Nope, not dead...

I've received several emails asking about the blog, and my lack of posts this past week. Rather than answer each one of them individually (which I would love to be able to do, really!) I'll try to explain here.

The car crash I was involved in was over a month ago. Since then, thanks to three-times-weekly doctor appointments & adjustments, my neck, lower back, and ankle are well on the way to recovery, and feeling pretty good--right on schedule. I'm really pleased with how well it's going in that department.

My wrists, unfortunately, are a different story. I sprained both of them badly, but had hoped that it would be a 2- to 4-week recovery. In two days it will be five weeks, and instead of getting better, if anything they are worse. The swelling is gone and I have more mobility, but both are still pretty painful. I'm still wearing splints on both arms, and am not supposed to type, drive, or really do much of anything else with them. Jeff is doing a TON of work being both dad and mom, and the older kids have really pitched in, but there isn't really any day where I can just give them a rest; even if I magically didn't have to do anything for anyone else, I still have to brush my teeth, take a shower, wash my hair, eat, etc. (Well, I guess I don't HAVE to shower or wash my hair, but the alternative isn't pretty!)

I used to take anywhere from 25-200 pictures every day. Now, it's hard to hold the camera, and using the buttons & controls is difficult, so I've pretty much stopped. I have to balance how much I want the shot with how long it's going to hurt if I use the camera, and my kids and my LEGOs are the only subjects that are really worth the effort. Since I can't type, I have to use Dragon and Windows Speech Recognition to do everything on the computer, and while I am very grateful to have those options to give my hands a rest, it's much more time-consuming than typing 60-70wpm. (And I did actually time myself at that a while back. Makes me want to go visit my high school typing teacher! I was doing awesome if I hit 25 or 30 back then.) A simple email to one of my professors to ask about a grade takes about fifteen minutes.

And there is the other problem: my school. I have four classes, three of which are online. The quizzes, labs, and papers that normally take me 2-4 hours now take 10 to 12, if I don't have any big assignments. Between that and my family, most nights I fall asleep on the couch with my computer in my lap and a textbook next to me. It's kind of funny to wake up, look at the quiz or Word document on the screen, and have absolutely no memory of answering those last four or five questions!

I'm still taking my pictures. Right now, at this very moment, are six brand-new LEGO shots just waiting to get off my camera and onto my computer. I'm going to start working on them tonight, right after I submit a paper for my phys ed course that's due at 11:55pm tonight (so, in 35 minutes. But I'm almost done with it.). My hope is to get all of them up tonight and be back on schedule, but I don't know if I'll be able to before I crash. (Note to self: must find a better word than 'crash,' since that's what started this whole problem in the first place.) In any case, I'm still here, and I feel terrible that I've not been able to keep up with getting pictures posted. Yes, I'm taking them every day, but it's not quite the same if they stay on the camera.

My doctor is sending me in for an MRI and further tests to see if we can figure out why my wrists aren't recovering. With any luck, we can pinpoint a cause and thus begin to work on the solution. My immense thanks go out to all of you for sticking around.

Day 90

As Joel sat and waited for the tow truck, he vowed to bring attention to the city's pothole problem.

Another delay; my sincere apologies.

I wasn't going to mention this on my blog, but I realized that if a football game is reason enough to post, then this should certainly qualify.

I did take a picture yesterday, and I will figure out a way to take one today as well, but it may be a couple of days before I have time to sit down and get them off the camera for editing and posting. Three of the kids and I were involved in a car crash yesterday, and while none of us have any serious injuries, there is enough, well, just STUFF to deal with that I am rattled and still not altogether connected with my brain.

My van may be totaled; we don't know yet for sure. Like I said, the four of us are mostly OK and I don't think we'll have any long-term physical damage. If you're of the religious or spiritual persuasion, though, the only thing I might ask is that if you remember or would be inclined, say a prayer for the other driver. She was injured and taken to the hospital; I don't know yet if I'll be able to find out anything more, since I don't know her name.

We're OK, really. I'll be taking the pictures on the right days, I'm just not with it enough to post them yet. Hard to have a sense of humor and think of funny things and make people smile, but I'm working on it.

A posting delay...for a good reason (I hope!)

I am headed to the new Cowboys Stadium for a football game!

I originally had pretty mixed feelings about this; as much as I am a football fan, I also loathe Jerry Jones with the fire of a thousand suns and despise the fact that he was able to convince local government and taxpayers to finance a great and spacious building that only adds to his immense fortune. That man has hubris like few others.

On the other hand, BYU is playing here tonight, and THAT is a team I would go watch almost anywhere. So my loyalty to the Cougars outweighs my despisination (yes, that is a word, I made it up myself) of the egotistical Jerry Jones.

Why am I posting this here?

Because there will be opportunities galore for a LEGO pic, and because it also means that I will almost certainly not get to post my photo tonight. If we are at the game and stuck in parking-lot traffic long enough, like maybe til midnight, I might even get to take two before I get home! Either way, it might be as late as Sunday afternoon before I can get online again. (For those of you who aren't aware, our church is from 11 to 2pm, and Jeff is gone every Sun. morning for meetings. That means I'm scrambling to get all six kids, plus me, ready to leave the house by 10:15--and that means very little time to get on the computer!)

In any case, have a great Labor Day weekend if you're in the US! (And a great regular weekend, if you're not. :p)