First Snow of the Season

I’m amazed at how limiting it is to have a broken ankle.  I went back to work Monday and found that it takes me twice as long as usual to get ready for school!  No running up and down the stairs when I forget something – one trip down in the morning and one trip up at bedtime is about all I can stand.  I’m trying to keep my leg propped up as much as I can at school, and I’m exhausted by the time I get home.  Last Saturday night, John and I went to Walmart and he pushed me around in a wheelchair.  I got a new perspective of the store and also an idea of what it’s like to be handicapped.

This morning we woke up to the first snow of the 08-09 winter season.

view from the back porch

It didn’t thrill me until the afternoon when the snow was really coming down, heavy, thick, and beautiful.  It wasn’t so much fun though, when I was leaving school and had to walk in the cold, wet stuff wearing my cast and an inadequate “cast shoe”.  I hoped the windshield wipers would take care of the snow that covered the windshield because I didn’t have a scraper!  Even though I knew there was a possibility of snow, I wasn’t prepared for it.

another view from the porch

Here’s a picture of Jessica with her flowers for Sweetest Day.  Aren’t they pretty?  The droopy rose wasn’t actually part of the bouquet!

Trying to Get Back to Normal!

Thursday afternoon at my doctor’s appointment, he replaced my cast with a new purple cast that fits very tightly.  I’ve had some trouble with it cutting off the circulation to my big toe and it’s more difficult to walk on it since it’s tighter against my calf.  I was planning to go back to work yesterday morning, but ended up calling in sick because I was exhausted and the cast was rubbing my ankle.  I had been up during the night walking around trying to get enough circulation into my toe!

I was able to go to the inservice held in the afternoon at the high school where, of course, some of the classes were upstairs, so I had to get a key to the elevator.  After school, John took me to Phyllis’s house where Phyllis, Kathy, Dorothy, and I played Hand and Foot Canasta until about 10:30.  Dorothy and I are partners – usually pretty successful partners – when we play cards.  We won all 3 games last night.

Our backyard, from the porch. I like the color of corn stalks in the fall.

Today is the kind of day where I like to stay in bed and read all day.  It’s been raining a lot and I like to hear it falling on the roof.  I’m knitting, trying to finish up some projects that have been sitting idle for quite a while.

fingerless gloves

There are a lot of Halloween/scary-type movies on TV this weekend which makes me think about some pictures I’ve received from my kids.

Bubba, Foster, and Sayaka at a pumpkin patch

Jessica with a tiny pumpkin at the pumpkin patch with Bubba and Sayaka

Foster, all dressed up for Halloween.

Here’s another picture of Jeremy’s artwork.

Isn't this neat?

It’s Been Two Weeks

It’s been two weeks since I broke my ankle.  I think I might be going stir crazy!  When I sit around at home -  reading, knitting, watching TV – I think I should get up and do something.  When I do get up to do something, my foot hurts.  I’m going to see the doctor Thursday afternoon and I’m hoping I can get rid of this cast so I can get around easier.

Last Tuesday, in between my doctor and dentist appointments, John and I drove around to look at leaves and to take pictures of them.

We stopped at Taco Bell to get lunch, then we went to Tanner Dam to eat and to watch the geese.

There were also a few ducks, but I don’t seem to have any pictures of them!  Later that day Lois took me to get my hair cut, then took me to their house for supper.  I noticed Jeremy’s little piece of artwork,

This bicycle is made of spaghetti and wagon wheel macaroni. It's held together with super glue.

which I now own, since he was going to throw it away!

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting this week.  I made two dishcloths for Dorothy’s 80th birthday.

I finally finished the patriotic socks I started this summer while on vacation out West,

and I made four hats for my four youngest grandkids.

Yellow for Peyton, blue for Abby, pink for Megan, and Becca already has her purple hat.

I bought the yarn for the hats because it was advertised as “glow in the dark”.  After I started making the hats, I noticed the wrapper says to put the yarn in light for five minutes, then it will glow in the dark for five minutes.  I’d hoped it would last much longer than that!

John went and picked up Mom and Leroy so they could be here for the open house at church Saturday night.  There was a good turnout – 114 people in attendance.  The quintet and the quartet sounded really good, and I’ve been told the trio I sang in sounded good too!

I decided to finish a book I’ve been trying to read the last few days.  It was the third book in a series, and I was having trouble trying to remember what had happened in the second book.  I finally decided to see if I could find the second book to refresh my memory, but when I found it, I realized I never read it!  I’ve started reading it, and everything makes sense now.

Sitting and Knitting

Since I broke my ankle, I’ve spent many hours sitting in my recliner, knitting, reading, watching some TV, and mainly surfing the internet.  I’ve found a lot of knitters’ blogs and have also read a lot of political articles.  When I look at the other blogs, I realize I could do a lot more with mine – IF I can figure out HOW to add some things to it!

