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!

A Date for Gma and Gpa.

My dad and I buy tickets to the golf show each year and attend the VIP night.  It is something I look forward to each year.  This year was even more interesting, since one of the golf pros at my Dad's workplace took over the event.  It felt close to home.

Well, considering Kendall ended up in the hospital, I was not really feeling festive.  I could have attended, but I think my mind would have been elsewhere.  After a wee bit of persuasion, I talked my mom into using my ticket.  She and my dad made a date of it.  My one condition...send me some pictures.

One of the vendors brought some amazing Ogio golf bags last year.  They were marked down to an incredible price.  I think my dad was kicking himself for not getting one last year.  Well, it turns out they brough a few this year.

I was not surprised to see my dad leaving the show with one.  Congrats Dad!

The 'brankle'.

BEWARE - Some of these images are not for the faint of heart.

Where to begin?  How about at the beginning.  It was a Wednesday morning around 10 am.  I was on the phone with a co-worker.  Kendall called.  I let it go to voicemail, but thought it was an unusual time for her to be calling.  Then I get an SOS text and a second call.  I told my co-worker that I should probably answer the call. 

Kendall said, "I crashed on a Lime scooter."  She takes them from her apartment to class in the business building most days.  I asked if she was okay.  She said she thought she had dislocated her foot.  (hmmm?).  I asked if things were in the same plane and if she could get up.  She said, no and it looks very knarly.  I told her that I would head that way, but could she call 911 and I could meet the paramedics there.

It turns out that as I was on my way there, the ambulance pulled in front of me.  In the small world order of things, it was the same ambulance that was on its way to Kendall.  We arrived at the same time.  One of the paramedics came over to me, while the other one went over to Kendall.

The paramedic near me asked if I wanted them to assess her and then possibly I could transport her to urgent care.  At that moment, the other paramedic looked over to us and said, "No.  We will be transporting her and to the hospital emergency room."  Uh Oh!

While waiting Kendall would naturally take a selfie.

This is not the best angle, but as you can see the ankle an foot are offset from one another.  I should also mention that her left pant leg was doused in hot chocolate.  You see, she had headphones on, a backpack AND a hot chocolate in the side pocket of her backpack.  She thinks she hit the corner of the speed bump at a weird angle.  She was up, then she was down.  It was that fast.

Kendall has always been the happiest wounded or sick person.  Kevin used to say it all the time.  In this case, I think she had a bit of shock going on.  Her body was shaking, but there were no tears.  One of her 'regulars' is with campus security and came to give a hand and stay with her until the paramedics had arrived.  I should note that Kendall said two cars swerved around her laying in the middle of the street until the third one stopped to help.  Really people?  We can do better!

The paramedics were amazing and did their best to keep Kendall comfortable and even stopped to pose for a picture.

I followed them to the ER.  They pumped her full of pain medication to even keep the pain at a 7 or 8.  Then they took a couple rounds of xrays.  

She was otherwise okay, despite a bit of road rash.

An ER doctor came by and tried to pull her foot back into alignment to see if things might line up.  Not so much.  He then informed us that he would be admitting her, and she would be getting surgery that day or evening.

She broke both bones and tore two ligaments.

They were pretty good about getting her to a room and trying to keep her comfortable until surgery time. 

Diego came by and we waited it out together.  The PA came by to let us know what to expect.  They would either be able to do an internal surgery and Kendall could go home in a few days OR they would do an external surgery and she would need to stay at the hospital for a couple of weeks until an internal surgery could be performed.  The external surgery would fix a cage around her leg and keep things stationary until swelling went down.

When the surgeon came by, he was pretty sure we were looking at the external surgery.  I did let him know that 'for the record' we really wanted the internal surgery.  He said 'noted, but he would have to see how much swelling there was, as he did not want to increase the risk for infection.'

Well, fortunately, he was able to do the internal surgery. Kendall is now the proud owner of a rod and a few new screws that she gets to keep indefinitely.

After the surgery, it was a waiting game to see if they could get her pain under control.  They found a recliner for me to rest in with her.  The first one they found would not stay reclined.  It just kept popping back up.  We got a few good laughs out of it, until they found us a working one.  

After a couple of days, Kendall was able to go home.  

She is now resting in my bed.  The pain has been pretty rough, but I think we have settled into a good routine.  She reached out to the University and has been working with them to get her coursework done.  The first few days, it was very difficult to focus with all of the medication, so they extended some deadlines.  Basically, she gets to do nothing but lay for a couple of weeks.  We have a 2 week follow up to determine next steps. 

On a good note, Willow and Kendall have been bonding quite nicely.