{A Blogging Break, A Birthday Party, Broken Bones, & Plenty of Time on My Hands}

Oh my, how I've missed you all! As you know, I spent a little over a week in Utah, visiting Mike's family (I claim them for my own as well...love my whole clan of in-laws). We had a ton of fun and kept busy enjoying one another's company, shopping, partying at the family reunion at Bear Lake, andsoonandsoforth.

It took several days to recover from the red-eye flight and generous lay-over in the middle of the night. Mike and I were so proud of ourselves for unpacking right away...as in, the minute we walked in the door...even though all we really wanted to do was sleep for hours. It really makes sense to not procrastinate that task. I hope we'll make that a habit from now on.

I am the kind of person that can only deal with the next big thing, as far as planning goes. For some reason, I can't plan for multiple things going on in the same month, for example. So it was no surprise that I didn't start to plan for Zach's 6th birthday party until we got home from our trip. We got back on Monday, the 11th and the party was scheduled for Saturday, the 16th.

There was a big swap meet-type event at our church that Saturday as well. During the previous week, you donate things you want to get rid of, then people come on Saturday and pick stuff up for free. It is pretty cool. Remember that FREE is my favorite price, right? So I did EVERYTHING ahead of time for the party. You would seriously be so proud of me. I'm actually pretty proud of myself. Here's what I did...

It was a Shrek Theme...

• Made ice cubes with gummy worms in them and instead of water, used green drink.
• Made and decorated the cupcakes with green slime frosting, dirt (crushed oreos), and a gummy worm.
• Prescooped the ice cream into cupcake liners...do you hear me? Pre. Scooped. The. Ice. Cream. Cool, huh?
• Stuffed shrek goody bags
• Stuffed Shrek pinata
• Gathered other party supplies in a cute tray...disposable plates, cups, silverware wrapped in napkins, etc.
• Decorated the house with streamers.
• Made party dip for chips and tinted it green.
• Prepared leeches on a log (like ants, but Shrek likes leeches)

I was determined to get everything done the day before so that I could enjoy the FREE stuff in the morning, and get home at about 10:30...the party was to start at 11:00.

Taylor and I got up and left the boys sleeping as we went off to find some treasures on Saturday morning. I'll skip all the details cause I'm kind of getting sick of them, but...long story short (or not so much), while stepping off a cement step and onto the sidewalk at the church, my ankle rolled and I fell. I knew right away that it was broken. You see, this wasn't the first time this left ankle of mine had broken. (I'll have to tell you that story sometime.)

While I was in surgery, my dear friend Becca without a blog ran the birthday party for me. Boy, was I extra glad I'd done so much prep the day before.

Sorry for no great pictures for now, but I will have quite a while to "play" on the internets now...like 6 weeks worth.

We'll talk soon. I think my meds are kickin' in.