We can't run it with just plainness!

You can note that we have added artwork and my toes are now glittery.  I would have painted them last night, but I didn't know if they needed to see the true color of  my toes before casting. 

You'd be glad to know that K- and E- had a fantastic time decorating my cast.  I have some rhinestones that K- and I are going to hot glue on in a bit.  I mean, if I have to rock a cast, why not be obnoxious about it, right? 

As the day has worn on, my high tolerance to pain couldn't mask the fact that my foot is still broken and in the midst of being in fracture fits.  My toes were sausaging and the bruising up at the top is a bit more purple than before. 

I'm happy to report that I can drive!  Because they were kind enough to leave my toes exposed, I can press the gas with my big toe (thank goodness it isn't winter!) and press the brake with my left foot.  It took a one-time run to get the more gentle nature needed, as I was a bit herky-jerky and felt as if I was going to give myself whip lash.  I did finally find a cast boot, after going three places and spending a few hours on trying to track it down, but I do need to remove it to drive. 

This is my second post for the day.  Read on!

Smiles in my day:
-  As I admit that my underpits (as K- calls them) are aching in a way that I cannot describe, my foot is relatively pain free.  I really am quite lucky in that I only broke a bone (fully, but just one), nothing needed to be set and everything was well in place.  I have a great doctor who could deal with all of it in office.  He casted it himself and truly did a very nice job.  The office laughed at my story and different ones were asking me what color I got when I left.  See, I am quite the advocate for conservation and monarch migration.  I'm a poster child of, "Hey!  Ask me what I did!"  Sure.  That was my intention.  Uh, huh.  :S
-  Hubs just caught an American Copper, which is a rare butterfly for us.  Yet another confirmation that we're doing something right on our little rectangle of earth here. 

I'm going to go hang my leg out of the tub and get myself bathed.  It was in the mid 90's today and between the heat and the crutches and working up a sweat for a variety of reasons, I need a bit of a soak. 

Have a great weekend!

The latest in migratory tagging footwear.

Who would have thought that the simple act of catching butterflies would land me in a permanent purple leg for a month?

BUSTED!

My 5th metatarsal was the one that made that loud crack sound last night.  Pardon me as I continue icing, per instructions from the doctor, so that I can go in tomorrow, get a non-waterproof cast in a color of my choice with some lovely crutches to boot.

Have I failed to mention my lack of athleticism?

I am not the picture of grace.

I did not excel in sports, except volleyball.  I wailed on the ball. 

This evening, I told Hubs and K- that I was going to go out to the back yard for one last look for monarchs.  "You know, I believe I'll join you," Hubs says.  Quickly, K- was in tow. 

I had a monarch in my sights.  It fluttered to the other side of the fence, and I decided that would be the side to pursue on.  K- followed me, but hung back where I told her, so as not to scare the monarch.

I stalked the monarch.  I was quiet and stealth-like.  I made the leap.   I made the swoop.  I caught it! 

Then I landed.  On an incline.  In Birkenstock's. 

With a crack. 

Audibly. 

It was so loud that Hubs heard it from probably about 10 feet away.  "Honey, WHAT did you just do?"

I got myself turned around while keeping the monarch in the confines of the butterfly net.  I told him that he needed to come help me.  I thought that I potentially broke my foot. 

I instantly took my shoe off.  Best to remove than to cut or pry my shoe off.  Hubs bent down and started caring for my foot.  All I could think of was the butterfly. 

"Get the butterfly."

"Amy, I need to see what you did."

"No, seriously.  You need to get the butterfly."  He and K- complied with my request.  They sexed, tagged and released. 

I got up, started to hobble down Mike's driveway (which has cameras and Hubs is pretty certain that I should blog my catch or put it on You Tube), then I hear my aunt.  "AMY!  AMY!"  She was very sing-songy. 

I did not feel so sing-songy. 

