What the Heckistan!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN! Today is my baby brother Austin’s 16^th birthday and I hope it was good for him. The phrase that I used for the title is from one of Kaylee’s favorite books, “Dear Dumb Diary”, and I think it’s funny so that is why I used it. I know it’s been almost a month since my last post and in the words of Inigo Montoya, “Let me explain, no,no that will take too long, let me sum up.” Here are some bullet points from the last month.

My cast came off after what seemed like for-ev-er, but in reality was only three weeks. I thought I would get another hard cast with and attractive cast boot, but I came home with a removable air cast which was a good step up. My ankle is stiff and I have to do home physical therapy but it doesn’t really hurt very much. My real problem is the bottoms of my feet are always so sore and tired it makes it hard to walk. When I described these symptoms to the podiatrist, he said it sounded like plantar fasciitis (which means your feet really hurt) and that the anti-inflammatory medication he prescribed for the swelling in my ankle should help. My first step after I got my cast off felt like I was standing on sharp rocks, so I’m not sure it really worked. I still had to use crutches for about a week, but I am off crutches now and I can drive so life is a lot better. I have another appointment in a few weeks and hopefully there will be something else that can be done.

The girls started back to school this week and they were so happy. Being homebound wasn’t exactly how they thought they would spend their summer so they were more than ready to start school. Even Dalin is happy to have a reason to go out and he looks forward to the car ride to school every day. They seem to like their teachers and the first week went pretty well so I hope the rest of the year follows suit.

Aiden, after telling me all summer that he didn’t want to go to kindergarten, announced on Wednesday that they finished the letter “Z” so now he was ready to go to the same school as Ashton. Too bad they didn’t get to z last week he could have been done in time for school to start. Not really, I feel good about my decision to have him wait a year, but I thought it was funny because I didn’t realize that was what he was waiting for.

So You Think You Can Dance

Our family is a fan of the summer reality show “So You Think You Can Dance”, and the kids are becoming quite the dance critics. They don’t get to watch the show very often because it comes on after their bedtime, but last Wednesday they got to stay up a little later and there was a conversation between Ashton and Aiden that went as follows.

Aiden: “Ashton how do you like my dancing?”

Ashton: “Really good, how do like mine?”

Aiden: “Great! I think we are better than the people on the T.V.”

Ashton: “Yeah, I bet if we tried out they would let us right through because we’re little and we’re cute and we can cry really easy.”

It’s good to know they can work their strengths.

Kaylee's Baptism

The big day finally came. Kaylee was able to be baptized yesterday and it was really great! There were three other kids from her class getting baptized that day as well so the building was pretty full. My nieces were able to sing the song they had planned on singing on the original baptism date so besides trying to get around on crutches (which I’m still bitter about, if you couldn’t tell) it was a fantastic experience. We went to the park across the street afterward to have cake and playing with the cousins which is always fun. When we got to the church we saw one of Kaylee’s friends from school. She moved across town a couple of months ago but I thought maybe she wanted to be baptized in the ward that she grew up in and that was why she was there. This was not the case. I had forgotten that this little girl’s birthday is in February, so she was baptized in April. Apparently the memory card from her mom’s camera got lost so they came to recreate her baptism memories. The girl and her dad both got into the baptism jumpsuits to get their picture taken, and I even heard that the mom was trying to get the relatives from California to come back into town to really authenticate things. I do have my own level of insanity when it comes to birthdays and Halloween, but now Chris understands how crazy I could be and I think he counts himself lucky.

I saw my Relief Society President at the baptism, and when she saw my foot I was in some trouble for not calling her. I think the Relief Society is a wonderful organization, but I have the hardest time asking for help. I really hate to impose on people and even though I wouldn’t think twice if I was asked to provide a meal or some other service for a family in the ward, it’s just out of my comfort zone to be the one receiving service.

Technical Difficulties

Our website was down for a few days and then the cable modem was going in and out, but we are up and running again and ready to blog. Much has happened since I wrote last, the most exciting of which is that my brother Jordon came home from his mission! We are super excited to have him here and we are all glad that everyone came home safely. While my parents were gone my brothers decided we should remodel the dining room at my parents’ house. Okay it wasn’t really remodeling, but finishing the addition to the house they started fifteen years ago. We (by we I mean mostly Aaron and Brian) painted, laid tile, put in baseboards and molding around the doors and did the general purging of all the junk that built up from the last time they left the country to pick up a missionary. It kind of inspired me to do my own mini room make over and I bought some shelves to organize my room and some wood and brackets to make a desk for the girl’s room. I was hoping to get it all done in one day and surprise Chris, but so far nothing is done. Hopefully it doesn’t take me fifteen years.

My brother Jason and his wife Mandy welcomed their first baby Kimball Anne Hafen to the world on Saturday. She weighed in at 6lbs 10oz and she is 19in long. We are so excited for them! We haven’t gotten to see her yet, Dalin has some strange rash and we don’t want to pass it on, but we will hopefully see her soon.

Today Kaylee and Ashton and I went school shopping with my sisters-in-law and nieces. The girls had all found matching shirts within the first ten minutes. They learned each other’s sizes and were quick to provide whatever piece of clothing had the number that matched the size. We didn’t take all of the suggestions, but it was so much fun that we decided to make it a tradition.

My family won’t let me get away without telling this last story so here it goes. On Monday Aiden and I were racing through the house and I slipped on a toy and broke my ankle. Needless to say I didn’t win the race and as I was lying on the floor in agony Aiden made sure I knew that he had won the trophy. Chris took me to quick care where I got a soft cast and some crutches. I HATE CRUTCHES!!! I had only been using them for 2 1/2 days when I went to the podiatrist on Wednesday. I never thought I would be so excited to get a cast. I was completely expecting to get a walking cast to put an end to the crutch phase. The doctor was really nice, and when he led off with, “Well I don’t think you’ll need surgery," he must have thought that would make me happy, but I hadn't even considered that as a possibility so it didn't really mean that much to me. When he ended with "...we’re going to put you in a non-weight bearing cast for a while.” it didn’t matter how nice the doctor was, he cursed me with crutches for another three weeks so he became my enemy. I borrowed a rolling chair from my brother so I can roll around the house, (luckily we have wood floors), and my sister-in-law's mother is letting me borrow a wheelchair, but it’s going to be a long three weeks.