Knee Update

So I finally went to see an orthopedist yesterday. The good news is - nothing is broken and I technically have a (huge) subcutameous hematoma. Doesn't my patella look kind of high up, though? Doc thinks it's normal so I need to schedule an MRI just to make sure there are no tears. I started physical therapy yesterday (it didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. Well, maybe not - yet), to help getting my knee moving again (and no more Ace bandage! woohoo!). The knee is scheduled for it's first draining in a couple of weeks but I am hoping I can start walking around the neighborhood tomorrow... and then running again after the knee is drained. I'm going to have stretch marks on my knee, though! Ack!

I am, however, pretty bummed that I'll have to fork over a ton of money for physical therapy. However... I am totally desperate to get back into tip top shape and back onto the soccer field so I've got to suck it up and do whatever it takes. Did I mention that my PT therapist had never seen anybody's knee like mine? Boy, do I *not* feel special...!

I haven't posted any tidbits in a long time - but if you're looking for any free Father's Day downloads, A Matter of Memories blog posted this link (I think these are awesome!). Check it out!

Also, you can check out a new digital magazine here - one of my fellow Chocolatiers has a card in there... what amazes me the most, is how nicely people can color their rubber stamp images. Copic markers lead to phenomenal results... I'm just not sure I could pull it off with my skills!

My Mind's Eye June Newsletter...

Just got this in my inbox today... did you know they had a newsletter? You might want to check it out, if you're a MME fan... :)

July Monochromatic Project

Our July Chocolatier project was to create some sort of a monochromatic project. I decided to make a flower topiary, something I'd been wanting to do for quite some time. It was a little time-consuming, but rather simple to make. I used 4 sheets of Echo Park cardstock and cut each into 3x3 inch squares (I used exactly 64 flowers to make this topiary).

Here's a closer look at the flower ball. It's monochromatic for the most part, but since the cardstock is double-sided, it was unavoidable that the backside would sometimes show. This inspired me to use some of my "just-received" Making Memories Paper Reverie Noir butterflies, securing them with MM Wedding pins. I thought the grey tones of the butterflies blended very nicely with the grey backgrounds of the pink cardstock.

Here's another close-up of the flower ball. You can see the individual flowers quite nicely here - they don't all look the same, which makes it look more natural (in my opinion).

So how do you make these flowers? I surfed the internet looking for ideas on how to make paper roses. There are several websites and videos out there, detailing this particular technique - I just skipped the step of drawing a spiral (I would feel compelled to erase it) and saved more time by using a pair of deco scissors to cut the spiral.

Once you've cut the spiral, you simply roll up the strip from the outside to the inside. The center piece acts as the base. Release the spiral until the flower is the right size and shape - then just glue things down at the bottom. Glue the flowers to the styrofoam ball and voila! You've got yourself a topiary!

In other news... it was a rather busy weekend. Mika's All Stars team decided to fund-raise at the local 7-11 gas station. I was very surprised, but it went extremely well - after only 2 hours, the girls had raised a few hundred dollars. People (by and large) were very kind and generous and the girls were extremely fortunate! After 2 hours, though, they were pretty pooped out - but the 7-11 manager gave us all free Slurpees so that made everything better!

The team still had practice afterwards. Marika was lucky... she helped to field balls in the outfield (she even stopped the ball once and threw it into the infield, lickety-split!) and the coach let her bat, too. She hit a triple her first time (the first baseman missed the ball so the coach sent her on)! All of the girls on the team were so sweet to her (I was afraid they'd be resentful), congratulating her on her hitting and helping her put on her batting helmet. It was so cute!

After practice, the girls got together at the local pizza joint for a pizza party. It was fun to hang out with some of the other parents and the girls had fun playing games, too. Coach Brian came over to us and said, "Man, your little one is going to ROCK (in softball) when she gets older!" This made us very happy to hear... :)

On Saturday, we took the girls to their very first Lowe's clinic. We had to register online, but that was about the hardest thing we had to do. The girls got two projects to do (see above) and we discovered that Lowe's actually sells little DIY kits for kids! You can find them in the tool area... we bought quite a few (especially those on clearance, because goodness knows when you'll find them again)... it seems like a good Christmas gift idea for anybody with little boys...

While Marika went to a birthday party and Mika went to more All-Stars practice, I went to a baby shower hosted by one of my soccer buddies. Part of the reason I probably enjoy playing soccer so much is that soccer chicks are an interesting bunch! It was fun to hang out (although I was asked to show off my knee on a couple of occasions, and one friend kept poking me, with suggestions on what might possibly be wrong with me) and just chill. I liked this diaper cake that somebody made... and isn't that a great skunk? There were lots of cute clothes (especially for a boy baby) but I did NOT feel the baby pull. Nope, I am totally done! :)

Today wasn't very relaxing either - before we took the girls to a skating party, we went to Daddy Dude's baseball game. He's back at the old field, which I don't particularly like because it's hot and dirty (the ballpark). However, it was nice to finally have a working scoreboard! Just look at the final game stars, though - Daddy Dude's team was the home team, so they won, but it was a very... FLAT... game. Who gets more runs than hits in a game and still wins?!

