I tried to hack my foot off with a razor ...

You would think that I was tired.  Or in a hurry.  Or using an old razor.  Or that I was 12 and just learning how to shave. But no, I was not tired, or in a hurry, or using an old razor.  And I have been shaving for about 15 years.  And yet I managed to get the most nasty cut I have ever had from shaving.  It is about four inches long, nice and jagged around the edges, and hurts like crazy!

All I can figure is that there was a small bump or something left over from a mosquito bite.  I must have caught it and tore off everything with it as I went up.  It bled like you wouldn't believe!  It took me four band-aids to get it covered up, and it still bled through them.

 I decided to try the liquid band-aid stuff to see if that would work better.  Holy cow, PAIN!!!! I sounded like I was having a baby while I was waiting for it to dry.  OUCH!!! It did work better than the other band-aides, though the next day it got super infected.  I tried putting gauze on it and wrapping it with an ace bandage.  Did pretty well until the gauze stuck to it, in spite of the copious amount of neosporin that I put on!  Not very pleasant to remove.

So now it is back to four band-aids a day.  I need to come up with some cool story, because this thing is sure to scar!  And "Well, you see, I was shaving" isn't really impressive!

Mrs. Wonka

I take each of my niece's shoe shopping for their birthday each year.  It is a tradition I have grown to love.   They get to pick whatever shoe's they want, and we get some fun time together.  This is one of the conversations I had with Maddie in the car on our way to the shoe store.

Maddie: Hey Katie, do you want to hear about my dream?

Me: Of course!

Maddie: Well, you see, I married Willy Wonka

Me: Oh you did?

Maddie: Yep.  But I wasn't a kid like I am now.  I was old enough that I could get married.

Me: And how old is that?

Maddie: 17

Me: Oh, so you were 17 and marrying Willy Wonka?

Maddie: Yep.  He told me that if I married him I could have all of the candy in the factory for free.  So I was going to marry him.

Me: So you were marrying him because you wanted the candy?  Did you love him?

Maddie:  No.  But I wanted A LOT of candy.  And do you know how much money that would cost?  A LOT.  So I was going to marry him.

Me: You must have REALLY wanted that candy!

Maddie: I did!   But then someone else came and I loved him and decided I didn't want to marry Willy Wonka any more.  And he was really, really mad.

Me: Oh dear!  What did you do? 

Maddie: I ran away!  And I woke up.

Me: Well I'm glad you got away!

Liz, when this girl turns 17 I would keep an eye out!  And keep her away from the candy stores!

(PS - after this conversation with Maddie I changed my list of things that I am looking for in a future husband.  Forget a good guy with motivation in life and a love for the outdoors, now I am looking for a man who owns a chocolate shop!)

I'm a good girl, I am!

My cute friends, Mona and Esther, had and extra ticket and invited me to go to the Utah Opera Festival performance of My Fair Lady with them. I, of course, was thrilled!

We sat on the 9th row in the middle.  Seriously, you can't find better seats!  It was the UOF last performance of the year, and My Fair Lady was their biggest success to date, selling out every single show.   It was easy to tell why.  I was enthralled from the moment it started until the end.  You couldn't get a better show on Broadway.  It was phenomenal.

Esther and I got a picture with Freddy.  He is pretty much crouching here so as to not tower over us :) Yay for short girls!

After the show we decided that such an amazing night needed to end with pie.  So we ran over to Village Inn for a midnight treat of pie and onion rings.  As you can tell, we took the healthy road ;-)

I am still in love with their Lemon Supreme pie.  If you have never had it and you like lemon things, you should run their now!  It is like a Lemon Meringue pie and a cheesecake had a baby.   Love that stuff!

A fantastic play, a fabulous treat, and all with two fun friends - what a perfect Saturday!

A Farewell to Summer

We used the last week of summer to run away from life and play at Bear Lake.  The weather was lovely, the water was warm, it was an ideal day! 

My dad rented a couple of paddle boards.  He had read about them in the newspaper and was super curious.  He wanted to see if we would like them and use them. 

 

And like them we did!  The girls played on them for hours! 

 

Little miss Aubrey couldn't get enough!  She is a water baby to the core! 

 Vi, on the other hand, not so much!

I was still recovering, so I spent the day in a chair on the beach.  I did get some good cuddle time with Violet! 

 

 

We celebrated Madison's fifth birthday while we were there and enjoyed one last day in the sun.  It was the perfect way to end the summer!

The Wicked Miracle

Do you remember how I came home from Guatemala just in time to go to Wicked with my family and then ended up in the hospital the day I was suppose to be at the theater?  The rest of my family headed to SLC to enjoy the show while I was wheeled down for a CT scan.   It was so disappointing!  Since the shows had been sold out for months  I didn't think there was a chance I would get to go.  Then, the night before the last show, I was offered a ticket.  I didn't think twice and took it!

Not only did I get a ticket to Wicked, but I got a seat right next to Ashley and her family!  Does it get any better?  Ashley's family is kind of like my second family, so getting to spend the afternoon with them mixed with one of the greatest musicals makes for one of the best Saturday's ever!!!

The play was phenomenal, the cast was amazing.  Glinda was absolutely perfect and had me giggling the whole time!  It gave me goosebumps and almost had me in tears.  It is a play I could see again and again.  The storyline is compelling and the music fits perfectly.  I didn't think seeing Wicked this summer would be a possibility, but it happened! Hooray for miracles!

Once Upon A Time ...

