Sunday, December 25, 2011

12.25.11



































12:40 PM

Jon and I got these remote control cars for our nephews for Christmas.  The box said they could do jumps and flips, so I encouraged Keegan that he "should totally make the car jump down the step!"  One of the axels on the car broke after he did that.  woops.  I ruined Christmas.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

12.24.11



































6:00ish

My cousin won this Emmy.  An honest to goodness, for real Emmy award.  He brought it to Christmas so he could show it off to everyone.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

6.11.11





On an unseasonably cool day in june, we saw Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown Band and Billy Currington at Lambeau.  Wow.  This was a great concert.  It actually might go down as the top 5 most fun day of my life.  Tailgating started at about noon and we finally made it into the concert at about 5....where we stayed until about 11.  All 3 acts put on a great show and I think everyone there (including Billy Currington, Zac Brown and Kenny Chesney) knew they were lucky to be there since this was the first concert ever at Lambeau.  

Sunday, August 28, 2011

6.10.11



Cooper and Gina did the Bellin Kids Run back in June.  I think it was a quarter of a mile.  Basically, they ran around the block. It was so cute!  

6.7.11



When I was deciding if I would go through with this surgery, I did a lot of research online to hear about other stories of people who have had ACL revisions.  I found a lot of negative stories unfortunately, but still went ahead with the operation after talking with a lot of real people who thought there was a need for it to be done (PTs, trainers, doctors, athletes who had the same injury).  So in case anyone who is in my same position and is googling "ACL revision" looking for a success story, I am recording it here.  (it is probably a little early to gauge if i am truly a success story, but so far so good).


Day 1: was able to do a single leg raise at PT
Day 4: able to lift leg in and out of bed on my own
Day 5: comfortable walking with partial weight bearing with 2 crutches
Day 6: saw my doctor, he is impressed with my quad strength.  mentioned that the 3 months of PT I went through prior to surgery has really helped.
Day 8: dragged myself out of the house to go to class
Day 9 : started to use 1 crutch in controlled environments for safety, but able to limp around with no crutches
Week 2 : went back to work
Week 4 : started driving
Week 6 : officially got clearance to stop wearing brace...although, I sometimes didn't wear it prior to that when I was at home and work.
Week 13: quad strength is about 75% of my good leg.  ham string is about 95%.  Got clearance to slowly reintroduce running into my life.

As for general recovery and where I still feel "off": 
-I still have a lot of numbness in my knee area. 
-When I get up from a chair after sitting for a while, my knee is a little sore and is kind of creaky as I try to straighten in. 
-Still cant kneel without major discomfort, but I am not expecting to for a long time.
-Sometimes I feel pain in the inside of my knee where I felt pain when it was torn. I know isn't torn, but I am hyper-sensitive about retearing and not knowing since that has happened already. I got definite confirmation all is good at my 6 week appt when my doc did (an extra agressive, IMO) Lachman test and it was totally solid. 

So, that is about where I am at now.  I have run a few times since I have had clearance. My PT has given me strict orders NOT to just go out and run 3 miles the first time I went out (ummm, as if my lungs would even be able to do that anyway.  Havent been running for at least 9 months).  I have been doing a 2 min run, 1 min walk thing for now.  The first time was a little rough.  I felt some pain while running, so had to be conscious of  my posture and attempt to keep my body aligned.  Poor body alignment is what we (who am I kidding - my doc and PT) have kind of decided is part of the reason why I continue to have this injury.  Anyway, I was reeeaaally sore the next day.  The next few times went really well though!  No soreness in my knee, just my legs/muscles, which is a good sign.

6.4.11



Shari's shower and bachelorette party.  We had a good time, to say the least.  I got clearance to not wear my brace earlier in the day and I definitely put it to the test on the dance floor that night.  I was in good hands though since almost half of the people at the party were PTs.

Friday, May 13, 2011

5.12.11



6:28 pm

Sorry if this is gross. I went under the knife for the second stage of an ACL revision a few weeks ago.  Recovery is going really well. My PT has had me focused on getting the swelling down though. My range of motion is progressing really well, but the balloon-like shape my knee has morphed itself into is hindering my ability to bend as far as I probably could if wasn't so swollen. So yesterday I was sitting against the wall with my leg in the air letting gravity do its thing, when I noticed how freakishly tiny my leg is!  I'm not sure why I was so shocked since this is not the first time my knees have been operated on, but seriously...look at it. My calf is concave.

4.23.11



2:23 pm



4:18pm

Love these guys.

Monday, May 09, 2011

4.17.11



11:44 am

Shari and I threw a baby shower for Lindsay's little bambina arriving at the end of May.  It was such a nice afternoon.  The shower started at 10:30am and I honestly thought people would probably be gone by 12:30 at the latest.  Instead our little group stuck around and talked until the late afternoon.  Always a great time with these ladies!

