still broken

Since people keep asking me how my foot's doing, I'll just answer once and for all here on the great big internets. (crack me up)

It's still broken.

The bruising appeared early last weekend, and turned all sorts of purple and black - across and around and under my toes, mostly, which I think it weird. It's now a muted purple/green and doesn't look as gruesome. I should've taken pictures, but decided that no one needed to be subjected to that, so I didn't. You can thank me any time.

When I'm wearing the boot, the swelling seems to be a lot worse, and then my toes go numb, and my leg starts itching, and I get all kinds of cranky, so mostly I keep it off. All I'm doing is sitting around on my rumpus anyway, right?

I haven't walked or driven or even stood for any length of time in almost 2 weeks, and for a person as active as I am, well.... you draw the conclusion. I feel trapped and homebound and like a drain on society. Ha! People keep commenting that it must be nice to be waited on hand and foot, but I gotta tell ya: I'm not enjoying it so much. When I need a drink, I'd rather be able to get up and get it myself. When I have to ask someone, I feel like a burden, especially when 30 minutes later I have to ask again, and 20 minutes after that, my tongue is sticking to the roof of my mouth and I'm still waiting. It infuriates me to have to depend on others; I really hate being so needy. I told Darren to just buy a couple of feed sacks and tie 'em around my neck. Hey - it works for horses, it could work for me!

Thank God for Cara, my nurse friend who finally laid eyes on me crutching around all hunch-backed, and adjusted my crutches properly. She saved me from a debilitating case of Quasimodo Syndrome, which I'm certain was setting in. It's amazing how much easier it is to get around on those things when they're adjusted correctly!

Even so, my house is full of stairs. You can't get IN without climbing stairs. Not in the front, nor in the back. Once inside, you can't get to a bathroom without traversing more steps. Even though the downstairs bath is down a short flight of only 3 steps, let me assure you, my friends: three mere steps with no handrails, ample bazooms, a pair of crutches, a foot that won't bear weight, and general hurriedness combined with profound clumsiness does not a pretty picture make. I've fallen three times. Imagine, if you will, leaning over and trying to hop down one step. First of all, I HAVE to lean over to even see the step over my bahombas. Secondly, when I lean over, my center of balance is all screwed up. I sometimes think we should video my bathroom treks, especially on those occasions when I'm not wearing a bra and the clap of boobs-on-belly sets off seismic activity that's picked up in Marin County CA. Surely we could win $100,000 on Funniest Videos, which would then allow us to install an elevator.

Going up is much easier. I use my right knee and my left foot, which leaves only one position for my butt: up in the air. I've actually gotten pretty fast at ascending to my bedroom. The cat stares and cocks her head, but no one else has had the nerve to laugh out loud yet.

Pain-wise, for the past two days, it's been mostly non-existent unless I'm waking on it. Which, of course, I'm not supposed to be doing. The broken bones should be healing just fine, but the ligament is what the doctor is worried about. Next Wednesday, we'll reX-ray and go from there. Until then, I have to try to stay off of that foot. Anyone have a feed bag I can borrow?

Countdown #2

10 Things I Want to Do Before I Die:

1. skydive
2. run a 10k
3. wear a size 8
4. own a VW bug again
5. finish my degree
6. publish a book
7. climb a 14er
8. tour Italy
9. live in Ireland
10. own a mountain cabin

9 Places I Last Spent Money:

1. Walmart
2. 2 Peas in a Bucket
3. Walgreens
4. Orthopedist's office
5. Doctor's office
6. The Wild Bunch
7. Staples
8. USPS
9. Target

8 Sounds I Routinely Hear Around My House:

1. Pow Schpuh Hoooh Ahhh PshouPshou (the boys having light saber fights)
2. Brick House (Cara calling)
3. the landline ringing
4. someone clacking on a keyboard
5. Spanky, the next door dog
6. mail dropping through the slot
7. ice maker
8. iTunes

7 Real Restaurants Where I Last Ate Out

1. Pappasito's
2. Chili's
3. Lili's Bistro
4. Old Neighborhood Grill
5. Flying Fish
6. Mi Familia
7. Chadra Mezza

6 Things I've Recently Scratched Off My To-Do List

1. get packages ready to mail
2. get quotes from printers
3. cut letters for Kristen's wall
4. design YDC newsletter
5. work on lesson plans for Bible class
6. sort the kids' outgrown clothes

