple Mountain High which was a little weird.... Jordan is ready to be out of high school, but I can't believe that he's graduated! Time moves so quickly! Since it was a new high school with the first year graduates I thought the ceremony would be really quick, especially with only 178 people graduating. Not so. Even still, we made it through, and left with the best quote of the day.

"And you said you didn't have any friends to take pictures with."-DAD

What is next on the awesome week agenda you ask? Physical Therapy!! I'm only going one day a week now, which is easier on my mom and my pay check, so I was excited to see how I would do with only that one day of therapy. Well it was a sad day not having Karlie there, especially since it was suuper busy. Anyways, to cut to the core of the crazy therapy day. I got in the pool, AQUA JOGged for the 8 minutes and then got ready for my kicks. As I was doing them my mom was keeping me company. While waiting, she brought out a bag of sweedish fish from her purse and asked if I wanted one. Umm yes! "Don't ask, just bring it!"- good old hot rod :) So in my head I pretended I was a seal while my mom got ready to toss the fish in my mouth. The fish was in the air, a perfect toss. I craned my neck with my mouth open wide. If I don't make it as a paralegal, this could be my big break! The Human Seal! Well....... I missed it. That little guy bounced right off my fat lower lip and plopped in the water. Correlating the sweedish fish with a real fish I assumed it would float, but apparently the Sweeds are sinkers. Trying to grab it created a vortex in the water making the fish sink faster. Watching it finally hit the bottom I realized I had quite the predicament on my hands. I'm wrapped in a floaty which will only allow me in the water to my shoulders, and I haven't quite hit the 4 inch growth spurt to reach the bottom of the pool yet. Plus, if I got my hair wet, I would have to shower when I got home.... not okay. Laughing, my mom came over and we tried to figure out how to get it out. Well turns out heaving yourself up and down turns off the magic powers of the floaty device allowing you to grow a bit to get your toes to the bottom. I thought, sweet I'll just be like Anisa and pick it up with my toes! FAIL: a) my toes aren't as talented as Anisa's b) sweedish fish are slimey when joined with water. After many attempts, my mom said to just use my toes to slide it up the wall of the pool and she'd reach down and grab it. Feat for the olympians, but it was worth a shot. Besides, I'm a believer! Carefully shimmying the fish further up the wall, safely snuggled in the crevace of my toes/foot, I slid it up to about my arm pit and then my leg decided it didn't want to bend anymore. My mom reached down and grabbed it. Success! I returned back to my kicks and the rest of therapy wasn't nearly as exciting, but I did get to eat a few sweedish fish later, so I was content.

Thanks Peak Physical Therapy for allowing me to make a fool out of myself and make great memories at the same time.

Welcome to the S&J Family!

Siegfried & Jensen presents to you their newest employee.......... KARLIE JENSEN! (and the crowd goes wild! aaahhhh!) Karlie started yesterday, and so far it has been great! I don't ever see her, since we are seperated by a long set of stairs...some people in the middle...and other stuff, but it is fun having her here! We drive up together with my dad (who talks her ear off) and we went to lunch yesterday! I have to say that when Karlie said she wanted the job, warm joy spread throughout my whole entire body like butter sliding down a hot piece of homemade bread! It was almost as if the clouds had parted, and we had sun shine on the ground rather than snow! ( yeah that's right, it snowed the 24th of MAY) The chain of events that resulted in my friend joining the S&J family fell into place perfectly, almost oddly perfect. Even though she won't be at Peak Physical Therapy to massage my knee or help me in the pool, we've worked out a deal that she will continue care for free! What a good friend! (jokes karlie, no worries, i've accepted that your massaging days are over haha) I'm really happy that I will get to see her everyday most likely, EVEN when she gets MARRIED! "Oh, I'm so happy!" (quoting the Emperors New Groove) Well, now that all my dreams have come true, I can thank my lucky stars and smile when I think of how much I love my beautiful friend. :) Love you Kar!

Mystery of the Thief of Multiples

Anyone wonder why it always happens that when you buy a new package of 8 pens, by the end of a few weeks you're holding on to just one of those 8 pens? Not only have you lost the other 7, but you will keep that one pen for the rest of your life. This one pen is your prized possession, and you would do nothing to injure its parts or cause it to cease to exist. You'll always put it in that safe spot in your backpack and nervously loan it out during a class. Only if the guy is REALLY cute, and even then you eye the pen the whole time making sure he doesn't absent mindedly stuff it in his pocket when class is over. Well today, I have found out that I am not the only person that has this problem! I have a whole bandwagon of followers, including Siegfried & Jensen! This bowl, as displayed below, is famous at my work.

