HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The scariest thing I could think up this year for Halloween is to have another broken ankle...ever!  Here is a very edited version of what I now have forever in my ankle.  Hoping for a safe one for everyone!

Happy Birthday, Rachel! 

I knew you were going to be my daughter-in-law the day John said “..she’s just like you, Mom…”.  To what you were just like me, I don’t remember, but I remember thinking, “he is going to marry her”.   I have to admit, when John first brought you into our family, I didn't think you were really going to fit.  You were so quiet, so smart, so sensible.  I wondered how in the world you were going to put up with this family, especially with John.  But then the day came when you told us a little story about your future husband.  You said “John wants to go on an archaeology dig in the Middle East, then we talked about going to Africa…we went to Dairy Queen.”  And THAT is when I knew you got him,  that is when I knew you were going to be the perfect half to that boy I raised.  You know how to dream with him and how to make his reality real.  You have helped him become a man.  Thanks for being a treasured part of our family!

Last week, we had two All City cross country meets to go to.  One for Joshua in Junior High and one for Emily in High School.  It is so strange to see my grandkids now in the same event that I took their Dad to so many years as a kid.  Both Emily and Joshua are amazing runners.  Joshua is 6th grade this year, but ran with the older guys.  Emily is a freshman but ran varsity.  She even earned her varsity letter her freshman year.  Her Grandpa and Dad both earned their varsity letters their freshman years, so it was really great to see her carry on the tradition.  

 Last Christmas' gift from Mom and Dad was a massage and dinner for everyone at Skamania Lodge in Washington.  We all went  last weekend and had our Christmas gift together.  Well, not Dad, he wants nothing to do with a massage, so he waited for us while we enjoyed ours.  Then we had a great dinner together.  Such a great gift!!  Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!

I should have given a description of some of the photos in the collage of my ankle.  First off there is the one of the x-ray of the break.  The one next to it, would you believe it?  John took a picture of me after I fell, once I had recovered from the nausea and nearly passing out part.  I didn't even know he took it.  I guess a little bit of my photo obsession has worn off on him, huh? The pain pills that I had on hand 'just in case', which thankfully I only had to taken the night the 'block' wore off from the surgery.  The nurse had warned me to take the pills at first even if I didn't feel any pain, because once the block wore off it would hit all at once.  And it DID!  She was so right.  I took a pill before bed and glad I did.  It wore off in the middle of the night and woke me up.  I wonder what it would have felt like had I not had any medication in me.  It really was the most intense pain I can remember, even more than the initial break.  But another  pill went to work right away and it never hurt like that again.  The other photos show the different phases of cast from the Urgent Care, boot, swollen ankles, bruising, the first cast they sent me home from after surgery, the stitches, me on my crutches at Lake Tahoe, my crutches in Reno,and one leg in the spa at Skamania Lodge,  the doctor said not to put it in hot tubs yet,  Ending with the x-ray of my new hardware after surgery.  

Its all about the ankle!

I'm almost done with my 7th week since I broke my ankle.  Pretty strange to me how my focus has become mostly about the ankle, how all the things I normally do from day to day suddenly could be put on the back burner until it is healed up.  7 weeks ago, when I realized that I was going to be housebound for a while and pretty much restricted to where those two crutches could take me, I set all kinds of goals for myself. I did manage to achieve some of those things.  I read a few of the books I have been meaning to, went through my computer files and sorted things out, mostly the photo files. I am actually pretty pleased with what I got done.  There are a lot of things I didn't get to...yet.  I wanted to get some knitting done, to sew a little and finish up going through my huge albums of photos, eliminating the junk ones, cutting down on the amount of albums I have sitting here on these book shelves. But I will get to those things still, winter is on its way.

Last week, I had my doctor visit.  He said that as soon as I felt able to, I could start using my foot along with the crutches and as soon as I got better with that, I could ditch the crutches.   

I walked out of there without them and have not used them since!!! 

I have been going slowly, really with the boot on still, there is no option but to go slowly. I have been doing some exercises on my ankle, trying to stretch the tendons and muscles back to what they were.  Dr. Dales said that by my next appointment in 3 weeks, he expects to send me home in my own shoe! 

 Here's to hoping he is right!

The last week of September, my doctor said that it would be OK to continue with our plans to go to Dennis, Abby and Gabe's place in California.  We spent the first few days at Uncle Jim's place in Oxnard.  I took the pigeon photos above in Oxnard at his place.  I thought it was pretty funny to see how many of them decided to sit on those wires...and how evenly spaced they were.

 We had a good time spending time with Gabe.  It is so nice to see that he remembers us from the last visits now and so fun to have him excited to have us around. 

We took a detour on the way back to Oregon, stopping off at Lake Tahoe for a night.  We had a beautiful view from our room, with nothing between us and the water except a few pine trees.  It sure was pretty at sunrise and sunset. 

Our waitress at dinner told us that the Kokanee Salmon were spawning just a few miles around the west side of the lake, so  we decided to see what was there.  The park system was closed with the government shutdown, but she told us there was plenty of room beside the road to park and that it would be easy for me with the crutches.  Sure enough, there was a paved bike path just a few feet off the highway that took us right over a footbridge over the stream where the salmon were. It was a beautiful sight...thousands and thousands of fish, about 14 inches long, were filling the stream in both directions.  They turn this color red when they begin spawning.  So sad to think that as soon as the spawning is over, the fish die.  We also were warned to look out for bears.  Signs were up everywhere, which under normal conditions would have been so exciting, but being that I was in a boot that would have made it impossible to run, I was a bit relieved that we really didn't encounter any this time around.

Since I could not hike around and I wanted some closer shots of the fish, I gave John the camera to get closer to the water.  He took this one of me waiting for my camera back.  It does not show the boot very well since I was behind that bit of grass.  It was really hard to be there and not be able to hike upstream...maybe we will make it back sometime...and maybe we really will see bears then.

The Aspens were changing color.  Just so beautiful to see the morning light coming through them...

From Tahoe, we met up with my parents in Reno.  I can't believe that the Peppermill gave us two FREE nights!  The rooms are really nice too!  Of course they think they will get the money back from what people gamble, but they don't get much back from us!  I like to play a little, but prefer to sit by the pool and do nothing.  

Crutches and casinos don't really go together either.

We took the back road home to avoid the boring I-5 and saw some different sights.  Nice to see the changing colors in Oregon too, as we crossed over Mt. Hood, the vine maples were in full color.  I took these shots from the moving truck instead of asking John to stop...after 9 hours of driving, I didn't want to add any more time to the drive than I had to.