Two….

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

Well, our prayers were answered and we had an amazingly beautiful day for Anna’s “friends” birthday party today. She had a few friends sleep over last night and the rest of them joined today since we had the day off of school.

The kids pretty much spent 5 hours outside – playing ping pong, swimming, kayaking and paddle boating and having a shaving cream war (the aftermath seen here in the photo).

A great time was had by all – and I am now sitting quietly with an ice bag on my knee looking forward to a quiet night’s sleep. J

OK, well – not necessarily running, but back to my normal schedule. I had my first physical therapy session at 7:20 this morning and after an hour and 1/2 of stretches, exercises, electrical pulses on my leg and ice – I actually was pretty encouraged. So – did a Target run, went to the grocery store and got things ready for Anna’s “friends” birthday party tomorrow (& sleep over tonight with 3 of her friends from school). After all that early morning action, I promptly fell asleep for an hour before I went to pick up the kids from school.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, so we have no school – and it gives us the opportunity to celebrate Anna’s birthday with her friends, since her party was delayed due to my knee surgery. Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. – the rest of the party guests arrive: a few more girls as well as a few boys. I’m praying for no rain, so that the kids can swim – or at least no lightning, so I can still toss them in the pool with no fear of electrocution. Sam’s not at home tomorrow, so I’m winging it solo – but thankfully have one of my friends that is doing the lunch time pizza run for me.

So…. back to the normal mom activities – just no tennis for a while, but hopefully the 4-6 week “recovery” time will be true and I’ll be back to tennis after the new year. We’ll see how tomorrow goes and I’ll give an update (after I take a nice, long nap)! J

Air show

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

This was the view this afternoon from our back yard. The Jacksonville Air and Sea spectacular is this weekend at the beach. Since I’m convalescing at home, we just sat out back today and took some pictures from the patio.

We were at the Mayo Clinic here in Jacksonville bright and early today at 5:45 a.m. for my 7:30 surgery. I’m back home now and after a nice long nap I’m resting on the couch with my leg up and iced. The air show is this weekend at the beach, so the Blue Angels are screaming down the beach front right outside our windows. Pretty wild to watch – it sounds like we’re in a war zone!

So….. surgery went well, although the damage was more than the surgeon expected. The tear was large and frayed, so he was unable to do the repair that he had initially wanted to do. He cut out the damaged section of the meniscus, which unfortunately isn’t as good for my knee long term. There also is a decent spot of degeneration on the bone as well. He told Sam that if I was a runner, I wouldn’t be able to run any more – not sure how that holds for hiking, but I think it’s the impact of running that would not be good. I can continue to play tennis, but most likely will have to temper my time spent and level of play some. No more 15 hours of tennis a week for me, I’m afraid.

I’m a little disappointed, but things could be so much worse and many others have much more difficult things to deal with, so I’m going to try to take the good out of this and do my best to follow dr.s orders and recover strongly. My friends and family have been great with supporting and encouraging me – I truly appreciate you all. Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support. J

Anna’s new beach cruiser

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

Amazing that 14 years ago our lives changed drastically, and for the better with the addition of our new little girl: Anna Carpenter Van Voorhis.

People say that time flies, and we can attest to that. All the wonderful years of watching Anna grow – the thousands of pictures that documented her crawling, walking, dancing, playing sports and growing into the beautiful young woman that she is today.

We are so very blessed!!

Ready for some Phillies baseball

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

Well, we had a whirlwind weekend traveling up to Philadelphia to see the Philadelphia Phillies play the New York Yankees. Sam grew up in Philadelphia in his early elementary years so he’s a huge Phillies fan and was very excited to take me & the kids to our first Phillies baseball game.

We flew up early on Saturday and checked in to our hotel. Early in the afternoon, we took a 2 hour walking tour of historic Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross’ house, Benjamin Franklin’s grave and many other historic sites. The weather during the day was surprisingly warm – close to 70 degrees but intermittently spitting rain.

After our tour, we took a cab over to the famous Philly cheese steak corner and chose to try a Geno’s cheese steak over Pats (the rival cheese steak shop).

After that fabulous meal, we made our way over to the baseball stadium where we met up with a friend of ours from Ponte Vedra who works as a producer for ESPN. He met us outside with passes and brought us into the TV trucks where all the game production takes place. It was very interesting for all of us to see the details of the work that takes place in these sound proof trailers. We really appreciated that Jeff took his time out to let us hang out with him for a while.

We arrived at the game early and bought the prerequisite souvenirs and hot dogs for the kids. We waited, and waited, and pulled on our rain coats and rain pants and waited some more. The game finally started (at 9:20 p.m.) – after an hour and 1/2 rain delay.

The rain continued to come down, but the game went on. We were so thankful that Sam made us bring our rain coats and our rain pants that we used in New Zealand – they definitely came in handy. We have found that since we moved to Florida, we have become soft when it comes to cold weather. The temp moved down to the 50’s and with the rain and wind, we found ourselves shivering and cold. Coupled with the Yankees pulling ahead and the kids winding down on energy – we skipped out before the game finished, hailed a cab and got back to the hotel and to bed around 1:00 a.m. Thankfully it was daylight savings, so we were able to get 6 hours of sleep instead of 5 before we were up again and ready to fly back to PV.

It’s so nice to come home to warm weather where it’s sunny. We love our travel – and it was a great family trip to be able to experience a World Series game together – but we are always happy to come home. J

Birthday Celebration

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

Just got back last night from a great weekend with 8 of my girl friends. We gathered at the Lake Austin spa in Austin, Texas from 4 different states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Mississippi). This was the first time to include some of my girlfriends from Florida in my girls trip and it was so wonderful to mesh some old friends with some new.

We all got along famously and enjoyed a beautiful weekend of healthy food, spa visits, exercise and cooking classes. We also supplemented it with plenty of m&m’s, oreos, a bit of champagne and many late nights of chatting and playing cards.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends – and a family that doesn’t mind me taking off a few days to regenerate with my girlfriends.

Had a fabulous time away, but always good to return to my family. J

"Wacky Tacky" day at school

Originally uploaded by SisterPV

Homecoming week at school for Anna & Ethan and they get to do a few of the dress down days. Today was “wacky tacky” day. Love those crazy kids!