Happy Birthday to Mark!

Today is my cutie-pie's birthday -- I'm sending lots of love and happy birthday wishes to him.

He's wonderful. If you don't know him, you should. He's smart, funny, patient, kind, long suffering (for sure -- we've been married a long time!) a lovely dad, a sweet Grandpa, and a wonderful friend and companion to me. I love him a lot and consider him to be at the top of the list of my nicest, most undeserved blessings.

Happy Birthday!

Ah, the Rocker!

So today Natalie and I took the kiddoes and drove through Sonic for lunch as we were both uninspired and the kids really love Sonic food so you can count on them eating well. The girl brought the order out and as she handed it to us, we discovered there had been a mistake made on a drink. She was very sweet -- said she'd take it back in and get the right drink back out.

As she was doing that, I started rummaging through my purse to see if I had a dollar I could give her (we paid via the fabulous Sonic 'pay-in-your-car' PIN pad) as a tip. What I discovered was that I only had a $10 bill and wasn't going to give her that. So I scrounged around some more and found I had plenty of quarters and could give her a dollar that way. I asked Natalie if she thought it would be dumb to give her the change. We giggled about it a little bit as we waited.

At that point, I had this most ridiculous memory pop into my head so I told Natalie that I could give her a tin of popcorn -- and we both burst into hysterical laughter that went on long enough that it eventually caused Maya to tell us to knock it off. (it makes her annoyed when she doesn't get the joke and there was no way she could get this one.).

Years ago, in December of 1996, we were still in Nashville, but packing to move to Reno immediately after Christmas. Natie and I were at a Cracker Barrel and I decided I wanted to buy Mark one of their signature rocking chairs as our memory of Tennessee. You can probably picture them - they are always all lined up on their big front porch, and you can sit in them and rock while you wait for dinner, or you can play a game of checkers -- well, you get the picture.

So we went inside, told someone I wanted to buy a rocking chair, paid for it and then realized we were driving a Nissan Sentra and didn't know how we'd get it home. There was a nice young guy working there as a clerk who came out with us and tried to jam it into that teeny little car to no avail (duh) and then offered to put it in his car and follow us home and drop it off. We thought that was the nicest thing ever, cleared it with his boss, and away we went. *(the above rocker is 'ready to assemble' -- ours was already assembled! If only!)

We took a roundabout route, trying to keep him off the busy roads, and I know at times he had to be wondering where the heck we were going. (it really wasn't that far but it sure seemed like it that night!) Eventually we made it home -- I'm even thinking it was snowing and icy (correct me if my memory is wrong, Nan!) and the poor guy hauled that heavy oak rocker out of his car/truck and into our living room. While he was doing that, it hit me that I should give him a tip for helping us -- and dug around in my purse (see, I am getting to the connection to the Sonic girl) to see what I had.

What I had was 3 lousy dollars. Yes. Three dollars. Which was really almost insulting. So I hurriedly looked around to see what the heck else I could give him and my eyes lit on a --- huge Christmas tin of popcorn!

So after he finished hauling that dang rocker into the house, I thanked him, (with Natalie having hysterics over in the corner of the living room) and gave him three dollars and a tin of popcorn. Feeling really really lame. Which I was.

But it sure prompted a gale of laughter at Sonic today!

My Daily Blessing

Didn't you love General Conference? For me, I think the favorite was Elder Eyring's talk about reflecting on your day and writing down the blessings of that day. I think it does nothing but good to realize how blessed we are and how big a part of our lives our Heavenly Father really is. For me this time of year is a real time of reflection and re-dedication, pointing myself back in the right direction with a new burst of spiritual energy.

The very sweetest blessings of the past few days have undoubtedly been friends. I have had more people call, drop by, leave treats/food and gifts than I could ever deserve. It's such a blessing to feel the love that prompts these selfless acts of generosity and concern. Who of us really doesn't need to feel loved? (I need to take note and make sure I let people know how much I love them!)

I can tell you that I do feel loved. And I love my Dr., too. I discovered on a recent visit that he is actually an LDS Bishop. He gave me his cell phone number and told me I could call him this weekend if I needed to -- which I did. And I will be seeing him tomorrow at 8 a.m so he can check out some strange blisters that have appeared on my healing foot. Sigh.

His final words of advice? "Elevate your foot, ice it, and enjoy the afternoon session of Conference." I loved it. And I did.

*picture taken by Sarah Galbraith (our niece) at their recent Galbraith family reunion. I loved it and had to lift it from her blog.

Thoughts . . .

So as I am dealing with a healing (and painful) foot, I've been pondering. You see, I hate this phase of recovery. I hate asking people to do things, I hate depending on them to help me, I hate needing help. There is no reason for me to feel this way -- people have been generous, kind, concerned, and more than willing to help with anything at all. If I ask them. Which I hate doing. I'm a very independent person and my mom says my first words were not the traditional "Dada" or "Mama" -- they were "I do it myself!" And I believe it.

