A first

I live in Colorado. It snows, it gets cold. But I don't live back East where they have this thing called freezing rain. I have heard of it. I know it is slippery. I found out first hand on Wednesday just how slippery it is. We decided to have something like it on Wednesday morning. It wasn't really raining, just like moisture in the air. But it filled in enough in some places, and then was cold and froze over into these super slick patches, that just looked like wet spots on the sidewalk. I was carrying Alice and hurrying up my friend's driveway when I found such a spot. I guess I was trying not to dump Alice on her head or something. I don't know what happened, but my foot went under me, kind of sideways like, and I crushed it. I guess. I don't know. I just know it hurt. A lot. I sent Alice to the door for help, which she did, thankfully. I rather ruined the lunch with my friend, as she and my sister sat there watching me as I tried hard not to scream in pain. It felt like my foot was trying to swell to monstrous sizes within the skin. I called Joe. He left school, came and got me and took me to the doctor and for x-rays. Radiologist wasn't 100%, but thought there might be a fracture on the 3rd metatarsal. Doctor said keep it wrapped up, elevated, iced, lots of ibuprofen, tylenol, vicodin, etc. So I hopped and crawled around for a couple days. 2 nights of waking up with my foot feeling like it was on FIRE sent me back to the doctor. Percocet this time. Borrowed some crutches (yeah Relief Society email!), and trying to get it to stop being swollen. Tomorrow I am supposed to get a cast. I guess I don't have to get one, but I think it will help me be more mobile, and since I have 3 kids, I can't just put my foot up for 6 weeks. Mobility is a necessity, in some form. Hope the time goes quickly. Should be a good work out for my arms, hopping around is a good workout on my calf and glute, on one side. My hands are already sore from using the crutches for a day, but they are saving my knees from my hard floors.
My little brother pointed out that I will be the first one of the four Mecham siblings to ever have a cast. None of us ever broke anything that required a cast. A few stitches here and there. Jammed fingers, etc., but no casts. Yeah me.... :(
The pills are keeping me from being in too much pain, but it is a pain in the butt to not be able to just do things, or get up and get that thing over there. Or carry anything while using crutches. Oh I know others have it way worse than me, and I am glad I didn't mess up my ankle or do worse damage that would require surgery or something. But for now I am adjusting, feeling useless, feeling guilty that everyone has to do things for me, and whining. Here's hoping I can be better enough to not compeletly ruin spring break at the end of March!

What's going on

I have been a total slacker in posting for a couple of months now. Of course they have been kind of crazy with the holidays and traveling and visitors and I was sick for a month of it...enough excuses, right?!

 We went to Utah to spend some time with family for Christmas. We saw my Aunt Jeanne, and Uncle Chris was there too. Then we went to Joe's parent's house (first time we have seen it since they just moved there in October). It snowed 10 inches at least. We had to delay our trip home a day because we didn't want to risk driving in snow. It was rather tense anyway between Rawlins and Laramie, but we all made it. (I did wonder at a few points if we ever would considering the throwing up kids, and pants wetting, and extra stops!) And we got to bring Joe's parents home with us to ring in the New Year. It was lots of fun. I was sick through most of it, so I hope everyone else had more fun than I did! Here are some pictures showing the general splendor of it all:

Other things have been happening since Christmas and New Years too. Joe was asked to do a solo art show at the Morgan Community College CACE gallery, which opened January 18th. There was a good turn out for the opening reception, and it will be going until March 1st. Click here to see pictures of Joe's art.

Eli was invited to participate in the district spelling bee. It was mostly 5th-8th grade, with a couple of 4th graders. It was way more nerve-racking to watch than I anticipated. We had studied with him and I just hoped he would not be the first kid out, and spell one word right. He certainly exceeded that! He ended up in the top 8 and is going to the regional spelling be next month! His cousin, Jayson Marler, won the whole spelling bee! Guess we have a couple of good spellers in the Marler family! The whole thing was pretty impressive considering some of the words they had to spell (indefatigable, contemporaneous, audacious, delicatessen, etc.) Eli is also on the brain bowl team for his school and will compete in that next month too. We will have some pretty exciting days to look forward to!

