spring break

although i don't get a spring break, my mom does. my dad took off that week also and they kicked it off by coming to visit us! we had an awesome time. they got here on saturday night and stayed through tuesday noon.

on after they got here on saturday night, we just stayed around the house and talked and got them settled in on the air mattress-oh yeah! sunday we got up and went to church for palm sunday. we tried out a new one-new song. we came home and at lunch and then mom and dad and i headed to the vandy baseball game. justin didn't come because he needed to work on songs. vandy beat south carolina 10-2 i think was the final score. it was a great game an when the sun was out a beautiful day. thanks to ciara who got us the tickets. after the game we took riley to the dog park for a little while. there were a lot of dogs there and a crazy old lady who kept giving riley treats and then saying, "i don't know why she likes me so much?!" when riley wouldn't leave her alone. well stop giving her treats, crazy old lady! sunday night we went out to eat at o'charley's and then to see our friend mark play at the nashville palace. he played for the billy block show which gets recorded live for one of the radio stations in town. each person plays a fairly short set, so it's a fun show to watch if you don't want to stay out late.

monday we got up pretty leisurely and headed out around 11 for burgess falls state park. it's about an hour and a half east and a little south of us. they boast the most waterfalls in the shortest distance in all of tennessee (and maybe the US?). it was a beautiful hike!! it had rained on saturday, so the falls were full and we had so much fun. there weren't very many people on the trail and we made sure to document our trek. we took riley and i did pretty good with my foot although it started hurting towards the end. there are 3 main falls-small, middle and BIG. we kept ooohhing and aaaahing as we went, not realizing how much more spectacular they would get. we got to the big one which is 130 feet tall. and you can walk down to the bottom of it. we went almost the whole way down, but the mist was getting us all wet and it was cold so we headed back up. there was another little loop trail that we decided to go on before we headed back. we saw signs for the trail, but couldn't figure out where exactly it was supposed to start. mom decided to make her own trail and after wandering around in the woods for a bit, we found the actual trail. it was fun! :) we got back to the awesome rental van (hear the sarcasm) and ate some snacks before heading home. (the reason we have a rental van will have to wait for another post.) we got home around 4 or 5. mom and i headed to the store to get supplies for out baked potatoes and parmesan pesto. the boys headed to fat mo's for burgers. that night we watched dan in real life. such a cute movie and funny. everyone loved it. a great movie!

tuesday morning we got up a little late, made awesome orange, pineapple, strawberry juice and enjoyed breakfast. they dropped me off at work around ten and then headed to the airport soon after. i'm so glad they came and we've decided every time they come we need to visit another tennessee state park.

let it snow!

Well this is pretty late in coming, but I thought I'd share anyway. It actually snowed in Nashville a significant amount a little while ago. 4 whole inches! :) I know you Kansasans are thinking that's nothing, but if it even looks like it MAY snow they cancel school and everything else here. So for it to actually come down and stick for a while is a big deal. Justin missed it because he was in Virginia (I think) and I was still hobbling around so I didn't get to play in it but Riley had fun playing in it and sticking her nose down in the fluff. It didn't stay around for long, but it was fun while it lasted. These are some pictures out our kitchen windows and in the back yard.

i'm back

so i haven't posted in quite some time. it was a grueling week or two. after/during the whole foot fiasco i got the flu! i think i got it from the ER-stupid sick people! :) so while i was laid up at home i was feeling pretty rotten. i was off work for a week.

my worst night and day was wednesday. i pretty much got out of bed a total of 3 times before heading right back under the covers. for some completely insane reason i decided i needed to make brownies that night. justin was super busy that week and was out playing a gig. i pulled a chair up to the counter so i could sit while i mixed them up. i leaned my crutches up against the counter and sat down. all of a sudden my crutches start to slowly slide down the counter top away from me. i couldn't do anything to stop them and as they fell they took 3 clean glasses on the counter top with them. glass everywhere!! i lost it. i was just at the end of my rope. i felt terrible, i couldn't walk and now there was glass everywhere that i couldn't clean up. i called justin crying, saying, i need he-elp! he came home between gigs to clean up my mess and ended up being late to his second gig. he was great!

anyway, that was a rough week. but i'm walking normally now and my foot only hurts sometimes at the end of the day. i'm going to try to run this weekend and see how i do. it could be interesting! :)

lesson of the day...

DO NOT slide around on 80 year old hard wood floors in your socks.

For those of you with weak stomachs, there are some semi-graphic pictures at the bottom of this blog, you may not want to look.

So, on Friday night I was running from the living room to the kitchen and decided to slide along the floor in my slippery socks. NOT A GOOD IDEA! All of a sudden BAM excruciating pain. I fell onto the floor yelling and Justin came running. I had a cut on the bottom of my foot, but not a very big one and it wasn't really bleeding. Justin looked at it in the bathroom and couldn't see anything in it, although there was a big rip in my sock and a piece of wood lodged in there. We decided that must have been what cut me and finished watching our movie.

On Saturday morning I woke up in terrible pain. My foot was slightly swollen and hurt really freaking bad and I couldn't put any weight on it. So, we decided to go to the ER to see if there was anything left in my foot. We saw the doctor and she explained that taking an x-ray would be pointless because wood doesn't show up on an x-ray, so they wanted to take a CT scan. Great, I go sliding on the floor and have to have a flippin CT scan. They came back with the results and said there was a 1.7 cm piece of wood stuck in my foot about 2 cm deep. I was actually really excited about that, because it meant there was a reason for all the pain. They said they would cut me open to see if they could find it and if they couldn't they'd have to call an orthopedic surgeon! So they started to numb my foot. There's a nerve right next to the bone that sticks out of your ankle, so they injected some litocane to numb the nerve and my whole foot-4 TIMES! I don't have the largest reaction to local anesthetic. So it took and unreasonable amount of time and lito to get it to numb up. It finally did and they cut me open. I had 2 doctors working on me a resident and an attending. The resident started the procedure but couldn't see anything because he accidently hit a vein when he cut me open and there was too much blood. So they injected me with epinephrine which stops the bleeding and as he was doing that he said he felt the splinter. Well then the attending took over and she started digging around a little. All of a sudden she said, I SEE IT! So she held the cut open with the resident pulled out the splinter very gently. When they pulled it out they started kind of freaking out. I couldn't see anything because I was on my stomach so they could get to the bottom of my foot easier. They showed me what they pulled out and it was 2 INCHES LONG! They were so excited that they were able to pull it out with out surgical intervention. The attending went to go show everyone their handy work. They stiched me up and sent me on my way. So now I'm laid up and on crutches. Justin's been wonderful, bringing me things and giving me my medicine when I need it. Here is a picture of the splinter in proportion to a dime and the bottom of my foot. Enjoy! :)

the kite runner

this is the most amazing book! it's about a boy named amir who grows up in afghanistan. his father is well off so they have servants and the servant boy is his best friend. it's the story of their lives and it's so heart-wrenching. i finished it a little while ago and it was amazing. it's pretty graphic in some parts, but very realistic. it talks about how afghanistan used to be before the taliban and all the terrorism that's now associated with the country. anyway, it's a great book and you should read it.