Story time

So, I'd like to tell you a really cool story. This story begins last Friday, before 4th of July weekend. After I came home from work, Tomás and I ran some errands, went grocery shopping and also decided to hit up the farmer's market. We got some sweet cheese there. The next day, we went to D.I. and did other fun things like hang out with Zach and Olivia, which I mentioned earlier. We basically blasted through the weekend with lots of fun, hanging with friends and celebration.

Come Tuesday, Tomás mentions, "I can't find my wallet anywhere." Usually when that happens, we look around for a bit, but shrug it off thinking we'll find it pretty soon in a jacket somewhere. Well, we didn't. That day we searched high and low for it, (mostly Tomás did)—and, no luck. So I keep telling him, "Don't worry babe, we'll find it. It's just hiding from us somewhere." On Wednesday, we deep cleaned the apartment looking for his wallet all day long. Nothing. No wallet. It was nowhere to be found. And I mean, we had looked in every nook and cranny you can imagine. I'd even organized areas to make the move easier, like the random stuff in our green cubes and our filing cabinet. We'd throughly cleaned and organized our room, the kitchen, living room. Everywhere. Our apartment is not that big, where could it be?

So then, Tomás is thinking, "Crap.. I probably dropped it outside somewhere. It's gone." He called the Police Department to ask if anyone had dropped it off. He called the school lost & found. Nothing. We kept monitoring our checking account to make sure no one had gotten ahold of his wallet, and it seemed normal. There were no purchases. So, we had to conclude it was nearby, or in our apartment. But we couldn't find it anywhere.

Thursday. By now, Tomás is freaking out a little more. It's been almost a week and no sign of the wallet.  Oh, did I mention that there is $70 cash in his wallet, and our Harry Potter tickets, which were $22? Yeeeah, so we were a little worried. I mean, the credit cards we can replace, but not the cash. Replacing those tickets would be a drag too. Yikes. We were praying and praying we would find it for those reasons exactly. We spent another day organizing a little more, doing laundry, and looking everywhere for it. At this point, we had looked in every possible spot in our apartment. It couldn't be here. It just couldn't. There's no way, or we would have found it by now, because our apartment is not that big!

Well, I ran a few errands in the afternoon, and came home. When I drove into our parking lot, I noticed the trash hadn't been taken out. Trash day was Wednesday (today was Thursday), and someone forgot to put it out by the curb so the trash guy could come get it. They were overflowing with bags of trash. I mentioned this to Tomás and instantly he knew. "Lorraine, my wallet is not in this apartment. It has to be in the trash." I'm thinking. No way, it can't be in the trash. I would have never accidentally thrown your wallet away.
"I'm very careful about what I throw in the trash," I told him, "it can't be there."
"That's the only other place it could be," he said.

After almost losing complete hope for finding his wallet, we decided to venture out into the dumpsters. Yum. We knew which bags were ours because they have a plain red tag on it. Tomás helped me spot a few trash bags we knew were ours. After finding them, we strategically pulled them out. We decided which one was the most recent from the weekend, and I ripped the bag open. And there it was—in plain sight. Tomás' black wallet in between the side of the bag and some trash. I couldn't believe it. I reached in to pull it out. It was soaked and kinda sticky. Gross!
"Someone must have accidently thrown it away with a bunch of our grocery bags after going grocery shopping. My wallet was on the table with all our bags of stuff." I'm not sure what it was soaked in, but we decided to buy him a new wallet. It was about time anyway. :)

Independence Day

This 4th of July weekend was a hit! On Saturday, we went with Zach and Olivia out to roast marshmallows and eat s'mores. Mm. On Sunday, we went to church and then slept. Oh yes, I do love the day of rest. Monday was the fourth and we celebrated it by hanging with Sister Morgan and some of our dear Writing Center alumni. We're all pretty much graduated now. The weather was delightful, and the company was great.

First, we went to the parade in the morning. Everything seemed more exciting as we chanted and yelled at just about every float, even if it was just advertising (which most of it was). We also hung out at Porter Park to enjoy some live music and people watch—at least I did.

