A tragic story for a lovesick girl who just wants to dance...

A tragic story for a lovesick girl who just wants to dance...
My dear sister has suffered an unlikely tragedy so close to her wedding day. A knife fell from the kitchen counter to glance across her right foot, severing the tendon of the big toe! Wednesday night she was in the ER getting it taken care until surgery Friday morning. She is on crutches for 3 - 4 weeks, and then in a walking boot for 3 - 4 weeks. So at best she'll be in a boot for her wedding. She was so looking forward to the dancing! We are all just at a loss because there is nothing any of us can physically do or buy or anything to change her condition. But I do believe in the power of prayer, and if you do, too, will you offer up one for her. Alas...

shreepy - shreepy

I would like to have thought I could sleep in past ten am. I went to bed after midnight last night, and Friday night I didn't sleep well, and Thursday night was late with an early rise for work before camping. But here I am...About 7:30 am I just knew it was time. I couldn't keep falling asleep and going back to this dream where I found a hidden cupboard in my grandparents' house in Pat's old room. It had all these beautiful pieces of glass and porcelain from Japan. There were a couple things I really wanted to get to keep. It was so neat to get to feel like a kid going exploring for treasures. I remember how much I loved going through my parents' closet or through the basement storeroom exploring for forgotten trinkets or dresses or boxes of "stuff". It is still a fun endeavor to go exploring, though now it is usually in thrift stores. In my dream I was pulling these treasures out of hiding and thinking maybe I could just take one little thing, but I knew they belong to my mom and her siblings. I couldn't just take anything, so I put them all away and would ask my mom about them. But then my grandpa came home - the scrawny and scruffy guy from his last summer. He asked me to help tuck him into bed, so I did. I keep dreaming about them, waking up crying and missing them. I don't want to keep going back to bed to find myself wandering through the same dreams...

Last Saturday I was in Omaha for Nikki's wedding, and after the ceremony and reception, I walked downtown and around the lake. I was overwhelmed with wanting to call Grandma, so called Grandma's house. It was sad, and I cried, but sometimes I just can't help but want them back.

So here I sit feeling sad and sleepy. It looks like a cloudy Portland morning outside. I guess I will have to keep dreaming...

milestones...

July fourth - yesterday marked one year from moving in to this house! It was on the fourth of July that I took independence from Betty and came to be on Williams Street. It hardly seems like it was only a year ago... I am still so grateful to Betty for taking me in and helping me heal. Thank you!

July second - the reason for the anniversary yesterday even - it was five years ago that I was struck by the car on Colfax while I was riding my bike. It isn't the best to remember it like that, but I remember it as a "Wow - look how far I've come" moment. In the last year, I settled my lawsuit with the state. Not long before that I finally bought a bike. I also had surgery to fix my hip, and now look at me...biking and all. My hip still has its days, but let's not dwell on that. June tenth was the date of my surgery last year, and now that I am a year out, I can jump again. I haven't taken up jump-roping just yet, though I think about it every now and again. And I think maybe I am allowed to run again, but that would just be crazy!

Woo woo!

The meeting...

The meeting of Tom's parents, his sister and her family with my parents went well! Phew! We had a fun weekend. I took that Friday off and showed my parents around the farm and to Same Cafe for lunch. My dad got to see my apartment, and my mom saw the transformation from a year earlier when she came to help me move in. Marie and company went to the Rockies game Friday night, while the six of us went out for a nice dinner - the first meeting. We had a great time, good conversation, and some laughs, too.

Saturday the sky looked like it would open up at any minute. We nixed the bbqing in the park plan, as that would only be a temptation to the sky. My parents came over and then the Vigils and Salas family rotated through the place. After church we went to Same Cafe and set up for a fantastic party. Many friends joined us, our parents toasted us, and we got to sample Tom's first batch of mead. A great night...a lot of fun!

Sunday was pretty low key as we hung out here in the morning. Marie and family came and hung out for a while before they had to hit the road home, and my parents spent the afternoon hanging out. It was father's day, so we planned to take my parents out for sushi at our favorite place - Mr. Sushi at Wadsworth and Bowles in Littleton. We drove all the way over - the opposite direction of the airport, mind you, only to find they were not opening until the time we needed to leave for the airport. One other place in the vicinity that we haven't tried was also closed. We got stuck in traffic and ended up having to drop them off at the airport without lunch or dinner. To make it worse, the airport was crowded, security lines were long, the brew pub they found to grab a bite had run out of hamburger buns for my dad's order, and the icing on the cake: the flight was an hour late. I felt rotten for not getting to treat them after the treated us to such a wonderful weekend - both of our parents were and are extra great! How lucky we are to know we have them behind us...

the countdown nears its end...

Well, with all the cleaning and such, I forgot to countdown.  Now it seems mere minutes away!  My parents flew in this morning.  We had a terrific time wandering around.  I showed them the farm, and they met Deb & Faatma.  We made it to SAME Cafe, where we will have an engagement party tomorrow after church.  And then home!  My mom helped me get a little settled in post-surgery last June, so she was delighted to see how things turned out.  My dad likes the place, too, though cable to watch the US Open was lacking.  We went over to the hotel where Tom's family is staying to drop off tickets to tonight's baseball game, so they've all met.  It was fun to sit and talk for a bit before I took my parents up the road to their hotel to tuck them in for an afternoon nap.  When Tom gets cleaned up from work, we'll rendezvous with our parents for a dinner out!  Oh goodie...

Jazz!!!

It's more than a genre; it's Sunday evenings for the next several weeks (as long as we're here)!!  Hooray, it's that time when the picnic blanket and frisbee come out.  Tom walked me to the park to meet Mary.  We brought cherries to share.  The frisbee was used to direct our walk to our resting place.  I would like to believe my throws were much more on course, but Tom can throw it a whole lot further than I can!  It was a fun walk, sort of like the dotted lines in the Family Circus cartoons when one of the kids walks all over kingdom come from the curb to the front door.  Anywho...jazz anyone?

the countdown

I really should be writing about how much fun Tom and I had in Portland with the myriad of family parties.  Or maybe about all the tornado sitings, which actually started while we were in Portland (I didn't want to leave the house to do laundry on Sunday because the sirens were sounding every five minutes).  Yikes! But even more exciting is the fury of housecleaning to prepare to welcome Tom's family and my parents to Denver on Friday!  I haven't even lived here for a year, and oddly enough I find that I am still nesting - putting up the plant hooks this week, I hope.  And I just organized my art supplies, so they don't have to take up six shelves, making room for mead-making supplies and gardening odds and ends.  I am so excited.  Or as Tom puts it, I am beginning to get frantic...