Thank God for Moms

I think the past couple days would have completely stunk if it weren't for my  mom coming in town to help out.  I didn't realize quite how annoying little tasks would be since it takes forever to get around.  My mom has been wonderful at helping me out.  Aside from the fact all our laundry is caught up and the bathroom has a fresh scent from her cleaning, she's been very helpful making food in general keeping me company.

The last couple days were a little more awful than I expected b/c on top of recovering from surgery I got the flu.  Not good!!  I couldn't eat anything without being nauseous 30 minutes after and had to sleep most of the day.  This morning my mom washed my hair for me b/c it was gross after 4 days of no shower.  Daniel has a weird work schedule this weekend so he's not able to be around to help all the time.

So long story short, my mother rocks. 

All the time in the world

I now have no excuse not to post at least 3 times per week.

In light of recent events, and the fact that my friend, Julie promises to read my blog, I think I'll give this thing another go.


Recent events:
Sunday I was playing the basketball of my life!  Daniel recently started a weekly bball pick-up game with medical staff and corpsmen at the gym.  I started joining in a few weeks ago and was having  a blast.  I loved playing basketball with my brothers growing up.  I played in Middle School and High School, but definitely summer camp and weekend coed games were more fun than competitive high school play.  It's funny looking back on this weekend b/c I even had a really cheesy moment Sunday morning before we went to the gym thanking Daniel for re-introducing me to playing basketball for fun.

I even splurged on some awesome new basketball shoes b/c I tried playing one game in my running shoes and irritated my plantar fascia in my Right foot.  Pretty common issue.

Not a great picture, but they're pretty snazzy.

Plantar Fascia runs along the bottom of your heel and attaches to your achilles...

So there I was with some great assists, left-handed put-backs, making a couple "And 1" shots and then POP!  In the fourth game I was getting ready to run back the court when I felt someone punch my achilles.  I didn't know all the people I was playing with, but I was pretty sure that none of the guys would go so far as to chase my heels around and punch me.  I fell over, tried to stifle my urge to cry and when Daniel helped me up to hobble off the court I couldn't feel my heel to put weight on it.  It's the craziest feeling!  Dr. Dan elevated my foot, grabbed ice, and then Don, another doc, took me to the car.

Talk about bad timing, we had planned to have a few people over to watch the Oscars and celebrate Daniel's birthday since it's in a week.  I luckily have great friends that when they hear the word 'party' then instantly start thinking of what they will bring to the party.  What happened to the good ol' days when people could just show up without feeling compelled to bring things?!  I was happy to have their food b/c Daniel was busy calling the Sports Medicine doc and tried to figure out what was going on with my food.

Daniel, I think, was starting to realize that it was not a minor injury.  I've rolled my ankle before and I knew for a fact there was no roll.  I never felt it roll, just KAPOW! and then this strange release and numbness.  At home Daniel did the telltale test for ruptured achilles, the Thompson test.  If you lay on your stomach with your knees at 90 degrees, when someone squeezes your calf, your foot should flip.  There was no flip in my foot.  DARN IT!!

Monday I went to the hospital and got the bad news.  Completely ruptured achilles.  Strangely, and thankfully, if you completely rupture your achilles it's not as painful as a partial tear.  And truly, except for the first couple hours after it happened, it didn't really hurt!  The worst part was hopping around on my right foot that I had been favoring for the last 3 weeks b/c of my plantar fascia irritation.  If anything, I expected to injure my right foot, not the left.  I got a temporary cast and was scheduled for surgery the next day.  Dr. Maurer did my surgery.  My best friend's maiden name is Maurer, so that felt like a sold choice and Dr. Maurer went to Duke.  They're no KU, but still an acceptable, I guess.

Yes, purple-painted toes...much cuter when my foot was not horrendously swollen.

This is a pretty long post considering I usually don't write much.  But this was a big deal!  I've never broken anything or had surgery!  I remained pretty calm the night before.  Only cried a few nervous tears. 




In the morning, my great friend, Candace, and her daughter Laekyn picked me up to take me to the hospital.  Daniel had to leave for work at 5:45am and luckily was going to be able to hang out with me while I was getting prepped for surgery.  He kept distracted by working while I was having surgery and then took me home that night.

Surgery was pretty smooth, once it got going.  I elected initially to have regional anesthesia so I got a shot in my back.  It didn't take the way it was supposed to though, so we had to go with plan B- general anesthesia.  I started to get a little emotional as they put the gas mask on and then ZONK. I was out.  When I came to, one of my husband's staff doc's wife was there.  I know Julie S. from our naval spouse lunch group and it was so nice to hear a familiar voice and see a friendly familiar face immediately. I was hoping she was working that day.  So the rest is pretty simple.  Wait for the feeling to come back in my legs, take some pain meds and go home and rest.

Oh, and Dawn Setter, another great friend, dropped off dinner for Daniel and I.  Oh my gosh. It was so tasty!  Enchiladas that somehow reminded me of good ol' Chef Boyardee Ravioli.  I hope that's not taken as an insult to her cooking if she reads this...b/c I thought it was unbelievably tasty.  The ultimate comfort food!

Yesterday Libby Pike brought her daughters over (AND LUNCH!) and hung out with me.  Or rather, she cleaned up the house from our Sunday evening get-together.  Amazing.  She unloaded two loads of dishes, and essentially washed everything else.  I had to practically beg her to not do laundry or she would have the whole house back in order.  I'm so grateful for her helpful heart.  It meant a lot to me and Daniel to have someone help out.  Sarah also kept me company while mommy was cleaning.

