Knee Surgery #5

This morning, after getting the girls to their early-morning, before-school activities, I headed over to the surgical center at Patriot's Place to have my fifth knee surgery.  This one was a doozy - I had four allograft cartilage plugs (from two different cadavers); my patellar tendon was moved and re-attached to my tibia with two screws; and I had a bone spur shaved and my meniscus repaired.

A four-hour surgical procedure that will hopefully alleviate the knee pain I have been experiencing since last May.  Recovering from this surgery will take a while, and I have my schedule cleared so I can focus on healing and rehab.

A Little More Snow...

Well...it snowed a little bit more last night (I measured three inches in our driveway)...and school was closed again today.  It wasn't as windy today as yesterday, so the girls went outside to play for a bit while I cleared the driveway (again).

 With the drifts, the snow is getting pretty deep in the backyard, making it hard for Julia to walk.

 Look closely, way in the back-middle of the picture, and you can see Evelyn waving her arms.  The girls love playing in the monster snow drift created by the city plows.

 And I have to include a picture of this little guy.  He's so cute.

Sweet Treats Prep

I am three days away from having major knee surgery, which will land me on crutches for a couple of months.  That also means I will be on crutches on Valentine's Day...so we girls needed to make (and then freeze) Valentine's Day treats ahead of time.  Since we didn't lose our electricity with last night's snowstorm, we girls whipped up a storm of treats in the kitchen this afternoon.  We all took turns stirring Rice Krispies treats...

 ...everyone pitched in to make rolled cookies...

 ...with LOTS of pink...

 ...and voila!  Hershey's hugs cookies and Rice Krispies treats.  All ready for the freezer, and ready for a pink holiday in a couple of weeks.

Snowstorm...Over

This morning we woke up to 12 inches of snow on the ground, 30 mph winds and below-freezing wind chills.  Troy is out of town this week, so that meant I got to play with the snow blower.  I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.  It only took me about 20 minutes to clear our driveway, which is MUCH better than shoveling a foot of snow by hand.

 I used the snow blower for the sidewalk in front of our house, and Evelyn finished clearing the snow from the steps.  It was too cold for the girls to be outside (-25 degree wind chills are dangerous), so now snow play on this snow day.

Snowstorm on Our Doorstep

There's a major snowstorm knocking on our door, and it started this afternoon.  School has already been cancelled tomorrow, but Evelyn's after-school activity was still on today (here's a shot of Evelyn's school, while I waited to pick her up).

On our way home from getting Evelyn, we stopped at the library to load up on books and movies.  Well, we will watch movies as long as we have power - they are also predicting blizzard-condition winds, so fingers crossed that we won't lose the convenience of electricity.

Saturday Snow Play

It snowed a couple of inches last night, which gave the girls enough snow to play in this morning.

 Sledding and snowball fights were definitely on the agenda for these two!

Indoor Pool Day

No school today + cold outside + no snow = indoor pool fun!

Bears, Cats and Birds

Evelyn set up Rosie in this pose.  She is so tolerant, she just stayed that way.  Silly cat.

 This morning I saw a northern flicker eating around the base of one of our backyard trees.  It's hard to take pictures of these birds because they are really timid, but I got lucky this time.  He was so focused on foraging for food, he didn't notice me snapping pictures from the window.

First Snow

It snowed this morning!  And since it has been crazy-cold the past several weeks, the creek has a thick, 8-inch layer of ice.  Definitely safe for the girls to walk on it - they had fun pretending to skate on the shoveled ice.

 It's not a ton of snow, but since it's the first snow of the year, the girls were excited to don their snow gear and play outside for as long as they could stand the frigid temps.

 And now for the best part of playing in the snow...

 ...hot chocolate.

There Goes Another Tooth!

While eating breakfast this morning, Evelyn's tooth was bothering her.  I offered to pull it out then, but she declined.  She continued getting ready for school, complaining about her tooth the whole time.  After she had brushed her teeth, she had had enough.  "You can pull it out now, Mommy!" she shouted before putting on her shoes.  Yup.  That tooth came out easy-peasy.

Kitty Close-Ups

Rosie still enjoys sitting with Evelyn, doing homework.  Such a sweet little girl.

 And this picture tells you everything you need to know about the weather today.  It's cold.  And Rosie can't get close enough to the fire.

Library Day

After picking up Evelyn from her after-school art class today, we girls headed to the library to check out some new books.  I thought Julia looked so cute in the outfit (and hair accessory) she picked out today, I just had to take a picture.  I love taking pictures of normal, every-day activities.

Game Time

Right now one of the girls' favorite games on Troy's Kindle is "Temple Run."  And I'm sure Rosie is a big help for Evelyn...

Travel Hiccups

Today's travel back to the east coast started off fine.  As in, when we checked in at the Omaha airport, our first flight was on time.  The departure was actually delayed an hour.  That made for a tricky layover in Chicago - we had 20 minutes to deplane, go to the bathroom, grab lunch (to go!) and board our next flight.  We made it.  Barely!

 When we left Omaha, the forecast for Rhode Island was dry.  However, the longer we flew, the cloudier it got.  By the time we landed in Providence, it was snowing heavily.

 Julia was oblivious to the weather.  Clearly.

The kicker to today's travel?  NONE of our checked luggage made it.  None.  Zilch.  Zero.  At least we are going home so we have our necessities at tonight's final destination.  But it's still a pain!

Omaha's Zoo...from the Girls' Perspective

Julia and Evelyn were in charge of the camera today while visiting Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.  Usually they take good (i.e., not-blurry) pictures, but something funky was going on today.  Out of 40+ pictures the girls took, these are the best ones - three in the aquarium and one of the lioness and her three cubs in the cat house.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2015 from Julia and Evelyn!!!

 Oh, and by the way, this is how you play Connect 4 if you are six years old...you always have a pen handy so you can take out the other guy's pieces if they put them in the "wrong place."  Yup.

Basketball in Missouri

Once upon a time, I was a fifth-grade teacher.  Over the years, thanks to both my parents' church and Facebook, I have stayed in touch with one of my most memorable students (and his family).  This particular student is an amazing defensive basketball player at Northwest Missouri State University, and I have wanted to see him play...but his smaller school never travels to the east coast.  This year is his senior year, so I knew it was my last chance to see him play.  When I knew of our Nebraska travel plans, I found out there was a home game when we'd be back.  His family helped us get tickets and gear to last night's game (in Missouri), so we three girls made the road trip to Maryville to watch the Bearcats win.