Accessories, Moons, Birthday, and Ninjago Halloween!

Alice's new favorite accessory! She pushed the lenses out of sunglasses, and viola!

 

We have been enjoying the fair weather in the evenings by using the telescope-even managed to get a picture through it.

If you know the Marler Happy Birthday singing tradition, you understand! Simon insisted on a 3-layer birthday cake.

Simon got Ninjago underwear from his Auntie and cousins. He wasn't sure that was a good birthday present, but he does love to wear them!

Favorite birthday present-a ukulele! He has been asking for one for at least a month. Thanks Granmama and Grandpapa!

 

Joe decided to try his hand at pumpkin sculpting. Not bad for a first time.

Alice was Super Girl for part of Halloween...

And a Care Bear for the other part.

 

Taryn got a lot of attention as a mini Broncos Cheerleader!

 

Ayden came up with the idea of the boys all going as the Ninjago characters.....so from this to....

This. I made the costumes out of cardboard, tape, and paint. Not bad I think!

Eli as the blue Ninjago, Jay.

Eli and Simon's costumes.

 

I made some snacks for Eli's class Halloween party. Zombie toes (don't they look so gross!)

And apple bites!

Happy Birthday!

We had a couple of birthdays at our house in September. Alice turned 3 on September 1st! I can't believe she is 3! She is growing up and getting so big. She is lots of fun and learning to do lots of things. Granmama and Auntie had a lovely tea party for her. (Joe and I missed it because we were in Hawaii). She thought presents were great! She is such a princess!

Joe also had a birthday, last week Sunday. I won't tell how old he is to be nice. But man, how did we get this old. Time just keeps ticking...

Aloha!

Yes, Joe and I went to Hawaii. For a week. Without kids. Thanks Mom, you're the best. We worked hard, helping Mike and Myrna get ready to move. We wish we could have done more, stayed longer. We did manage to get to the beach a few times. It was so fabulous. We got to see some old friends. We ate local food. We went hiking. We went to the temple. We forgot the camera a lot. We stayed in Waikiki the last night, took a catamaran ride, watched the sunset. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the exit sign at the hotel, too funny! Ahh, Hawaii, I miss you already.

Busy August

Here are a bunch of pictures from August. We went to Utah for my little brother's graduation from BYU. We took a tour around Temple Square. We played laser tag, I wore the wrong color. We took a little hike up to see Bridal Veil falls. Carissa and I made Evan an awesome pinata for his graduation party. It was a fun time with lots of family!

Just before our trip to Utah, the Marlers entered some things in the county fair. Between 5 of us (Carissa, Daniel, Ayden, Joe, and Leslie) we took home 14 ribbons, and 2 Reserve Champions. Carissa and I made cards, cupcakes, baked goods, and entered photos. Joe made the elephant, of course, and got Reserve Champion for the fine arts department. Daniel won 2nd place for his cinnamon roll, and Ayden made monkey bread, that not only one 1st place for junior division baking, but got Reserve Champion for the entire baked goods division, including adults! He was pretty shocked! Guess I will have to step up my game to beat the 10 year old next year!

How many pancakes can you eat?

Well I was going to post some pictures from our trip to Utah for Evan's graduation, but I can't seem to get it to work. So instead I will post this story about my dad that he was telling the kids while we were walking around temple square.

My dad, Brent, had a friend Johnny when he was growing up. I guess one morning, after a sleepover or something, Johnny and Brent decided to have a pancake eating contest. My dad thinks he was about 11 years old. So they started eating and kept eating. My dad ate 50 pancakes! And Johnny ate 51! He just had to eat one more than Brent. After he was done, he realized that he had been eating syrup on all his pancakes while Johnny hadn't eaten syrup on any of his. When they got done it was just about lunch time, but of course my dad said he was so full he couldn't eat lunch. But I guess Johnny did eat lunch!

I thought it was a funny story, and I can't imagine anyone eating 50 pancakes. I asked my dad how big they were, and he made a circle with his hands. Normal pancake size, not silver dollar size. Wow! So I just wanted to write this down so I could remember it, and my kids could remember it and know something about Grandpapa when he was a kid. Thanks for the fun story Dad!