Tuesday, May 26

More nature pictures

I asked Sam for another post to hang some more bird feeders, so this is what he made me! I love that he added the places we have lived. We need to move the Louisville sign so it can be seen better. The hummers found it even before we were done with it. They do not seem very scared of us!

Below is my mint plant, growing strong and big!
Another picture of those beautiful red flowers. I think they are Bee Balm.
The humming birds!

This Idaho birdhouse was given to me the day we left. I thought it would just be decoration, but this beautiful yellow bird is now calling it home. Can you see that his beak is open? He just sings and sings!
Anybody know what he is? I got out our bird book and thought I had him pegged, but he is missing the black on his head. Isn't he cute??


Friday, May 22

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ours is growing very well! Thanks to Sam's hard work and big help from the children, things are thriving here at Wildwood Ranch. Above is a new flower that has bloomed outside the kitchen window. I have two people trying to find out the name of this exotic looking flower. I really like it!

Below is a delicate hydrangea lace cap. There are a few of these in the front garden. They are so pretty!


The hummingbirds just love this salvia.The side garden is full of them!
We just love the blue hydrangeas. They remind us of Sam's mom. They are planted behind the guest house, so you can't see them unless you walk around back. I think I want to plant some in a different place so they can be seen. I guess I will have to put that on next years to-do list.
The fruit and vegetable garden is growing quickly! I can't wait until things are ready to be eaten! Look closely here and see our first tomato! According to Kaitlynn, now there are 4! Sam has planted enough tomato plants that I am sure we will be sharing with friends!
Corn, carrots, broccoli, radishes, pumpkin, watermelon, cantelope, spices, garlic, and many more things I can not remember are all growing quickly in the garden beds.
Kaitlynn has taken great care of the gardens since Sam has been gone. He gets back from Germany tonight and I think he will be very pleased at her hard work. So far, the fence has kept out any garden eating critters, though our outdoor cat has been spotted wandering through the tomatoes. :)

Thursday, May 21

Two Cute K's

We drove up to Louisville for several reasons on Monday. One of the reasons was to vote. I am still registered there and a great friend was running for Mayor and I wanted to vote! Will won his ticket and the final election is in two weeks, so I might have to drive up there again! :)

Another reason was to get out of this house. I was thinking that if I didn't get out for awhile I might just spontaneously combust. I love my house and I love being at home, but I have been feeling liked a caged animal lately and really needed just to be gone for the day to somewhere NOT medical related. (It is ALL the ankle's fault).

Here is the one picture of the day. Kellynn is only 11 months younger than Kaebrie and they are so sweet together. Kellynn has more dress up clothes then I have ever seen in one place and those girls change their own clothes and all the Barbie's clothes all day long. This was a rare moment when they were in their own clothes, having just gotten out of the sandbox. It was just so cute when they got into the bucket together that I called for Sarah to grab her camera.

Kellynn is the reason that Kaebrie wants curly hair.

Wednesday, May 20

Slight setback, or should I say BOOTback? :D

Spoke (well, typed) to soon. Mondays Dr. visit showed a possible problem. An MRI on Tuesday will give an official diagnosis. So I will wait to write about that if it happens to be true. So, it is back to full time boot and bye bye sneaker for two more weeks until the test results are in.

On a happier note, I have decided to write a book. It will be titled:

Stepping Over the Gate: How to Change Your Life in ONE step

Chapter 1: BRACE yourself
Chapter 2: No BONES about it
Chapter 3: What NERVE!
Chapter 4: CAST away your worries
Chapter 5: FOOTLOOSE

Auditions will be scheduled soon for filming the documentary.

Friday, May 15

I walked today!! On my own two feet!! Two more weeks and I will not need the cast anymore!
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, May 11

GRADUATES!!!

Friday, Christopher graduated from Kindergarten! He has had a crazy year. He did his first 6 weeks at the base school in Idaho, and the last 7 weeks at a private school in Mississippi, with bursts of homeschooling for all the time in the middle, but with the cross country move and the ankle fiasco, I really felt like I had gotten so far behind. He did not love it at first, but by last week he was so excited about school! We have a lot to do over the summer to get him geared up for first grade but now that he is ASKING to do school, it should be fun and I am looking forward to really working with him.


This morning, Kaebrie graduated from Preschool. She was the first Smith child to ever go! She spent 7 weeks at Tutor Tots and loved it. She misses the Mississippi cut off for starting school by 13 hours, but Covenant School is going to let her in. So watch out Kindergarten, here she comes!!

