Broken finger ouch.

So now I can finally say that I have broken a bone. This past Thursday night I was playing volleyball as usual. A low serve was coming towards me and I instinctively put up my hand to stop it from hitting me. All the force of the ball landed on the tip of my right pinkie finger. It hurt immediately and I ran off the court to put it under cold water.

I wasn't too worried at first, because I had injured my right thumb a few weeks ago playing volleyball, but it had only hurt the joint. I thought this injury was similar, but didn't realize the injury was serious until one of my friends asked me if the tip of my pinkie was normally bent like that. She predicted that it was dislocated, and I immediately started crying harder. (Have you ever noticed that it is more painful only after you know how bad you're hurt?)

At this point, there were several people gathered around me discussing whether I should go to the doctor or try to pop the joint back into place. By telling me it would hurt more the longer I waited to pop it back in, they had almost convinced me to let one of the girls try it. At the last moment another friend suggested that it may be broken, so Jeff and I decided to let a doctor look at it.

When we were checking in at the ER, they asked me to rate my pain on a scale from 1 to 10. Well, I have never been seriously ill or injured before, so I didn't really have anything to compare it to. The poor guy at the desk kept trying to come up with painful experiences to compare it to, but I hadn't had any of them. I finally settled on a 5 or 6, cuz I really didn't know.

After waiting (in pain) for what seemed like hours, we learned that the middle bone in my pinkie was broken. They put my hand in a splint that goes halfway to my elbow, because my hand was slightly swollen, and they wanted to protect it until I was able to see a hand surgeon. I am kind of amused that I have this huge splint just for my pinkie.

I have an appointment to see the hand surgeon on Monday afternoon, and he will determine whether I need to keep a splint on for a few weeks, or if I need pins put in my finger. Either way, I hope they give me a smaller splint/cast.

It's been interesting trying to do everything with my left hand. Of course, it HAD to be my dominant hand that was injured. For example, I took a few notes at the Relief Society broadcast last night (see picture), and I felt like I was 5 years old again, painfully and painstakingly working on each letter. I was worried about General Conference next week, since I can't live through it without taking notes, but Jeff has offered to take them for me as I dictate them to him.

He has been really sweet these past few days. He's always willing and ready to help me, and I'm really grateful. In fact, the night that I was injured, he said that this was an opportunity for him to serve me.

I will keep you updated on my one-handed adventures these next few weeks. One thing is for sure - teaching is going to be interesting.

Fun (and Cheap!) Date Night

If any of you are looking for ideas for a fun and fairly inexpensive date night, you might want to try your local Nickel Arcade.
Jeff and I went to one recently, and we really enjoyed it. For under $10 (which included the few dollars it costs to get in, plus several dollars worth of nickels), we enjoyed a nostalgic evening.
We played a few different racing games, skeeball, pinball, and shot some hoops. But we also discovered some of our favorite old games, like Frogger, Burger Time, Qbert, and a classic flying shooting aliens game (that I played in Young Women's a BUNCH because my Beehive leader had the arcade game at her house). Jeff also discovered a game - we think it's called Moon Crawler - that he used to play on his family's first-generation computer (TI-94A).
There were a lot of other things there, too, like air hockey, DDR, and a photo booth, but we didn't get around to doing any of those. It was a really fun evening, and we're planning on going again sometime.
We were also amused to discover a large number of apparently single guys (who weren't teenagers) hanging out there on a Friday night. They appeared to be the type that specialize in certain games and probably hold the high scores on a number of machines. So, if you're a single girl who's feeling desparate, check out your local Nickel Arcade...

Volleyball

Jeff and I both love to play volleyball. We actually brought it up in our first conversation, and it was part of the reason Jeff asked for my phone number that first night we met.

Jeff is certainly better than I am. He played in high school and can jump CRAZY high. I took a class at BYU and am not half bad, either.

We play volleyball every Thursday night for about two hours with a group of singles from Jeff's previous ward. It's a ton a fun.

