An Unfortunate First (not a pretty picture!)

My team had a good game last Thursday night - we won by at least 7-2. Unfortunately... I took a bad spill - after getting knocked over (which commonly happens to me, being one of the smallest people on the field), I didn't have time to tuck & tumble and so... ended up driving the left side of my (bent) right knee really hard into the astroturf. One of the worst thing about astroturf is that it doesn't "give" (like natural grass does) - whatever you land on doesn't slide and if it does, all of your skin gets rubbed off. In the past, whenever I've fallen on astroturf, I've always ended up with an unsightly raspberry that lasts for 3+ weeks.

So, when I got up from my fall and hobbled back down the field - and felt the burning all over my kneecap - I just assumed I was bleeding. When I had time to look down a few minutes later, I was astonished to see that there was no blood whatsoever. It hurt, but I was able to keep playing and scored my second goal.

The next morning, the leg wasn't really swollen so I tried to go for my run. Before 0.5 mile, I had to quit because it felt like my kneecap skin was flapping around. When I checked it out, I noticed that fluid was beginning to form all over the top of my knee. I limped back home, depressed that I had had to abort my first workout in over a year.

I still assumed it wasn't a very big deal and took the girls to school, since they had a big awards assembly (trophies for reading achievement and perfect attendance). By the end of the assembly, I could barely stand and my knee was swelling up and shooting pain up my thigh. Luckily, my friend Kim was there to help me with the kindergarteners (getting them ready for their big musical production - "Hansel & Gretal Eat Right") - so she gave me an ice pack and took care of things. After popping 800 mg of ibuprofen, I felt better and helped get the kids dressed, but by the end of the musical, I was again in agony.

After the Family Day Picnic (I told you, it was a long morning!), Kim and I took the kids to the park where they could play and we could hang out. I spent most of the time icing my leg but had such trouble standing, that Kim and her husband ended up driving the girls and I home. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to lay down on the sofa (after which I still screamed in pain for a good 10 seconds - and neither girl came running to see what was wrong!). DaddyDude finally came home, added some better compression and ice, and took good care of me (he made dinner! he did the dishes! what a lovely man!).

Although before he did any of those things, he casually remarked. "Now you know how I felt (with all of his knee problems) and you weren't terribly sympathetic, at least not most of the time." And then he took the Ace bandage that Kim's husband had wrapped around my knee - and murmured in astonishment, "Well, THAT'S new!" Yes, the swelling from morning to afternoon was pretty grotesque. See...?

So the swelling remains the same today, but I have better movement and can hobble around the house, though I still can't bend my knee. Marika had no sympathy for me and made me go up the stairs to return one of her items - when I came back downstairs, I took the wrap off and showed her my knee - I think she felt a little bit bad then!

And yes, I know I've been lucky not to have had any knee injuries up to this point. DaddyDude says no running for a week. We can't tell what's wrong with the knee until the swelling goes down, but I think it's just a really bad bruise. Yes, that much fluid accumulation can occur with contusion - I don't think anything was twisted or torn - and I'm sorry, but I have things to do - another soccer game on Thursday and a soccer tournament on Saturday. Let's hope things heal up quickly! :)

A new smile :)

Hey, do you notice anything different...?

Here she is... just before 2 pm today...

And here's a close-up, less than an hour later! Look at that! Braces are so fancy these days - she got to pick two colors (Go Bears!). She's back for a check-up in 6 weeks and - get a load of this - she can get a "new wire" and "new colors" if she wanted. I just stared at the tech like she was crazy. I mean, I know I had braces almost 30 years ago and things had changed, but... REALLY?!

Marika has braces envy. Just this morning, she mournfully said to me, "Mika's SO LUCKY she gets to wear braces..."

REALLY?!

(But I suppose if my big sister came home with an iPod Touch, I might think like her!).

Okay, they've had the iPod Touch for about a week and it's still in one piece. However, they've discovered how to take pictures and videos and are having WAY too much fun with those functions... one of these days I'm going to find a video of myself on youtube doing something really embarrassing... please warn me if you do! :)

Softball update

Wow! I'm behind again! On May 14th, Mika's team had their last regular season game and took home their coveted first place trophies. This was a big deal for the girls because now that they're 7-8 years old, ONLY first place finishers get a trophy. It was HUGE, too! In another couple of weeks, the girls will play their championship game (although with 3 teams in the division, I'm baffled why there NEED to be "play-offs") and hopefully, win another trophy. I'm really bummed that I'll be missing the game - but I committed to being in a soccer tournament (that day) about 7 weeks ago. It's too late to back out because the captain won't be able to fill my spot. However, it's actually pretty stressful for me to watch Mika's games (they're very tense with excitement) - I would hate to see them lose but I'll be sad if I miss seeing them win. Oh, well! I'm sure Mika will be happy to give me the game details later.

