Sun Hat

Just me, enjoying some sunshine in my new fun sun hat I bought at H&M. I've wanted a hat like this for years, but I have a big head and can never find one that fits, so I am super-excited about this and plan on wearing it a lot!

Family

I've been absent for awhile now, and it's so easy for me to get distracted and out of the habit of posting, but it's time to catch up! Here's a photo of my siblings and me at my sister's wedding on April 10th. I love having a big family and love how we all bring our own brand of crazy to the table. The bride is my sister, Gina. She's the oldest. This is her second marriage, but her first wedding. She's beautiful! The matron of honor is my sister, Pam, who is second oldest. Then there's me behind her and my sister, Cori, who is the baby of the family. My brother, Evan, is the lone boy and second youngest. There is a 17-year span between the oldest and youngest! My mom told me once that she figured out that from the time Gina started Kindergarten until Cori graduated, she'd had a child in school for 30 years straight! Ah...I love family! I wish we all lived closer to each other.

Recovery/Sunday

I'm four days post-op and was cleared to take a shower today. Joy! I've spent almost every moment since Wednesday in my recliner in the living room (gotta love chairs that prop your feet up FOR you!). I've completely caught up with all of my online TV, but still haven't managed to get much work done. I blame painkillers.

I was also able to remove the bandages today, and I have to say my knee doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. It's still really swollen and I have a terrible case of fat feet from all of the excess fluid, but I think I'm recovering at a good rate. I'm able to put more and more weight on my left leg every day, and today I was even able to get up and down the stairs by myself, not to mention, in and out of the shower. My first day home, getting up the three porch stairs to get into a house was a near impossible task.

(the part nearest the bottom of the picture is the upper part of my knee. You know, Melanie View.)

We finished our four-week food challenge yesterday too. The last few days were a bit of a struggle since I couldn't cook, but we stuck with the rules, even though variety was a thing of the past! Tonight we're going to celebrate with dinner from Subway. We leave for Missouri in two days, so the next challenge will be trying to carry a small part of what we learned with us when dining while traveling for the next week.

Playing catch-up again...

I've been really slacking with the blog, but I did take a few pictures recently. This first one is another "Melanie has a hat on while the dog is outside" pic. I have a really big head, so it's sometimes hard to find a hat that fits. When I do, I'm pretty excited! I bought this hat at Target (in the men's section) last year, and thought it would be nice to have for camping, bad hair day, etc. I didn't quite get what the picture on it was supposed to mean though. A horse shoe? Baby chicks? Maybe "Lucky Chick"? Then I had a friend point out to me what should have been obvious. That's not a horse shoe. It's a magnet. Ah yes...I am a Chick Magnet! (note the myspace pose to prove my point. Hawt.)

Sunday (a bit early), we had our annual April Fools Party. This was our fourth year. We celebrate April Fools a little different than most people. Rather than playing tricks on people, WE are the fools. We dress up foolishly and play foolish games. The kids love it, and we have some friends who really look forward to it now. We almost didn't have it this year because of my surgery, but finally decided that it was worth it to squeeze it in. Thus, we had it pretty early.

And finally, surgery was yesterday. I snapped a quick pic before heading to the hospital.

I'm home now, hoping to heal quickly. Ow.

Tired

Nine days until surgery and a ton of things to do. This is the list I just sent Dax:

3/22--One World classroom Event
3/24--Mel dr. appt
Go look at Plank Rd. House
April Fool's Party
Kenny to Groomer
Laundry
Easter shopping (Easter is the Sunday before we leave for Missouri)
Mazzy's birthday shopping
Shoe shopping for Jack and Maz for the wedding.
Cooking and freezing for when I'm laid up.
Packing for the trip
Making sure the kids are ready for school pictures (3/31)
and the science fair (3/31)

That, of course, doesn't include regular cleaning around the house or photo work that I should be spending 4+ hours/day on.

I'm sleepy though.

Spring Cleaning

I have knee surgery scheduled for March 31, and we're driving to Missouri starting on April 6, so I've been doing my best to get the house clean, laundry done, and things taken care of and ready for the trip, well before the surgery. Plus, with the food challenge and all the cooking I'm doing, I'm spending less time in front of the computer, and therefore, less time updating the blog. These pictures are from a couple of days ago (St. Patrick's Day actually, as the green shirt tells me), during a break from cleaning my room.

I've been lamenting the fact that my pictures are boring, and I have the same sort of expression in most of them, but really...what am I supposed to do? Make faces? "Catch" myself mid-cry or mid-laugh? (let the eye-rolling begin) I did take some photos of me in my new lingerie this week, but no one needs to see that. So here's another picture I took, going for a different "look". HA! I spend too much time in my own company.

Behind the Veil

or curtain, as it were.