Knowing this, you might guess that this current helpless phase is hard for me. I tend to push my recovery along too fast, doing way too much too soon, (thus resulting in a slower recovery!) because I don't want to put anyone out. I just want to handle it myself! Sigh.

Which leads me to a deeper thought. I'm that way with spiritual matters too. I am way too independent and slow to ask for help. I don't want help. I just want to be able to do it myself. But there is help available for each of us, and all we have to do is ask. Heavenly Father is waiting for me to humble myself, ask Him for the help I need, and to be invited to put His divine touch on my life. But I need to ask.

I'm learning lots of lessons right now. Temporal and spiritual.

The Sad Truth

Is it just me?

I Feel Loved -- Thank You!

I have the nicest friends and the past day has really made that clear to me. My foot is on fire (not literally, but it sure feels like it!) and I"m spaced out on vicoden (did I spell that right?) but my heart is full. You are the dearest, kindest, and most thoughtful friends any one person could be blessed with. Thank you! The treats and gifts are wonderful but for me, (as always), it's the sweet thoughtfulness and love that goes along with them that really mean the world to me.

In case you wonder -- let me fill you in on all the goodies above. Thanks to Kristi for the delicious cookies that were on the now-empty pink plate (they lasted a very short time - yum!), thanks to Miss Maya and her family for the cute daisies, to my awesome sister Val (who does not like anything to do with throwing up -- check Natalie's vomiting pumpkin!) and her hubby Keith for the beautiful yellow roses, to Heather, Holly, Jori and Tib (in alphabetical order!) for the fabulous cookie bouquet (and they taste every bit as good as they look!), to my Natalie for the awesome cinnamon roll caramel corn (also nearly gone, as you can see) as well as all the rides and trips and visits, and last but far from least, to my sweet friend Nat (another super Natalie) for the delicious cookies and BBQ beef sandwich fixin's. As you can tell by the empty plate, they too did not last long. Delicious!

This experience sure isn't fun, and I get the feeling it's going to last longer than I wish it would, but you guys are definitely helping me make the best of it. In fact, you are the best of it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I'm Here

It's done. It went well, but the numbness has now worn off. And it hurts a lot. I'm filled up with drugs so I won't be very coherent -- but this is sure how I feel. I'm hoping it gets better really fast!

I'm on my Way

Thanks for all the support - -I'll be back! (OK, I know this is overdoing it a little!)

Courage - I need some!

"Courage is not freedom from fear. It is being afraid and going on." (Author unknown)

I have foot surgery scheduled for tomorrow. In fact, I will probably be just finishing up right about now. I haven't been the least bit nervous or concerned about it up until today. It's been something that I needed to do and wanted to do because my feet hurt all the time and it's getting worse. This surgery will help, so it's time to do it. And when the right foot heals, they'll do the left. Someday I'll have feet that feel normal. Gotta love that.

But today I'm nervous. Actually I think I'm scared. I don't know why. I've had plenty of surgeries in the past so it's not really the unknown factor, I don't think. But I am nervous. I need some courage! I loved the above quote -- what I need to do now is to gather myself, ask for comfort from Heavenly Father, have Mark give me a blessing tonight, and know that all will be well.

Love that poster above: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear". (Ambrose Redmoon)

Public Humiliations

In light of previous posts about embarrassing moments, this comic really struck me funny today. Natalie shared her humiliation when she told about losing her entire wrap-around skirt on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake. I did not share my own public humiliation, however (but I will now!) about the time I passed out in church as I walked up the aisle to the piano, en route to accompany a family singing a special musical number.

Yup. I did. Fainted dead away and when I opened my eyes, I was sprawled out on a front row pew with people oohing and ahing over me. Eventually they dragged me out onto a couch in the lobby where I proceeded to throw up repeatedly into a trash can (thank goodness it wasn't the floor) and then the humiliation was complete when the ambulance arrived. Yes, the Bishopric had called 911.

So they wheeled me out on a stretcher into the ambulance. I finally convinced them that I probably had the flu, that I had had Kristi's fire-rhea and had also thrown up before I left home, and did not need a trip to the hospital. Mark drove me home, sweet as could be, despite my ongoing vomiting into a barf bag, so conveniently provided by the EMTs.

It was a bad case of the flu that kept me in bed for the better (or worst?!) part of a week. I was the Primary chorister at that point, and the current batch of kiddoes still remember the 'event' with great enthusiasm. We discussed it again this past Sunday. Some of them will never forget it, I'm sure. I take personal pride in the fact that it was probably a record-breaking sacrament meeting in excitement levels.

But I'm not ready to do it again, I don't think.