Amy and the girls came over to spend the day with me Saturday.  Amy was a HUGE help because she cleaned the house for me!  I don’t clean as often as I should and should have cleaned a couple weeks ago but I got sick, then I injured my ankle, so the house was a disaster (in my eyes).  Of course, it was nice to spend some time with the girls.  They found a 3-minute fairy tale book and I read quite a few of the stories to them.  They enjoyed playing the piano and gave several “concerts”.

Abby and Megan

We ordered pizza and had a very nice day.

Last evening, on the way to church, I got my camera out to take some pictures of the changing leaves.

I should have taken some a few miles earlier because that’s where the nicest leaves were!  Hopefully they’ll still look nice when we go to church Wednesday.

I’ve been making some dishcloths the last couple days.  I made this one Saturday,

and made these two today.

It seemed like it took longer to copy down the directions than it did to make them!  Normally I would print the directions on my printer/scanner/copier, but it ran out of ink.  When I replaced the ink cartridge, the printer STILL said, “Out of ink, replace cartridge”.  I think I need to hook my laptop up to the printer to get it to realize it DOES have ink!

John went to the preachers’ meeting in Indiana today and stopped at Michael’s to get a couple specific skeins of yarn for me.  I told him to ask a clerk to get the yarn for him, so that’s what he did.  He was back near the yarn and kept calling a clerk, “ma’am, ma’am”, and the clerk didn’t answer.  He was very embarrassed when another clerk finally helped him and mentioned the other clerk was a male!  OOPS!

This Saturday night, we’re going to have an open house for the new auditorium addition of the church building.

John, his brother Jeff, Brian, and John’s nephew-in-law Brian, have been practicing quartet songs for the program.  Misse, Phyllis, and I are going to sing three songs, too.

Today is a momentous day for Caity.  SHE’S 18!!!!!!!  Happy birthday, Caity!

Caity, at 9 1/2

I’m Just Sitting Around

I’m just sitting around because I have a big purple cast on my left leg because of my broken ankle.

I had the cast put on yesterday afternoon and I’m allowed to put a little bit of weight on my left foot this afternoon.  The problem is, when I try to put weight on it, IT HURTS!  I’ll be off work for two weeks which is a relief to me because it is so difficult to get around.

Someone else in the family is also wearing a cast on his “broken leg”!

This is the Lego bucket that usually contains toy cars!

Jeremy, Lois, and Peyton came over last night and brought me homemade pizza for supper.  Peyton had lots of questions about my leg:  why is it propped up, how did it happen, and what does my leg look like (under the cast).

Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I have been looking through a lot of pictures on my computer and want to show some of them.

Peyton, at almost 3 years old

The kids look so young in some of them!

Becca was 4 1/2

Megan was almost 4 years old

Abby was 1 1/2 years old

They’re so cute.

Yesterday was Emily’s 11th birthday.

Emily at age 2 1/2

Happy Birthday, Em!

OOPS!!!

I went back to work today (Monday) and was feeling quite a bit better.  BUT, tonight, while walking to our car in a dark parking lot, I stepped on the edge of a hole, turned my left ankle under and then fell on my right knee.  My ankle bone is chipped, and they don’t want me to move it or put any weight on it, so I have an air cast and a walker to use until I see a podiatrist, hopefully tomorrow!  My right knee isn’t broken and didn’t need stitches, but it’s very sore so it’s even more difficult to put all my weight on it!

I got some adorable pictures from Amy today.

They’re from their trip to the Frogtown pumpkin patch yesterday (Sunday).

They took a hay ride

Who are these people!

You can tell the girls had a lot of fun,

The "sand" in this box is actually corn!

Megan got her face painted

and were tired out!

I Found My Voice Again!

My voice is coming back, thanks to an antibiotic, Mucinex, another day off work, and a lot of coughing!

I’ve been looking for a new heading picture, so I took my camera outside this afternoon, and took a few pictures of my mums.

These mums are on the back porch

This one is on the front porch

These came up in my flowerbed

I also realized I didn’t acknowledge Brian’s birthday, September 18th, so here’s a picture of him a year ago on a fun bike trip.  We drove to a bike path that took us from southern Pennsylvania into Maryland.  After we crossed the continental divide, we rode downhill for about 18 miles.  When we stopped near Cumberland, MD, Brian rode uphill all the way back to our car and drove it to pick us up.

Every October, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we like to go to the pumpkin farm to get pumpkins AND to have a nice photo op!  Here are some pictures from last year’s visit.

Peyton, with a shorter haircut than he wears now

Megan, Amy, and Abby

Aunt Jess and Abby

Peyton had fun "driving" with the girls: Abby, Hailey, Megan, and Hope.

Where’s my Voice?

I haven’t written anything this week because I’m trying my best to GET WELL!  I’m not sure if I’m having allergy trouble or if I have a virus, but I haven’t felt well since Monday.  I stayed home from school yesterday and rested.  Today I thought I was feeling better so I went to work, but when I came home, I found out I lost my voice!  If I don’t have a voice tomorrow, I’ll have to stay home again.  I can’t very well try to help kids if I can’t talk to them!