5 People I Don't Know but Would Like to Hang Out With

1. Ellen DeGeneres
2. Steven Curtis Chapman and family
3. Kacey Luvi
4. Carrie in the West Bank
5. The Fug Girls

4 Songs That Make Me Happy

1. I Will Change Your Name
2. I Can See Clearly Now
3. Song Sung Blue
4. Forever Young

3 Things I Hate To Do:

1. Dishes
2. Get out of bed in the morning
3. Come home to a messy house

2 Things I'm Really Good At:

1. Procrastinating
2. Hand-lettering

1 Bad Habit:

1. Picking at my cuticles

And now... how did I answer these same questions 2 years ago?
Clicky

Plain Dumb Bad Luck

We have a guest blogger today. Darren is writing this blog because Stacy is incapacitated in the bed. "How'd that happen?", you ask. Well, I'll tell you.

Have you ever had something happen to you and it seemed like you were just, through no fault of your own, completely in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Texas we call that dumb bad luck.

Stacy wanted to do something fun for herself this week. First, she thought about getting a pedicure. But she stepped outside and it was one of those gorgeous sunny fall days in Texas, so she decided instead that she'd like to pick me up from work for a picnic lunch by the Trinity River.

So, she picked me up around noon and we drove down 7th Street to Trinity Park. When we got there, though, they were doing construction on the roads and parking lots. There was nowhere to go, so I suggested a little parking area on the other side of the river that I'd driven by many times. So, we crossed back over the Trinity and went down Forest Park Blvd. until we found the spot.

It was a beautiful spot. There was a picnic table, but Stacy had brought a blanket because she wanted to lay in the shade under a tree. There was a nice pecan tree nearby with a flat grassy area so we made our picnic there. It was great. We ate and talked and lay there and had a great time enjoying being outdoors on a beautiful day.

The weekly tornado siren testing let us know it was 1:00 and time for me to head back to work. I grabbed the trash and drinks and headed back to the car, leaving Stacy to bring the blanket. I was halfway to the car when I suddenly heard Stacy screaming. She was clearly in terrible pain. I set all the stuff on the ground and ran back to her.

When I got back to her, she was rolling around on the ground, holding one leg up at a funny angle. I thought she had dislocated her knee. I asked her what was hurting she couldn't tell me, she was in too much pain. I knew something serious was wrong. I gently grabbed her leg and foot and she flinched and yelped. Finally, she told me her foot was hurt.

To try to figure out what was wrong, I reached for her foot, but at a touch from my fingertips, she winced and flinched again. I knew it was bad, and I told her I thought it was broken. I said we'd go straight to the doctor's office and went to move the car to the closest part of the parking area.

When I got back, I saw Stacy was laying on her stomach looking into a hole. She had been walking to the car and all of a sudden her left foot and leg had sunk into the ground all the way to her thigh. Her weight had suddenly shifted to her off-balance right foot with no time to prepare, injuring it. I was wondering to myself how there could be such a deep hole in such an innocuous-looking spot.



Upon closer inspection, I realized the hole had not been there before. There was still grass covering the hole and it had obviously been torn by her foot. At the bottom of the hole, there was a mound of fresh dirt and grass that she had knocked down there. Stacy had stepped on a weak spot in the ground, where a sewer line ran underneath, and the ground had collapsed beneath her.



The sewer line had an opening at that point for a drain, but no drain had been installed. Instead it had been covered with dirt. Over time, the dirt above had gradually collapsed into the sewer line underneath as water washed through it, until there was a cavity in the earth below with only a few inches of soil held together by the roots of the grass. One step on that would've sent anyone crashing through. Stacy was the person with the dumb bad luck to step on that one spot first.

I tore out the grass from over the hole so it would be visible to anyone else walking by. Then I helped Stacy onto her good foot and held her up as she hopped a few hops. Each hop brought excruciating pain to her hurt foot. We made it as far as the nearby picnic table. I went back to the XTerra and off-roaded down to the picnic table, where I helped her to gingerly get in. A call to the doctor got her in quickly thanks to a last-minute cancellation, so we headed straight there.