I told K- to go get her and I told Hubs, "Oh, I just can't do it tonight."  She was on a ride about and as it turns out, she was okay.  I talked to her a bit, mulled over the potential of taking a trip to the ER, but neighbors and my mom weren't around.  K- starts school in the AM, I didn't want to keep her up late by taking her to someone elses house and I didn't want her all stressed out about me.

So where am I at tonight?  I'm sitting on the computer chair with my foot, not aching, but swollen and showing slight bruising.  My plan is to get K- onto the bus in the AM, drive out (of course it is my right foot) to retrieve the RAV from the body shop and onward to my doctor's office.  (More on the RAV in a later post.  Not crashed but damaged by the belt on the windshield repair guy.)  My doctor's office is in one of the local hospitals, so if my foot requires a scanning of some sort, which I believe I've won the lottery for, they'll be able to do it on site. 

My toes bend.  The whole row.  I can flex them back and forth.  My ankle flexes back and forth.  I can walk on the inside of my foot.  The outside of my foot has a swelling that doesn't belong there, a slight haze of purple and I can't walk on it. 

Good times, right? 

Yes, I'll keep you up to date on my orthopedic health.

In the meantime, just remember that I caught and got that butterfly tagged.  Oh, I just can't wait for the doctor to ask what I did. 

An unusual return.

I work retail.  We'll get a few odd ball returns in, but last week's really left all of us giggling.  Yesterday, even one of the owners was in laughing about it.

What was the item?  It was a book mark. 


Photo credit to the Gama-go store online.

 She said it didn't work.  I'm not certain what about it didn't work.  Was she under the impression that it would light?  Did she think that it would inspire good ideas?  Does she have a Nook or Kindle?  (I wasn't there that day-- darn.)

We're all left mystified and we have no idea what didn't work on/about it.  It left us scratching our heads and giggling a bit, even days after.

Smiles in my day:
-  We had the kick-off to the PTA Membership Drive last night and I had some great conversation with some new parents.  They asked great questions and I even had a few ask about our PTA enrollment figures.  "Last year it was 289 members, but this year with Watch D.O.G.S, I anticipate well over 300."  They were stunned.  I'm excited about the prospect of new parents wanting to be involved in their children's school.  Our school is currently in a swing space (the old middle school) while we wait for our school to be torn down and rebuilt.  To put it rather politely, there are some folks at the school that are currently stressed beyond belief.  Those folks made me remember that even if there are people that are beyond under my skin, I do what I do at the school for the kids.  I do it to help the teachers.  I do it to help administration, too, but hopefully they'll realize that we are there for good and not evil here sometime VERY soon.
-  Seeing someone from high school who was nice to me.  He was told me that I was missed at the reunion.  (Very nice!)  I told him that I didn't go because they were a bunch of people who weren't nice.  He said that he just beat them up, so he didn't have a hard time.  I told him that they made me cry.  A new PTA member chimed in on her feelings about high school kids, their yuckiness and how they want to be your best friend after made her completely agree with my stand of not attending the reunion.  It was really good to talk to Chris.  One of our dads that is spearheading the Watch D.O.G.S. was someone I graduated with.  He was one of the decent people at school.  It's good to know that there are a few surrounding me that were the nice ones!

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: My morning started with a funeral for a goldfish.

I'm sad, but not particularly surprised, to announce that Goldie, the free Back To School carnival goldfish passed onto the big sea in the sky early Monday morning. 

Hubs came in and actually woke me up.  "Goldie was floating in the top of the bowl, so I went ahead and scooped her out."  I think that I asked what he did with her.  "I have her in a toilet paper tube."  Pardon?  It turns out that he gently wrapped Goldie in toilet paper, placed her in the toilet paper tube and put her in the garden window.  I guess that you do weird things when you are half awake. 

I was the one that got to break the news to K- this AM.  She cried and cried.  Grant you, from the moment that Goldie was handed off to K-, I said, "Now K-, please know that she might not live that long."  Of course, to prolong the doomed life, Hubs went out and purchased $18.00 in fish accoutrement. 

