False Alarms

Aside from routine annual check-ups, I had not been to the doctor for the past 12 years. I am every insurance company's dream come true. Every sore throat, ear ache, runny nose, fever, cough, ache and pain has been successfully self-medicated with a regimen of Tylenol, Nyquil and rest. However, for the past two months, I have been battling pain in my right foot, just below the ankle bone. It is a very strange, sharp, shooting pain, that primarily strikes when I have my foot elevated, most notably when I am sleeping (well, trying to sleep). One would think it would hurt when I put weight on it, run, walk up steps, stand on one leg, etc., yet no, the pain occurs when the foot is at rest. Mulling over this pain for several weeks, I had convinced myself that something quite serious was wrong - gout? a blood clot? Concerned the blood clot would soon travel to my heart, I decided a trip to the doctor was inevitable. (My husband thinks I read too many freak health stories on the internet, and my other downfall is that I come from a long line of worriers - yes, mom, you know it's true.) So, yesterday, I broke down and went to a doctor. The prognosis...inflamed cartilage (what's left of it) in the point of the foot where several little bones come together. This is common in the foot of a runner (or a previous runner, now I am more accurately referred to as a jogger) where the cartilage in the joint has experienced a lot of pressure. The doctor kindly advised this is likely the onset of arthritis in the ankle joint. Yikes, I thought I just hit my 30th birthday? The prescription: rest.

On the subject of rest, which was my intention this evening, here is how our evening actually turned out:
An acquaintence of Mike's (Nick) has been building a retaining brick wall in both the front and back yards. Today, as per the Nick's instruction, we had 3 yards of black dirt delivered to our driveway. I had no idea how much 3 yards of dirt would amount to. Nick come over and worked from 5:00pm -8:00pm and moved what looked like a mere dent in the pile of dirt. We checked out the weather forecast and to our surprise, found a line of rain showers potentially headed our way. Hummm, what happens to a pile of dirt when saturated with rain?...our greatest fear, a big block of mud!!! So, at 8:15pm we headed outside to finish off the pile. At 10:15pm, when we could barely see the end of our noses, we finished with the final load. We headed inside, showered and settled in to watch the news - just in time to see the weather forecast. Interestly, the storm cells had headed south. Just our luck! We'll post some landscaping pictures over the weekend to show off our work.

Relay For Life and Balls and Strikes

Often times during the summer, we find ourselves getting so busy, that we need to have a weekend to recover from our weekend. This weekend was one of those.

Friday night, we both attended the Waverly Relay For Life, an event that took in more than $32,000 for research, education, advocacy and research for the American Cancer Society. Having recently purchased a new video camera, I took it upon myself to shoot some footage and create a short video on the event and will do so at all Relays that I will attend for the rest of the summer. Below you'll see a "rough draft" of the video.

Saturday was a cleaning day for Lisa while I attended another Relay For Life, this time in Omaha at Millard West High School. It's Nebraska's largest RFL and was goaled at $475,000 (no word what was actually raised yet).

On Sunday, we made the trek to the College World Series in Omaha. We suffered through seven innings of a blowout game with Fresno State dropping Rice 17-5. Even though it wasn't much of a game, we really enjoyed the atmosphere. It's great to have such a unique event so close to home. Believe it or not, no silly questions from Lisa during the game like "Why do they keep itching and spitting?". However, she was rooting for Rice because (and I quote) "Mmmm, I like rice" although I think she's getting this baseball thing down pretty well. :)

Stormy Night!

With the addition of a new video camera in the Lefler family, we were just in time to bring you footage of the severe weather that hit Lincoln. Some eerie clouds looming to our west. Tornados were spotted all over southeast Nebraska but no reports of damage as of 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

Weekend Guests

We had a fun-filled weekend as mom and dad come from Minnesota to visit. On Saturday evening, Mike's parents, Marcia Casey and Evan were all able to join us. As an early Father's Day activity, we took my dad to the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland (NE) on Sunday afternoon.