More Ugly Foot Pictures

I was asking mom why she has to put pictures of her nasty ankle into MY blog and she said it's really a family blog and she's fishing for sympathy.  So anyway.....It's been kind of a long week around here with mom hobbling about.  It was to the point that she was seriously thinking about sucking it up, paying her deductible and going to see a specialist.  But thankfully for us all, things are looking up this morning.  It's amazing what mega doses of Advil will do for a girl.

This was Thursday's foot.  It kind of looks like an 80 year old with circulation issues.

And here is Sunday morning's foot.  Aaaaaahhh- tendons and malleoli- such a nice sight.  And now, maybe she'll stop sticking that ugly thing in my face and making me look at it.

Now onto the rest of the family- it's not nearly so gross.  Dad has started tackling redecorating the Man Cave.  He got the flooring put in last weekend and this weekend, pulled down the fluorescent lighting and put in flush mount lights.  We aren't going to post pictures until it's all done but trust us that it looks good already.  He ordered nice cabinets that come in next week and has paint for the walls.  He is also planning a small fridge and comfy chair so we may never see him again.

On Saturday, my best friend and I headed to the Tucson Festival of Books to see our absolutely favorite author.  Tui T. Sutherland writes the Wings of Fire series all about dragons and Claire and I can't get enough of the books.  Tui did a reading from one of her books, did a question and answer session and then signed all our books.  Claire got all 6 of her books signed but I brought one.  She was super nice and it was pretty interesting.

The highlight of mom's time there was getting to meet Jane O'Connor, the author of the Fancy Nancy books.  Mom desperately tried to get me into Fancy Nancy books when I was little but when there are dinosaurs, hot wheels and planets to read about, I wasn't all that into it.  I guess it's my loss....

I spent the night at Claire's house last night.  Mrs Souvignier was getting worried about me because normally, I have them all up by 5:30 but I was still asleep at 8.  I came home and slept for another 3 hours.  So it was either a very late night for us or I'm growing again/turning into a teenager.

Just in case you were worried about our raccoon (who we named Frank), he has been bee-bopping around on the roof the last couple nights.

Hope everyone has a good week and make sure you root for the AZ Wildcats.  Bear Down!

More Catching Up

We know how excited and anxious everyone is to hear about mom's ankle ( I know I am!!) but in our rush to get the blog up last week, we neglected to post anything about the most important event on our calendar in February- 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.  A little refresher.  This is a mountain bike race for crazy people that starts at noon on Saturday and goes until noon on Sunday and you ride as many laps as you can in that 24 hours.  It's actually a pretty popular race and lots of fun if you like that kind of stuff.  Dad and Mr. Walker and few of their friends do like that kind of stuff so they have a big boys weekend of riding, drinking beer and sitting around with 5000 other people for 4 days. ( Why 4 days you ask, when the race is only Saturday and Sunday?  Because.  That's most of the fun is going out early, getting a good spot and then riding, drinking beer and sitting around!)  Nana and mom and I went out the first year and it was interesting but if you aren't riding, it isn't quite as much fun so now, we have a girls weekend involving eating, shopping and sleeping in.  The race is always over Valentine's Day weekend so this year, I wrangled Nana into helping me put together 34 Valentine's Day cards for my class party.

We also hit the Gem and Mineral Show where I bought lots of good stuff, we went to a Valentine's Day party that one of my class mates had and it turns out, her Grandma is from Cleveland too so she and Nana had lots to talk about.
It was a fun weekend for everyone- the boys didn't win any medals but everyone came back uninjured and happy so that is all we can ask for!

Now, onto this week.  My softball practice started on Tuesday and our team looks like it may actually win a few games this year.  All my off season practice seemed to pay off and coach was impressed by the progress I made over the past few months.  Should be a fun season.


OK- now what you've all been waiting for- mom's ankle.  It was dark, the street was uneven and a car was coming.  So, she moved to get off the road and REALLY got off the road.  After doing her body scan to make sure nothing had fallen off, she hobbled home.  Dad got her an ice pack, I made her breakfast and then we headed off to work.

Thankfully, she works with some really good PTs who got her K-taped up and she made it through the day.

This was Friday morning.  She was tried to lay low but between doctor's appointments, grocery shopping, lunch etc. it was a long day........

So this was Saturday morning.  Mom decided at that point to park her a@# on the couch all day.  Contrary to popular belief, this isn't her favorite way to spend the day but it felt pretty good.  That night, she had a mom's night out at a local beer garden that she organized so that couldn't be missed.  Turns out that laying around all day and then drinking beer is a pretty good prescription for an ankle sprain because she woke feeling not terrible on Sunday!  Still some swelling and a little limp but doing OK.

 Dad went out for a mountain bike ride on Sunday and the boys came over after for a couple of hours for a post-ride hang out which is always a fun time.  Then grandpa and grandma came over and got us some dinner so it was a nice, relaxing Sunday.  Back to the grind tomorrow- woot woot....

Catching Up

Deep, deep sigh.  So we are a little uninspired for the blog the last several weeks months.  Just as a reminder, we have been at this for almost 10 years.  10. Years.  That is a loooooong time but we'll keep going.  Deep sigh.

Don't expect any organization on this one because we are too far behind so I'll just update the last several days and then caption the pictures.

I had my first of two spring breaks this past week and we headed back to our second home.  Disney was as good as ever- it was so nice to be relaxed and have nothing to do except walk around, ride rides and eat.  On our first night there, mom and I both slept for 9 solid hours and then our second night, it was 10 straight hours of shut eye.  It was fabulous.