4.10.11



4:35 PM

I saw another blogger add time stamps to their daily pictures.  I decided I liked that and am ripping off this idea.  I think it adds another dimension to the picture...imagining what might have been happening before, after or while the picture was taken.  In this case, I went to Dizzy's on an unseasonably warm Sunday night.  We were waiting outside for her sister to arrive with our dinner and I took a few shots of Char.

4.9.11



1:04 am

(I guess technically this was taken on April 10th, but I am calling it April 9th.) Thomas turned 21 y'all! In celebration, we went out to celebrate at the finest that Water Street and Old World Third Street had to offer.  We drank, we danced and we drank a little more.  A funny sidenote: Tom wears plaid shirts like the one is fashioning in this picture often.  Meghan thought it would be great if we all wore plaid shirts to be just like him.  Such a great idea, so I came to Milwaukee armed with my favorite plaid shirt of the moment.  However, when I got to Meghan's, it turned out it was basically the same one she was wearing. Sooo, I ended up nixing the plaid shirt so as not to be twins with Meghan (because people mistake us for twins all the time.....yeah right.)  Thomas, Meghan and Taylor certainly nailed the plaid shirt theme though.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

4.5.11



On our last day, we went to dinner at our favorite place, Mon Ami Gabi.  The atmosphere is always perfect and as a bonus, the food is so delicious.  It was the perfect way to end our trip.

4.4.11



This was the most expensive meal we have ever had. This restaurant exists in New York and apparently it is super exclusive. It is impossible to get a reservation and there might be people who have memberships there, I think. I had heard about this place and their legendary meatballs on the Food Network and on Top Chef, so I knew we had to go there since I knew we would never make it to the NY one.  I am here to tell you the meatballs were delicious.  I have never been so stuffed in my entire life though...and woah, we spent a lot.

4.3.11



It was Country Music Mania the weekend we were in Vegas.  The ACM Awards were in town and we got to go to the award show....kind of.  The real award show was happening at MGM, but there was a simulcast with a few performances and a couple awards given out at Mandalay Bay, which we were at!  After the awards show, there was a full on concert with about a dozen artists who sang about 3 of their most popular songs.  It was amazing and we were not expecting it.  After everything was over, we ended up being at Mandalay Bay for about 7 hours listening to country music.

4.2.11



Day 2 of our vaca consisted of a visit to the Neon Museum.  This is a really cool thing to do - it was a guided tour that took us through a maze of old signs that had great stories behind them. Highly recommend this.

Later that night we went to Mandalay Bay beach to see Dierks Bentley.  After unsuccessfully trying to see him twice last summer, we finally saw the guy! Who would have thought it would end up happening in Vegas though. Unfortunately he already has a new album out, so some of my favorite songs of his from Up On The Ridge were a thing of the past.  Waaaaa! He was still great otherwise though.

4.1.11



We went to Vegas for almost a week in the beginning of April - sort of as a 30th bday celebration, sort of because we got a screamin deal on a hotel that we felt like we couldnt pass up.  We stayed for pretty much 5 full days, which seems like a long time to be in Vegas, but since we had such a great deal on the hotel, we gladly welcomed the extended vegas vaca.

The first day we were there, we saw Viva Elvis (which was not that great) and as we were leaving the theater we ran into a crowd of people around Toby Keith! Confession: I love Toby Keith. It was he and Tim McGraw that made me cross over to becoming a full on country music fan. I hung out at the end of the crowd of people and was prepared to tell him that he made me love country music.  However, the look on his face as he left the mob of people was not welcoming and he was basically looking past me because I think he knew that I, too, was about to bother him. I still asked if I could take a picture with him, but I decided to spare him the chit chat.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

3.27.11



This was my actual bday (the big one).  Meghan and Thomas came up to celebrate with me.  Meghan and I started off by getting pedicures, then had lunch, followed by a little dessert at my fave, Red Mango!

3.26.11



Shari and I made plans to get together at Panera for breakfast and to talk about her wedding this summer. I came armed with my laptop, prepared to talk about invitations and centerpieces.  Instead, we walked in and I saw Lindsey and said to Shari, "oh hey look!  Lindsey's here...wait, so is Lindsay....and Dizzy?"  When I saw Diz (who lives 1.5 hours away and had never met Lindsay or Lindsey), it became clear that this breakfast was not planned to talk about wedding stuff...it was for my birthday!  It was the best.

Later in the day, things just got better.  My mom, Gina and I started off our evening at the spa - massages for them, facial for me....and then we met up with the men and went to PF Changs for dinner.  Love that honey shrimp.

3.18.11



Eleanore turned 30.  There was a surprise party for her.  I brought Lay's Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips as my contribution and have been addicted to them ever since.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

3.11.11



We headed down to the protest on the last big weekend to check it out.

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