Although Marika's softball season is over (her last game was marred by the coaches yelling at the other team's coaches and vice versa - geez, what a terrible lesson for the kids!), Mika will be playing for most of the summer because she made the All Stars team! We were very surprised to hear they started that young but we were very proud of Mika for making the team. Her coach applied for and got the All Stars coaching position and he basically ended up taking his infield with him. Although the coach totally forgot to call us about the first parent meeting, he did remember to call us for the first practice. We had expected to be at the ballpark from 9-12 on Sunday but as things turned out, the girls had a pick-up game and Mika did not get back home until after 3 pm. Poor kid... you could tell she was starting to fade by 12:30. However, they played an older team (8-year olds) who was used to kid-pitching and TIED them! Mika's team was lucky to have one girl who had been practicing pitching for some time at home - she pitched the entire game and even got a few strike-outs. Mika struck out for the first time ever - and cried, of course. But, at least she got it over with!

And yes, that is how we spent our wedding anniversary! It's odd to know that I've been with my husband for most than half my life now - although it's honestly really hard to remember life before him. :)

Trying to scrap about yourself...

... is quite a challenge for somebody like me, who hates to be photographed. Cropchocolate.com has decided to overhaul their "Design Team" and instead of maintaining a stable of 80+ "volunteers", they'll be using the next 6 months worth of projects to whittle us down to only TEN! On the bright side, this really challenges us to think outside the box (to distinguish our talents from others) but on the downside, it's actually pretty stressful! Due to shipping delays for my last shipment, I couldn't even finalize my patterned paper selection until last weekend... and just completed my project this afternoon.

This month's challenge was to scrap {All About Me}. I'd never used Little Yellow Bicycle papers before, but I liked the color palette and decided to showcase this collection. I didn't follow any sketches (which probably caused a good deal of my stress) so trying to fit 13 photos onto two pages was... "interesting". I've always been partial to the vertical two-page 12x12 layout, since it is quite "different". It's too bad my handwriting isn't prettier, but I guess when I am gone from this world, my kids will have a writing sample... :)

The journaling reads: "Our lives and personalities are shaped (for better or worse) by our experiences and some luck. Even so, part of my life is now a blur, as if life truly began after I met my husband. My children, however, know very little of my “life before kids” – I’m just “Mommy”. Perhaps later in life they will understand why I am the way I am – and appreciate why I didn’t let them get away with everything. Only time will tell…"

Here's the full materials list:

Crop Chocolate materials used:
1. Patterned papers – Little Yellow Bicycle (LYB) “Fresh Print Clothesline” collection pack (2 sets)
2. Chipboard embellishments – LYB “Fresh Print Clothesline” chipboard stickers
3. Stick pins - LYB “Fresh Print Clothesline” flower stick pins
4. Flower stickers – LYB “Fresh Print Clothesline” dimensional stickers
5. Alphabet stickers – Making Memories Shimmer Alpha stickers (blue & holiday)
6. Sequins – MM gem collection (white)
7. Toppers on sequins – MM Paper Reverie Gems & Brads (Metallique)
8. Brads – MM mini circle brads (pewter)
9. Diecut tags – MM Slice Tag Maker design card

Other materials used (non-CC):
1. Black pen (Sakura 0.005 micron pen)
2. Corner rounder (Marvy-Uchida)
3. Templates –
a. Big scalloped edge (on left) – traced KI Memories sheer sheet
b. Heart, small circle and small square – MM punches (for Tag Maker)
c. Large circle – “Pages by Design” template system (by Deluxe Designs)
4. Small scalloped edge (top and bottom) – Fiskars
5. White cardstock (with computer-printed journaling)– the Paper company

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all of you mothers out there had a fantabulous day!

The girls and I (kindly driven by Daddy Dude) spent a couple of hours this morning with Michelle - taking some stuff off her hands as she's getting ready to move - before driving over to visit with Grandma and Fred. The dimsum lunch was marvelous! Afterwards, we loaded up at the Japanese grocery store, got some yummy cream puffs, and headed back home.

Yesterday, the girls finally went to their very first Home Depot kids clinic - what fun they had! Even though they had run out of the original project (a tulip vase), they were fortunate enough to have a back-up project available - a planter basket. In my personal opinion, this basket was BETTER - and you scrappers out there know I was thinking, "wow, I could really use that in my scrap area!" Lucky for me, it was a Mother's Day crafts!

