More Christmas Fun

This year's presents included a beauty kit for Karlee. Both kids love it. I've had my hair done many many times since Sunday. Tonight everyone else was playing the Wii, and I was at the kitchen table. Karson came over and pulled me to the living room and wanted me to sit down. As soon as I sat down, he started doing my hair. It was the cutest thing ever. Karlee got in on the fun too.

Merry Christmas

It's Chelsea's off year from being at our family's for Christmas which basically means I go to Vegas and spend the holiday with them there. Christmas really is so much more fun with kids.

We had some last minute shopping to do on Christmas Eve before coming home to have our traditional chili dinner and looking at lights. We all opened our Christmas pajamas from my mom.

the kids left carrots for the reindeer and cookies for santa

the kids loved opening presents and i loved watching them

without knowing it karlee, chelsea, and i all got toms. i'm obsessed with karlee's little toms. so cute!

karlee was all about the opening this year

karson so excited to play

My mom wanted us all to have new Christmas church clothes since it was on Sunday this year. I kind of had a bad attitude about it being on Sunday (terrible I know. Isn't Christ the whole point of this holiday?), but I actually really loved it. I loved doing the traditional Christmas morning things (presents/breakfast) and then going to church in the afternoon to remind us of the real reason we celebrate. I always love music and really enjoyed the Christmas program. After church we came home to take a few pictures in our Christmas clothes.

It's definitely sad not being at home with the rest of the family for Christmas, but I really love spending the holidays in Vegas. The kids are at such a fun age. If we can't be all together, being there is definitely a good option.

30+2

Another too close to Christmas crappy December birthday. The celebrations started with dinner at Salt City Burger with friends on birthday eve.eveI spent most of yesterday going to physical therapy and running Christmas errands. Roommate Suzie and I ate at Tucanos for dinner. I even got a little Christmas cheer with the Gateway tree. I got some great gifts...all of which I'm dying to use. I came to Vegas today and opened family gifts and went to dinner at Red Robin. Wow! That was a lot of eating/fun celebrating.

rommate Suzie brought home balloons 

looking at Gateway tree while waiting for dinner
the tree changed colors and i loved it
roommate Carrie gave me this cake pops pan. can't wait to use it.
presents from Chelsea and Ashley
Karlee helping me with presents

Christmas Quiz

This has been a weird holiday season for me. I've been stuck in the house much of the month, and I got most of my shopping done early. It hasn't exactly felt like Christmas. Abby over at Diligent Joy posted this fun little Christmas Quiz, and it gave me a little holiday spirit.

if this quiz doesn't get me in the holiday spirit, maybe i need to find this awesome charm bracelet

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? mostly neither. egg nog is yuck, and although I like hot chocolate I prefer not to drink my calories.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? under the tree/all over the room

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white lights but sometimes I really like the wacky tacky colored lights on the other people's houses

4. Do you hang mistletoe? seems like someone in the house does every year

5. When do you put your decorations up? as soon as possible and leave up as long as possible until jan.1

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? my mom's cheeseball...maybe???

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? all the kids lining up in order to see what santa brought

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? santa still comes to my house

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? pjs on christmas eve...always...even still. everything else next morning

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? someone else seems to do that job every year. i did see the most beautiful gold and maroon tree today.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? DREAD/HATE

12. Can you ice skate? haven't been since i was a freshman in college so probably not

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? my family is pretty spoiled at christmas so i probably have a favorite for each year. last year my mom surprised me with a clarisonic. def my fav from last year.

14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? spending time with family (something i don't get to do very often)

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? peppermint ice cream (is that a lame answer???)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? reading the christmas story out of the bible, going to look at lights, coming home to open pajamas (is that too many answers?)

17. What tops your tree? nothing this year

18. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? giving...the perfect gift

19. Candy canes: yuck or yummy? on the fence with this question. i think i eat them because they are there.

20. Favorite Christmas show? the holiday

21. Saddest Christmas song? christmas shoes...worst song ever

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? o holy night or anything david archuleta or justin beiber (for real)

who wants to play along? it's kind of fun to see everyone's answers. if you do, go to abby's blog and link your blog.

the surgical story

Drew was my little buddy the couple of days I was at his house. He was fascinated with the crutches and ice pump.

surgery = no contacts, no makeup, no jewelry

My other post about having surgery was mostly to prevent people from freaking out because they didn't know. I still got a little of that but nothing too bad. Here's the rest of the long story....

After the Ogden marathon back in May, my hip was bugging me. Since I had the Utah Valley marathon 3 weeks later I went to physical therapy a few times. It seemed to be getting a lot better so I ran Utah Valley (mistake #1). Looking back, my 45 minutes off my normal finishing time should have been a big clue that I was injured, but no. I ran Wasatch Back (mistake #2) the next weekend. By the end of that, my hip was killing me, and I couldn't walk. I spent the rest of the summer going to physical therapy 3x/week. I was gradually getting a little better. At least that's what I thought.

By the end of the summer, I hit a big plateau in therapy and still couldn't walk with a normal gait. I finally went to see a sports medicine doctor. After a x-rays and a MRI, they found a tear in the cartilage of my hip. I tried 6 weeks of swimming only and a steroid shot, and still I wasn't better. Before even seeing the doctor for the final time I decided to have surgery. I was pretty sick of not being able to do what I wanted to do, and surgery seemed like the only solution.