This past week we got to play volleyball on both Thursday and Saturday. The latter was a ward activity, and it was sand volleyball, which we'd never played together before. Our feet were sore and Jeff's shorts got filled with sand after diving several times, but it was a blast. I'm sad that the weather is starting to cool down and there won't be many more opportunities to play in the sand, but hopefully we'll be able to next summer...

In the meantime, we'll continue to play on Thursdays. Yay volleyball!

Furniture and RCWilley

So we recently got a new bed. We had a little wedding money and after a few weeks of a sore back, Christine and I decided to use some wedding money on a new bed. We got a bed when we were married from Christines's sister which was very nice, but realized it was getting old and starting to sag.
Getting new stuff is nice but then there is getting rid of the old stuff. Have you ever noticed that buying furniture can sometimes be the easiest part?
So last weekend we went shopping for a new bed at RCWilley because we wanted to take advantage of the labor day sales they have. So we went and spent a few hours shopping for a new bed and a new dryer. We seemed to find the things that we wanted fairly quickly and overall we were excited for our new bed and dryer to come. Due to the business of RCWilley on Labor Day weekend they couldn't deliver our new things till Friday.
We also realized as we went shopping that we have all this extra stuff that we still need to get rid of. Sometimes getting rid of stuff can be difficult. We asked RCWilley if they take away the old bed. They said it was up to the driver. So we thought we would post it on Craigslist. So far I have had one person email about the bed and I guess they gave up because they didn't have a truck to move it.
Also, Wednesday we got a phone call from RCWilley telling us that we still owed a few hundred dollars for the bed and dryer when we were certain we paid in full. We looked over our bill and somehow the person had put in the computer that we purchased two dryers and no bed, so the RCWilley computers or manager thought we had been overcharged so they refunded a couple of hundred dollars. Well, the salesperson that called us was not aware of the snafu and figured out after a few phone calls that we needed to pay back the money that they refunded us. Oh, and they told us that we had to pay it 48 hours before our delivery or they would cancel our delivery. So in other words, RCWilley made a mistake on our billing and was ready to cancel our delivery for a mistake they made. I wasn't too happy about it. But I had no idea if this was some scam and I didn't want to pay with a credit card over the phone so we went back to the store Wednesday to refund a refund.
I don't know if any of you have purchased things at RCWilley and looked over the shoulder of the salesperson as they put in the sale, but their computer system is very archaic software. It looks as if it runs off of DOS I think their monitor was monochrome. I would think that a store that deals with millions of purchases and that much money could afford to update their computer software and hardware. So, I don't blame the sales people or the customer service people at RCWilley, I blame the computer system that is stuck in the 1980's. I was casually looking around the store to see if there was a suggestion box so that I could tell RCWilley to update their computers.
However, I am very pleased with our new bed and dryer. The dryer actually drys clothes a little faster than our old one and buzzes when it is done ( our other one didn't) and doesn't leave lint all over our clothes. And my back is now starting to feel much better. Last weekend I could barely move.

New Callings

Well, this is my first post on our blog. I usually let Christine write the blog and then I look over it and give additional comments, maybe. But here it goes.
So, everytime you move to a new ward you wait for a few weeks to see what calling you're going to receive. My sister Rachel has often told me that many of the new wards that she has moved into - she and her husband were called into the primary. Well, true to form, we've been asked to serve in the primary teaching the CTR A class; 4-7 year olds. We of course accepted the call. I am not sure what to think of this calling. I haven't worked with kids ever. I mean I play with my nieces and nephews, but sometimes it is easier to play with family, because they get to know you over a period of multiple visits. I guess primary might be the same way. I definately didn't think that I would also get called to the primary, because I am the sole male piano player in the ward. I thought for sure that they would ask me to play the piano in priesthood meeting. I guess they just needed primary workers more. Well, I am sure it will be an adventure/learning experience/good practice for our future kids. It does seem like a lot of the newlywed couples are in the primary so maybe I can make friends in the primary. I am open to advice about serving in the primary. I am sure I will probably have to rely on Christine's experience on this calling. She is so great with kids and I love that very much about her.