At the doctor's office, the X-rays confirmed two broken bones. The X-ray below is not Stacy's, but I circled the part of her foot where the breaks were. The doctor called a nearby orthopedist to arrange a visit for that afternoon.



From there it was on to the orthopedist. We parked in the handicapped parking and joked about getting a ticket. "I think I could get us out of that one," I said. Thankfully, both the doctor's office and the orthopedist had loaner wheelchairs, so Stacy mostly got to roll around. It was tricky getting in and out of our high-clearance XTerra, though. Stacy practically had to do a chin-up using the handles above the door!

The orthopedist touched Stacy's foot all over to ensure that the pain matched up with the breaks he could see on the X-ray. He was also concerned that she might have strained or torn the ligament holding her big toe to the toe next to it. Meanwhile, Stacy was mortified because she had spent the earlier part of the day walking around barefoot, so her feet were quite dirty, and she hadn't shaved in a while. But she got through it and we decided to go with a boot rather than a 3-week splint followed by a cast.

After a trip to the drugstore for crutches, Darvocet, and chocolate, we went to pick up the boys. (Our good friend Tina, whose child is in school with Aidan and Ian, had taken them home from school while we were at the doctor.) Then, I went out and took pictures of the hole—to post on this blog and as evidence for our upcoming discussions with the city's Parks department...

(Using a broom handle to measure the depth of the hole)

coupla things

My head hurts.
Still.
It's full of cotton and weighs 1000 pounds.
My eyes are buzzing.
Someone squirted silly string all up in my nasal passages.
My ears need to pop.
My neck aches.
And my head hurts.
Still.
Thank you.
That's all.

oh, wait. No it's not. I have one more thing to whine about.

Biggest Loser Family premiered tonight.
I watched even though I had mixed emotions about it.
Desi and I poured our hearts into auditioning for this season, but then they went and made it a FAMILY show and we were disqualified. Hmmmph. As I watched the new teams, I kept thinking, "We coulda taken them." "We have more personality than they do!" "She's a wuss."

But what REALLY pissed me off?
Even though I've lost 60+ pounds since sending in our audition tape, I still outweigh a couple of the girls on the show.

I coulda been a contedah!

I've hit a major plateau. Been stuck on either side of 60 for a month now. Methinks I need Jillian to kick.my.BUTT. Kick it HARD!

back to the '80s

I've been reliving the '80s lately, by reconnecting with old friends on Facebook. It's been a lot of fun to exchange messages, relive memories and share milestones.

But nothing took me back to the '80s like this did this morning:

It's '80s Day at Dani's school. Of course, she informed me of this last night at 10:15 when it was too late to get my hands on leg warmers and top-siders. Instead, we dug out some old pink foam rollers for her to sleep in, and I hacked up one of Darren t-shirts Irene-Cara-style. It's amazing how those radical 80's hair skills like, totally came back to me! With a hairdryer in one hand and a can of hairspray in the other, I majorly Molly Ringwalded Dani's hair. I only wish I'd had a can of Aqua Net on hand!

We pegged her jeans, plastered on the blue eye shadow and scrunched down her socks. What I wouldn't have given for some twister beads this morning. Dani cracked herself up when she caught her reflection in the mirror. "I can't believe y'all thought this was a good look! I can't believe I'm leaving the house in this."

It was like staring at my 17-year old self as I watched her drive off - so much so that I had to run upstairs and dig through old photos! Here's another one of me at 17:

The really funny thing is, Dani suffers from the same "I Was Born In The Wrong Decade" syndrome that I suffered from at her age. I always wished I'd been a teen/young adult in the late '60s/'70s. Dani does, too. Her room is covered in John Lennon posters - and check out her book bag:

I love that kid! She beats to her own funky drum, it's true, but that's one of the things I admire about her.

That, and she just texted me, saying, "I'm bringing you lunch today. What do you want?"

<3

boys

Twice yesterday, I was surprised by two little gifties left for me. The first one, at the bottom of the laundry basket, stealthily tucked beneath the last few socks, took several months off my life.

The second one was discovered last night, in the dark of my car, as I reached into my purse for my cell phone. You can't tell from the picture, but this nasty little dude is slimy and sticky and wiggly and gross. Aidan knows how much I love it. {insert curled lip here}

I have a couple of suspects in mind.

