Fall Weather And Other Thankfuls

I am pretty sure this is the first time I have opened my computer in exactly one week. I really need to shake off this writer's funk and get my shizz together. Maybe it will help to be thankful? Surely, it will!

1. Fall is finally here! Now, I hate, hate, HAAAAATE cold weather (unless I get a snow day out of it), but I love the clean, crisp air of fall! Our leaves aren't changing yet, save for a single leaf here and a single leaf there, but FALL, people!

2. Volleyball still sucks. I'm not going to lie. But the JV team, on which my daughter is now playing (and please, don't get me started on the unfairness of this) won both their games this week. That team she USED to be on, the one she worked so hard to make and which she, so she's been told, single handedly has caused to lose nearly every single game they have played even though she has only lost them a handful of points, lost both of their games. By a lot. Bam!

3. I'm thankful for a daughter who may fall apart about said treatment at home, but at practice and at games, she keeps her chin up and a smile on her face. I should do the same, but I'm not as good at hiding how I feel as she is.

4. I'm really thankful for my good friend and fellow bleacher buddy Melinda. She was one of my very first friends when I moved here 17 years ago, and I'm happy to say she's one of the best!

5. Funny preschoolers. Instead of straightening my hair, I wore my hair in its natural state (wildly curly) this week for the first time since school started, and one of my 3 year old girls looked up at me, smiled sweetly, and asked, "Did you take a shower?" "Because of my hair?" I asked her. "Uh huh!" she nodded happily, and I laughed and laughed. 

6. Unless we are cooking or doing something else special, our preschoolers take turns providing snack for the class. Popular choices are goldfish crackers, Cheez-its, fruit snacks, cheese, cookies, etc. On Tuesday, the snack helper for my primary class brought watermelon (cut into bite sized pieces and in a clear, plastic box from the produce dept. at the grocery store). We've never had that for a snack before, and while messy, most of the kids loved it (I have eight 3 years olds in that class). When snack was over, I took the nearly empty box to the water fountain right outside the door to drain the juice out of it before putting it in the trash, because we all know trash bags are great and all, but they aren't leak-proof. I had the lid loosely over the box and was straining out the little bits and pieces of watermelon that were still in there as I poured AND WAS NEARLY DONE when something horrible happened and the box slipped. I do NOT know exactly how this all happened, as it went down quick and ugly, but the remaining watermelon and juice flew out of the box and against the wall above the water fountain, as well as IN the water fountain, down the sides of it, onto the wooden steps there to help preschoolers reach said water fountain AND onto the floor. What was probably only about a quarter of a cup of watermelon bits and juice appeared to be more like an entire watermelon. With a deep sigh (and, surprisingly, no bad words from me), I got paper towels and was in the midst of the clean up process when Vanessa, the church office administrator, came up the stairs. "Did you take a picture of it for your blog?!" she asked. Dammit! No, I did not! But know what makes this a thankful? That Vanessa's first thought was that it was great material for my blog. She's a fan and I appreciate it more than she knows.

7. Can that one be two? It was really long....

8. I'm thankful for the positive benefits of living in a small town. I did something earlier this summer to goober up my achilles tendon (I have a vague recollection of it popping as I stretched up on tiptoe to reach a high shelf). My heel has been pretty tender all summer, and I have been doing heel stretches in an attempt to make it feel better. Then two weeks ago, when I took Lizzi on her Tour de Missouri (blog post to come, I swear!), I put on real shoes instead of flip flops for the first time since, oh, May, walked for miles and climbed on rocks that nearly were the death of me (teaser), and the back of my heel became swollen and painful. REALLY swollen and REALLY painful. And kept getting worse. I was able to wear a pair of TOMS shoes, since the part that touches the heel is soft and I could slide it under the swollen part, but all other shoes are out for me. And it's fall. After Thursday's volleyball home game, I showed it to the athletic trainer and asked him what he thought about it. He thought I could have torn part of the tendon. The dad of one of the team members just happens to be an orthopedic surgeon, and while he wasn't there that night, his wife was, so, at the trainer's suggestion, I asked her to take a picture of it and ask her husband what he thought. And she did, texted it to him, and got me a tentative diagnosis of retrocalaneal bursitis. He advised ice, ibuprofen, heel stretches and clogs and let him know if that didn't make it better (which research on The Google tells me would mean four to six weeks in a walking boot to immobilize it until it heals). Try to accomplish a diagnosis and treatment plan that quickly and inexpensively (i.e., free) in a big city, why don'tcha?

9. The second thankful here is that the doctor VERY CLEARLY has instructed me to go shoe shopping.

10. I have loads and loads and LOADS of laundry to do today, which isn't my favorite way to spend a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon, but by the end of the day, I will have put my electric mattress pad on the bed and made it up with fresh sheets and a couple of blankets and I will be ready for cool weather!

I don't even have pictures to use this week for my post.
Enjoy this instead....

How the heck are y'all, anyway? I've missed you, even if I haven't been making the rounds of your blogs lately. Do link up with us at Ten Things of Thankful. It really does make you feel better.

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