lately

my spirits are so much higher these days, i am feeling back to my old self again. sorry for the recent pity party, i think i fell apart in every way possible. after my last apt i decided i needed to try and make my life normal again. i hired a girl in my ward to help my clean house twice a week. she's been doing all the things i am not able to right now, and it has lifted my spirits significantly! we also just got a storage unit and have been doing some major cleaning out, which feels GREAT. it is amazing how much the condition of your environment affects you. (or me at least.)

this last weekend we had fun going to the holy cow boutique (cutest stuff!) and then we went to the gardens at thanksgiving point with jared's parents. it was so pretty and it felt wonderful to be outside and have the sun shining down on my face. porter loved it too. he ran wild for hours! and splashed in the water and ran some more. he kept pointing and telling us "flower", "water", "tree". it was darling. he cried when we left. i've made an effort to get out of the house more and have consequently been using a ton of bribery (aka treats) with porter. i think he's put on some pounds. lol.

also, the latest funny story for porter. i'll never run out of them. the house was strangely quiet the other day which means someone is up to no good. i go upstairs to find porter doing his hair! i know, 17 months old, and doing his hair?? i don't even do his hair! i included a picture to capture how lovely he was doing. oh and another funny one... we had a golf tournament playing on our tv the other day. when tiger woods hit his ball into the water, porter said "uh-oh". how does he know?

my never ending story

so when i found out that i had to have surgery doc said that i would be in a splint for 2 weeks after surgery so they could check the incision and then a walking cast after that. last thursday i went in with the hopes of getting my walking cast since it was the 2 week mark. unfortunately i was still too swollen and bruised so he sent me home for 4 more days to see if it improved. today was the 4th day. i went in hopeful that i would be getting my walking cast, but tried to keep my mind open in case it didn't happen again. i was excited to find out that i indeed would be getting my walking cast. i thought of all the things i could do that i hadn't been able to do for the past 3.5 weeks. just to name a few...

• drive
• pick up porter
• walk
• pick up the toys off the floor without crawling around the house
• sweep
• get a bowl of cereal w/o taking 5 trips
  
• vacuum
• walk
• go to the grocery store
• catch porter when he takes off
• unload the dishwasher w/o hopping on 1 foot around my kitchen
  
• walk...

needless to say, i was really (i mean REALLLLY) looking forward to all the things i need to do, and catching up on the housework, etc. they did the xrays and put on my walking cast. then doc proceeds to tell me that i need to keep my weight on the heel of my foot. he leaves me with the nurse, and i get up to try it out. i am just not getting how to walk with one foot on the heel; i am hopping around the room. the nurse is asking questions, and finally calls the doc back in. "doc, i'm just having a hard time trying to figure out how to walk on the heel of my foot," i tell him. he laughs and says, "oh, you're not supposed to WALK... you can just rest your foot on the heel when you are standing still." my heart sinks! "oh, well when can i WALK with my WALKing cast?" i ask. "we'll see you back here in 2 weeks and see if you can start putting more pressure on it then," he concludes.

sigh!!! so once again, i hop on my crutches out the door down the huge stairwell in front of the medical plaza to my awaiting ride. {hey doc, in the future you might not want to refer to this humongous contraption as a WALKING cast if your patient can't WALK on it. you are just setting them up for a HUGE disappointment. love, stacy}

Inspirational Moment

Monday Morning: (3/2/2009)
This morning really impacted me, and I want to write it down. Monday was one of the warmest days we have had all year. I took Porter to the park behind Orchard elementary. It was funny to see his excitement over the swing and the slides. I am sure it was a "first time" experience for him, since I am sure he can't remember all the time we spent there last summer. While we ate our lunch and played I was able to watch a mother with her little boy. I recognized this lady because she is in my Stake, and serves as the Primary President in another ward. Therefore I have seen her at Stake Training meetings, and other events. Her little boy was playing with all of the other little boys at the park. These boys were probably 4 or 5 years old. They were having the time of their life, and their laughter filled the entire park as they ran back and forth. This little boys mother ran from one end of the park to the other chasing these little boys, making them squeal and laugh. I would hear one say to the little boy, "Tell her to get us at the bottom of the slide." She never stopped running back and forth, up and down the play area. She had so much energy, especially when you compared her to the other mothers (myself included) who were sitting peacefully while their children played happily. Soon the mothers of the other little boys rounded up their stuff to leave. They fussed that they didn't want to go as kids do, and the mothers literally dragged them to their mini vans. I was now pushing Porter on the swing next to this woman and her little boy. I waited to hear the little boy complain that all of his little buddies had left. He told his mom, "I don't want to go home now." And the mother replied, "We don't have to leave." I smiled to her, and said "I think those little boys had more fun playing with YOU!" She laughed and said, "Well, this is my last one (child) and I don't have much time until he goes to school. I am just trying to savor every minute I have left." She then turned to her little boy and told him how lonely she was going to be once he went to school and she would be home all alone. During the rest of the time we were at the park I watched as she chased him on his little bike with training wheels, as they played basketball, tag, and ended up back on the playground again. Porter and I were there for nearly an hour and they were still playing when we left.
I don't know why but I was so touched by this mother, and it caused me to reflect on myself and I have resolved to try to be more like this woman. How easy it is for me to go about my day cleaning and doing laundry as Porter just follows me around entertaining himself with whatever looks exciting for the present 30 seconds. I want to "savor" every minute, to be just as exciting to Porter as another little child would be. To say to him, "We can still stay at the park." And to actually be an energetic mother that will chase him around and "play with" him rather than sit back and watch. So the past few days we have been working on this. I am trying to be fun. :) With as much energy as it exerts to chase your child around I just might need nap time too. I hope that this small experience at the Orchard park will be one that I will never forget.
And here are a couple fun new activities we have introduced ourselves to: finger painting, and playdoh. (oh boy)

Ticked Off & A Midget

I am doomed in this life, and it is driving me nuts. I lose and forget everything. I haven't posted for a while because I left my camera in Cali. Yesterday while I was at Burlington, I let Porter out of the cart and somehow as I chased him throughout the store my cell phone, debit card, AND drivers licsence managed to fall out of my pockets without me noticing. Don't ask how. Luckily they were all turned it, but I was paranoid that someone could have written down my card number 1st so I canceled it and am now out of a debit card for 7 days. Great timing with the holidays, and all the shopping I should be doing. And unfortunately, this isn't just a stroke of bad luck, this is how my life always is. I am always losing my keys, etc. It is my husband's pet peeve and I wish I weren't this way. I feel like I spend half my life looking for things I have lost. They always show up eventually, like the cell phone I had replaced was found in the rocking chair 6 months later. I knew the last place I had it was the nursery, why didn't I think to dig down into the rocking chair? I don't know.




















Well to lighten the mood, I have to share my experience on Monday in Park City with Porter that I thought was cute, and frankly kind of funny. Jared took the day off and we headed to the Park City Outlets to do some Christmas shopping. We were in Callaway Golf and there was only 1 employee running the store and she happened to be a midget. No big deal, but Porter was fascinated by her. He absolutely loved this girl, and would follow her if she was walking around the store, and if she was behind the counter he would go around the corner and peak at her and smile. I think he really liked that she was little and close in size to him. I got a kick out of it, and I sure hope she didn't mind. We had a good laugh over it on the car ride home. Thank goodness he's just a baby right?