Broken Finger

Oh my! My finger is BROKEN!!  Don't worry, I didn't break it this past week, I broke it 4-6 weeks ago playing basketball.  I'm not really sure how long ago it was...  Anyway, I finally went to a doctor this last week because it STILL hadn't healed, and that seemed a little long for just a jammed finger.  Turns out I was right, but it also turns out it wasn't that bad.  The doctor said my ligament just pulled off a little piece of my bone.  He also said if I had come in right away he would have given me a cast/brace thing, but at this point I could just keep toughing it out.  That seems fair since I kept playing basketball through the last month.  He told me it could still be a few months before the bone reattaches and my finger is fully recovered, so hopefully I have a healed finger for Christmas.

The girls LOVE to help me do the laundry.  Winry started helping last week, so now I have two helpers!  Brooke already knows how to turn on and run both the washer and dryer, and if she could reach and open the laundry detergent on her own could do her own laundry... maybe I should move the detergent lower... :)

Winry was playing with Monica's new kitty, Penelope.  She was wearing it as a scarf and was SOO happy about it!

Brooke made Sunday night dinner last week!  She made moussaka (her choice!), which is Greek food.  It's kind of like lasagna, but with egg plant instead of noodles, and no pasta sauce.  It was REALLY good.  Brooke is becoming an excellent cook.  I took it for lunch many times through the week.

On Monday after my run in the morning Winry joined me to do some foam rolling.  She really likes foam rolling now!  Brooke and Winry love exercising, stretching, and foam rolling with me, and I love to have them with me!

Monday night, Brooke wanted to rider her bike, so we took a loop around the neighborhood.  Brooke has been loving her bike lately, and told me she'd love one with pedals.  I told her we should practice more with her balance bike to help her learn to balance, and then she'll be so ready for a pedal bike!  Also, while we were out we saw a leaf bug on a car.  Can't say I've seen one of those in a long time.

This past week, Monica and the girls had a bee scare in the car after they got gas at Costco.  They had seen something flying in the car earlier, but didn't realize it was a bee.  As they started driving home, Winry spotted the bee and started crying "BEE, BEE!!"  It started buzzing around Brooke and scared her and she started screaming as well.  Monica rolled down both Brooke's and her window to try to get it out, and once it was out she started rolling up the windows.  The bee landed on the window and the race was on.  Fortunately the windows JUUUUUST beat the bee... and probably chopped it in half.  You can see the end of the bee in the corner of the window. Once Brooke found out the bee got squished, she started crying and saying, I just wanted him to go back with his bee family! She's such a sweetie.

Sometime this past week, Monica was playing outside with the kids, and Winry started walking Moosie down the driveway!

I ran to the grocery store on the way home form work for Monica one day this past week, and went down the baking aisle to get some spices.  This meant I had to walk by the Jello and pudding and oreo desserts, or as we call them here in Parker, "vegetables!"

Yesterday Winry took a little nap in the stroller on our run, and therefore didn't take another nap later.  By mid-afternoon Brooke was also super tired and super whining.  We needed something to do not in our house, so I took the kids to the park.  Here's Brooke going down the slide all by herself.  We had a pretty good time, but eventually it was time to go home.  I offered to let the kids swing for a few minutes real quick before we left.  I swung for a little with Winry, but in the end it was easier to let her sit in the swing on her own.  She did a good job holding on the whole time, and this was her first time on the big kid swing by herself!  Once they were both on there, they were SOO happy, and it was a sharp contrast to the sadness and whining of home, so I decided we'd stay and swing for a while.  I let them swing for about 20 minutes before we finally left.

Today was the primary program, and not only that, but Brooke's first primary program!  Don't worry, they reminded us we weren't supposed to take videos or audio recordings, so I just got a picture of Brooke up at the front.  I maybe shouldn't have done that either, but it's her first time!  She did amazing.  She said her part loudly and clearly, and did a great job singing.  We could even hear her a little!  All in all, it was a wonderful program, and Brooke did an amazing job!

I believe that's all of the news around these parts for this week!  Have a wonderful week!