NSV = non-scale victories

As you know, I gained back 6 pounds and only ended up losing an overall 2 pounds last month. I pinpointed my problem as emotional eating and avoidance of exercise because of those same emotions.

This week, I've strived to overcome that, and I've been pretty successful in both areas (eating and exercise). I still wasn't gung ho, though... I've just been faking it 'til I make it. Know what I mean?

Yesterday, I saw an older woman (my friend's Granny) whom I hadn't seen in several months. She asked if she'd ever met me. At first, my feelings were a little hurt because YES she's met me, many times! When I said, "Granny, I'm Stacy!", her mouth dropped open and she gasped, "You've lost so much WEIGHT! Cara told me you'd lost weight, but you don't even LOOK the same."

Then last night, an old high school friend reconnected with me on Facebook, and said, "You look exactly the same as you did in high school. Not a day over 20!" I'm 39, and it's a recent picture.

Today, I feel GUNG HO AGAIN! I needed those NSVs!

ribbon storage... and the BOOK!

Last spring, I saw an idea that I loved and couldn't wait to implement. In my scraproom, I had a big drawer full of random ribbon, all mumble-jumble. Most everything else I use is out and visible - otherwise, I just don't use it, and that's been true of my ribbon.

Last week, I finally got around to hanging it up! It's not the same as Donna'a exactly, but it works and I'm happy with it! I haven't decided exactly where to hang it yet....

And this is late in coming...

you might remember this post? Here's the published copy. WooHoo!

Here's the layout up close.

Happy Tuesday!

Month 5 Weigh-In

It was bound to happen sometime, and sometime is now.

I only lost 2 pounds the entire month of August.

Well, that's not entirely true.

The TRUTH is, I lost 8. Then I gained back 6 in the last two weeks.

Not good.

I've identified the problems:

1. I did some emotional eating. I knew I was doing it, but didn't seem to care .THAT's not good, and not normal for me, either.

2. I didn't eat during the day.

3. I ate empty calories and junk at night.

4. I overate empty calories and junk at night.

5. I didn't exercise.

But today is a new month.

A new slate.

A new day.

A new beginning.

I'm back on track, and I resolve to invite God to be the center of this again. (In fact, I've already done so.) It's obvious that I can't do it by myself, isn't it? But with Him, it's possible; He's proven that to me so many times!

I have a great support system in place that I've also neglected to lean on recently. When I finally returned and told them of my weight gain, I got so many words of wisdom and advice. A few that really hit home:

I say jump back in - today's a new day. Look for a big loss next week as you shock your body back into it's new routine! (thanks Shannon!)

Remember this is a lifelong journey you're on.... revisit your goals and your dreams and commit to making this week a good one. (Thanks Jayne!)

You have done so much already a little set back is okay as long as you don't let it knock you off your horse for good. (Thanks Les!)

I can so sympathize. Just went things are humming along, something derails you and you lose momentum. The most important thing is that you don't give up. I've done that before too...and it feels just awful. Get back into it right away. Here's a (((hug))) for good measure. I'm still here cheering you on! (Thanks Carrie!)

Just get back on that train and go forward. You can do it.... (Thanks Jat!)

It is okay. Remember this is a lifetime journey and about long term changes. Little ups and downs should be expected. You are doing GREAT!!!!! (Thanks Joanie!)

You are a shining example of God's love and light and with Him - you can do anything! We're human. We make choices - some of them are better for us than others, but sometimes, for me, he lets me stumble in order to remind me to lean on Him. (Karin, you're so right. Thanks!)

Stace. Can you imagine a year ago, thinking that losing 6 pounds in a month would be a BAD month? (said before the month was over, but still... I love you Ginger.)

Look how much you HAVE lost! Even with a little gain.. you've still lost a lot!! Get back in there and back on track. It can be done.. you've already proven it! (Thanks Ginger!)

I'm glad to see you come here for encouragement and then keep on keeping on...I want to be more like you when I grow up. (Aww Alli. ((((hugs))))

And the one that spoke the loudest to me, James 1:4: Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (Thanks, Nina!)

Here I am Friday night, holding the amount I've lost to date: 57 pounds. :)