Given the Boot

My doctor gave me a stabilizing boot to wear for two weeks to take the pressure off of my ligament that I sprained TWO MONTHS AGO! I am a little impatient for it to heal. Michael calls it my Ugly Boot while Sam calls it my Darth Vadar boot and wouldn't let me touch him the first two days I wore it.

It makes getting around laborious and up and down precarious and climbing up, more especially down, the stairs downright dangerous if I'm holding Anna. Since I do all of these things all day long, it has been somewhat of a trial of my patience as it has exhausted me more than usual just to take care of everyone around here.

Nevertheless, I have decided to be responsible for myself and have been wearing it as much as I can. I have been though the grocery store with it and can drive in it which I had to learn since I can't bend my foot forward in it to press the pedals.

In other news . . . We are into our rainy season full force and Sam and Michael are taking full advantage of it.
Love this one.

And we took a mini vacation to the Bay Area on President's Day. We drove up to Berkely campus and on to the Oakland Temple visitor's Center where we watched a movie about the Mormon Battalion while I nursed Anna in the back.
I don't know whether the boys grasped that this was a replica of the DNA double-helix structure.


But they had fun running up the gazillion stairs that went from one terraced parking lot level to the next.

We stopped for pizza on the way home at this family-owned Italian restaurant and hit the jackpot. I ate a huge piece of lasagna and the boys did a number on an enormous pizza. Anna even ate the minestrone soup. It was warm and cozy and full of families and dates and just felt nice.

I got to take Anna to the park all by ourselves yesterday while Michael and Sam were at preschool. She had fun in the swing for a while but then got tired. Last night she came down with a fever - I'm guessing the same one Sam has, and now Michael has. For about two hours all five of us were awake as Sam screamed every time he swallowed. I finally moved Michael into the guest room where he could get a little sleep and nursed Anna back to sleep. When I got back in bed a dog barking outside kept me awake for a while. I heard him barking every time Sam screamed. Since Sam's window was cracked open a little, I actually came to the conclusion that Sam was waking up the dog!

Amidst all this, we are happy and love being together. While one or the other boy is asleep, I have rare one-on-one time with the other one which has been so calming and enjoyable. I have been teaching the boys how to sort the laundry and do other chores which gives us more time to spend together while lightening my load and teaching them some new skills. I am very excited about where this could lead!