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.

Nifty Nephews

May has been a busy month for us, but most notably, I want to blog about news of our nephews, both of which we are quite proud!
On May 11th (Mother's Day), we attended Evan's dedication to First Christian Church here in Lincoln. Evan was all smiles during the dedication and even shared a few giggles and baby babble as we surrounded him with prayer. We enjoyed spending the afternoon with both the Lefler and Foster families!

On May 23rd, Brandon graduated from Wabasso Public High School. He was selected by school faculty as a scholarship recipient. One of Brandon's teachers wrote an amazing recommendation which I must share...
"I have had the privilege of knowing and working with Brandon Baune for the past six years. As junior high art instructor, I had Brandon in my art classes both his seventh and eighth grade years. In addition, I am the senior high English instructor and Brandon has been in my college-bound language arts classes both his junior and senior years. What a very fine young man he is! Wabasso Public School is a kindergarten through twelfth grade facility, so all of the students are integrated in many shared spaces throughout the day. Given this situation, I was aware of Brandon long before I actually knew him as a student of mine. Even as a very young child, he gave me reason to be impressed by his determination. Wearing braces and moving with effort through the hallways, Brandon carried himself with a dignity not typical of one so young, but certainly characteristic of one who has faced challenges early on and decided they would not govern his life. He did not then, nor has he since, allowed his disability to determine who he was, who he is, and who he will become. If you want a role model for students to emulate, if you want an adolescent to show an older generation the quality of the young, if you want a hero for anyone in anytime from anywhere; then, I give you Brandon Baune. What strength, what personal courage this young man possesses. When even walking was a challenge for him, Brandon pursued every sport he could. Football, basketball, baseball - these were sports his father had participated in and loved, so Brandon followed in his father's footsteps even if his own feet needed a set of braces to carry him. So unassuming in the face of such physical adversity, Brandon never even seems aware that he has any disadvantage whatsoever. He expects no special treatment; he proceeds as usual; he would be genuinely surprised if anyone expected him to behave otherwise. My admiration for him is literally boundless. Given the affliction of spina bifida, most of us would respond with a certain amount of self-pity and carry a harder edge in our sympathies because, after all, why should we feel compassion for others when we are thus burdened ourselves? Not so with Brandon. He is one of the kindest, most sympathic and compassionate of young men. If I were in trouble and in need of help, I would hope Brandon were close by because I would be assured of "rescue" from my predicament. He is dependable, resourceful, gracious - such stuff as heroes are made. You don't have to ride a white horse to be a knight in shining armor; sometimes, you just have to spend a childhood standing on your own two feet in leg braces. Without any disability at all, Brandon would be worthy of a financial scholarship. He has always been a conscientious student whose hard work and preparation mark him as an asset in any classroom. Cooperative and mature, Brandon handles all classroom environments with ease and a kind of grace borne of adversity, which makes him well-liked and accepted by all. He would be any teacher's choice as a scholarship recipient well within his own right. But that is not quite the case here, for Brandon is not only all the things a valuable student should be; Brandon is all things a valuable human being should be. Despite pain, despite physical impediment, despite the permanent punishment of a body that will not always do what he wants it to, despite all of this, Brandon has pursued excellence. He has taken what by rights should be a crippling disability and used it to become a young man of principles standing heads taller than most of us mere ordinary beings who certainly have not even walked around the block, let alone a mile, in his shoes. For all that he already is, be a part of his future and help him in all that he will surely become."

The game that never ends!

This past week has been a busy one for us! On Monday night, we took care of Evan. I snuck out to go to a neighbor's Pampered Chef party, while Mike worked his magic and rocked Evan to sleep. Our neighbors, who live DIRECTLY across the street from us, put up an "It's a Boy" sign in their yard in January. One would think that Mike and I might have noticed she was expecting a baby, but nope, we had no idea. New Year's resolution item #26: Get to know the neighbors. On Tuesday night, Mike trained a group of Relay for Life volunteers on 'telling their ACS story'. Wednesday brought 275 miles to the new Malibu as I had a customer appointment in Kearney. On Thursday night, we went to Marcia and Casey's church to attend their annual event called "Tacos and Talent". Marcia pulled off a wonderful surprise during the talent show as she sang (while accompanying herself on the piano) Martina McBride's "There You Are" for Casey in honor of their 5-year wedding anniversary. Even Mike got involved as he was recruited to play the United States President in one of the skits (pictured above). To round out the week, we got tickets from a friend to the Husker baseball game on Friday night. We made it to the ballpark shortly after 6:00pm and 3 hot dogs, 1 Pepsi, 1 hot chocolate, 387 sunflower seeds, 9 runs and 16 (yes, I said SIXTEEN) innings later, we headed home at midnight. Thank goodness it was cold and rainy today, so I could sleep in and not feel guilty about another weekend of no progress on the landscaping front!

New Car

Mike and I have been car searching this past week. From the start, I was set on getting a GM vehicle, so I could redeem the "reward dollars" built up through use of my GM card. As luck would have it, a local dealership (of which, is a bank customer of mine!) made a dealer trade for a 2008 Malibu LS on Tuesday. It was on the lot about 3 hours before I purchased it. The trade-in offer for my Grand Am was above Kelley Blue Book price. Mike said they must not know what our garage floor looks like!! My car has been leaking coolant for the past few months and was getting to the point where a repair was inevitable. Time to trade! I've been enjoying air conditioning again and a crack-free windshield. It does feel as though every car near me is following ENTIRELY too closely!