Here are the girls, working very hard, supervised by Daddy Dude. Isn't he doing a great job? ;)

And here are the girls with their finished projects! I thought they turned out really well - Daddy Dude thought Marika, especially, did a great job hammering. In fact, she was in tears that Daddy Dude wouldn't let her take the extra nails home! We are now looking for a vendor from whom we can order kid-friendly woodworking kits, so if anyone has any ideas, please share! I'm glad that now, I know who to give my extra craft hammers... :)

An Early Mother's Day Present

This morning, Marika's kindergarten class invited moms to come and enjoy some donuts and refreshments for an early Mother's Day celebration. I had heard they had been working on some Mother's Day presents for us... look how nicely presented it is!

And here's the present! I was pleasantly surprised (extremely so!) - I have no idea how the teacher managed to get these projects done without any of the moms (who volunteer) knowing! Marika can, apparently, keep a secret pretty well, too. It was very carefully made and looks beautiful - I'm thrilled it's something that will last for a long time and can't wait to display it somewhere! Thanks, kiddo!

Patterned paper (Making Memories Dilly Dally collection), ribbon (Making Memories - Chelsea), diecut letters (Quickutz), scalloped squares (Marvy-Uchida), corner rounder

Speaking of Mother's Day... this card was one of my May Chocolatier projects. I haven't decided if I'm giving this card to my mom this year or not - she's not the type to be particularly thrilled about homemade cards.

Here's Marika's first softball layout, also constructed from the Making Memories Dilly Dally Collection (title = Quickutz License Plate alphabet). I know the combination of bugs and baseball is a little unusual but considering Marika is an amateur bugologist... well, I think it works!

Summer is Coming!

We were finally able to celebrate Daddy Dude's birthday the following Saturday. The girls really wanted a balloon animal - here's what they got! Lucky for us, we took a picture, because Marika was devastated a couple of days later, when the ear of her bear came undone and he started to look peculiar. :)

Softball is starting to wind down. Marika usually plays pitcher, but she got to play first base a couple of times. Here she is, making a nice catch at the base. The only position she hasn't played yet has been catcher - I think we'll have to request it, just to get some pictures!

Mika only has a couple of games left. Her team just clinched first place and it's been a great season - the girls have learned how to work really well as a team and the improvement in each girl has been quite noticeable. Her coach is applying for the position of the All Stars coach at their level - if he gets it, he's already said he would like Mika to be on the team. We're thrilled about this, because she'll get to play softball for two months of the summer! We don't mind that she'll continue to have practices twice a week and a tournament every weekend - she enjoys playing and she's quite good at it. Practice makes perfect! Here she is, working on her sliding technique - what better reason to rip the knees on your pants? ;)

Summer is coming! Instead of heading to the park with her good buddy Brock, Marika was invited to try out their Slip & Slide. I think this is the first time she's ever been on one and well... she hasn't quite mastered the sliding part yet. She just couldn't relax enough to slide on her belly and into the little pool at the end. Maybe the next time!

Later that evening, because the girls didn't have softball practice and our awesome next-door neighbor offered us free tickets, we went to a 66ers game. This was especially nice because we never managed to make it to a game all last season. And just look at our seats - we were just behind third base and right next to the dugout. We were a bit on edge all the time (in case a ball came flying by) but what a great view! The bullpen was also directly to our left and we were fortunate enough to see the pitchers warming up.

Our next-door neighbor was able to get us free tickets because it was a special day at the ballpark for their high school. I have to say, their mascots are adorable! A famous alum was on hand to throw the first pitch - Shareece Wright (second from the right).

Since our next-door neighbor (back middle in the picture) was a mentor to Shareece, we were able to get a picture with him. So, one day the girls can show this picture to their friends and say they were photographed with an NFL player! Yup, Shareece was drafted last week in the third round to the San Diego Chargers. Some of you may be familiar with his name, as he played with the USC Trojans during his college career. Kirk has been talking about Shareece and Allen Bradford (another famous alum from their school - drafted in the sixth round for the NFL last week to the Buccaneers) for several years, ever since they were in high school. It's been really neat to see their careers develop! We wish them both well and look forward to seeing them on national television soon... :)

Mika was happiest when the cotton candy was finally delivered. Boy, is that girl messy! Marika was inspired to try and eat it without her fingers... she made some pretty interesting faces...

The highlight for Marika's night was getting a baseball. No, she didn't catch it (though the girls brought their gloves), but the left fielder (Justin Bass, #11) was kind enough to give it to her as he caught the third out of an inning and ran into the dugout. She asked, he tossed it into her glove, and a big happy smile was born. She even slept with it next to her on the night table... and she wanted to bring it into school this morning, too!