WOW. . .long time no see

So. . .yeah. . .

Been a while.

Haven't really felt like writing in the last few months.

Been pretty busy.

Well, that's not completely true.

Never did finish up the last blog about Costa Rica. Needless to say, it was a great trip.

Had another great mission trip after that to Hayesville, NC. Painted another mural.

Vacation Bible School came after that.
Great times.
Great t-shirt design if I do say so myself (I admit to a personal bias as the designer).

Couldn't have been any better.
Oh wait, yeah it could have.
I could have not fallen backwards out of a pool deck lounge chair at the City of Winter Garden pool.
Fallen backwards, down a concrete wall, onto a concrete sidewalk, on my head.

I was laughing at Matt, and the predicament above that he found himself in. In fact, the chair fell backwards at the precise moment I laughed at his girlish scream of "you're pulling my chest hair!"

The next week, nothing happened.
The week after that, nothing happened.
The week after that, Youth Week, lots happened. And it ended with me playing Putt Putt Golf.
Second hole, tripped, lost my balance, and snapped my left pinky at the knuckle.

I don't have a picture of the event. This pic was taken right before my turn. The aftermath is all a blur, I know that I fainted, I know that they called an ambulance. I also know that they had to take me out on a sitting stretcher, because I could not walk without fainting again.

Did I receive a simple cast and get sent on my way?
No.
I got three nights in the hospital, lots of pain killers, and oh yeah. . .
SURGERY. . .A PLATE AND FIVE SCREWS!

 

That happened in August. The second week of August. It is now October 31st, and I still can't straighten out my finger. I'm still on pain meds.

Oh. . .I almost forgot. . .

Russ, Lana, and Leya got to come down to see us twice within the past five months! YAAAAYYY!
The first time was a birthday surprise for mom.

The second was for Leya's first birthday.

 

I also got a dog. . .Toby. . .so. . . .

Everything's great!

Lots to do. . .

So, I'm turning 30 in 21 days. Depressing.

Been working on lots of projects for the past month. The envelope project took up a lot of my time, but the rest has been filled with updating the inside of my parents house.

I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. I'll post some when it's all done, hopefully.

I've painted the walls of mom's room, and set her up with some new bookcases. All in the name of making her life easier. I've been really frustrated with the fact that there's nothing available in terms of practical furniture for people in wheelchairs. What you do find ends up costing ridiculous amounts of money. So in the end, you have to be really creative with what you can find at places like IKEA.

I love IKEA. We found two bookcases, some wall shelves, a bedside table, storage boxes, and blinds for mom's room the other day. Great stuff. Great fun for me and mom. . .not so much when I had to go through the self-check out, but oh well.

We really should go buy some stock in LOWES, seeing as how much we've been frequenting them lately. The only excuse is that mom and dad have lived in this house for twenty years and never done anything to update since it was built back in 1991. Add to that the fact that mom's wheelchair is really rough on the cabinets and door frames, and well this refreshing was way over due.

The hope is that we'll get all of this work done before the big family birthday party in June. Which is interesting, because all of our birthdays are in May. Today is actually my grandfather's birthday. Russ's is next Thursday. Mine is the next Thursday. Dad's is the next Wednesday, and mom's is the next Thursday. So, we decided that the first weekend of June would be appropriate enough, lol.

AND. . .I'm going to Costa Rica the second weekend of June. . .I can't wait. . .this will be my second trip there. . .last year I went to Alajuela in mission with our young adult group at church. This year the same group is going, but we're going to San Jose to work on a different church.

So, be looking forward to pictures of all the work at the house and of the tropical lushness of Costa Rica.

I'll leave you with this entertaining video from the Muppets new movie.

Vaya Con Dios!