Words to describe it could be: slut, easy, used often, and popular. We have had this bowl in the lunch room for as long as I can remember. Everyone rushes to the lunchroom in hopes that the bowl will still be available for use. Even if someone takes it back to their desk, it is always returned to the cupboard in the lunch room. At one point, a few employees brought 2 or 3 more bowls to allow more than one person to have a chance to heat their soup up in a bowl instead of a Styrofoam plate-yup I've tried it for lunch. Not more than 4 days later those bowls disappeared. There was talk of "it's like the bowls walked out on their own!" but I highly doubt this. However, one bowl still remains. So I wonder, does this happen with other things besides bowls and pens? Do we get a bunch of boyfriends at the same time hoping that at least one of them will stick around and last forever? Should I wear 4 outfits each morning just so that I'll end up with one to last the day? I don't know how well any of these scenarios would turn out, I'm assuming not so well, but you know what happens when you assume. So my moral of this incredibly odd thought process that I've decided to share with you all is this: Buy only one of everything that is needed. Don't fool yourself into thinking you'll use or keep more than that. Just think, adding this break through discovery to your life could be liberating. This life style is simple and cost effective, guaranteed! :)

Careful Baywatch, Here I Come!

I'm finally able to get in the pool at physical therapy now!! Last Saturday Ed Budge let me get into the beautiful pool which was exquisitely set at a temperature somewhere between welcomingly steamy and super great. Hello bliss! I was fully equip with two yellow floaty things around my waste so I didn't touch the bottom. I slipped in the pool, blew a few bubbles to relieve all my excitement and prepared for my exercises. I am to do the AQUA JOG!

Is it just me, or does this sound super cool and intense?!

Well basically, I get to pretend like I'm running in water up and back in the lane. After doing this up and back once, I started laughing. Sometimes I wish I just had a mirror planted next to me during times like this. Eureka! I thought, I have found the secret training that the Baywatch lifeguards use before each show! Poised and controlled, I pumped my arms and legs up and down practicing for my big break as an actress (making sure to add a few hair flips here and there). The lady walking in the lane next to me smiled and then quickly got out of the pool, stating as she left, "looks like my time is up!" I didn't care; I was swimming, my legs were working perfectly with no bum knee to hold me back! Karlie came in to check on me and showed me the next exercise. Flutter kicks! She gave me a floaty swimboard and I kicked as hard as I could. I felt the next appropriate conversation should have been, "now don't drink the water alright?" "k mom!"

Part 2 of my awesome Saturday!

Katie and I were invited to go BOATING!!!! Hello summer! We got ready in a flash, and then set out to Utah Lake with Dave Morrey (someone special to someone that I think is special), Dave Benson (Brooks), Jeff Benson, and Lydia Ray! New friends! I'll say, crutches weren't the best accessory I chose that day, especially combined with my swimsuit, but it turned out great! I brought my new camera and snapped pictures the whole time!

Some of them actually turned out which was a shock to me! I love taking pictures, and hopefully I'm getting closer to my dream of being a real photographer some day... I had a blast, and I'm grateful that everyone let me tag along! Now if it would stop raining, I could really say that I'm glad it's finally summer!

It was definitely a good day. Top 44 I'd say. :)

Crutches

Dear Crutches:

Somedays you are a blessing, and somedays I'd like to think of you as a curse. No offense. There are however, many times that I've had to just take a break for a second to laugh at myself. For example, while at work on Monday I had to use the ladies room. Uh-Oh. Since it is too much of a pain to get around most of the time, I only get up when it is absolutely necessary; a free cookie in the breakroom, when I have about 44 pages on the printer that need to be picked up, or when I have just gulped 24 oz of water. So I hobbled up, got my crutches and headed for relief. I got to the door, turned the handle and pushed the door open proceeding to crutch through. Well I forgot that when I was big and strong, that door was no match for my super toned body. Now, the door came flying back leaving my head to cushion its closing. Rubbing my head and sparing a glance around, relieved that everyone was at lunch, I put my head down and slowly but surely nudged the door open with my noggin. I finally got it open enough that I thought I could risk a hop on my crutches through the door. Taking a deep breath I nudged the door as hard as I could with my head and ran -kinda- through the opening. The door slammed shut behind me leaving me breathing heavy. Whew! I leaned on my crutches for a second and then realized how ridiculous I probably looked just now and started to laugh. Oh geez. I'm sure the Big Man Upstairs got a kick out of it. :) I sure did as well.

