Oh we are alive and well here! Lots of exciting things going on around here like Savvy turning 4, Ruby turning 5 months, me cleaning out our closets, a swagger wagon finally joining our family, Cade falling in LOVE with reading...but for now we'll just get to the really important news.

My foot.

The doc finally okayed me to wear a medical shoe on my right foot, and a tennis shoe on my left. That means no more snowboarding boots to clunk around in --- and, most importantly, I CAN DRIVE!!

It really is wonderful.

Except now I am in a dilemma. One can imagine the frustration that comes with being at someone else's mercy ALL the time to be able to go anywhere. I tried really hard not to complain at home about...well, always being home. But it got old. You'd think being forced to stay inside my house for 2.5 months my house would be spotless. Au contraire!  How sad, too.  My happiness began revolving around when I could leave the house.  So much so, that, well....... I made a fool of myself.

A really big fool of myself.

About 10 days ago I had an appointment with my favorite hair lady to trim my hair. My girl is really fabulous. So fabulous that she is always booked about 10 days out She's that busy. So, I had an appointment about 10 days ago to see her. The catch is, I was at Kyle's mercy to get me there.  Of course as things would go, of all the mornings, Kyle happened to be running late from a meeting and I was questioning even waking ruby up. If he wasn't going to make it home in time, there was no sense in waking Ruby up if she wasn't coming in the car. So I waited unitl Kyle got home to get Ruby ready to go out the door.   To make a long story even longer, I ended up arriving at my appointment 15 minutes late. And you know what they told me?  They said she was already washing her next client and I had to reschedule.

RESCHEDULE!??!?!

I've waited at that salon for 15 minutes before. HOW COULD SHE BE ON HER NEXT CLIENT?!

My world shattered. Deflated, I told the front desk ladies I needed to use their phone (Kyle was currently using my cell phone because his was broken) and grumbled to Kyle on the phone to come get me. Confused, he agreed and then tried to pry out of me why, but I just hung up, knowing if I opened my mouth, the ugly cry would come out.  I then sat down in the waiting chairs and silent tears began to fall. I began feeling very, very sorry for myself that my one hour of freedom and the gift of my hair looking good for just one day, being free of responsibilities and diaper changes and staring at the walls of my house was gone.  Once I got in the car I began loudly sobbing, letting the ugly cry take over. Savvy asked what was wrong and in broken breaths and snorts I choked out, "Because I wanted to get my hair cut but I couldn't."  And bless that girl's heart, she totally understood and didn't find me the least bit ridiculous for being upset about not getting my way. It was very heartwarming. And then I realized the only reason she could be so empathetic was because I was behaving like a 3 year-old.

Logically, it didn't make any sense to respond so emotionally to something that was my fault and not theirs. I didn't WANT to respond that way. But after 2 months of being a shut-in and not being able to really ever get away from the house, it really was the straw that broke this camel's back.

To make the story even better, my little sister happened to pop over shortly after we returned home and she totally caught me doing the ugly cry. Over not getting a hair cut. This is the sister who has bunions herself who probably won't ever have bunion surgery now that she has seen first hand what the recovery can do to one's mental state.

Two days post the salon drama I was able to drive. Yet here we are over a week later and my hair is still in dire need of a makeover and have I even made an appointment yet? Nope.  I am having a hard time deciding if a. I can wait another 10 days from the day I decide to make my appointment b. if I can even show my face in the salon again. So I can go with option C. which is to make an appointment elsewhere where there is no wait and take my chances on getting a good cut.

C is sounding very good right about now.  Unlike me, my hair is resilient. It'll grow back.

Savvy's fascination and some of her lunch-time delights

Kyle brought in the mail a few evenings ago and a catalog magazine caught Savannah's eye. She grabbed it and immediately began perusing the magazine very excitedly, jumping up to show us each page that she loved, which was about every single page in the magazine.

She later sprawled herself on the carpeted family room floor to examine the pages more closely. In a whisper to herself she exclaimed,  "This is the most beautiful magazine," and sighed contentedly.

The magazine?  

Pottery Barn Kids.

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While preparing lunch today, Savannah exclaimed cheerfully, "When I grow up, I'm going to be the NICEST mommy in the world."

"You're not going to be mean like me?" I asked, thinking she'd surely correct me and tell me I'm not mean.

In a very pleasant, matter-of-fact way she responded, "No, not like you. I'm going to buy my kids lots of toys and whatever they want."

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While munching on her favorite post-lunch treat, pop-corn, Savannah initiated a very important discussion:

"Mommy, when you and Daddy get old, can you move to another house?"

"Why?" 

"Cuz I wanna live here when I grow up. And there can't be two mommies in this house."

Photog Potpourri

Every time I plug in my phone to charge it, I find a lot of photos I forgot about, or discover some new artistic gems my kids have captured.  For instance, this is the road trip from Orem to Boise from Cade's point of view:

Almost makes you think we don't need a van with all that sibling happiness and serenity going on in the back, huh? 

I did get a new set of wheels come to think of it. SO WONDERFUL!!!  Totally transformed my life:

Mary sent me home with this beauty after our visit there for Thanksgiving. While I was on crutches it made getting around the main level of the house SO MUCH EASIER. It now provides us with portable seating when Cade's friends come over and they all want to crowd at the dinner table together to assemble Legos. 

It also made it possible for me to join my sister at the special Nordstrom VIP event.  She pushed me around as we got facials, ate gourmet burgers, sipped Italian Soda, shopped for my mother's birthday present and tried on shoes. Or shoe, rather. 

Notice the very cute maternity top she's wearing. It almost makes me excited about getting pregnant again. Almost.

There's no clever segue into these two pictures I found.  Simply said, this girl makes me laugh!

Welcome to the "Ask Michelle" segment. 

You've got delimmas? I've got answers. :)

Delimma:  You are wearing a cast and can't get it wet. Washing your hair is a pain.

Solution: Spend 15 bucks at Fantastick Sam's and let them wash and style your hair better than you ever could. The problem with this is the next time your hair needs a-washin' you don't want to do it yourself.

Delimma: Husband is out of town. Still wearing the cast. How do you get the baby from your room to hers?

Solution: Crawl on your knees and drag baby on blanket. Does the job and does not traumatize baby.

Delimma:  Want Oreos, but out of milk.  Can't drive to store to get milk. Aforementioned husband is still out of town.

Solution:  Cry. And then up the order for your next milk delivery by a gallon so this NEVER happens again.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what I did on New Year's Day--- I left the girls with a wonderful babysitter and Kyle, Cade and I joined my parents as we watched BYU's men's basketball team cream some team from California. Cade was mostly grumpy. He wanted to stay with the babysitter. And here we thought we were being fun parents by letting him stay up late and come with us. Go figure.

Happy Wednesday to you all!!!