75% Cooked

I'm sitting here, reclined, feeling little Louie* kick my bladder and kidneys, and I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone!  I'm 30 weeks today and we celebrated by sitting through 2 hours + 20 minutes of stake conference.  Yes, we went early (but almost not early enough) for soft seats.  Anna was fidgety, but the talks were amazing.  My latest discomfort: Anna sitting on my lap.  I love that girl... but she can NOT sit on my lap anymore!

The knee has made great strides lately, literally.  My limp is just about gone.  Anna and I walked to the park yesterday.  It was farther than planned (almost 3 miles), but by the end, my knee felt fine and my feet hurt.  What a great sign!  The weather has been wonderful lately and Anna is obsessed with being outside.  By 9AM, she's putting on her moon boots and trying to get the sliding door open.  I haven't cleaned the track of that door for a reason.  I love spring!  If I can't be skiing, it might as well be warm.

*Louie is the fetal name.  His real name will not be Louie.

Closet Story

We've lived in this house for over 2 years now and the 3 bedroom closets STILL did not have doors on them... until today!  Alright, I only did 1 closet (guest room), but it was enough!  What a pain!  Those youtube videos made it seem I'd be done in an hour.  They say bi-fold doors are easy to install, but they're not!  Some of my problem is that there's a lot of squatting, reaching, laying, standing, adjusting... and while the knee is getting more settled into this kinda' movement, my abdominal muscles have completely checked out!  I also needed some more advanced tools.  For my birthday, I received the jogging kit to out double bike trailer.  I should've asked for a "plumb bob"!

Ah yes, the birthday was fun!  I celebrated by making myself cupcakes and going to physical therapy.  Bevan's buddy and his wife volunteered to watch Anna so we could go out do dinner that night.  Spin Cafe is my favorite dig in Heber valley.  Ever been there?  You should!  Their menu is quite diverse, but everything is good!  Once again I over-did it, tossed and turned all night, and had finished a whole quart of water by morning.  My de-tox breakfast was bran flakes... and another cupcake.

Back to the closet doors:  I'm hoping to have the other 2 finished by my next birthday.  But for now, house guests don't have to stare at our food storage and sleeping bags.  Hawkins B&B is properly open for business!

Therapy for the non-physical

I finally took the recommendation from friends (and my knee doctor) to get some physical therapy.  My 6-week checkup was last week and I was truly hoping to be completely and miraculously healed by then!  No such luck.  When I sprained my MCL 8 years ago I remember skiing again after 2 weeks.  Now, it's been almost 2 months and I still walk with a limp and I still can't bend my knee enough to ride a bike, which was my goal.  Oh well.  Maybe physical therapy isn't such a bad idea.

My first session went alright.  I was there for 90 minutes, but only had about 35 minutes of real therapy.  The therapists who run the place are all brothers with the last name Bluth.  Let the Arrested Development jokes begin!  Aside from being over-booked, they were very helpful, but nothing groundbreaking.  "Bend the knee up... bend it down... bend it up... bend it down".  My favorite part is when they zap the knee with lasers and message it with lotion.  Ahhhh.....   The good-lookin' Bluth brother could do that all day!

So what's my opinion?  I'll go again, a couple more times.  I've been going crazy not being able to do anything fun.  Winter is almost over and my belly is getting bigger.  Time is running out!

One ironic moment is when I was waiting and waiting, reading Ski Magazine, and I found it!  I found a picture of where my ski accident happened!  Sure, it was an ad for the Montage at Deer Valley, but it was fun to show my therapist, to illustrate my story.  Kinda funny.

A Visit to Cold Fort!

We absolutely LOVE that Bevan's parents are on a mission... not too far away.  Our latest excuse to go for a visit was Sister Hawkin's birthday last week.  The drive went very quickly and Anna was an angel the whole time.  It was SO CUTE when Anna was finally with her beloved grandparents.  She kept snuggling up to Sister Hawkins and giggling.  You couldn't pull her away!  

We attended the "twig" church the next day.  I love that it's too small to be considered a branch.  He he!  Anna was alright during services and the other missionaries were very polite about her... toddler-ness.  We took part of the second hour in the back room and created our own nursery class, for the sake of the other missionaries.  The rest of the day was very relaxing and ended with a fabulous dinner and birthday cake!  

Elder and Sister Hawkins were on duty the next morning so we took advantage of another mini-tour of the fort.  It looks so different with fresh snow!  It was super sunny and super bright!  We love being with all those missionaries.  You can tell it's a tight-knit group and they all have so much fun together.  We'll be back soon, Cove Fort!

Anna was obsessed with this bucket.  She played/ sat/ ate with it all weekend!

So... the cake I made slightly resembles the Valentines cake, but who gets tired of chocolate?!

Like I mentioned, it was very bright and there was little I could do to fix this picture.  It's still cute!