Sunday, May 10

Camping Trip

Well, better late than never!
Collin finally got to go on his birthday camping trip!
They were supposed to go over his birthday weekend back in February, but I was not able to be left because of the ankle, so it had to be postponed.

One of Sam's best friends, Greg, and his son, James, met them in North Alabama for 3 days of hiking camping and having fun!

Since I was not there, I will let Collin do the rest of the story telling.


Here we all are, right before we were heading out!


I was excited about spending time with Daddy and using my birthday present, my new hiking polls!
This was a ten foot high fallen tree over a river that we had to cross.
Daddy went first so he could take pictures for Mommy. Here is Mr. Greg crossing it.
This is right out of the big squeeze cave we had to climb through and this is a rock on the other side that I climbed up.
This is called Fat Man Squeeze and we had to go through it. It was easy for me and James and a lot harder for the daddies.
Crossing a river, the water was COLD!
We took a break in this pretty spot.
I really liked this waterfall.


This was our tent and this picture was our third night out in the woods.

Mommy likes this picture.
Daddy likes this picture!
The 4 campers!

It was an excited, scary, amazing, beautiful hiking trip. I had a lot of fun and I think James liked it too. My favorite part was when we got to Big Tree because the waterfall was there and I got to go rock climbing and use some fancy footwork. My least favorite part was the river crossing because I got my pants soaked.

Tuesday, April 14

Gardening

We are all excited about our very first garden. I am disappointed that I did not get to help, but there is always next year! Sam and the kids built these 3 garden boxes, and yes Michelle, I think of you every time I see them. Not that I have seen them for real, I have Sam or Collin go back there and take pictures so I can see what they are doing. :)

After the boxes were finished, it was time for planting! Sam planted corn, cucumbers, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin, tomatoes, and I can't remember the rest of the list and he isn't here to ask.
The fence was last. It has to be protected around here. We have skunks, deer, and the dreaded garden destroying wild armadillos.
Everything is growing!
In the patio garden, 5 rose bushes are blooming. The other day when I took these pictures, these were the only 2, but now there are purple roses, the yellow bush is full of blooms, the tiny pink bush is covered and it smells so good!

The giant magnolia tree right behind the house has hundreds of blooms. I can not wait until they open as magnolias have the absolute BEST smell!!

Kaebrie

Because of the family situation with the ankle, Kaebrie started 4 year old pre school about 5 weeks ago. 8-11:30 at the church across the street from Sam office. She LOVES it. It came highly recommended and it was a good decision he made to put her in there.

For WEEKS she has talked about Molly and Kathryn. She tells when one of them had to go to time out. When one of them is absent. When they swing with her on the playground. When one of them ripped her dress, ect. ect.

At night when we ask who she wants to pray for, most of the time it is Molly and Kathryn. So we have been praying for them a lot. Praying that they stay out of time out, obey the teacher, ect.

Today was the Easter party and I finally got to go to the school for the first time (since I am driving now) and meet everyone. I looked at the name labeled table, I looked at the birthday chart, the line leader chart, the labeled cubbies.............and I realize something is amiss.

So Mrs. Angie comes over and we get to talk for the first time. I mention that Kaebrie is so excited about her new friends and we have been praying for Molly and Kathryn.


Mrs. Angie gives me a funny look and then she says:

THERE IS NO MOLLY OR KATHRYN IN THIS SCHOOL!!!!!!!!

There was nothing to do but to laugh! She really thought it was funny that we had been praying for them. Sam dropped by to see the party, and the look on his face when I told him was hysterical.


She has had imaginary friends since she could talk, but they all do things like fly or turn colors and you know they aren't real. Molly and Kathryn never did anything that was abnormal, so we believed her!

Today, when I picker her up, out of curiosity, I asked her if Molly and Kathryn were at school.

She got real sad and said, "They moved to California."

Sunday, April 12

Happy Easter!

O how good it feels to pick up the camera again! Now, the lighting in these in pretty bad, but my scooter won't wheel on the grass, so I couldn't go to the spot I wanted to, I had to stay stuck on the back patio. :(

But, here is what I got!



Church service this morning was wonderful. So many visiting family members, the place was full of grandchildren and grown children. It was fun meeting every one's relatives. Sam's sermon was so thoughtful, and so well put together. I know it touched some hearts.

We are thankful that we serve a risen Savior and thankful for the many blessing we do not want to ever take for granted.