Goldie has been in the fish bowl ICU since Friday morning.  After our friends left, I had a talk with K- about how Goldie was now doing "the sideways swim."  She cried and cried.  She called Hubs.  She called Grandma.  Hubs changed the water that night (keep in mind that they did purchase an air pump), and it seemed to give her fins a little lift. 
Color me a little surprised that Goldie took the fish bowl nap last night, as she was swimming straight and everything.  She seemed to have shed that sideways swim habit that she had become so fond of. 

K- asked us this morning if we could have a funeral.  "Mom, may I say a few words?"  "Of course."  "Goldie, you were the best fish.  You meant more to me than anything."  "Even your mom and dad?"  "Yes."

A goldfish ranks above the parentals.  A goldfish doesn't take care of her when she is sick.  A goldfish doesn't take her for Happy Daddy Day.  She'll come back around after she is done mourning.

Smiles in my day:
-  We finally finished the summer reading sheet.  Hallelujah!

Vacation 2011: When the road you are on has a grass strip in the middle, you can be assured that it is the one less traveled.

A week ago, we came back from a mini 3 1/2 day vacation to Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania.

Bob's Road.  Really, it was named Greenbriar Road, but we called it Bob's Road.  (Name that movie.)  I made a few premature turns, the GPS recalculated and I ended up here.  I had to put the truck into 4 wheel drive and two hands were necessary.  Wow.  Hubs thought that I went down someones driveway.  Then, he thought it was a slightly improved trail.  I think that this road was a very long 3 miles.

Because of Bob's Road, the boxes shifted.  This would be our camping provisions.  They dumped out of the truck when I opened the door.  Hubs made me stop so that he could take a photo. 

This was home for 3 1/2 days.  To the left is the tent for changing and so forth. Our sleeping tent is ahead.

Here it is!  We even have a little "porch" as Hubs calls it.  You can see K-'s camp cot and our air mattress.  There isn't extra space, but we're cozy.

Our cozy space got a little damp over Friday night/Saturday morning.  This bottom corner is on my side of the bed.  I was in a sleeping bag and thankfully, I didn't feel that dampness.  I felt general dampness, though.  I'm glad to say that by Saturday afternoon, it all dried out and all was well for sleeping that night.

The scenic view.

They like signs.  Signs like, "Hey, don't do something stupid, because people die here."  Inviting. 

Hubs and K- at the falls overlook.  On a side note, notice that left hand up on her hip?  She's found the silky tag on the inside bottom of her shirt.  That, my friends, means that she is tired.  From her earliest days (in the low months old), she has always looked for silky tags.  That was the first thing she would do with a toy.  She's a tagging kid and it is funny that at 7,  it still brings her comfort.

The falls of the Youghiogheny River.  Yes, I had to double check the spelling.  How to pronounce it?  It is yock-i-hay-nee.  How can I recall that?  I live in Ohio with places like Cuyahoga (ki-ya-ho-ga) and Tuscarawas.



Bless K-'s heart.  It was here that I realized that she suffers from horse syndrome.  "Mom, I don't like high bridges over water where I can see over the edge.  I'm okay with little ones, but I'm going to ride in the middle."  This was a rather high bridge.



When we arrived in town for the Over the Falls Race, the perfume of burnt brakes hung in the air.  When you go down the mountain, it is a road full of "s" turns.  We saw one car with smoke literally rolling from their front wheels.  A brake shop would make a killing at the bottom.

Junie B. by lantern light, anyone?

My mom used to make these little cut boxes of cereal for us.  Hubs saw the box and didn't realize what I was doing, but said, "Hey!  You should cut the box so that she can eat out of it!"  Way ahead of you, Hubs.



We chased this rainbow on our way back from Idlewild on Friday evening.  It was a full double bow.  K- knew that we would see one.



Cucumber Falls after the rain.  We stopped on our way back, but after the rainbow chase.

We camped on Aspen, which was a small "road" with a turnaround at the bottom.  K- liked to ride her bike up and down.  It gave her something to do as we did camp chores.