Lesson #1: Hold it.

When I was younger, I always wanted crutches, and was envious of those kids who had them. I also really wanted a retainer, but that's another story for another day.... Well now that I have had crutches for the past 2 weeks and will continue on them for 4 more weeks, I don't really care for them much anymore. None of those little kids told me that crutches come with bruised palms and rubbed raw armpits.

Lesson #2: Stay away from package deals.

Even though crutches are a pain, I'm very grateful that I have them. I may grumble, but deep down I really am happy that I'm on the recovery! No one needs armpits anyways. P.S. They stink. Physical therapy has been going SO great! Thanks Peak Physical Therapy! Looks like the record for the fastest recovery is still in reach. ;) Zoom, zoom, zoom! (Katie, Karlie and Jake would get the significance of that... haha)

Lesson #3: Optimism combined with denial make quite a good cup of whatever it would be.

Special Thanks to my family and friends for taking care of me, keeping me sane, and putting up with my unavoidable laziness! I love you all!

Lesson #4: DOMINATION! (I couldn't leave it at 3....)

Day 4 Continued...

Alright so the rest of this day was.... crazy! haha My mom and I went to get my stuff from my apartment packed up and moved home. We realized that somehow my crap has multiplied and so we headed to WalMart to get some more storage boxes. I have been looking forward to riding one of those motorized carts, "race cars," as I like to call them since I got out of surgery. So we get to WalMart and look around for an available race car, all of them were out! I started off on my crutches, and my mom and I quickly realized that I wasn't going to make it through WalMart on my crutches. It seems I'm a very inexperienced crutch-er (?) So we went to the other entrance hoping to find a race car on that side. A lady was just buckling herself into the last race car right as we got there.... I may have given her the stink eye on accident.... did she REALLY need it? REALLY? So my mom looked at each other for a second, and then my mom had a brilliant idea. I don't know if any of you are familiar or not with the carts that have the attached compartment in the front for two little toddlers to sit in... but that's what we found. We figured we might as well give it a try! So I climbed in under the bar, fit a cheek on the back seat, tried to rest my leg on the front seat, and then had my leg hanging out the back. This just might work! It was better than crutches at least. Going through the store my butt started to cramp, and something had to be done... I decided to switch, and hung my leg out the side and sat comfortably in the far back seat. Much better! So this is how I ended up!

I definitely got some weird looks... especially from this little boy that we passed. His face said, "See mom, I'm not too big to ride in the cart! Look at that girl!"

I'm realizing that one of the lessons I need to learn from this injury, is to lose my pride. Check! It was fun, and my mom and I definitely had some laughs. :)

Cleaning out my apartment was exhausting. I couldn't do much, which was frustrating, because I hate feeling helpless and making others work for me without helping in some way. My mom is an amazing woman. She is efficient, organized and determined. She had my mess organized and stored in those bins so quickly! I tried to help where I could, but my knee was not very happy with me. I looked down once and almost screamed. Somehow, Big Bertha swapped knees with me, and I'm going to need to get mine back from her tomorrow. I took a pain pill at the 4 hour mark and about 30 minutes later my eyes started to get heavy. My dad showed up after work and he took all the bins downstairs and loaded the car to be taken home. We have a few more things to round up tomorrow, but for the most part we got a lot done! Thanks so much MOM and DAD! You guys are soooo great! I don't know where I would be without you both. Sorry to everyone else, but looks like I have the best parents in the entire world! I've been sleeping ever since I got home, woke up for about an hour or two and now I'm headed back to bed. Long day! Night!

Surgery = DOMINATION!!

Alright, so it's day 4 since my surgery on Thursday! I haven't fallen asleep in the past 5 minutes, so I figure this is a good opportunity to make a post while I have the chance. :) So here's how it's been going!