Thursday, April 9

Foot, Chickens and Puppy

Well, there is the only picture taken of the purple cast and toes!!
Anyway, hello again!
Yes, what does it take for Jodi not to blog in over a MONTH!!!!!
Well, I guess we all know the answer by now, severe bone breaks, massive surgery, severe pain, tons of narcotics and a lack of energy to do anything.

Well, I guess I could have blogged. But it would have been about my foot every day, and nobody wants to read about that.

So I will update a bit here. Below is my new best friend. The knee wheeling scooter. About 3 weeks after surgery I was carefully able to use this instead of those blasted crutches. ("crunches" as Kaebrie calls them). It was a lot easier to roll to the bathroom with, which is the only place I went.
I seriously spent a solid month and a half on that couch, day and night. The first few weeks were in a haze of severe pain, Demerol, morphine, codeine, and others. But we are going to not blog about that and just forget most of those weeks.
What I don't want to forget is all the blessings from them.

Our church is amazing. From the first day, food was delivered. After 6 solid weeks of daily food, we finally asked them to stop. Six weeks!!!! By then I was able to stand in the kitchen and do somethings. And so much food was brought that we filled the freezer too. I can now balance and do dishes, and I can get things done, even sweep, but it is awkward and just takes a lot more time. The ladies in the church even hired a cleaning crew for a few weeks. What a blessings!

Our family. All of them came over and helped. Friends called and emailed and sent cards and care packages. Collin and Kaitlynn have had a great life lesson. They have had to do just about all the household chores, from laundry, to bathing the kids, to puppy duty to cleaning, and it has been really good for them. I can be thankful in this injury for all it has taught them.

My husband. What a load of responsibility he has just in his normal jobs. And he had to take complete care of everything here for a long time. He worked so hard taking care of us and still taking care of church responsibilities. The patience he displayed still makes me tear up thinking about it. What a true blessing he is and I am thankful for this injury that it totally reminded me how special he is and why I fell in love with him in the first place.

Three weeks ago, the cast was thrown away and replaced with the boot. The "cutie bootie" as a friend named it. It is MUCH heavier than the cast was. Think - living in a ski boot. I was instructed to take it off for 5 minutes a day and start writing the alphabet with my foot. Easier said than done!! But even better, was being able to get ALL the way in the shower for the first time in 5 weeks. TO be able to have water run down that leg and to feel clean was wonderful!

I am still being treated for that rare and weird nerve syndrome. The treatments are working. Hopefully only 2 -3 more spinal shots. The toe part of the boot I usually keep open because anything touching my toes sets of a nerve attack that isn't fun.

Today is 8 weeks since the fall. Two months. I started physical therapy this week. 3 times a week I go for some very interesting exercises and rehab. The ankle hasn't moved in 8 weeks and now it needs to learn how to with being recreated with metal. We are still planning on Disney in June, but we know now I won't be back to normal. We will take it day by day, knowing the Lord is in control.

These are make-up pictures. Pretend these were posted 6 weeks ago. Sam and Collin ordered the plans online, got the needed tools, then built this chicken coop. They set it here for a few days so I could see it out of the window before they moved it back to its permanent spot. To this day, this first set of old lady chickens have never laid an egg. Another, larger coop was then built, this one not portable, another set of hens added, and each one happily lays about an egg a day. The kids love collecting the eggs!
Then, Sam added a rooster. I did not want one. I was sleeping so little that I did not want anything to wake me up. But the hens needed a boyfriend, so here is Dumplin. Sam brought him inside to meet me and we had a little talk. I told that rooster that sleep was precious. And if he cockle-doodle-dood and woke me up, I was getting some Dumplings and was going to cook him. He listened and has not once woken me up. But he does cockle all day long! Truth be told, I really enjoy hearing him. I sit outside and can hear him and all the hens clucking. With all the greenery and the flowers and the birds and the chicken sounds, it is so peaceful.
Yazzi is still here and growing so fast! She is four and a half months old and is quickly learning the commands Sam is teaching her. Here she is following the command sit. But she isn't allowed up until the release command is given. She will sit and stare at you and follow your every move until you release her. Today, I even placed a treat on her nose and she stayed put. She loves being outside and will find every puddle on the property and dive in. She is one dirty dog at the moment!
Here she is running to me when I gave the release command. Isn't she pretty?
There is more to come. I will have to find some time to catch up! Happy Spring!!!