Busy Hands take a Vacation

It was a month yesterday since I had my bilateral carpal tunnel release. It seems like so much longer! As I type that short span of time I am able to be more patient with myself. I guess I didn't realize how busy my hands are or how much of an impact having them *surgered* would make.

The scars are still very hard (I say they feel like a pork-chop bone. My body always does this with scars. They will soften with time) and my hands are tender. I can't do much that requires palm strength and especially not pushing! Yikes. I've become adept at knuckling my way around (hmm, like a chimp?) instead of using my palm. It's amazing what we don't realize when we have a normal healthy body!



I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the continued healing! And I'm grateful to I know that 6 to 12 months from now I will have my hands back, strong and healthy without the tingling, pain and numbness from pre-surgery days.

But for now... these two little not-quite-so-little hands are taking a vacation. (Thank you Stuart for taking over the lawn mowing!)

Saying Good-bye

In the early hours this morning my sweet friend, Andrea, went home to her Heavenly Father after a long and valiant fight against cancer. She was such an example of enduring to the end.



The first time I remember interacting with Andrea was when our little girls, Camille and Desi, were in kindergarten together. The girls became best, and live-long, friends. You know how that draws moms together too. We both hosted countless sleep-overs and other fun activities for our little girls. But I really came to appreciate Andrea as MY friend when we served together as the Young Women Presidency in the Palmdale 2nd ward. I could always count on her for good ideas, enthusiasm, and *keeping presidency meeting under an hour*!


Andrea and I shared many things: a girls getaway weekend in Big Bear where she had the most wonderful photos from their years in Japan to scrapbook, our woes and trials as mothers, our love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ AND she has kindly shared her grandchildren with me as well.

Andrea was such a good example of unconditional love, persistence, generosity, creativity, spirituality and so many more that I can't list.

I'm grateful to know that we will share our friendship through eternity. I know she will be busy using all her wonderful talents while she waits for the rest of us to catch up.

Love you sweetie-girl!

Golden Sunset

Laster-evening during an intermission from a Harry-Pot-a-thon with Auntie P I went upstairs just in time to see the whole sky filled with that wonderful golden light that I just love! I whipped up the blinds, opened the window and shot right through the screen to capture this beauty. We live in such a beautiful world!

Old School

My hands are finally healing enough that I can get out and do things! (Boy this has been torture!) Several days this week I've gone up to Miss Camille's new school to help put things in order... and boy-howdy, does that room ever need some order!

For the last four years this room; Room 4, Mrs Maynard's new school home, has been inhabited by a different first-year-teacher! This last teacher; pregnant and moving across the country, literally picked up her purse and walked out of the room. Every single cupboard was stuffed with junk including: thank you notes, bakery cupcake from who-knows-when, old bulletin-board things, etc. So can you guess what Miss Camille has been doing? Yup, lots of cleaning and de-junking.

I felt like I'd stepped back in time as I walked down the hallway! This little school looks like it was built in the 1940s! It looks exactly like the school I went to right down to the cubbies where students hang their coats and signs on the bathroom doors...



The floors are waxed to a deep shine (yeah... and this photo was taken before the custodian stripped and re-waxed the floors today!)



And, AND... there is a vintage wooden teacher's desk and chair plus an equally old chest of drawers! They look like they've been tortured by little hands for the more years than I've been around! Miss Camille got permission to paint them and now they have a new lease on life.



Before we left yesterday afternoon (after another torrential thunderstorm) we finally got to the point where we had started putting Miss Camille's teaching aides put away in clean and empty cupboards, the desk and chest of drawers newly lined and re-assembled, and the first bulletin board fabric up! Yup, it's coming right along.

Gordon's Gal-Pal-Sal

The other night we took a drive up Left Fork (Hobble Creek Canyon) I came prepared with my super-zoom lens and I wasn't disappointed! Usually that means I found some wildlife; but this time it was the domesticate variety that caught my attention.

We stopped to see several herds of horses. There are always a few brave creatures who come over to the fence to get a scratch... but I've never seen this before with a stranger...


"Look at this! This horse is licking me!"



Sure enough this pretty palomino mare was giving Gordon a good cat-bath!



Does she have a male owner? Does he smell/taste like Gordon? (She wasn't interested in the way I smelled!)



I pointed out another horse to Gordon and while his attention was distracted Gal-Pal-Sal checked out his pockets. (Let's just say those pants went to the laundry when we got home!)



Gordon became so attached to her that he named her Pal, the palomino. Then later in the evening he changed it to his pal, Sal. (We laughed about the non-originality of the names!)

Lastly, a beautiful canyon sunset! It doesn't get much better than this!

Totally Dominated!

Growing up Stuart and Camille were always the best of friends, but that didn't prevent a little friendly competition! When they were about 8-years-old Stuart started soccer and Camille started competition cheerleading. I have a friend who always remarked on my little children how sturdily built they were (hmm, sorry guys!)

It didn't take long before Camille was recognized as a great base! She routinely lifted the flyers above her head, and as the name implies, pitched them into the air and caught them again. This kind of exercise builds incredible arm strength!

Now, enter their dad, ever ready to pair people up in an arm wrestling match**. Much to Stuart's dismay Camille could beat him arm wrestling until they were 13!

Don't ask me what started this last night, but for some reason Camille and Stuart decided to give it a try again... 13 years later!



Let's put it this way... she was totally dominated!




