FBI - Here I Come!

An opportunity came up to take a defensive pistol course, so I thought 'Why not?'  It was SO MUCH fun.  I learned so many things.  There was a small group of us, and we had two instructors.  It was basically four hours of nonstop drills.  We were all doing so well, that the instructors asked us if we wanted to start movement drills.  Heck yeah!  We did both forward and backward movements, as well as turning then drawing.  I had one of the instructors take a little video, but it will not load, so here are some pics.

HOSA State.

Sidney qualified to compete at State for HOSA.  It was a 3 day event.  She had a great time.  That club has been very inspiring for her.  Here she is in her HOSA Professional get up.

Here she is in her scrubs for the day of skills testing.

Here is the Borah group.  They all did very well.  Quite a few of them qualified for Nationals.  Sidney placed 4th in State for Occupational Therapy.  The top three go to Nationals.  If one of the top three decide not to go, she will move up into their place.  In either case, this was such a fantastic experience.

ULI Idaho.

It is not often that I get to tour mass timber buildings in Boise.  We are getting more and more of them, and they are beautiful.  We toured the new Construction Management building at BSU.   

The new north end zone expansion also features some mass timber.  

It was fun to get a behind the scenes look at the facility.  Now to win the lottery and get one of those field boxes.

Junk Drawer - February 2026.

It was finally a beautiful 'warm' sunny day, so I headed to the golf course for my first bucket of balls for the season.  I am happy to report that it went very well, and I am going to be very sore.

My parents bought new living room furniture and took their old furniture up to Hallie and Jonny.  I helped my dad load it into the truck.  It was heavy, and we had a heck of a time figuring out how to get it out of the house.  We finally had to take the front door off.

I managed to catch this gorgeous sunrise!

Making the Best of Things.

Well, Kendall has been doing a lot of lying down and elevating her ankle the past month.  The first two weeks, she was pretty drugged up and not able to think clearly.  Since then, she has been working hard to catch up in her college classes.  We have made a couple trips to campus to take some tests.  It is impressive how well she has done at being able to get all the coursework done.  In her downtime, she has been enjoying the animals and binge watching New Girl, which I have found to be laugh out loud hilarious.

She has had a few friend come by for visits.  Shelby brought her sweet little boy over for a visit.

During the weekends, we transition her over to Diego's for a change of scenery.  Plus, he has roommates and a lot of friends over.  Diego also has a cute little cat named Crispi.

Since Crispi enjoyed the scooter basket so much, we thought we would let Willow give it a spin.  Yep, she was also a fan favorite.

She has done her nails a couple of times.  She is trying builder gel, which has been much better for her nails.

There are also quite a few lego sets that she fell behind on, so she has had some time to put those together.

If they give her the green light to be weight bearing at her next appointment, she will move back to her apartment.  She still will not be able to drive, since she will have the giant boot on her right ankle, but she will be able to get around much better.  BSU has a good shuttle system that she will need to check out.

Just a Tiny Bit of Skiing.

It has been such a mild winter this year.  Sidney has only been up skiing twice and the conditions were not amazing either time.  She had fun nonetheless.

She thinks it is quite fun to run around the house on Kendall's knee scooter.  It is really only fun if you do not have to get around this way:).

She went to the airport to greet her friend Kennedy as she returned from a mission trip to Nepal.

Well, the Prius decided it was going to start nickel and diming us, so we went ahead an upgraded.  I assured both of the girls that this is the last car that will be funded by the bank of MOM:).

Sidney is in her final semester of welding.  She has very much enjoyed learning this skill.  

She and her friend Kinsey spent the day together.  They went to coffee, made flower bouquets and went on a hike.  It was great to reconnect!

Ranch Time.

Oh man.  I have taken zero pictures of the horses the past few weeks.  Here are a couple of Levi and I on one of our crazy February days.  T-shirt weather in February, really?  Here is the thing, Sidney and Pigeon have been working very hard over the past few months on their riding and specifically jumping.  They are doing some amazing things.  I really need to get some videos or pictures to share of how far they have come.  The trainer that Sidney has been working with has been amazing at taking her to the next level.  I vow to get some pictures and write up a blog about all of that.  Until then...

Brankle Update.

WARNING:  Graphic images ahead.

Kendall has been doing very well in her recovery.  My sister and I have been making sure that she has beautiful flower to look at during her recovery. 

She had her 2 week follow up, and they took the bandages off and the stitches out.  It was the first time we got to see the ankle post surgery.  I swear it got super hot in that room (aka fainting on the horizon).  I think I am a super brave person, until I see a loved one wounded.  When they took the bandages off, the blood rushed to the ankle, after being compressed.  Kendall got very light headed.  They had her lie down for a bit before taking x-rays.  

One side:

The other side:

They gave her a boot, simply for keeping her ankle in a flexed position, but they do not want her weight bearing for another four week (six total).  They don't even want her bending or moving her ankle at all.  In fact, they had her go in for an MRI to make sure the ligaments were healing up correctly.  Everything looked good, despite it being super swollen and angry.

She has been taking good care of the incision sites and they are already looking much better.

The bruising was crazy at first.  I suspect much of this is from the surgery itself.  I joke that they should have just installed a zipper, so she could change out her hardware.

That is Not Allowed!

Animal are funny.  They are like kids in so many ways.  They push boundaries, and they certainly know between right and wrong.  Bella knows that she is not allowed on this chair.  Except Kendall let's her - GRR!  The second I walk into the room, she scurries down.

This is Bailey's absolute most favorite place in the house.  I had to put up the gate though, because he was tearing up the window sill every time someone walked by with their dogs.  

Willow playing hide and seek with Kendall.

We are convinced that Willow thinks she is a dog.

Such a pretty kitty.

Bailey had the doggy flu for about a week.  It was awful.  He could not keep anything down, but he is doing better now.

This is what happens when Kendall spends too much time in bed.  She and Willow have become BFF's.

Bella wants to know how come Willow is allowed to sleep on the chair.

Making Something Old New Again.

My dining table chairs have been showing some serious signs of wear.  The thing is...Kevin and I bought this table when we moved into this house 15 years ago.  It was not the table I originally had pictured in my head, but Kevin fell in love with the dining set.  I thought it was 'meh', but over the years, it has really grown on me.  I am not ready to get a new one.  Here are some pictures of the seat cushions, though these are not even the worst of it, since I had forgotten to take 'before' pictures.

My mom said it would not be hard to recover the chairs, so that is what we did.  She helped me.  By 'help me', she did most of the work.  I took out staples and cut squares.  She was the real brains behind the operation.

Look at how nice the cushions look now.  I am so pleased.  Those of you that know my girls, understand that change is very hard for them.  When I even remotely mentioned that I was not happy with the dining set, Sid's immediate response was 'It fits that room perfectly.  There is nothing wrong with it.'  She was correct, but it was in need of a much needed refresh.  I love the way they turned out!