The best laid plans of mice and men ...and frogs!!

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry....." 

 Robert Burns 1786

This old poem has rambled throughout my head for the past week.

I had what I thought was a perfect plan for this week.

You remember my word of the year, "renew"? 

I said in that post that one thing I wanted to "renew" were my knees. Both of them need fixed.

One in particular was taking my lifestyle and comfort zone out of its norm.

Well my school had a winter break scheduled in February.

This past Friday and this coming Monday were set aside to be off after a week of school and parent/teacher conferences.

I had been to the orthopedic surgeon several times of late

and had everything set up for surgery this past Thursday afternoon.

I was going to get the worst of the two knees fixed.

The way I had it figured out was that I would have the

latest operation time slot allowed on Thursday. Then I would have Friday and Monday off to recover and be back to normal on Tuesday (of next week).

My plans stayed that way for a few days. 

My sweet sweet friend Susie died and I was not about to miss paying my last respects to her. Her funeral was scheduled for Wednesday. I decided I would leave after parent/teacher conferences were over on Tuesday night, drive through the night to northeasternmost Kansas and be there for the 10 a.m. funeral. I would then drive back and be back in time to teach half a day on Thursday and have my operation on Thursday afternoon.

Then we had an Oklahoma snow storm. (that would be an inch or two of snow!!!)

Our school was called off last Monday because of the snow. So I did not have school on Monday. But, I did get a call from the doctor on Monday and they had bumped my surgery up to noon on Thursday. So there went my half day of teaching on Thursday.

So Tuesday I go into school and explain about my friend Susie and about how my operation time changed and ask for Wednesday and Thursday off of work.

And they could not have been nicer about it.

So I taught one day last week.

Wow.

Snow day Monday. Taught Tuesday. Funeral Wednesday. Operation Thursday. And Winter Break on Friday.

And I had plans to only miss half a day last week!

Hey, it's hard to take a picture of your own knee when you can't straighten it out yet!!

The good news is that my knee already feels better.

I still have all my stitches in and am very sore,

but it actually feels better than it did pre-surgery.

That tells you how bad it was hurting!!

The bad news is that the doctor asked my Hubby while I was 

in recovery if I wanted crutches or a walker.

And Hubby said WALKER!!!

OH MY GOSH!!

That makes me officially old.

But the Hubs has seen me on crutches before and 

deems me not-safe!

So he was probably right, but OUCH...that age-mentality things hurts worse than my knee!!

And I have to use it till at least March 1st!!

And I am not a very good patient...when I am supposed to be sitting in that chair with my leg propped up.

If you know me, then that comes as no surprise to you.

The one bright spot in my crazy week was that

after the saddest-day-and-funeral-ever,

my friend and I decided that we would drive to 

Atchison, Kansas, before I had to drive home.

We knew it would definitely be Susie-approved

so we went to Nell Hill's.

I will show you the other things I got later this week,

but here is my favorite purchase.

Never in my life have I purchased a frog of any kind.

But my friend Rita and I were both drawn to these 

Nell frogs and each got one.

I had no idea what drew me to it, but it was so cute and different.

Then driving back to Oklahoma that night, I remembered something.......

The aquatic park in our little Kansas town that Susie managed for years, where all five of my children worked,

and I spent many, many a happy afternoon in the sun...

had a big 'ole frog slide right in the middle of it.

Now when I see that frog,

I will think of Susie and the wonderful memories

we had in the sun!

Now I had better get back in my chair with my 

knee propped up before I am caught by one

of my many "nurses"!

If there are mistakes in this and the pictures are of poor quality, then I blame it all on my post-operative loopiness!