Summer is Here!

Hello!

Whew--the kids' last day of school was Monday (??!? whoever thought of THAT...). Can't say it really feels like summer yet: we are still scrambling to get as much of the basement/garage level done before ... our Aspen Grove reunion this Saturday!

But. Some impressive mile markers:
Yesterday, we actually EMPTIED the POD. What significance does this hold, you ask? It means they came to pick it up from our driveway today, where it has resided for the past THREE MONTHS! UGH! So we bid it adieu, and no longer have the credit card automatically charged each month on the 25th. Here is Kara (on crutches) and our neighbor friends.

It also means that the french drains in the garage are finished enough to put all that stuff back INTO the garage. Yessss!

So. The garage is certainly not organized yet, but the pod left today.

Another mile marker:
Kara got a BELOW the KNEE CAST today! Yes! As we board a plane Saturday, the use of her knee and a lighter-weight cast will help immensely. Plus, it is "waterproof." Now the shower is not such a monster ordeal, and she can even be in the swimming pool for as long as she wants! She can put on her swimsuit withOUT also donning a large black trash bag for her cast.

Here she is, with the July shorter cast (nice stars and stripes for the 4th, doncha think!). Oh--she also got her hair cut shorter yesterday. A "modified bob," I think it's called?



































And I'll close with a photo of Kara and her doll Mia--Grammie D outdid herself by making a wedding gown for Mia, including a veil and cape...thank you, Grammie D!

Kari

My Weekend Away

Hello!

Checking in from Arizona! I think it's 99 degrees outside. (All together now:) "But it's a DRY heat..."

Somehow the "dry" part negates all discomfort. If it's not humid, it must be lovely.

I have actually been quite comfortable, mostly in air-conditioning, mind you, but it's been so long since I've been warm and even (gasp) HOT, that I get into a stifling hot car here, and just bask in it. Let me soak it in until I start to perspire. I'll take it.

I'm visiting Mom and Grandma (99 years old!) in the Tucson area. I could be here, visiting and relaxing, indefinitely. Unfortunately my plane ticket says "June 16" on it, and that means I go back tomorrow. :)

No photos to post this time, just mental images of my early-morning walks. The sun wakes me up around 5:30 or 5:45, so I start the day with a walk around their subdivision/town. 5000 homes should make Saddlebrooke its own city, right?

Anyway, I have seen a deer, birds, quail, rabbits, a desert rat and a king snake (road kill still counts, I believe).

Mom and Grandma and I chat over breakfast, on the way to church and stores, and over dinner. We went to Kris & Jessica's house (very cool), and saw Trent (4) and Avery (1). Mom and I went to see "Killers" yesterday afternoon, and to a Mini Museum today. The Celtics play tonight, game 6, and will hopefully wrap up the NBA Championship with a win.

I got a few more memories out of Grandma, and we found all the paintings in the closet that she had not signed. They have signatures on them now.

It has been a grand trip! I left Frank alone at home to deal with kids' schedules, work schedule, a painfully unfinished basement/garage/drainage catastrophe, and Kara in a cast. He is a prince for doing it all while I am here.

I'll check in later! Love, Kari

Memorable Memorial Day

Hello!

My last post started with something like "I'm a little dry on exciting topics for the blog." Well can I tell you, I like it that way. Nothing dramatic. Just normal life. I like that.

Too bad for me/us! It was a Memorable Memorial Day last Monday. We have all kinds of construction junk in the basement and the garage. We had sheets of 4X8 drywall, 7 to be exact, leaned up against the wall in the garage. They are 60 pounds each. You do the math.

Kara was putting away an extension cord, whose hook was above and behind those drywall sheets. She couldn't quite reach the hook, with those boards in the way, so she pulled them from the top corner a little, so she could reach. They moved, but instead of just a little, it was enough to keep them tipping forward and then all of them fall to the floor. She tried to get out of the way but wasn't fast enough. 400+ pounds of drywall came down...they clipped her leg, breaking the tibia AND the fibula of the lower leg.

Wow. Long story short, ambulance to 1st hospital, painful xrays, ambulance to Children's Hospital in Boston. They set it and splinted it Monday night at 11p.m., then looked at it again Tuesday. (Here it is only in a splint, bruised but straight...)

Fixed it up a little more, then a monster cast--it almost reaches the top of her leg! For the first 3 weeks, she has the thigh cast, then to a shorter one below her knee. She was released from the hospital Wednesday.

She was on the same floor, just two doors down from where David was, 3 months ago for his back surgery! Nurses recognized us. Actually, the doctor who set Kara's leg, who "happened" to be there all night that night, was also one of the doctors who worked on David's back.

Here is one of the volunteers: he comes in to draw the kids' caricatures! It was fun.

Kara is learning to use crutches. She takes rides, both self-propelled and friend-propelled, in a wheelchair. We have such good neighbors, and her 4th-grade friends are so concerned about her.

Tonight she showered with a BIG black plastic bag on it...the stuffed puppy on her lap came from the hospital.

(Frank emailed a few co-workers on what had happened. This was after last month's lyme disease, basement flooding, and our son's back surgery the month before. His co-worker emailed him to suggest that we hire an Exorcist to rid our house of evil..."What is with you guys??")

Here are x-rays of the broken leg. (You can click on them to enlarge.)

Better boogie. Have a great week! Kari