saw the doctor yesterday

Dr M said I just need to be patient and let my leg heal when I told him about my disasterous experiment trying to graduate to one crutch. The x-ray looked good and I didn't screw anything up. There's a horrible crunching sound in my knee when I do a leg extension and he doesn't quite know what it is. It could be a ligament rubbing or the hardware in there. He said we just have to see if it goes away or not. He seemed a bit puzzled by the fact that my knee hurts so much, especially when I do a leg extension.

He was thrilled with my flexion, however. They had measured it at 128 degrees at Novacare on Friday and he said he never thought I'd get that much bend in it with the severity of the injury combined with the closeness to the joint. That made me happy, yet made me sad. That means it is unlikely I'll get much more bend out of it, and will never again be able to sit cross-legged on the floor or crouch down to tie a shoe. I'm trying to be thankful that I can walk, ride a bike, etc., but I still mourn the loss of flexibility I had before. T and I went to see the movie "A History of Violence" on Saturday and there was a scene when the wife seduced the husband. She was on top of him and all I could think was, "I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that again?" I forgot to ask the doctor if it was safe to kneel (like in church) on it. I imagine it would hurt.

Our neighborhood had its first block party on Sunday afternoon and it was a lot of fun. We got to meet several neighbors for the first time, and everyone was very nice. There are three little girls in the neighborhood that are close to C's age, which is great. R had a great time -- carved a pumpkin, dunked for apples, and ate too many desserts. C also had a great time.

Tomorrow is C's third birthday. I spend the morning wrapping presents and baking a cake. She chose a Dora the Explorer cake from Meijer, but since we're also celebrating Matt's birthday with the family I had to bake one too. I'll have to zip to Meijer in the morning to get a small cake to take to C's daycare. We somehow ended up with 19 people coming to dinner! Julie is in town from Seattle with Cade and Caleb, Ellen's whole family is coming, both sets of parents, and Michael and Kim. I made a double recipe of spaghetti sauce last night, so I'm not quite as stressed out as I'd normally feel. Mom is making a tossed salad, T's mom is making something with fruit, and Ellen and Julie may bring something, so I think we'll have enough food.