Nature Drive 7/28/2015

On Tuesday, a week after my meniscus surgery, a friend called and asked if I wanted to go to lunch.  Other than going to church on Sunday, I hadn’t been out of the house so I decided to go.  After lunch, while I was already in my Explorer, a thought crossed my mind….Hmmmm….might as well take a drive.  It was an absolutely beautiful day for taking photos. 
As I shot my very last shot, I noticed that I had my camera set on a low light setting.  I felt so bad and thought I would re-trace my tracks and re-take all the pictures I had taken.  But first, I decided I would go home first, download the photos, and see what I could salvage.  Whew,  my pictures actually turned out great even on the low light setting on a sunny day.  So, thanks to technology and my computer, I actually did get to re-trace my tracks….just not from my vehicle. 
I’ve loaded many photos (20 to be exact and I actually took 63) on this blog post but I hope you enjoy my Nature Drive as much as I did.

Relief Society Welcome Card

This summer, we’ve had an unusual amount of people move into our ward.  The sad part is, they all seem to only be summer people.  We have a very small ward so it’s pretty exciting anytime we have new members move in.  However short or long their stay is to our little community/ward, I thought I would make each one a little welcome card from the Relief Society Presidency.
Front of Card:

Inside of Card:

The graphic I used on the front of the card was done by Susan Fitch.  She is a wonderful illustration and design person who shares 99%, is not all of her designs, for FREE! 
I just love people who are willing to share their talents for my use.  It sure makes it fun for me to be able to design the things I want, using their talents.  Designing cards, posters, handouts, etc. is pure joy for me.

All Natural Betadine Remover/Cleaner

Since having my meniscus surgery, I tried washing off the Betadine and it was near impossible.  I didn’t just have Betadine on the knee area, but I had it all down my leg.  I got on the internet and it said you could use alcohol but to me, alcohol stinks and it dries out your skin.  I could not find anything else to use so I remembered the all natural Sticky Gunk Remover that I had made from essential oils and fractionated coconut oil and I thought, hey, if this stuff works on sticky bottle labels, it surely would work on Betadine……and yes, it did.  I needed to rub it with a clean cloth for awhile, like with the alcohol, but it did come off and sure smelled a lot better.
I forgot to take a before picture with the Betadine all down my leg but you can surely see in the picture how clean the leg looks now…..with the exception of the knee area.  Where the knee is still a little painful and quite swollen, I thought I’d better wait till later to clean it.

Double Meniscus Tear Repair

Back in February 2015, my knee was very swollen and painful.  I went to a local doctor who informed me that I had bursitis.  Ok, I can deal with this….so for five months, I babied this knee in hopes that it would get better.  Well, it didn’t….it would go through phases of feeling a little better but it never got to the point where I was pain free. 
A few weeks ago, my daughter came for a visit and my knee was sore but not what you would call painful, so I volunteered to babysit my little 17-month old grandson while she went to the rodeo with one of her high school friends.  I was the only one home with my grandson and I knelt on the floor to change his diaper and BAM! – it was all I could do to get up off of the floor.  Excruciating pain shot through my knee.  I made it to a chair where I sat down and my little grandson came and sat on my lap and we watched “Dinosaur Train” (over and over (he really likes this show)……..again), until my daughter got home.
Finally, I bit the bullet and decided to go to Dr. Biddulph, an orthopedic specialist in Idaho Falls to find out what was going on.  After x-rays and an MRI, it was determined that I had torn the meniscus (cartilage) on both sides of my knee.  I decided to get surgery and my appointment was set for July 21st.  The surgery went well and that evening, we (my husband and I) were on our way across the dessert and back to our home.  But, before heading home, we went to Wal-mart to pick up a prescription ordered by the doctor.  I was bored sitting in our vehicle while my husband went in the store so I snapped a few pictures of my leg.

 

   

When My husband came out of the store, beside getting my meds, he brought me some flowers.  I’ve never seen flowers with purple leaves before.  I’ve been trying to figure out if the leaves are this color originally or if they were sprayed/painted with something.  They sure are beautiful.

As it just so happened to be, back in October of 2014, I was making denim jean bags to put on walkers to give to the elderly in our valley.  Who knew that I would be the one needing to use one of these bags.  I had this one out to give to my sister while she was here visiting, so she could take it back to Utah with her to give to my other sister who wanted another one for her other walker.  Well, I forgot to give it to her and now I am using it for myself.  They really are useful.  I had my water bottle, phone, t.v. control, CAMERA and snacks all inside the bag, close at hand, since I was to be non-weight bearing for 3 days.

NON-WEIGHT BEARING for 3 days………………Aghhhhhh!  I have absolutely been going nuts.  Bored enough to take more pictures of my leg.

 

Wahoo…..late last night was my 3rd day so as directed by the doctor, it was time to take the wrap off and change the bandages.  My leg was so orange/yellow from the betadine used at surgery time that it really made my leg look sick and all wrinkly.  And for the sake of my viewers, and me being a red-head, my legs are blinding white so I put this photo into PicMonkey and gave myself a little spray tan on the left leg so the glare wouldn’t obscure (verb: Keep from being seen; conceal.) the photo.

The longer the wrap was off, the better my leg was looking.

After doing my P.T. exercises, I had to put the wrappings back on and was told to keep the wrappings on and to keep it dry until my next doctor visit, which isn’t until Aug. 3rd.  My daughter, who is a P.T.A, said the wrapping needs to stay on to keep the swelling down. 
Ok, enough……..spit baths just aren’t enough for me.  I’m used to taking a shower every morning.  While lying in bed this morning, I’ve been thinking of ways I can get my shower.  I’m going to tie and tape a garbage bag around my leg and hope that will do the trick.  I am able to put some pressure on the leg today so I’m sure I can stand in the shower for a short time.  You know, as I’ve stated before……..a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

Sun Valley Trip With Sis And Her Hubby

With everything that’s gone on in the past few weeks, I almost forgot to post about going to Sun Valley.  My sister’s husband had never been to Sun Valley so while they were here the last part of June, we decided to head on over the mountain and show him what it was all about.  Everything in Sun Valley and the surrounding areas are just immaculate.  It is definitely a place to go see, at least once.






After walking around Sun Valley, we drove around the Ketchum area and then decided to make the circle, pass through Hailey and head on over to Craters of the Moon…..another spot my brother-in-law had never seen.  The nice thing about this trip through the Craters and the previous trip was that this trip was free.  My sister and her husband had a senior discount pass.  Let’s hear it for older, much older siblings – Ha!

Father’s Day “Tie”rific Candy Bar Envelope

I know, better late than never…right?!  Anyways, I found out just a few weeks before Father’s Day that the Relief Society was in charge of getting something put together for the men in our ward.  I was just put in as the Relief Society President a week before this and I had no idea what we would do.  As luck would have it and time was short, I reverted back to when I was the Young Womens President and still had on hand the soda pop can graphic I had made for the Young Women to give to their fathers.  These were given out 3 years back so I thought it would be OK to use it again.
While still in Father’s Day mode, I found another idea to use for next year.  Although her idea was fantastic, it was much more work than I wanted to do so I made a graphic that could just be printed on the outside of an envelope.  I think they turned out great and they won’t take so much time to put them together.  Just seal, print, snip, fold and it’s ready to go.  All you need to do is add a candy bar or item of choice.

 

Just change the wording a bit and you could use these for birthdays, graduation gifts or any other occasion.  Here is the pattern and instructions I made if it will help anyone.