Some good news

This is pretty cool: my first professional award. (My info is in the box to the left.) One of the columns I was recognized for was about volunteering with Alzheimer's patients. It was really important to me to do a good job with that, and I feel like the award means I did right by Grandma Alice.

ACL

My ACL and meniscus are torn in my right knee. Long story short, I probably will need surgery. This is the most ridiculous thing ever.

This morning I saw Angie Waples, our goalie's wife and a PA at Southwest Orthopedic. She and a doctor felt my knee and weren't sure exactly what was going on but were hopeful it was just some bruising or something else that wouldn't require surgery. Unfortunately, an MRI revealed differently. Angie called this afternoon with the bad news. She was so kind and helpful. I'm glad I saw her rather than just some random stranger.

Leigh is my chauffeur.

I have an appointment with a surgeon at noon Monday. We'll see.

Well that didn't go well

At our soccer game tonight, my knee popped and buckled. Even though I couldn't see myself, I'm pretty sure I made this face:

It was Mia's first time to watch me play. OK, so she wasn't really watching. She was touching Clay's iPhone. Nevertheless, I was sad that she had to be around her crying mama. She was even wearing her Fighting Chick shirt in honor of our team, the Fighting Chickens. (This picture is of her at two weeks. Now she actually fits in the shirt and is still adorable.)

I go to the doctor tomorrow to find out what the situation is.

The tiniest stalker

Mia has a tendency to peek around corners while I'm doing something in a room by myself. The other day she checked in on me while I was brushing my teeth ... until she grabbed a wooden sculpture off the wall. Tonight she made one of her hilarious stalker moves again.

Spooning a springbok

Leigh checked up on Mia in the night and discovered she was perfectly safe and happy, cuddling with her favorite springbok.

She's tired and she's wired

We discovered last night that we probably shouldn't be driving when Mia shouldn't be sleeping. We drove from Fayetteville to Oklahoma City and Mia slept nearly the whole way. We also stopped about 387 times to change her diaper.

When we got home, it was about an hour before her bedtime. Was she ready? Absolutely not. I put her in her Jenny Jump Up, let her play with her music toy and fed her some food with a spoon. I thought for sure all these activities would wear her out. No way, Jose. Here's a video I took when it was an hour past her bedtime.

Happy Easter!

Today was got to spend Easter with family, and it was great. Connie, Carly and Jimmy came over for brunch, and we finally got Kelly to hold his goddaughter!

North and South

Today Mia had the chance to meet people from Wisconsin, meet hippies and ride on her mom's belly instead of in her mom's belly. The three of us went to Eureka Springs to meet up with our friend Tanya and her family. They're from Wisconsin and spent a little vacation time in a cabin there.

A lot happened before we even made it to Eureka Springs. First, we saw a guy on a bicycle sitting on the shoulder of the highway in the middle of nowhere. No, he wasn't a cyclist in spandex taking a break on a bike designed for long road races. This was a guy with a mullet and jean shorts sitting on a BMX. It was bizarre. And just as we are trying to figure out what the heck that guy was all about, we come across this:

Yes, that is a white minivan with attachments that make it look like the shuttle. Unlike the guy on the bike, we actually made a u-turn to document this weirdness. And in case you wonder where you'd park something that amazing, we took a picture of that, too:

I don't know if you can read it, but that sign on the garage says "Not NASA." Thank god we clarified. It's hard to tell the difference between the world's greatest space agency and a trailer in the middle of the Arkansas woods.

Then we passed a Mercedes graveyard. There were a dozen rusted old Mercedes covered in leaves behind a row of trees. We didn't make a u-turn for that one either because we were worried if we turned around every time we saw something weird, we'd never get to Eureka Springs.

We finally got to town and gave our little front carrier a try for the first time.

As usual, Mia was a total sport. The only thing she didn't like was when her hat fell too low, covering her eyes. It was kind of hard maneuvering in the bathroom when she needed a diaper change, though. I'm sure that will get better with practice. We had lunch, met up with our pal Tanya and walked through the old downtown. It was really fun! Mia survived the whole day, including two creepy encounters.

1. A very, very high hippie lady freaked out about how cute Mia is. She gave a long monologue about how important it is for people to blend together, like colors of the rainbow. She looked at Leigh and me and pointed out what features of Mia's came from each of us. I think we were the first interracial couple to go into her shop. Or maybe we were the first interracial couple to go into her shop when she was that high.

2. Some lady touched Mia's toes. I wrote a column about it here.

Here we are just before we left.

We visited and had dinner with Tanya and her family at their cabin. It was so great to see our pal from Wisconsin! We were really happy Mia got to meet her.

It's hard to get comfy

Mia did well traveling in the car to Arkansas today, but she just seemed to have trouble getting comfortable in her car seat. I peeked back there after some fitful struggles to find her fast asleep, stretching as far as humanly possible until she was folded in two.

Rabbit ears

Yet another reason Mia's daycare is awesome: they made this. Yes, the "grass" is Mia's footprints.