 One of our five trips in a row down Splash Mountain.  We picked a different pose every time and dad's was stellar this time.

This is our night time visitor.  We haven't heard him lately, so hopefully he's OK.  We kind of miss the pitter, patter of tiny feet.

These pictures are from a fun day with grandma and grandpa at the stream by our house.  Grandpa really liked the donkey and it seemed to like him as well.

Mom took me to see Riverdance and I was kind of impressed but also kind of tired because I had a sleep over the night before where I got 4 hours of sleep.  It was awesome.

Mom got adventurous in the kitchen and made a baguette.  This was the first attempt and they weren't pretty but they were tasty.  Subsequent attempts have gotten better.

We have taken advantage of the driving range a few times and mom is pretty sure she has found her secret hidden talent.  She now has golf shoes and everything.  I'm looking pretty good too.

I had President's Day off school so I met a few friends for a nice little hike.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

The big news of the year so far is that I can now eat hazelnuts!!  Woot woot!!  I had an appointment with my allergist to do some food testing.  I got my first taste of Nutella and I haven't looked back.  Holy cow!  Almonds, pecan and walnuts are up next.  We'll wait a few months for that but super excited by it.

For Valentine's Day, mom and I (mostly mom) made Chocolate Cherry cupcakes for all my teachers.  They turned out pretty nicely and we wish we could have eaten more of them.

I entered the edible car contest with my friends Claire, Max and Phin.  We were the same crew that entered last year and came in second but this year, we took first in both speed and distance.  Yeah us!

I got to participate in my first science fair this year and although I didn't win anything, I had fun playing with all the dogs in my experiment.

More Disney pictures.

Mom made fresh squeezed OJ from the tree in our courtyard- it was deeeeelicious!

Dad and I made our first swim today.  I actually got in yesterday but decided I needed a wet suit to do any real time in there.  So dad and I headed to the used sporting goods store and picked up a couple of wet suits.  It didn't help a ton but I made about 30 minutes.  Dad lasted about 2.  Mom didn't even try.

One last Disney picture.  No promises on when the next post will be but we'll try to be better about posting.........

The Holiday Recap

Well, my goodness.  This has been a whirlwind of a few weeks.  Two weeks off of school and work went by in a flash and we were pretty busy.  When last we left you dear readers, mom and dad were in the middle of an exhaustion coma from all the socializing they had to do.  Well, the trend continued as they decided to see Star Wars again on Tuesday (just as good the second time around!) and then Foo Foo's birthday was Wednesday and we left bright and early Thursday to get to Albuquerque for Christmas.  The weather driving out was good- a little windy but nothing much else.  For the ride back, we left extra bright and early and managed to stay ahead of the nasty storm that shut all the highways down.  Good planning for us.  The time in between was filled mostly with food.  And a little bit of family.  Nana D made Foo Foo his requested chicken and waffles for his birthday dinner with cheesecake for desert.  Everyone left the table fat and happy.  Foo Foo played around with his newly learned camera skills and took some nice shots.

This one is probably mom's favorite of the whole season!

On Christmas Eve, mom and dad both got in nice workouts- mom got a great run in the snow and dad got in a nice mountain bike ride.  I got some quality time on the iPad. Oh. And with Nana and Mr. too.  After all that exercising, dad and I headed down to Dave and Busters for awhile and mom and Nana stayed home and baked some more cookies and ate said cookies.  After a quick mass (the priests at this church really know how to hustle us in and out and we weren't complaining about it!) we headed to Uncle Adam and Aunt Erin's house for Christmas Eve posole and tamales.  I was adventurous and stuck with a tasty quesadilla.  I eventually convinced everyone it was time to go home, because you know, Santa!  Mr. Walker and I made sure to get the cookies out AND reindeer food.  I'm thinking not many kids remember the reindeer so I was hoping for extra brownie points.

We don't really have any pictures from Christmas morning as it was barely controlled chaos but it does seem that the reindeer food worked.  I walked away with much more than necessary but you won't see me complaining.  It was a very great Christmas and it went way too fast.  For me and mom anyway.......

We got back into town on Sunday and mom went back to work on Monday while dad and I stayed home and "relaxed".  Between me having to finish up both a science fair project (mom's new least favorite thing) and an Arizona State project and all of dad's errands, we didn't have a lot of down time.  Whew.

On New Year's Eve, mom and dad continued the socialization torture and hosted a New Year's Eve party at our house.  They seriously thought they could convince everyone to leave by 9 so they could get a good night's sleep but no one took the hint and everyone hung in there until midnight.  The good news is that the house was empty by 12:22 and we were all in bed by 1.

The other good news is that we went camping on New Year's Day for the weekend.  Mom's New Year's Day tradition is to be well rested (didn't happen this year) and to be outside (did happen this year).  We took our RV to Parker Canyon Lake with our framily, the Goods.  They just bought a new towable trailer and were anxious to try it out.  It was spectacular.  A little on the chilly side all weekend but clear blue skies, beautiful scenery and quiet.   We had wonderful time and came back rested and ready to start the new year!

 Dad and I took our inflatable canoe out for a spin even though it was only 55 degrees and found some really cool coves in the lake.  We would totally come back to this spot.

 A full week of back to school and work for everyone this past week but we managed OK.  I had a friend sleep over on Saturday and guess how late we were up?  Go on!  Guess!  3:45 AM!  Good.  Ness.  Surpizingly, I'm still standing and too cranky.  Mom took me to see Riverdance this afternoon too and I managed to stay awake through the whole thing.  It will be an early bed time for all of us though!  Have a great week and we'll catch you on the flip side!