** OK so now for the back stories on arm wrestling. When Gordon and I first met and then married he was impressed with my arm strength. I'd lived rurally all my life, rode horses, picked bales of hay, and, most importantly, had spent the last few years taking out my frustrations on the wood pile (AKA splitting wood with a heavy splitting maul).

The first contest he orchestrated was between me and some poor whimpy unsuspecting missionary that lived with him before we were married. I wasted the poor guy and I've felt bad about it ever since.

The second one was much more satisfying... we were in Hawai'i visiting Gordon's children. Erik, his oldest, was 13.5; the setting- Pizza Hut. Gordon told Erik he thought Mom could beat him and Erik, being taller than me, thought he had it made-in-the-shade! The whole dining area erupted in applause when I beat him. I told Erik he'd never get a rematch; I knew it would be all downhill for me from there.

Red, White & Blueberry

About a month ago I posted about a wonderful Strawberry tart I made. Yesterday I was hankering for it again but this time I had three different kinds of berries to grace the top...



Doesn't this look so patriotically yummy?

I did cheat on the filling (my hands just weren't up to making lemon curd yet) I used this old standby, which was good... but not as good as the lemon curd/cream cheese filling!

Fastest Cheescake
• 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 3 ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated)
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 9" graham cracker or chocolate cookie pie crust (** I used the baked crust from the original strawberry-lemon tart post)
Preparation:
In medium bowl beat cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Gradually add the sweetened condensed milk, beating constantly. When half of the milk has been added, add the lemon juice and beat until smooth. Add remaining sweetened condensed milk until mixture is smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust and chill at least one hour. 8 servings

Poor Babies!

Do you ever surprise yourself with your lack of thinking things through? I sure did this time!

For some reason I had it in my little-girl-mind that today, when the bandages came off, my hands would be all better and ready to go!

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I'VE HAD SURGERIES BEFORE!

I KNOW IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!

Look at these poor babies!

• I have some numb spots- I knew that would happen.
• My wrists are sore and emaciated- I should have known that would happen after 10 days in boxing gloves!
• The incisions are sore and hard- my scars always go through that stage.
• My bruises hurt- now this one I don't get!  If I had *damage* to my forearms: IE got hit by something I would expect bruises to hurt, but this is just pooled blood from the wrist.  What does THAT hurt?  I don't know!
• My incisions itch like crazy- normal- thank goodness for Vitamin E and Topricin.
• I still have weak hands and have to be very careful how I use them- I SHOULD have know that would be true.

Ah, well... I came home from getting the stitches out, laid down on my bed to read and ended up sleeping for 3 hours!  That's what the trauma of disappointment will do!

Miss Camille Moves 1st Grade

When I took the baby SD card out of my MPC-phone I discovered that I had some very fun photos from 11 days ago (the day before my surgery) that I'd completely forgotten about. What a happy find!

Camille's been teaching 1st grade out in Saratoga Springs for the last four years and whereas she loved the people she worked with (you know who you are) she was not wild about the commute, especially since the onset of the I-15 corridor construction! (It already cost her a tire.)

Each year Camille has put in for a transfer to other schools, within the district, which would be closer for her. This year was her lucky year! Her previous school was going through a significant downsize: from 8- 1st grade classes in '09-'10 to only 4 in '11-'12! (There were only 7 last year!) It is a wonderful blessing that Camille was able to transfer to a school right in Orem, 2.1 miles from her house, right across the street from Desi's! Hooray!

ANY-way, on June 13th Miss Camille and I trekked bravely out to her old school with Kevin's (Camille's-kind-of-Kevin) cargo van. Our quest was to remove 4 years worth of planning and working, playing and teaching from her old room there. There were so many fun memories for both of us. Camille has let me come help her prepare for each school year: putting up bulletin boards, original artwork (Horton the elephant in his tree, and other trees) and tons of fun visuals for those ickle-firsties!

Our main concern was could we fit the kiva into the van? LIKE A GLOVE! I just love the laws of physics: leverage, wheels, balance, a little muscle-power. We leveraged the kiva onto one of the rolly-carts, wheeled it out the very uncooperative double set of doors, tipped it into the back of the van and...

P-U-S-H-E-D!

Go little Camillie!



The second section of the kiva just needed to spoon on top of the first. But we didn't realize we had it backwards until we got outside. We flipped it around, again with the tip and push! Yay for girl power!  We laughed and had a good time with all of our silliness.



With impending thunderstorms threatening us I neglected to get a photo of the van fully loaded... right up to the roof! We stopped at Carl's Jr for a much-deserved milkshake on the way home.

I'm looking forward to another day of working in Miss Camille's new classroom when my hands are strong enough for the work.

Red Gerbera

One of my favorite summer flowers is the happy little gerbera daisy! These live on my front steps.



AND... an update on my hands- they are healing slowly. You wouldn't think that having your hands operated on would be such a big deal, but apparently it is.  I didn't think it would take this much out of me... but, again, apparently it does.  The Doctor's instructions were- use your hands but don't do anything that hurts.  I found out trying to tuck in my shirt wasn't a good idea.  And who knew that opening car doors would be a problem?  Bathing, fortunately, has been fairly easy... after discovering that I wouldn't be able to find any rubber or latex gloves large enough to fit over my already-large and bandaged hands I found that a produce bag and rubber band work just fine.

One more thing... our sweet daughter-in-law, Jessica, hosted 3rd Sunday *Grammie* dinner and it was delicious. We are so lucky to have so much of our family here with us.