There was a crazy red head who blogged every day for the first 18 days of July (life was super exciting, so there was lots to blog about!) Then one day she got sick.  Really, really sick.  There was nothing to blog about as she slept and did little else.  It was during this time that she realized something - her next post would be her 500th Post!  Exciting, right?  She desperately wanted to do something epic for this monumental post, but couldn't figure out quite what.  So she did nothing (not the path I would generally suggest when you don't know what to do).   And then time passed.  And things happened.  And she wanted to blog about them, but she didn't want to steal the super cool 500th post position with something only mediocre.  The posts she needed to do backed up as school started and life got crazy and the great idea for a 500th post still eluded her.  Then one day she sat down and decided she wasn't allowed to leave until she had posted her 500th post, epic or not (more likely not :)

As I have pondered my 500th post I have thought about why I blog.  Some people say it was a fad that has now been overshadowed by pintrest.  I love me some pintrest, but I also enjoy blogging.  I realize I don't have a sensational blog that is followed by thousands or hundreds of people, but that is okay with me.  For me blogging has been a way of following my life.  It has also helped me to pay more attention to the things going on around me.  It helps me to notice the unusual things that happen, and laugh at things that otherwise might make me cry.  It is my record of the happenings.  My mix of a journal and a scrapbook.  It keeps me in touch with friends and family who live far away, and it allows me to write (something I LOVE to do, and should do more of).  So while it may be a passing fad, for now I will continue onward, because for me it works.  I enjoy it, and I enjoy reading others blogs.  

When I started this blog I was 22 with no idea what my future would hold.  I had just returned home from my mission and was a bit out of sorts.  I was going to college and working as a switchboard operator.  In the almost five years since then I have done my student teaching, graduated from college, gone to Spain, got my first teaching job, survived the first year (and second, and third), bought a house, and traveled to Guatemala and around Central America.  I've learned a lot.  I've grown.  I have had amazing experiences, and excruciating heartbreak.  I am now 27, and still have no idea what my future will hold. But that's okay. 

I decided that for my 500th post I would pick my top 10 favorite posts I have done.  Turns out it is kind of hard.   I went through all of them and had a great time laughing and reminiscing (see, blogs are fun!) I realized a few things.  1) - I have far more embarrassing moments than I should.  And they are funny 2)- The year 2010 was really slow and uneventful in my life 3)- I like to start my posts with titles that end in ...  go figure.  I narrowed it down to 15.  Then to 12.  And then I gave up.  So here it is:

My Top 10 12 Favorite Blogs Posts from Kate's Corner

Mission Weird  - aka, first post ever.  

The Adventures of Paula and Katie - Makes me smile every time

How did THAT happen? - HA!

First a Spanish kiss . . . then this!  -My very own Spanish love ;-)

Just Horsing Around in Oregon - Horseback riding on the beach will forever be one of my favorite things ever

Dear First Grade - A reminder of why I love it

Because I don't embarrass myself enough ... - Of all my embarrassing moments, this is a classic

That Time I Went on a Polygamist Date - So weird ...

The Great Skydiving Adventure (in pictures) - A dream come true!

Mud Madness - So much fun!

Family Pictures - 2012 - We have taken family pictures three times, and I have posted about them all, but these are my favorite

A Birthday in Tikal - What a birthday it was!

Happy 500th Post!

Forced Relaxation

I don’t do “nothing” well.  I am a like to go places and do things.  Of course I enjoy having the occasional day off to rest and relax, but a day or two is plenty.   Because of this, the last few weeks have been hard for me!   I was sent home from the hospital with strict instructions to take it easy.  My hospital doctor told me to plan for a month before I was recovered.  My normal doctor (who I had to visit with a few days after being released from the hospital) told me that it would take between two weeks and a month.  I decided to be on the two weeks end of the spectrum.

The first few days of being home passed quickly, because I slept through them.  Seriously, I probably slept at least 16 hours for the three days after I got home.  My body was recuperating, and I was exhausted from the hospital (no one ever tells you that you can’t actually sleep in the hospital since they come in every hour to check your vitals or give you medicine – the worst is when they wake you up to make you eat something so that they can give you your medicine!)

 When I wasn’t asleep I was bundled up on the couch, watching TV.  And eating.  Oh how I eat.  It was like my body had been starved forever, and I could eat forever.    My sweet mom kept my fridge well stocked with lots of fruits, yogurt and crackers.   I couldn’t eat much, but I was eating about once an hour.  I was so concerned over this fact that I asked my doctor about it.  He told me it was normal, and that my body was trying to heal and get back all the nutrients I had lost so I should keep eating.  I did.

The first week passed quickly as I slept, ate, and watched both seasons of Downton Abbey and copious amounts of the Food Network.   The second week I started to feel better and become more bored.  I am at a point where I am doing well enough to be up and about, but I have to be careful not to do too much, or I pay for it by sleeping through the next day.   I finished all my antibiotics (hooray!)  and I really think that two weeks might be what I am looking at for healing time (and I am only a few days away from that!)

The thing I miss most right now is the ability to exercise.  It’s funny how you really don’t want to exercise until someone tells you that you absolutely cannot do it.   I’ll have to keep with that one for a few more weeks and hope that when I can exercise again I still want to!

That is what I have been up to – forced relaxation.  Not my favorite thing, but totally worth it to have a healthy body again.  I am grateful all this happened in the summer so that I do not have to use huge amounts of sick days and make all sorts of substitute plans.  I have to admit, I have never been so grateful to have a healthy body in my life, and am very excited to get back to “normal”!