Proton testing at UC Davis

What a week!  I wrote my last blog post from California after checking into my hotel room.  I headed out for some radiation testing and was gone all week.  It was a rough week for Monica and the kids, but we were able to do many video calls, which hopefully helped.  When I got home the kids were very excited to see me and hang out all day long!  At one point I went to the bathroom and when I came out Winry was saying "hiding, hiding!"  Here's where I found them.

On Monday morning I woke up and found a bruise on my left wrist.  I have no clue what happened... but it was quite large.  My arm didn't hurt at all either.

We got into the facility on and started setting up Monday morning.  It's been 7 and a half years since I've been here, and this is where I did my first radiation test back in college!  It was pretty cool to be back.  I went and showed the medical room to the new people.  Patients with eye cancer come sit in that chair and get the beam line centered on their eye.  I won't pretend to understand the medical science behind this, but with all the radiation testing I've done I don't know if I could sit there...

Back at home Winry and Brooke were being best friends and having cuddle time together.  Winry has been really attached to Brooke lately.  This past week Brooke went over to a friends house, and when Winry realized that just Brooke was staying she started crying and saying "Brooke!  Brooke!"  It's great that they're best friends!  Speaking of being best friends, there was also some hard core dancing going on this past week!

Back at the beam we were setting everything up for testing.  Protons make the things they hit radioactive, which then results in radiation going everywhere, so we were putting special plastic bricks all over the place to try to protect our other electronics!

Brooke started wanting to cook more with Monica, and she has a kids cook book.  So this past week Brooke picked a few recipes and they made tacos!  Everyone loved them!  They even made extra, and we're going to have them again sometime soon.  Also, tonight Brooke is making moussaka. We've never had moussaka before, but that's what she picked!

After dinner they went for a walk around the neighborhood, and Brooke and Winry held hands while they walked!

The beam trip was pretty nice as far as beam trips go.  The lab is open 8 to 5, so no overnight runs or crazy hours this time.  That was nice because it was easy to get my runs in each morning, and while I did work longer than normal, it was more of a typical work schedule and I was able to call the girls in the morning and at night.  I got a picture in the facility control room.  The beam was built in the 60s, and has basically stayed unchanged since then!  You might be able to tell.

On Friday, when we finished our final testing, we were offered a facility tour.  They shut down the beam completely and opened up an 8ish foot thick door into the cyclotron.  In we went, and there were some pretty cool electronics in there.  Part of the beam was rebuilt last year because they had some o-rings that started to leak.  After they rebuilt the beam it took them months to figure out how to get the beam running again properly because the electric fields inside are so huge and sensitive to change that when they unplugged some cables to fix the o-rings nothing worked the same, and the beam was down for about a year in total between making the fix and re-figuring out how to run the beam line!  Pretty cool stuff.

Looks like Brooke and Winry slept in mine and Monica's bed on Friday night.  I'm not sure where Monica slept...  I actually ended up coming home Friday night.  Originally I was going to return in the middle of the day Saturday, but there was a mix-up with our hotel rooms and we were only booked rooms through Friday.  UC Davis semester starts next Monday, so it was easier to get a return flight Friday night than to find a hotel room, so back we came.  I ended up getting home around 12:30 am!

The girls were very happy to have me home on Saturday, and Winry just had to be with me when she woke up at 5:30.  Monica tried to let me sleep, but I offered to come sleep on the couch to appease Winry.  I did get to sleep some more, but Winry did spend a lot of time climbing on me and sharing my blanket.  I bought the girls books while I was on my trip, and I left them out on the table.  Winry brought them over for me to read to her while I was trying to sleep.  I got up for the day at 8, and a little later I took both of the kids running.  While the temperature wasn't really that hot on Saturday it was VERY HOT on my run, as the middle of the day was quite warmer than running first thing in the morning.  I made it through though, and Winry took her nap in the stroller. 

Before we went running, the snow clothes made their way out.  We opened the windows that morning, and it was in the 40s or something, and so I got a little cold.  The next thing I knew everyone was ready for winter!

After our run we had lunch, and I made the kids mac and cheese!  No wonder why they wanted me to come home so much!  Winry was worried about her's being hot, so she was blowing on it at every bite!

