Still a bit woozy

Jarbh: See the Rainbow. or hear it? please don't taste us. That's creepy.

My family had a special "reunion" day today.  It has been in the works for months.  Both of the out-of-state families arranged to be here at the same time and everything.  Unfortunately I didn't get to go since I was in and recovering from surgery instead.  But I did do some things to help prepare.

This morning the family went for a hike, then had a picnic lunch then went to the pool.  We wanted to keep everyone hydrated in this 100+ degree heat yet not run through a bazillion cups or water bottles daily.
I used an idea my sister-in-law had used at girls camp for church just recently.  Since I buy ribbon by the 50 yd. spool I had plenty to use. Each family had a different color, then I wrote names on another bit of ribbon and melted the ends together to make a strong loop on the "leash" part.  So to find your own water bottle holder you can narrow it down by easy-to-see colors first.  The rubber o-ring stretches over the neck of the a water bottle.

So you could replace the water bottle from time to time as desired :)  Cheap, easy project!

I also designed a label for the water bottles.  I printed them off, cut them, then used two pieces of packing tape to "laminate" each label on.  The family is referred to as the Jarbh family: (note the capitalized letters)
       Jensen (last name for Mom and all the boys' famlies)
       Asplund ("married" names for each of the girls' families)
     eRdman
  lamBert
soutHern
It's a unique name that refers well to the collective family of my mom and all her children with their children.

Here's what the water bottle label looked like:

The "ingredients" list has all the names in the family, and the "Product of_______" covers the three states the family is spread over.  I did make one mistake... There are 45 people in the Jarbh family.  I accidentally put "Net 44 Characters".  So I suppose you can assume there are 44 "characters" and one "normal" individual ;)

My mom even found tiny little water bottles for the soon-to-be-born baby and the not-yet-a-year baby.  Their straps are just tiny and really just for show (so as to not be choking hazards, of course).  But we didn't' want to leave them out!

While my girls were getting ready for today they each lay out a towel over the railing. They were pretending to lie down on their towels while standing up. Which they informed me was necessary to photograph.

Because of all the crawling I've done when I'm not using my crutches I discovered scaly callouses on my knees this morning.  Kate looked at them and said "I guess you could just call yourself a reptile and move down by the water!"  Which was so utterly off the wall it still makes me giggle a little :P

This is a rather strange picture, but this is the best shot I got of these.  These are some rather unique "wrap pants".  It took me about 10 minutes to make these with one seam (the crotch seam) and then stitching on the ribbon.  The front part gets tied in the back, then the back wraps around to the front.  The sides overlap ("wrapping").  This is a knit interlock so it doesn't need hemming.  I just left nice cuts on the sides and the hem which reaches the bottom of my kneecaps.  Perfect for wearing with a cast!

Here's my foot on the way home from my surgery this morning.  My foot was FREEZING cold so I was wearing the little surgery sock... and had the ice pack tied on.

The surgeon removed several fragments from the ankle joint and said it was obvious how very painful it has been (no kidding!).  It was certainly in bad shape.  I'll spend the next 3 weeks with no weight allowed on my right foot.  But one really nice thing is that I'm just in the surgical wrap!  No heavy cast to haul around.  A bit of movement is important so the faux-cartilage will form smoothlly in the right shape.  The trick right now is keeping the swelling down.  There is a great deal of pain still, but it should gradually ease over the next unknown period of time.  Yay.

These are my poor dried up toes.  They are swollen, painful, cracked, etc.  So the yellow washy stuff they used for the surgery prep isn't coming off very well, lol.  i thought it was very sunny.  As well as a bit jaundiced looking :P

Here are my feet tonight.  My right foot is wrapped in a second wrap to help control the swelling.  The purple on my left foot.... well, keep looking:

What a mess!!!

But in my opinion, totally worth it cause it makes me smile :)\

I want to find some pretty fabric to make pretty covers for the pit pad and the hand pads.  Totally be awesome!  Maybe I can get to the Quilt Shop sometime soon.  They have all the coolest stuff.

Tomorrow I hope to make it to a baby shower for one of my sisters-in-law.  I'm sure I'll take pictures there too, so keep watching ;)