I'll add more exciting posts as my ankle starts to heal.  My mom comes in town today to help and I can't wait to see her.  She was thinking about coming to visit some time soon, just not THIS soon. 

My home base for the next few days.  Couch, pillows, Snuggie and 4 more seasons of The Wire to watch.  Hooray!

Cards from friends and flowers from my wonderful Mother-in-law, Cindy!

No one reads my blog

I think I've sabotaged myself by not writing regularly.  I was excited to blog, but man, it takes a lot of dedication.  I think that because of this no one reads my blog.


If I didn't feel sick today, I'd write the best darn intriguing funny witty blog you'd ever read.  So there.

Christmas in Washington

Oh my goodness.  Has it really been a month and a half since I've posted something?

Many apologies dear friends.  I think the best thing to do is just post a bunch of pictures to show you what I've been up to for the holidays.  Oh, and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday to me!  Daniel got me a sewing machine!

Daniel hung some awesome Christmas lights on our house when it was freezing cold outside.

Our nephew Liam shows how stoked he is about his new Navy onesie from Uncle Dan and Aunt Amy.

The whole Biggs clan posing on Christmas Eve for a family photo!

Let It Snow!

Hooray!  A little taste of Kansas in the northwest!!

I can't believe that when I called home two days ago it was more than 10 degrees colder in Washington than in Kansas.  I also can't believe that we beat Kansas in first snow this year.  All of Port Orchard started to go snow crazy yesterday.  The lines at the grocery stores were extremely long and people were startled at the 'snow' outside.  Let's be real.  There were only small flurries, hardly anything that counted as snow.

Not today though!  Today we have snow!  Real snow....probably the most we'll have all winter.  Instead of driving on the roads with inexperienced winter weather drivers, I'm choosing to work from home today which has its perks.  It means the dogs can go outside regularly and I can stay in my awesome flannel pajamas until 4pm (which I fully intend to do.) 

This also marks a 'first' for Roger.  Charlie had enough experience with snow back in Kansas over the last 4 years....

but Roger's just a young doggie dude.  I thought I'd document his first day out in the snow.

He's learned that a 'sit' gets him a treat.  What a good boy!

It's never too cold to play frisbee!

It's supposed to keep snowing all day until at least 7pm.  What a wonderful day!

Not that these are related, but I got two doggie devil costumes for $1.50 each. They're set for next year!

Things my husband does well

This is not an all-inclusive list.  It's a recent list of unexpected things that Daniel has done that made me say, "Wow!"

At the Arcade Fire Concert with my awesome husband.

1.  Problem:  our hard drive and RAM seemingly stopped working and our photos, documents and videos from the first year of our marriage disappeared.  This is the reason it's taken me 3 months to blog again!
Daniel's solution: After I took the Macbook to the Apple store and they told me our hard drive was dead, he talked to his brother, Russell and looked into some options for buying a relatively cheap external hard drive and a case for the old drive and retrieved all of our old files!!  I'm not computer savvy in that way.  I would have to watch about 50 Youtube videos on the subject before figuring out how to fix it.
In fact, I would have just sent the darn thing off to a company to work on...PS- our estimates from the hard drive fixer company was $700 to $2300.  I love photos and music, but really?  I'm not sure my photos would have been worth that much.

I just like this photo that Daniel took while we took a 2 mile walk into town during a recent overnight trip to Duvall, WA.

2.  Problem: nothing new to make for dinner
Daniel's solution:  he proposed a "cooking night."  We spent nearly 45 minutes sifting through cookbooks to find 2 new recipes to try. We went to the store and ended up finishing our Chicken Piccatta and Zucchini pancakes around 8:30.
All of it tasted amazing, but funnily enough, Daniel took one bite and then said that he wasn't really hungry any more. We'd be snacking while cooking and then again, it was nearly bedtime!

Mmmm, Zucchini pancakes, chicken piccatta, and asparagus.

These are just two silly examples of ways that Daniel does a wonderful job at being my partner.  I'm amazed at how he can still stay awake after being at work at 6am and working for 12 hours+ each day.  He still tries to live outside of work instead of just coming home and sitting on the couch.  Good job Daniel!

First comes love...

THEN COMES MARRIAGE
Woohoo!  What a fun week it's been.  Daniel and I were able to fly back to Kansas City for our friend's wedding.  Travis, the groom, was one of Daniel's last roommates before we got married and a very special friend.  Daniel was a groomsman so he stayed very busy with wedding duties.  I got to tag along for some, but otherwise spent time running errands, working, and catching up with a few friends!!
A must-do while we were in Kansas City was eating at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ.    If you ever stop by Kansas City...Anthony Bourdain and I both say you MUST eat there before you die.

THEN COMES LIAM IN A BABY CARRIAGE
Next, it was on to Wichita to meet my new nephew.  My parents drove up to KC, dropped Daniel off at the airport and toted me home to meet Liam.  He's still very newborn-babyish.  Small.  Has, as my friend Katy pointed out, a cry like a baby lamb.  I was able to stay over at my older brother's house a couple nights to 'help out.'   I use quotations, because other than babysitting for a friend last Spring, it's been a while since I've 'helped out' with a baby.  Rachel, my awesome sister-in-law, was doing a great job with the baby, taught me some of the basics, and I was able to rock him to sleep a few times.  Doug and Rachel are incredible parents.