We watched the BYU football game, and Winry spent most of the day sitting on my lap.  Brooke spent a good deal of time cuddling next to me as well.  I think I might have been missed slightly while I was gone.  Shortly after we left to go running, Monica left for lunch with her friends and ended up getting home around the end of the football game.  I think it was good for her to get a break after flying solo with the kids for the past week.

Brooke has started to learn to draw animals, and this past week she even drew one all on her own!  She drew a bear on her whiteboard!  She was so excited they even turned it around to make sure Winry didn't erase it before I got home to see it.

I've still been a little tired from my trip today, so hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow.  It was a pretty good trip, and we were able to get everything done we needed to, and everyone survived at home!  As I'm finishing up writing this, Brooke is sitting next to me practicing her songs for the primary program next week!  This will be her first time!!  Also, you're invited to come if you'd like!  Sorry for the late notice!  Brooke invited our next door neighbor this past week the day she moved to Colorado Springs and she said she'd come!  So we're excited to see her there.

Missing my Girls!

Hello hello!  What a busy and kinda crazy week it's been.  I was originally supposed to be out of town on a work trip, but about 2 weeks ago they moved it back a week (surprise! I'm writing this from my hotel room).  Well, I was pretty sure the dates for this test were set in stone as the test was planned a few months ago, which gave enough time for us to plan a trip for Monica to go visit her sister, Melanie, in St. Louis.  Only one trip got moved back, and so on Tuesday everyone but Jelly left for vacation.  Brooke and Winry were very excited to see me at the airport when I picked them up!  In fact, I snuck up behind Winry and surprised her and she was SOOO happy!  She had a huge smile on her face for several minutes.  You can tell in the picture below!

So before everyone took off, first we had a visitor!  Gram came out to help Monica and visit Melanie together and help with getting through the airport.  On Monday night we headed to Benihana for Monica's birthday dinner (even though her birthday was a couple weeks ago!).  The girls had a great time, like, a REALLY great time!  Winry wasn't shaking with excitement in that video, but at some points she was.  It was just a party while we watched our food be made!  And Brooke really liked her hat-menu!

Here we all are after dinner!  We had a lot of fun, and it was great to have Gram join us.

On Tuesday Everyone took off for St. Louis and left me alone.  So what did I do? Naturally I worked on the basement every  night.  I finally got to making our windowsills.  We wanted to match upstairs, and the ones upstairs were custom cut work with a nice router edge on them, so I made boards to match.  Here's what it looked like before:

And here it is after!  I think I had the router bit just a little bit lower than the ones upstairs, but it still looks really good!  Definitely better than it did before.

While everyone was out we always try to do at least one video call each day.  The girls quickly found a favorite game to play with dad while we were talking, and that was to put me in Anaya's bouncer and bounce me!  I recorded my screen, so that's why there's no sound, but I'm still glad I got it documented.

On night while I was cleaning up my tools in the basement I saw a bunny that fell in our window well!!  So I hopped in and got it out.  Brooke and Winry were both very happy that I saved the bunny.

The cousins got to spend time together, and Brooke held Anaya!  They were all very happy to be together, or at least Anaya wasn't crying!

While out there they visited a local chocolate factory to Winry's delight!

And Brooke got to practice making chocolate herself!

They also went on a river cruise, and Brooke was very willing and happy to get a picture in front of the arch...

They also went to a free zoo, and of course they found the flamingos!!  What else would you go to the zoo to see?

The zoo had this cool drinking fountain that had spouts at all kinds of heights.  I thought this was really cool, so I decided to put it in.

Brooke slept on an air mattress, and Monica told me that it had a leak in it, so every night it got more and more deflated.  By the end of the trip it was deflated and ready to pack up, but you know what?  Brooke didn't mind one bit and slept just fine.

Meanwhile I spent my Saturday morning trying to finish up and clean up the garage for everyone's arrival home.  Here's the sawdust pile from all my work in the basement.

And here is the hall closet with it's permanent shelves all put up.  Just need to put some metal brackets on the walls so we can put the rest of the shelves up.

And here's the crazy angled closet in the bedroom.  I also finished up the molding in the places I could, and now that these shelves are up I can do the molding in the closets!

