Casts and Birthdays

You can see the zig zag crack right above the elbow on the left picture.

 So Becca got her splint taken off and a cast put on last Monday, and she get's it off on the nineteenth.  She was a pro at the whole getting a cast put on thing.  When the doctor got the sock thing to put on her arm, all he had to do was take a step toward her, and she stuck her arm out for him to put it on.  She knew exactly what he was going to do!  I nursed her while they wrapped the cast on, which I wish I would have done with the splint, because she screamed when they put the splint on, and hardly even cared when they put the ca,st on.  She has been slowly not nursing as much each day, and I can see her being weaned in the near future, but I'm glad that she was still nursing when her arm broke, because she didn't eat very much real food for about a week after she broke it.

She's gotten quite used to the cast, and it doesn't look like it bothers her at all.  I miss seeing her little birth mark on her left wrist, and I know she's had to get used to doing things with her right hand (she normally uses her left), but overall she's been fine with the whole thing.

We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner for Brian's birthday, and he discovered that her cast is great for cracking peanut shells.

 She thought it was pretty funny.

 And then she tried to do it herself.

I think Brian had a good birthday.  We went to his parents' house for dinner the night before, then had all of our family over for peanut butter cream pie afterward.  Then, on his birthday, I sent him to work with a batch of cupcakes with his favorite type of frosting (the store bought stuff with the little sprinkle chunks already in the frosting), and then we went to dinner with his parents and brother to celebrate.  I also gave him tickets to the Brian Regon concert tomorrow, and he's going to take me along.  I'm excited!  As you can see from the picture above, he also got an Ethan.  Not everyone get's an Ethan for their birthday!  Ethan came up with the idea over the summer that he was going to wrap himself up as a present for Brian's birthday, and we went with it.  It was fun to see Ethan's excitement, and it was especially fun to see him shuffle across the floor after I wrapped the paper around him.

In other news:

1. General Conference was wonderful.  It may have been my favorite conference ever.  I love the announcement changing the ages for missionaries.  Every woman my age that I've talked to that didn't serve a mission has said, "I would have gone!...but then I wouldn't have met my husband," and I'm in the same boat.  I would have totally gone on a mission if I was able to go earlier.  I'm excited to see what happens in the next little while in the number of missionaries serving around the world.

Conference seemed to fly by this year.  I remember when it used to drag on and on, and I couldn't wait for it to be over, but now it goes by so quickly, and I find myself wishing for more.  It was also so nice to just stay home as a family and relax together, instead of running around the whole day, which we've been doing a lot lately.

2. Alyssa had her first Nutcracker rehearsal last week, and she loved it.  She mentioned a few times that day that she didn't want to do it anymore, probably because she was nervous, but when I went to pick her up, she didn't want to leave.  She has two little girls that she's "in charge of," because they're the baby mice that she fights during the battle scene.

3. I've been preparing to run a half marathon at the end of the month.  I ran 13 miles for my long run last Saturday, and it wasn't too bad.  It helps that I listen to books while I run, because I think keeping my head "in the game" is my greatest struggle with running for long amounts of time.  Lately I've been listening to C.S. Lewis' "Til We Have Faces," and I've really enjoyed it.

I'm also starting to prepare for this year's Tombstone Tales.  This year I'm Sadie Conway, a Kennewick resident that came from Texas back when Kennewick wasn't even Kennewick yet.  I've been working on my Southern accent and have started to memorize my part.  I've also been putting together a costume, because CBC seems to give me the same costume each year, no matter who I play, and I'd like something different this year.