All I can say is...

Wow.

The Uncluttered blog posted yesterday about a family who used to live in a large house and downsized to a 320 sq ft house...

For anybody with mimimalist tendencies, you might want to check it out. :)

Mandatory Crafting... :)

At the end of every June, a handful of Daddy Dude's residents finish their program and head off into the great unknown. Before that, though, there is a big shinding to officially send them on their way. It's my job to produce a few congratulatory cards... here are the two I liked best...

Patterned paper and cardstock: (DCWV), rub-on (Making Memories), ribbon (Bazzill)

Patterned paper (Making Memories Cosmopolitan paper pack [stripes] and DCWV [congrats]), cardstock (Making Memories Cosmo pack [blue], DCWV [black], The Paper Company [white]), rub-on (American Crafts), eyelets (ebay from a long time ago)
Based on a card sketch from Page Maps

I made five different ones for DaddyDude to pick four from and oddly enough, he didn't take the bottom one (which I liked best). Hmmm...

NOT headed for the Olympics, but...

Some of you know I am obsessed with ribbon...

But look! It's so fun to play with! I finally cracked down and hunted down some ribbon streamers (for rhythmic gymnastics) for the girls on Ebay. At 12-feet long, it's a big of a challenge for them to handle, but they had so much fun (see, even DaddyDude had to have some fun - in his defense, I told him to show them how it was done... I figured since he was taller, maybe he'd be better at it - not sure that worked, but...!). Mika's already thrashed her ribbon (I had to trim the edges and then cover it with Ribbon Stiff). I have a feeling I'll be hunting around for ribbon replacement soon (not going to use *my* stash, of course!)...

Big news for Mika!

And what better reason to apply the baseball war paint on then to play in your first softball championship? The girls finished their regular season over 2 weeks ago (clinching 1st place very solidly) but there were still playoffs to be had. The 2nd and 3rd place teams duked it out a few days earlier with a stunning upset - the team that had lost ALL but their last 2 games creamed the opposition. They were quite the Cinderella team (last season bloomers!) but the Wildcats ended their dreams of glory...

I couldn't believe that the playoff trophies were as big as the regular season trophies! The girls really need their own trophy mantel now (*hint, hint* to DaddyDude). On the bright side, although the Cinderella team was beaten, they still received 2nd place trophies - the same size as 1st place finishers - so I think they were pretty happy, too.

In other news, my friend Michelle stopped by - she stopped overnight before heading out for a cross-country trek (via car). After a couple of month on the east coast, she'll head off to Japan for a year of research on a (drumroll, please) Fulbright scholarship. Woohoo! You go, girl!!!

And for those of you wondering, you can see my knee above, one week post-traumatic injury. I was really hopeful, but apparently pretty delusional, that I'd get to play in my soccer tournament on June 4th.

Here are my soccer friends in action - I was signed up with the blue team, but my "home" team is the red team - they are the team I first played with, after 9 years off, and the team I went to Vegas with a couple of months ago. Red team decided too late to join the tourney, so I had already joined another. Next time, they promise I can play with them - if I'm not injured. Both teams told me I couldn't/shouldn't play (blue team should have let me on the field - red team had already discussed it and told everybody NOT to touch me if I stepped on - I could have scored!!!). In fact, everybody kept staring at my knee! I didn't think it was THAT bad (I mean, the swelling has gone down) but I got advice from lots of people.

I finally found somebody who had a similar injury - the UCR goalie. She said she had dove on the ground and landed on a rock. As a result, her knee had swollen up just like mine. Upon inquiry, she said couldn't play for a month, it had taken months for the swelling to go down, and that a pocket of fluid still remained. She also suggested that I talk to the UCR trainer and finally, I decided to do so, since the poor woman looked bored (which is probably a good thing at a soccer tournament!).

On the bright side, the trainer ascertained that my ACL was completely intact (yay!). She thought (like I had) that a bursa sac had burst and that's why there was so much fluid, but when I told her I had had my doctor try to drain it (without success, the previous Tuesday), she was puzzled. Yes, folks, they called all the nurses in from the office to watch the doctor drain my knee and after several punctures, she couldn't get anything but viscous blood to come out. The trainer also said it was possible that the origin of my quadriceps leg muscle had ruptured (gosh, I hope not!)... but nothing can really be determined until more of the swelling has gone down and I can regain some more movement. I asked my doctor about scheduling an MRI but since nobody really thinks I have a major injury (ha ha) and nothing is torn, there's no rush.

Gosh, I really hate this sitting around and waiting. Everybody told me to sit down and rest and it made me want to scream. It is simply not my style to be a couch potato!!! While I know that I am very lucky I didn't do any major damage, it is very difficult for me to sit and wait for nature to take its course. My blue team captain left a message last night that there was another soccer tournament on June 26th and did I want to play? AAAAGGGGGHHHH... I told her that even though it was for charity, if I handed any money over, it was going to make me crazy if I didn't play. Better not to commit, at least not yet.

For every week I take off, it will take 3 weeks of running to get back to that point. At this juncture, I'll be lucky to be back in top shape by the end of the summer. *sigh*...

Please send fast healing vibes my way! :)