I made a couple of appointments with different surgeons and found out I would have to wait until March to have surgery. I was so done with the waiting game by that point. I started calling around and found another surgeon that did arthroscopic surgery. I had a consultation with him and felt really comfortable with him and his experience. He was booked for the year but opened another surgery day for December 2. Within a couple of hours of leaving his office, I scheduled surgery for a week and a half later.  It's really crazy how things work out. I was really upset and stressed about not getting into the other surgeon for so long, but it turned out to be a huge blessing. I'm so happy I went with Dr. West. He dedicated 1/3 of this year to studying this exact procedure to be the most effective and efficient. His dedication made me feel very comfortable with him.

Michelle took me to the hospital. They took me straight back to pre-op, and I was ready to go pretty quickly. I was about to walk down (ya walk down) to the OR when some equipment broke. I ended up waiting/staring at the wall for the next hour before they were ready. I walked down to the OR, got on the bed, and that's all I remember. The next thing I knew I woke up in the PACU. I was SO nervous about going home (to Michelle's house). I was pretty stressed about getting around with crutches. I had the nicest nurse. She suggested I spend the night and even came to my room to talk to me for a bit. Michelle came to check on me and visit for a while. A few hours later, the night nurse came in, and I knew her. I was so happy to know my nurse. It really helped relieve some of the anxiety. By the time I got out of bed and moved around a little, I realized the crutches would be ok.

I spent the night in the hospital. Dy picked me up the next day and took me to Michelle's for the next several days. I was hooked up to an ice pump for the next week, but other than that I did really well. I have been able to move around really well, and I haven't been in pain at all. Being on crutches hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought although it has been very interesting (more on that later). I am healing really well and expect to be completely back to normal soon. It's weird to say lucky when talking about surgery, but I really do feel like one lucky girl.

generation gap dinner

In celebration of 25 years and many many miles of running, some of the first members of the running group hosted a dinner this fall. They had shirts from every St. George marathon. They posted favorite running memories and stories of how everyone came to the group. I found out I am 9 generations from an original member. It's pretty cool to see how the group has grown the past 25 years. I have missed my running friends so much, and it was great to spend the evening with many of them.

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cookie swap

who has the best cookie recipe? if you want to know, head over to http://justlikemarypoppins.blogspot.com/2011/12/cookie-recipe-swap.html and participate in aubry's cookie swap. give your favorite recipe and get everyone else's favorite recipes in return. seems like a win-win to me.

now ya know

Remember my promise to write my running story earlier this year?!?! Well, I started it, got injured, and had to stop running. I still promise to post it hopefully in 10-12 weeks when I'm fully recovered from the hip surgery I had today. Some people know and some people don't. How do you bring that up in conversation? So, for everyone that wants to kill me for not telling them, now ya know. Surgery went well, and so far I am doing great.

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9/11 memorial

words + cell phone pictures are not sufficient. seeing the 9/11 memorial in nyc was like nothing i've ever experienced. it was beautiful, huge, and so incredibly peaceful. right in the middle of nyc this site of such horrific tragedy has been completely transformed. the running water was so calming to me. as I walked around, i realized not one person (including an unborn child) is forgotten. i really could have stayed there all night. i hope this memorial provides the same peace to others with much more personal connections.

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last stop...nyc

After 5 days in DC and 2 days in Philly, I took the bus to NYC. There was some crazy bad traffic, but it was still the best cheapest way to go. I was mostly there for work and a little fun too. I had work trainings all day the first 2 days but managed to do a few things after work.

stayed with college friend ginny (and took no pictures)

visited 9/11 memorial (deserves its own post)

saw occupy wall street (not sure what dressing like santa, mrs. clause, and baby clause will do to help this situation)

walked around times square (and took the must take picture)

saw Memphis (entertaining singing and dancing)

walked to central park from ginny's apartment (so very jealous of all the runners)

did a little shopping in the pouring rain

It was a great 10 days!

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blessed

On this day of thanks, I cannot even begin to list all the things I am thankful for. I am so very blessed. I am particularly thankful for family and the rare opportunity to spend all day with immediate and extended family. We ate, took pictures, visited, and played.

the kids made paper rockets and launched them with an air compresser

grandma and grandpa mathis with all the great grandkids. the kids weren't really all that into this except karlee. have you ever seen anything cuter?!?

with cousin brittany who we haven't seen since kid #2 was a little babe.

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tour de east coast...philadelphia

after spending the work week in dc, i took the bus to philadelphia to spend the weekend with katey. it was a quick couple days and packed full of philly fun.

first stop...philly cheesesteaks with cheese whiz (seriously)

second stop...redding terminal market (more food)

liberty bell. line to go inside was way too long. perfectly happy to see it from outide.

independence hall

must take picture at art museum in front of rocky statue

city hall building

lifesize game pieces

so glad it worked to visit katey on this trip. it was so much fun! once the weekend was over, i took another bus to NYC.

sneak peek...Philly

I actually took real pictures with a real camera on stop 2 of tour de east coast. I promise a real post when I get home, but until then here's a sneak peek from my phone.

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tour de east coast...DC

I'm on a 10 day tour of the east coast for a little bit of work and a little bit of fun. First stop...Washington, DC to visit Amanda and baby Cole and attend a work training. I had a great time with Amanda and learned a lot at my training. Next stop...Philadelphia.

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Halloween 2011

Things I love about Halloween...

dressing up as a group

decorations

pumpkin anything (except pie)

Things I don't love as much...

spending lots of money to make a costume

going to big parties i don't really want to go to

Halloween 2011

dressed up as a group twice (work and chaperone stake youth dance)

made new decorations

had a pumpkin shake (after the month of no sugar was over of course)

spent a total of $1.27 on costumes

went to a total of 0 parties (hit the married friend's ward trunk or treat instead)

work costume (box of squeeze it drinks)

chaperon the stake dance (flight attendants)

complete success