A Smattering

There's a smattering of updates from the past two weeks, but mostly I've been working. Oh, and I went to PT and the therapy fellow decided I also have a frozen shoulder. I guess the muscle builds scar tissue and the scar tissue prevents the muscle from moving--freezing it in place. Not sure why it happened, but it sure does hurt! I jokingly asked Olive if she wanted to eat the papers on which my at-home workouts were printed. I didn't think she'd take me up on it! She's been on a weird paper-eating binge for the past week. Several things we've rescued, others she's consumed under the shield of darkness--like the overflowing trashcan in the office/exercise room. I even shut the door, but she pushed through and had a snack. I went to PT again yesterday and said to the young arm fixer, "Crazy story for you . . . the dog ate my homework." Good news is, I am getting some mobility back already! And my cut thumb healed up, so things are on the upswing.

On another day, Brennen spent an afternoon building my new desk while I worked. We had to block out the dogs, because they are too much in a small space. My desk is nice and large and it has programmed settings for sitting and standing. I like this a lot, because I get antsy sitting all day. I probably stand at my desk now as much as I sit; it's so much better!

Daisy was plenty confused by the treadmill and me walking, but going nowhere. She sat next to the machine and barked at me! Just once, but give me strength, dog! Buck improvised this blocking system from the other side. Then I was faced with the challenge of getting out myself once my walking was done, lol!

With all the moving parts, the house was feeling very disorganized and not very calming. I woke up one morning with more determination than I've had in a long time--and I attacked my to-do list like it was a possum with a chocolate cake (did you hear about that?) This included completely reorganizing the garage again! I put on some tunes and started making piles--one for the shed and one for the trash. Brennen loaded up the truck with the trash and took it to the dump for me. I've still got a bunch of donation things in the van that need to be dropped off, but improvements were made! And I got to move all the in-the-house clutter to the garage, win-win!

This cleaner house meant we could host for the Superbowl! In fact, this was the second Sunday in a row Chase and Gabby felt up to coming over for dinner. The first weekend Buck grilled brats at Gabby's request, and I made gwumpkes. 

For the football game, Buck smoked ribs on the deck . . . with a bonfire, two dogs, and a pipe :) The ribs were delicious! Brennen decided he couldn't miss out on all that, so he joined us for the food and fun. I was going to work on my chicken quilt, but forgot that it was "switch all the phones" day. Lots of work getting those things swapped over, but we're five for five (I still don't like my notification sounds, but other than that I'm mostly acclimated). The dogs were thrilled I was sitting on the floor where they could snuggle (too bad we still haven't given them that bath they needed back in October).

Snow finally arrived to dust our world with white, and, drumroll please . . . . Buck FINALLY got his tooth back!

We also got our taxes done professionally for the first time I can remember, and I accompanied Buck to his barber shop for his haircut for the first time (which was a necessity because the tax appointment took too long for him to drop me off at home). We'll find out next week how that whole taxes thing turns out; hoping for the best!

A few Crew updates: Caelan connected with a lady at her recent craft fair and will be working every-so-often, doing some social media moments and putting some of her crochet items on consignment in the business's gift shop. She's also connecting with lots of young women in her small group and neighborhood. In fact, there are so many babies arriving this summer that her neighbors are in need of a nanny--Caelan is looking at taking on that near-to-home work. So far, she's got two baby girls lined up for late summer. But there are more babies on the way! School is going well for Noah and the schoolyweds recently met with the worship leader at their church. It sounds like Caelan will join the band on piano later this month, and Noah will provide the drums when needed. Most of the time, they'll serve together, just like the old days. Aww! Caelan is also planning to join the newly forming church choir. She's getting a lot of social these days!

Brennen is whittling down his to-do list. He's expecting to return to his landscaping job next week, he's getting the paperwork together on a $1k car his friends helped him find, and we're waiting to hear back on a fender-bender that happened with the truck. We told him to hang on tight to his tax return to help buffer some of the expenses of the past months. He's doing more leadership training at church and started volunteering at a local outreach. He's slowly moving things to the 5Guys house, big Legos went this week. But home is where your laundry is, and that's still here :)

G$ is working hard at school and at his job. He comes home with smashed fingers and grease gloves, but he's learning a lot. He's also checking in to the college ministry and Bible study that the Bois (Boyz?) host. He's put in a ton of hours trying to fix two of his three vehicles. The third--they may be trying to blow up--but they are having fun on the level b roads :) With the snowfall, G$ got permission from two of our church leaders to do donuts in the church parking lot. They both told him, "Sure! But I had nothing to do with this." Ha! He videoed his donuts, coming quite close to his brand new phone on one spin by. He said he attracted a lot of attention from passersby, but feels he'll be a better driver because of this gained experience :)

Chase and Gabby are working hard and dreaming of additions to their home. Soon they'll know if their most important addition is a girl or boy! Oh, that reminds me of a funny thing Gabby said. At the first dinner, the boys were going through their phones, looking through photo memories of the past year. Brennen found two of his buddy R, and showed both Buck and me the images from clean-shaven to partially bearded. "He grew that in just nine months, that's crazy!" Gabby said, "It's not that impressive. There are OTHER things people can grow in nine months, just sayin'." Excellent point and timing! I'm still amused by her clever response :)