Surgery: Surgery went really well! I think it was a good thing that I only got about 3 and a half hours of sleep, because I was too tired to be nervous or stressed out about the surgery. Genius. I was brought in, changed into the gown, super ugly brown socks with grippy stuff on the bottom, and a hair cap thing. Basically, I looked like a rockstar. We waited for the doctor and anesthesiologist to show up. Dave (Anesthesiologist) talked to us, then wheeled me into the operation room. I was very curious, so I did ask him one question: "So if I happen to wake up in the middle of surgery, what happens?" He made a few jokes and said that would never happen. With my only worry put to rest, he put me on the operation table, had me put my arms out, said he was going to start with....... and that is all I remember. I didn't even get to count to 10 and only make it to 4 or anything! I was gone. Drugs mix well with my body I guess. He definitely did his job. The first thing I remember after, was that I was extremely cold when I woke up. My mom said I had a million blankets on me already and I was shaking like a leaf. After I warmed up, I was just out of it. I was super tired, and apparently kept asking the same questions over and over again. Other than that I wasn't too crazy... sorry! I was hoping to be able to share some weird story. My parents said they talked to Dr. Wallentine after surgery and he said he used 4 strands of my hamstring, bent my knee back and forth to get it in there as tight as possible. Good work! :) I went home, and slept!

Day 1: Not much of an appetite at all. I had a graham cracker every 4 hours when I was suppose to take a pain pill, but that was about it. I didn't really get nautious, but got very light headed if I ever had to get up to go to the bathroom. Today I fainted on my mom. I was coming back from the bathroom and my ears started to get all fuzzy, I got the cold sweats, and I couldn't see anything. I said, Mom, I think I might faint, and I was gone. My mom ran over, tried to hold me up for a while, but then slowly slid me down to the floor. I sat there for awhile, until it passed. I am not a big fan of that feeling at all. So that was fun... I had my first day of Physical Therapy today. I was really stiff, but able to lift it up on my own which was good! By the end though, I was falling asleep as we were setting up my next appointment. The rest of the day I slept for the most part. Karlie and Jake came over and baby sat me for awhile though! They brought Zupas and we also had Zubs sticks and cheese sticks.. soo good! We watched the Big Bang Theory all night long. :) They are so great!

Day 2: Dad took me to PT this morning at 7:30am! I love that Karlie gets to help me with PT every time I go! It makes it so much more enjoyable! I didn't do as well today, but still not bad, getting there! I came home, slept, and then Katie, Karlie and Jake came over to visit me after their soccer game! We watched the Big Bang Theory, and I was able to stay awake for most of it! They left, I slept, watched a movie with my parents, and then slept some more. That night, Parker was on a camp out, and Jordan was working, so it was just my mom, dad and myself! We had an awesome dinner, and then played Skip-Bo and Yahtzee! After that, I went to bed. haha

Day 3: Mom was nice enough to sacrifice not going to church for staying home and taking care of me. While everyone was at church, mom and I watched Enchanted and just hung out. We made Paninis which were absolutely amazing! They tasted professional! (That honey mustard sauce makes all the difference!) Dad came home to 'check on me' and we all just sat around and talked. I slept a lot again. Mom took a nap and then Dad, Parker and I were trying to find a movie to watch. After a good 15 minutes of deciding, Dad was nice to me and let me pick. So I chose Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs, one of my new favorites! My family didn't like it very much, but I was convinced that if they saw it again they would love it like I do! Well.... 5 minutes into the movie I was asleep..... oops.... Later I painted my fingernails and we watched the Jazz allow the Lakers to beat them in Game 1. More sleeping!

Day 4: Physical Therapy has now become the main event of my day.... haha Sad, but it's true. today I did really well though, I got all the way around, a full rotation on the bike, everytime around for 12 minutes!! I even got to learn a new exercise today! Ed stretched me out today and I was able to bend to 120 degrees! That was huge!! So I'm really proud of that!! I've been trying really hard to work hard on this! So we'll see! Today I got to shower!! Which was hard... but definitely needed. :) Now I'm going up to my apartment to try and move some of my stuff home. We are trying to sell our apartment right now since Karlie is getting married, and I think we might have a buyer! So I gotta get my crap out, which sucks because I can't help. My family has been so great throughout this whole thing. I owe them big time!! I hope that every one has a wonderful day today! I'm starting to fall asleep, so I gotta end this. Night! :)

I'm on the road to recovery! DOMINATION!!