Where did I go???

It all started out very innocently with some fun pre-holiday festivities with

some of the local grand babies. Brad was in California. Mike was

in Wyoming and Kennan & Co.were staying

with me because Trev was in Chicago on business.

Brooke and Dustin brought down their pumpkins for some carving

and we were all enjoying it immensely!

If you just hand little Miss Poppy and apple, she is good to

go for the rest of the night!

This was the finished product....simple elegance!

And this was the weather that night...simply atrocious!!

Dustin went on his way due to weather and Brooke and Co. decided to spend the

night so we could celebrate Kennan's birthday right (the full 24hrs.)

since Kennan's #1 guy wasn't going to be there.

We moved on to project # 2...Halloween cookie making!

These two even joined in on the action.

And these two are going to start a cookie making business when they grow up.

Such talent is hard to come by!!

So far so good....

We awoke the next day and decided to get the crew together and head to

SLC and the mall for some real birthday fun.

Let me side step for a minute and just say what an amazing girl Kennan Elizabeth is...truly.

Not only is she gorgeous, she is fun and funny, smart as a whip, capable of doing anything,

a walking GPS, strong in the very best sense of the word (even stronger than she realizes),

a terrific mom and her kid's truest advocate, my truest advocate (more on that later), an

incredible fashion consultant with an eye for what works best for who,

a whiz on the computer, every body's favorite aunt, a great wife and her Dad's biggest fan.

She is loving, forgiving, assumes the best of people, welcoming,

easy to talk to, and everybody kind of wants to be Kennan's friend.

And I am so lucky to have her as my daughter and friend.

So, in celebration of her most momentous 27th Birthday, we made our

way to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch....yummmy!

Dusty Britches joined us because he thinks he is one of the girls

AND he and Kennan have a mutual admiration thing going...

Let me just add here that Cheesecake Factory is really nice to kids....

very accommodating and these little people LOVED it!

Here's where it kind of takes a turn for the worse. After lunch, we headed into the mall and my

"good" knee was bugging me as I have been relying on it pretty heavily since my surgery.

So, rather than trek around, I opted to sit it out and people watch while tending a couple

of the babies. No problem!! The girls returned and I joined them doing nothing

unusual mind you. All the sudden I hear a "pop" and my knee is in excruciating pain...

like I can't walk and tears are bursting from my eyes pain! Kennan (the one who is

my advocate) makes a bee line for a wheelchair in the mall and the girls (and Jude)

wheel me to my car. Mind you, Mike is out of town, Trev is out of town and Brad is out

of town, and Dustin is in class for the evening. That leaves broken down me, Brooke,

Kennan and four kids under 4! So, Kennan takes her little's to Terri Gregory (thank you

Terri!) and Brooke calls Eileen (thank you Eileen) to watch her two and Brooke takes me

to AF Hospital where Kennan joines us and they proceed to further torture me by moving my leg around for x-rays. Finally, they give me percocet and shot of morphine (after Brooke and Kennan again advocatefor me and my pain) and send me home with a brace and instructions to see my orthopedic surgeon who I had already made an appt. with the next day. Brooke and Kennan were amazing and stayed with me until Mike could get home. To make a long story short, I saw the surgeon & was under the knife (AGAIN!) in 36 hrs. with my dear husband and that amazing Kennan by my side. (BTW...the surgeon was probably more interested in my "beautiful" daughter than

he was in my knee!)

Yep...that's my knee. So I managed to ruin Kennan's birthday, miss out

on Halloween and pretty much inconvenience my entire extended family.

Kennan was kind enough to bring these two adorable kiddie's

down on Halloween so I didn't feel like I missed the holiday altogether.

Have you ever seen a cuter kitty or better Dracula?

Nope...didn't think so!

And... this amazing girl dropped her life in California (which includes two jobs,

a husband, two dogs and her Church work), hopped on a plane and

was here before I ever went into surgery. Paige was by my side day and night, cooked,

cleaned, nursed me back on my feet, and made sure her Dad felt loved

and cared for. She dressed up as "Rosie the Riveter" for door answering on

Halloween and it was absolutely appropriate because the phrase "We Can Do It"

certainly described what happened at my house. Thank you, Paigey, for your

tender, loving care. My little baby girl has become such a

capable, caring adult and she is going to be an amazing little Mommy!

So....in a nut shell....and a very long post....that is where I went.

But I'm back...maybe only partially back...but I'm back.

Funny how life is what happens when you are making plans.

This really wasn't on my agenda for the holidays but I guess I will be recovering.

Seems like I just did this....wait, I DID!!!

Thank you to all of you who have been helping me out and

thank you to my sweet husband who patiently is going through this with me again.

He gets to endure it all after all the fanfare is over and I'm growling around the house

because I want to be better NOW. For better and for worse....

And forever. XO