Brooke did great on the flights as she got to enjoy Doc McStuffins, and she also let her "red panda" watch along with her.

And soon we were all back together, and everyone was very happy about that!

We headed straight to a ward activity for dinner, which was a nacho bar, and then took the kids home for bed time.  Today I had to head to the airport right after church.  Winry fell asleep on the way, and I opened her door to give her a kiss goodbye, and when I closed it she woke up and started crying. :(  Sorry Monica!  Sounds like things were a little rough at home tonight, mostly because the kids were still tired after their trip.  As for me, I'm out in Davis, CA getting ready to start radiation testing tomorrow.  Hopefully everything goes well!

Labor Day-bor

Hello!  We had a wonderful week this past week, though Winry has worked her way into her tantrum phase and screams a lot...  Hopefully this passes soon, though I don't expect it will.  She'll be chugging along totally happy and then suddenly start screaming and crying about something, but she wont even try to tell us.  This past week while we were getting ready for bed the kids were sitting together in the chair and Monica asked Winry something.  She said "NO!" and then made this stinker face!!

On labor day we started things off in the morning taking the car to get the oil changed.  While we waited we went over to Salvation Army where the girls found this little couch.  It also can fold out into a bed, and the girls really loved playing on it.

Once we got the car back, we headed across the street to Lowe's to get some stuff for the basement, and then we headed to get some DONUTS!!  When we pulled up there was a sign saying they were sold out, but the owner came out and said they still had some if we wanted to come look.  They had everything we were looking for, which means they had a pink donut!  Everyone had a great time, and he even threw in a few extra donuts for free!!

We also had a lot of large items delivered from Home Depot on Monday.  Mostly large items such as long pieces of molding and large boards for shelving and stuff.  Here's a before picture of the basement without molding.

And here's the molding in!  I've done everything except about half of the bathroom.

And here's the hall all finished!  I just realized I should have taken some pictures of some of the crazy stuff I had to do around the doors, but when it's all done I'll do a video tour of the whole basement and things like that should be there then... I hope.

On Monday night, we had a fire in the back yard and roasted hot dogs and had s'mores.  When it was time to get going Monica found out we didn't have hot dogs... so she ran to the store to get some, and Winry pulled a prank on her while she was gone and dumped water all over her chair.  Fortunately it was warm enough that the chair dried off pretty quickly.

On Tuesday Liam (he lives next door) came over to play with Brooke.  They had a good time together, and Winry tagged along with them.  On Wednesday Brooke went to his house to play, and when Monica got home with Winry she realized Brooke was gone and got really sad and kept saying "Brooke, Brooke!!" because she wanted to be with her sister!

Winry has been very cuddly with blankies lately, and that includes anything carry-able and made of cloth, including Norwex products!  What a silly.

On Wednesday we swam in our back yard and had a lot of fun.  Brooke went down the slide most of the time we were out there, and Winry was happy to just splash.  The water was pretty cold, which felt good on my legs as I started a new training block this last week.  We stayed in there until just before dinner time, and then came in and dried off and changed for dinner.

This past week Winry was trying to push both the shopping cart and stroller.  She ended up pushing the shopping cart with one hand, and looping her arm around the stroller and walked around the house.  It was really cute.  She really likes to put a baby doll, or other type of baby- like a shoe, paper or food in there and push them all around the house.

Yesterday when I went to mow the lawn, Brooke wanted to come out and watch.  When we went to the back yard she wanted to go check on the garden and found a snake!  She was a bit worried about it being a diamond back rattle snake, and nothing I said could really convince her otherwise.  Fortunately, we both stayed safe from the snake, and when I finished mowing it had moved on and we were able to go pick some tomatoes out of the garden.

After mowing the lawn I put up shelves in our laundry area in the basement!  It looks so much nicer now, and it's so much more functional!

And just for reference here's what it looked like before we began.  Just a little bit different.  Just a little bit nicer.

I got a new calling this past week, and today was my first day in nursery!  So now I get to spend second hour playing with little kids, and Winry will be joining me in just a few months (I'm in senior nursery and she's in junior right now).  I think that's all I've got for this week.  Hope everyone else had a fun and busy Labor Day, and a great week since!