When we woke up Saturday morning, felt damp and we were all silently struggling with the damp induced grumbles, K- started signing, "The sun will come out . . . "  "No, K-!  Wrong song!"  Then she started belting out, "Sun, sun, Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me!"  I picked that up with her and very soon, we saw this.



Lined up and ready to go over the falls.  This was the practice run.  Keep an eye on that blue boat.

He's going over.

The guy with the rope?  That's a safety line.  He was tugging and yanking on the rope.  We were all standing there stunned. 

A boat and paddle came up, but without the guy who came down with it, we were on the edge of a heart attack.  I'm THRILLED to report that "after 5-10 minutes" (as was told to me by someone who has run the falls and saw him), he popped back up alive and well.  He was caught behind the falls and couldn't get out. 

Can you imagine?  It is an 18' drop, which may not sound like a lot in terms of a falls, but there is a swirl of water that if you hit it wrong, you'll end up like the guy above. 



More folks waiting for their turn.



Again, I'm amazed.

Look at the straight line.  How does it hold up like that?

And this?  Well, people were going over in kayaks.  This guy went a different way.  He ended up flipping at the bottom, but came back up and was fine. 

We laughed at her.  She came over just fine, with water wings and silk flower decorated helmet fully intact.

This guy is amazing.  This is Jeff Snyder.  He, by what I was told, is the guy who coordinates the Over the Falls Race.  He is standing in a "Strider" with some type of boot thing that straps his foot in.  He made the paddle from wood and his helmet is also handcrafted from a burl.  Only a true artist would be willing to wear a hunk of burl on their noggin to keep their smarticles intact. 

And he succeeded.  I know, not the greatest photo, but I included it to prove to you that he landed at the bottom upright. 

K- wanted to go on a bike ride and she was kind of done with watching people go over the falls.

A freestyle guy.  He danced the kayak back and forth over the "tongue" and ended up upside down at the bottom.  He was fine, but it's never a good sign when your journey over the falls is tippy to start.



To sit back and take this in made me happy.



Dinner cooked over the open fire.  The pieces of wood off to the sides are drying out from the pouring down rain the previous night.  You'd be glad to know that dinner was good.

Had to move some things in towards the fire a bit more, so we decided to tripod the corn over top.  Turned out fabulous!  The corn was from the farmers market in town.  Yummy!

See, even Hubs approves!

The tussock moth that K- found on the back of the truck.  She knows that these are not cool to touch, as my niece ended up accidentally dropping one down her own shirt and was left very uncomfortable.  I walked him to a tree (on a marshmallow stick) and thought we were good.

We kept finding them.  This one popped out of the side view mirror.  They were on the tires.  Wow. 

This sign made me giggle.

So did this one.

In the end, Pennsylvania bid us adieu with driving rainstorms that made it very difficult to see.  I had my hazards on, the wipers were on high, the headlights were on (what is it with people who don't?!) and I had the two-handed lean forward drive going on.  Geeze o' Pete was it a long drive home.  No wonder why it was a mass exodus on the way out of the camp ground.  We forgot our weather radio at home.  We soon found out what the weather was going to be. 

We had a great time and were thankful to have the small vacation that we did have.  Between work and the need to save money, a bigger vacation just couldn't be.  This one was just our size, though. 

Smiles in my day:
-  Rachael and family came through the hurricane okay.  Today, some quality time was spent in the ER checking her husband out for some low blood pressure issues, but I'm glad to say that he's okay, too.  Geeze!
-  K- started back to soccer today and had a really good time.
-  Line dried laundry.  The laundry was wet in the basement overnight and had a hint of basement dampness to it, but the line snapped it right out.  Hooray!
-  We've gotten to tag a few monarchs in the last few days.  Hubs and K- were going to tag one today, but lost control of it before they could tag it.  Oops!
-  Being happy to see that "big boy cable" isn't really all that.

Have a great night!