Afterwards, we retired to Sister Morgan's beautiful abode for a BBQ with grilled corn and hotdogs. I contributed red and blue "I heart America" JELL-O jigglers to the mix.

Tomás and I decided to do our own little firework show before we hit up the bigger Rexburg firework show.

All in all, this Independence Day was fantastic. I love you America.

Sunshine!

Lately, it's started to FINALLY warm up here in Rexburg! Man. I guess mother nature decided that once the summer solstice hit, it was time to crank up the heat. It definitely beats the cold, that's for sure. One beautiful day, Tomás and I decided to have a little picnic at Nature Park. The weather was superb. 

      

  

Besides sunbathing, we've been definitely trying to prepare for our move. I've been looking online every day to find a place to move into in Nampa. We've found a few places, but no promises yet. We're doing the best we can with organizing, and cleaning so the move will be easier. Right now, our move date will be Tuesday, July 26th. That's the day of Tomás appointment with the Orthopedic Surgeon to check on his progress. We'll just head out after his appointment in the morning most likely. Check out our tab up top entitled "Moving Sale." You might find something!

Tomás' Surgery

Welp, Tomás' surgery was a success. They extracted five bits of bone from his ankle (which they let us keep). The surgeon also made some incisions on the bone for cartilage growth. He has to stay off of it for 6 weeks. With his crutches and the wheelchair we recently received, it shouldn't be too bad! He's doing very, very well.

A baby and a broken bone

This past week has been craaaazy.

Tomás and I drove down to Utah to attend Oliver's (Jordan & Aja's new baby boy) baby blessing, and to see the cute little tyke. It was a great trip. We shopped a little, and saw family and friends. It was nice being away from Rexburg for a weekend. I love my family. My little neices and nephews are toooooo cute.

On Wednesday, I decided to lay out after work and I got beyond burnt. I looked like a bright red tomato. Ouch. Luckily, I'm starting to look normal again. That same day, Tomás decided to play in our ward soccer game at 10:15pm.

With only a few minutes left in the game, Tomás is running full speed to catch the ball. One wrong move and—crack. Something snapped and he's down on the ground. He said he felt numb from the knee down and couldn't move. We weren't sure if it was just a sprain at first, but he seemed to be in intense pain and could barely move it. Since it was 11:30, nothing was open except the hospital.

So, that's where we went. We drove him straight to the emergency room, where they took X-Rays. Turns out he sprained his foot, yes, and also chipped off a piece of his Talus (A large bone in the foot). The Talus sits right underneath the Tibia and Fibula. Poor baby... Tomás has never broken a bone before. Let's just say it was hard watching him in so much pain as they forced his foot into a boot, and he "crutched" out of there.

The next day (Thursday), we were told to go to an Orthopedic, who would decide exactly what we needed to do. After getting a CT Scan from a different clinic, we found out that he didn't break off one piece of bone, but rather a few corn flake size pieces from his Talus—all of which are just floating around in there. The doctor told Tomás he needs surgery, which is scheduled for next Friday.

Luckily, the surgery won't be very invasive. They will use little tiny cameras and some other apparatus to pull the pieces of bone out, as well as make incisions on the Talus to promote cartilage growth. Whew! He should be okay.

He's doing so well, and keeping a positive attitude about it all. He's still getting used to the crutches. They wear his arms out pretty good, so we're looking into finding a used wheelchair somehow. Then, at least, we can go outside and not have to worry about wearing him out. If you know anyone in Rexburg that might have a wheelchair, let me know! He's just glad he still has his arms to play his guitar with. :)

Dance & Soccer

I just realized I've been neglecting the blog for almost a month! Yikes. I usually try to put around holidays and other fun things. I guess, there hasn't been a whole lot going on lately. Tomás is doing well in school, and now working full time doing Spanish tutorial videos. I'm working and writing for American Dancer Magazine like crazy.

I finally got shots back from my friend Sarah from the dance photo shoot.
So, here they are!

 She also took a bunch of us together also, for a different project.

Tomás and Jared are on a soccer team this semester. At their first game last week, I tried to get some action shots from Tomás' iPhone. I got a few sweet ones.