Colorado is great! My aunt, uncle, and older cousin have made it safely to Hawaii (first day of college starts next week, good luck Veronica!!!), and I’m here with my little cousin.
I start my day off with feeding the dog and cats, then I eat breakfast with my cousin and then bring her to school. Then I explore the area on my rollerskis untill I get tired… This morning I rollerskied up on a ridge with some huge stone houses and a beautiful mountain view… Then I eat lunch and entertain myself untill its time to pick up Ali. She does her homework and then we go for a bike ride (and big old cousin Lindsay makes her wear her helmet). Then I cook dinner. Last night I made some gingered beef meatballs and broccoli in a sesame orange sauce served over brown rice. I do believe Ali’s quote was ‘this is so good it should be illegal’. YAY! :^)

I love my new job working as a cook in the deli at the Wedge! I’m still working hard at getting the hang of everything, but its so much fun making so much good food… and getting paid to do it! And all of my co-workers are super nice, which is always a good thing!

I am leaving for Colorado next week to take care of my little cousin (because my older cousin is starting college in Hawaii and my Aunt and Uncle are helping her move in and get settled). So I have the awesome oppurtunity to spend 2 weeks out in Colorado with my little cousin.

I am very happy to report that I am healing up very well!
And the rest of my life seems to be falling back into place. I will be starting culinary school in October. I just signed a lease for an apartment (close to school in Minneapolis), and I will be moving in in September. AND I just got a job as a cook in the deli at the Wedge Co-op, and I start that next week!
I have fought so hard for the last 7 months to stay positive about life… it seemed like everytime I picked myself up off the floor I just got punched in the face and knocked back down. Well… I’m back up on my feet now, and I’m really fired up about it! So watch out! :^)

I am SO over spending nights in hospitals.

I am done getting cut.

medicine

This last surgery was probably the toughest yet… it was definately the most painful. I woke up in the recovery room in extreme pain (I’m talking saw your leg off with a salty dull butterknife type of pain), so they kept giving me painkiller after painkiller. it was doing nothing, so they gave me a heavy dose of something very very strong… the pain finally subsided, but I was so drugged I was forgetting to breathe and I was constantly setting off the ’she’s not breathing alarm’. So by the time I came out of that haze enough to breathe the pain was creaping back into my conciousness, but I had been in recovery for 2 1/2 hours so it was time for me to go to my hospital room… by the time I arrived at my room I was in tears again from the pain. Another game of trying to get ahead of the pain with a bunch of drugs, but after 2 hours of trying with no avail; I got hooked up to a morphine pump. Finally I was able to dull the pain! The rest of the day and night was a blur of sleeping and waking up to press the morphine button… untill the next morning when I threw up. So more drugs (anti-nausea this time), and after a several hour nap my stomach started feeling a bit better, but I was still not in good shape and it was starting to look like I was going to be spending another night in the hospital. I probably should have, but I am stubborn and I just REALLY wanted to go home, so I ended up leaving at about 5pm. The last 20 minutes of the hour long drive back home I was in tears, the bumps in the road were too much…
But now its been almost 2 weeks and I’m doing much better, I still have a lot of recovering to do but I’m definately making steps in the right direction. This morning I didn’t wake up because my leg was killing me! Yay!!
4 surgeries in a 5 month period is extremely mentally and emotionally challenging. But the good news is that was (knock on wood) my LAST surgery and I can start to move on with my life!

Tomorrow I’ll be having my second leg operated on. So I decided to post some ‘happy’ pictures because… well… just because I could use a smile and I hope it will make you smile too!

my beautiful heirloom tomatoes

I LOVE BEETS!!!

there's a dog in my zucchini!

Topper. what a cutie.

I know I haven’t updated for a while… but sometimes I just feel like a broken record! I’m recovering well from my surgery, and I have another one coming up. So here is the quick shake-down: My right leg is healing up very nicely, so on July 1st I will be going back to Rochester and my left leg will be getting fixed up. The good news is my titanium thumb is fusing wonderfully and I only have 2 legs, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!! This (knock on wood) should be my last surgery for a long long long time.

ALSO I got my letter of acceptance from the International School of Culinary Arts at the Art Institutes in Minneapolis so starting this October I will be a chef in training!!! :^)

Surgery on my right leg went well yesterday. I spent the night in the hospital and came back home today… The doctor did everything he could possibly do, so now its just the healing/waiting game. If it seems like the surgery worked I’ll be going back in and getting my left leg operated on in a few weeks.

With this being my third year in a row having surgery on my legs, I know I need to do something different next year. I’ve been getting my legs cut open before each summer and then jumping right back into my hard training, and that just isn’t working for me. I need to just give my body (and mind) time to heal. I need to take a step back and treat my body with a bit of respect. So if this surgery (surgeries) are a success or not I have decided I need to take next winter off from racing. I am physically and mentally at a point where I just need to back off a bit. I’m not going to make any claims that I’ll be gunning for the 2014 Olympics, but I’m not going to say I won’t. I’m just going to say I need a break before I breakdown completely.

So… This said… Last weekend I applied to culinary school, and I plan on starting classes at the International Institutes of Culinary Arts in Minneapolis starting in October!

I have surgery on my right leg scheduled for June 1st at the Mayo Clinic… It will be my 3rd surgery this year, and the third year in a row to have leg surgery. I really really really hope it works this time.

This week was the last week for Paula Deen’s cooking competition… so now all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that she’ll love my recipes and pick me to be a finalist! A big thanks goes out to Suzi for video taping all of my cooking videos!!! :^)

Last week was pretty crazy (as far as hospital visits go…). So here’s a quick recap.

Tuesday: down to the Mayo Clinic for the super-special-MRI test.

Wedesday: back down to the Mayo to hear the results and have a consult with the vascular surgeon.
In a nutshell, the super-special MRI was very helpful. They could finally pinpoint the spot in my leg where the blood vessles were being squeezed shut, and I was offered a surgery to release the artery (which is what they tried to do last year, but the surgery the Mayo is offering a different procedure. they would go in from the side of my leg instead of behind my knee). Functional Popletieal Entrapment Syndrome (aka PAES) is such a tricky thing to fix, so the surgery isn’t a guarentee BUT there has been success with this procedure in the past. The doctor would only do one leg at a time, and he would only do the 2nd leg if the first one showed signs of the surgery being successful.
I didn’t make any decisions about surgery right then and there, I went home to think things through.

Friday: Stitches were removed from my thumb, and x-rays were taken. AND good news! the thumb joint is fusing nicely! so at least tha seems to be headed in the right direction for a change!
So then I called Mayo because I decided I want to go ahead with surgery.
I haven’t done any hard workout since Febuary, and my legs only seem to be getting worse. It would be awesome to be able to make another Olympic team, but if I don’t I am OK with that. I just want to be able to use my legs and do the things I love. I want to be able to do the Birkie when I am older, I want to go for runs in the woods, I want to jump in some triathalons… So now I am waiting to hear back from the Mayo to see when I can get in.

BUT I did manage to fit in some more cooking videos… check out my HOLEY MOLE PIE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twCjYTnWr44