Are You Ready For Some Football?!?

This past weekend Christian and his three brothers (John, Luke, and Keith) got together with our friend Sean and played some good old fashion touch football. The weather was perfect and it was great to see the boys re-live their glory days.

The cheering section was compiled of myself, my sister-in-law Krysty (John's wife), and Luke's girlfriend Emily. I brought my video camera and taped over thirty minutes of their game. (Once I figure out how to upload video onto my laptop I'll post a snippet from the game)

The boys really enjoyed their game and it was great to see all four brothers together. (It's rare to have them all in the same room, let alone with enough time to play) It was cute to see their enthusiastic spirits, and kind of funny to see their realization that they are no longer 18. Sad, but yeah, still funny.

Above: Taryn, Christian, Luke, Emily, Keith, John, and Krysty

Above: Christian, Luke, (Papa) John, Keith and John

A glorious sight!

I've lived in New Jersey for three years now and yesterday was the first time that I saw two missionaries trying to share the gospel with people in my area. It made my day to see them, I mean I was over come with delight, and although I couldn't pull my car over right at that very moment to run out and greet them, I did thank Heavenly Father for bringing them to my area and spreading his word.

Sunday night dinner

I write this blog entirely proud of myself this evening. Two days ago while watching The Food Network I was inspired to create a recipe seen on... I don't remember which show I was watching... oh! it was "Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller". Anyway, I was inspired to make one of her recipies. It was so easy, and turned out so yummy that I thought I would share it with whom ever reads my blog. Enjoy, and thank you Food Network and Robin Miller.

Roasted Stuffed Portobellos

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2 cooked chicken breast halves, diced
• 10-ounce package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and undrained
• 1/2 cup diced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes with 1 tablespoon oil from jar
• 2 tablespoons seasoned dry bread crumbs
• 4 large portobello mushroom caps, stems removed
• (I added grated parmesan cheese)
• (I also added thinly sliced onion)
• (I put it on a bed of rice)
  

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine chicken, broccoli (with liquid from package), sun-dried tomatoes with oil from jar, and bread crumbs (and onions and cheese if you want to try it my way). Toss to combine.

Arrange mushroom caps, stem side up, on prepared baking sheet. Fill each mushroom cap with chicken mixture. Roast 20 minutes, until filling is golden brown and mushrooms are tender.

Above: Her photo of the meal from the website.
Below: My leftover ready for lunch tomorrow!

house hunting

Christian and I have been house hunting in New Jersey for months now! Let me tell you, we are exhausted! We've stumbled across two final homes that we are trying to weigh the pros and cons on.

The first house is an older home with lots of character, but needs a lot of work! It is a four bedroom home, but only has one bath. The kitchen needs a complete overhaul. Every room in the house needs the floors to be sanded and refinished. All the windows need to be replaced, and the basement needs to be worked on because in a corner water comes in creating a mold problem. The positives, its in an area with a great school system. Its an easy commute to the office for Christian and I. The lot size is huge!!!! (60x207) And it's somewhat in our price range.



The second house is just over the town's boarder so its not in the same school district that we wanted. The taxes are VERY high, and although the backyard is pretty it doesn't have a big grassy area for kids to play in. The pros to this house, it is a three unit home. There is the main house that Christian and I would live in has three bedrooms and two full baths. Then it has a "mother-in-law" suite above the garage with one bedroom, one bath and a private entrance that we would rent out. Finally the the entire basement has already been converted into a private office space with 9 rooms. Obviously Christian would move his practice there and we would save money by not paying rent for the space we're in now. The main house doesn't need much work.






(above: in-law suite)


Christian is a little worried about how moving his practice 3 miles will affect his patients, and the taxes are scary for this house. The first house needs so much work and because its an older home who knows what complications we may run into while working on the house. We have some time to think about each as they've both been on the market for quite some time. We'll keep you posted.

Back to work

So I've spent 6 full weeks sitting around healing. After my visit with the doc on Friday I made the choice to see if I can rejoin the rest of the world and head back to work... with a much lighter work load. After all, I still have my brace so I'm just a one arm gimp, but honestly I can't sit at home any more by myself. I really was starting to go loopy. (talking back to the television commercials was my first clue.)

So I did a half day at the office with Christian on Friday and although he said he had a light afternoon schedule wise, we saw twice as many people than we do on an average day, so I was thrown back into the deep end... but I survived.

Then we did a street fair on Saturday. Which was fun because the weather was beautiful, and I got to see many of our patients that haven't seen me since the accident. But I couldn't really help with the posture screening, what with having only one arm and every thing. So by the end of the day I was pretty spent. Luckily I had Sunday to rest.

(Christian at our booth at the street fair)

Yesterday (Monday) I worked the afternoon with Christian, and I'm sad to say I think its still too soon to go back. By the end for the day I was exhausted and my shoulder was throbbing, so today I find myself back on the couch while Christian is at the office and his parents cover my absence. We're hoping that I'll feel up to going back in a day or so. We'll see.

Dr. update

I went to see my doctor on Friday to take my stitches out and see about getting rid of my brace. Well, we took new x-rays to see how my bone is healing, and it looks good. He's very happy with the alignment of the two pieces. He feels that after the year is you we'll hardly be able to tell where the break was.

We took off my surgical tape. The tape was sitting on my skin for three weeks, so the best way to explain how it felt when he took it off would be to imagine Bigfoot getting his leg waxed! Ouchie. The scar is four inches in length, but very thin. The only really odd looking thing is this rather big bump under the skin, which will come out after my second surgery in a year.

The good news, all of my stitches have dissolved, so there was nothing to remove. The bad news, one of my screws is slightly lifted out of the bone. Christian is getting a kick out of telling everyone that his wife has a screw loose. Very funny! Anyway, because of the "loose screw" I will wear my brace for three more weeks! So it will be a full six weeks by the time I get to take it off. My next visit is on Halloween. We'll see how it goes.

(Funny how all my photos have me wearing the same tank top. Its the easiest to get on... I promise I've washed it between photos hee hee)

Birthday

Yesterday was my 29th birthday. I wish I could say that it was a really happy day, but honestly it was just kind of a drag. I couldn't go anywhere because I am still healing from my surgery. (I shattered my right clavicle on Aug. 27th, in Klamath Falls, OR. I flipped an ATV down a cliff. I had to fly across the country back home to New Jersey and had surgery on Sept. 15th. They had to do a bone graph, place a plate over the bone and use several screws to hold it in place. Since then I have been wearing a brace that wraps around my rib cage and hold my right arm to my body from the elbow and the wrist.) So I spent the day not really doing much. Christian was at work all day, so I spent most of the day with the couch and remote.

I did get many phone calls from family members and friends to wish me a happy birthday, and check in to see how I'm feeling. Which, I know that they mean well, and want me to answer that I'm feeling great, but well, honestly, I'm starting to grow tired of the same set of questions.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow and he will take out my stitches, YEAH! and perhaps take off my brace. That would be soooo wonderful! Even if he gives me a sling to wear, it would still be WAY better than this poofy brace.

I think I'll post a few photos of the break. They aren't that bad. When it happened I never bruised, so it just looked like some strange thing poking up. But still, if you're the squeemish type it might get to you, so look at your own risk. I'm going to see if I can get a copy of my x-rays to post the break from the inside. It was, as my surgeon said, "a wicked break!" Maybe in the next week or two I'll be up to heading over to the hospital for the x-rays. We'll see.

First Blog Ever

So this is my first blog, and I'm sure that as I get into this online style of journaling I'll learn the ropes of it. But for now, I just wanted to send this tiny hello out into the world and see where it takes me. Short and sweet.