My first sewn garment...and it stayed together!

Daniel gave me a sewing machine for my birthday last year and up to this point I've only done the basics:
pillow covers
labor gowns (instead of ugly blue hospital gowns!)
re-sewn a drape into pillow covers
baby lamb (mission aborted b/c the tail is coming out the lamb's rear and the ears are on backwards)
a bit more, but nothing exciting...

So when Daniel told me the theme for Hail & Farewell, the annual family practice celebration for incoming and outgoing residents, I was sure that I was meant to sew my own outfit.  1920's here I come.  I figured the dresses were easy enough to make since they're basically long potato sacks with embellishments.

I was able to start the dress when I was in Wichita so my mom and I worked on most of it together!

Here is the end result!

Now excuse my shoes, please. They're a bit ridiculous, but I got lots of compliments and I felt like any of my other pumps just wouldn't finish off the outfit.  The morning of the event I cut off a ruffle that I originally thought would be nice on the bottom and sewed on a couple layers of fringe.  I'm just happy to report that no seems ripped throughout the evening of dinner, socializing and dancing!

Now Daniel's outfit for a 1920's hobo was a different story.  He hadn't planned any costume until literally 2 hours before and somehow he was able to pull together that look out of his own closet and our costume box.  Doesn't every late 20's couple have a costume box?

I mean that's a snazzy dresser.  Glasses without lenses, nice vest, one fingerless glove and to top it off, that's a black crow toy in his front pocket.  The crow is great except for when you hit a speed bump a week later and can't figure out why your trunk is screeching.

We ended the fun night at Denny's.  You just can't beat going to Denny's (other acceptable variations are Shari's, IHOP, or any truck-stop diner) after 1030pm. 

the end to a good night at Denny's

Have you seen this girl?

We recently hired an Education Coordinator at my workplace, the Kitsap Humane Society.  As a side note, we hired one of my friend's named Julie and she's awesome and will be a great Education Coordinator.  (No, she's wasn't hired just because she's my friend, but that's a bonus!)

One of our first tasks was to sort through education and volunteer files that I inherited when I took over the Volunteer department.  To give you some perspective, when I was hired as the department assistant over a year ago I asked my then boss what was in a certain file cabinet and she answered, "I haven't really gone through those."  She had enough on her plate, for sure, so I don't fault her for that.  However, Julie and I felt that if we were going to start her out on the right foot, we should know what resources we had...or didn't have.  So we dug in.

And we found the gem photo above.  Good ol' Lark Voorhies.  Lisa Turtle, I found you.  Apparently, the previous Volunteer and Education Coordinators didn't like throwing anything away so we found the KIND NEWSLETTER with an article about Lark.  That's when Saved By the Bell was all the rage.

Side note: I can still enjoy a couple good SBTB episodes in the morning here.  I guess syndication can last for-e-ver.

I have to say that the winner in the files was a pamphlet from 1979.  Yup, believe it or not most of the files we found here from 1993 and before.  Is that when computers were invented?

I'm an excellent healer!

I'm happy to announce that after 4 long, but not as long as I expected them to feel, months the ortho surgeon said, "yep, it's healed."

That's right folks.  The projected 6 month to a year recovery is not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be!  After 4 months my achilles tendon is back up and running (well, I'm not supposed to run quite yet) and now I just have to continue strengthening my leg. 

I've got to tell you, not being able to move like I wanted to was really tough.  There were the comical parts of recovery, for example:

 

 

Exhibit A:  The shower chair

 The shower chair is like being stuck in that tacky scene in Flashdance day after day after day.  I had to roll myself in an office chair to the shower then stick both feet in and somehow lift myself and stand on my one good leg b/c I couldn't put pressure on my healing foot and balance enough to stand like a normal grown-up.  Man, was I glad to get rid of that.

Then there was the funny part of recovery involving vacation.  We planned a trip to Hawaii and bought tickets literally the week before I busted myself.  Not being able to walk with out a boot makes getting into the ocean very tricky.  Behold Exhibit B:

The 3-legged crab walk.

The 3-legged crab walk was the only way for me to get in the water and out without taking Daniel out in the process.  We tried having him support me while I tried to hop down to the water.  But in sand that. does. not. work.  So I threw away my pride and was the "28 year old girl scooting on her butt down to the water on a public beach."  For all those witnessing this site, you're welcome.  (Side note:  when I crawled back up to the towel out of the water I got applause from a group adults near us.)

This was also around the time that we decided to move houses. Now ladies, if you ever want to come up with a huge task that is physically demanding and then have a terrific excuse to not do any of the physically demanding parts, then you should rupture your achilles.  I packed as many boxes as possible...but I didn't have to lift them!  We had some really great friends chip in to help with the move to a new place.  It's a pretty great house with a HUGE backyard for the dogs, a half-court basketball court, 2 bed/2bath, AND A CRAFT ROOM!!!!  They didn't advertise it as a craft room, but I commandeered that sucker the minute we walked in.  A couple photos of our place for your enjoyment:

Oops! I guess I only have a picture of my Charlie sunning himself upstairs.

So long story short, while I still have a lot of physical therapy stuff to work on to increase strength, balance, range-of-motion, I'm back up and moving. I went to Zumba a few times and came home to reflect to Daniel that dancing with one bad foot "must be what normal people feel like when they try to dance."  That sounds snotty, I know, but man, I used to be a really good dancer.  I have continued teaching tap classes throughout the ordeal, although now I'm sure I'll be better b/c it's not reassuring looking into your child's tap class and seeing both the teacher (me) and the teaching assistant both on crutches. That's a true story.

Happy summer to all and keep writing your blogs.  I love reading them!
Oh, and here's my new favorite photo of my husband and me from a recent "one of my best friends is marrying my brother-in-law"'s weddings. 

July 2nd, 2011  Rhonda and Russell's wedding