Summer 2019

Because typing is pretty hard, I will just let the photos tell our summer story.

Robertson Reunion at Bear Lake

 

 Hanging out in Utah 

 

Jackman Reunion in Orem

We are so grateful to have such awesome extended family!!

Life changing moments

Sometimes you're going about living your life and in one instant, something happens that changes everything. I had one of those moments this summer.

I was literally living my dream, by going on my weekly horse ride.  In prior weeks, it looked like this:

Emma was a natural riding Autumn

To this:

Day two, trying to keep my arm elevated to reduce the swelling.

A second horse in the pen was anxious to get out too.  So, he tried to push his way past me.  My arm got smashed into the end of a metal pole.  Thankfully Sydney was with me and was holding our horse when it happened.  My whole arm immediately went limp and I started going into shock.  I knew something was seriously wrong.   After a half hour of trying to calm down, I talked Sydney (who had come to ride with me that day) through the necessary chores and we drove home.  

After a trip to the ER, countless doctors appointments with specialists and some very unpleasant testing, the diagnosis is severe median nerve damage.

My hand was in intense pain.  The nerve pain made me feel like it was constantly on fire. Four and a half of my fingers were totally numb.  I couldn't feel anything.  My pointer finger and my thumb were almost completely useless.  They could not bend, which gave me no grip and little strength in that hand.  After two months, this was all the bend I could  muster:

Now,  it has been nearly three months and not much has changed.  I am on pain meds to help with the pain.  I have learned to manage many things with my left hand.  Zippers and scissors are nearly impossible.  I can't open very many packages.  Doing a ponytail in my hair is a challenge.  

The emotional roller coaster has been the hardest.  Some days, the doctors aren't very hopeful for a full recovery.  Some days, they just tell me to give it more time.  

I have received several blessings and do feel like the Lord is watching over me.  Deep down, I feel like I will get better. If I focus on those feelings. I can cope.  But, there are times when I let the "what if's" get into my head and then I struggle.

For now, it is just a waiting game to see if it improves.  Praying it does.

Busy bodies......

The school year is wrapping up and we have been busy. 

Busy playing:

We attended the annual Great Paper Airplane Contest.  Our airplanes were only average, but we won this awesome prize in the raffle.  Mr. Red M&M now graces our entryway.

I took a quick overnight trip to Starr Pass and sat by the pool chatting and eating with these lovely ladies.  It was so great!

The Clarks have been here for 3 months now and we are getting a lot of time with these cuties!  Love it!

Busy working

The girls did awesome in their piano ensemble performance!  I just love watching this each year.

Aiden earned his Webelos and Arrow of Light.  He's really enjoyed scouts and we are so proud of him!

The GEA band was busy earning all sorts of awards at their festivals.  

Busy recovering

We had another episode of appendicitis.  Emma had been complaining of a stomach ache for about 24 hours.  After that, I started to really investigate and found her symptoms to be concerning.  The way she was moving, the way she was describing the pain, the way she screamed when I sat by her on the bed.  It was all very familiar.  This time I didn't hesitate and took her to the Urgent Care.  By the time we waited 2 hours to see the doctor, I was positive it was appendicitis.  The doctor pushed on her belly, Emma screamed, and off to the hospital we went (with a $120 bill-ugh!).

Eventually, an MRI confirmed that her appendix needed to come out.  Thankfully, it hadn't burst but was angry and inflamed.  So, after surgery and 2 nights in the hospital, she was home recovering.  

I won't go into too much detail, but this definitely brought on a little PTSD for me.  Walking into radiology with her on the bed next to me brought back a lot of memories. I was hit with so many emotions and struggled to hold back the tears.

Later that night, I held Emma's hand while she waited 10 minutes for the next round of pain medicine to kick in again.  I coached her through each breath. I told her to hold on, relief was coming.  I was encouraging.  I helped distract her.  I hurt for her.  And then I thought about what a contrast that was to Aiden's first few days of pain and I sobbed with guilt.

So much gratitude Emma was not that bad.  So happy we were home in 48 hours will no complications.  So eerie that we were at the same hospital with the same surgeon on the same dates as 2 years ago.  So proud of Brent and I for doing that hard thing back then.  So grateful we were capable of doing this again. So happy to be home.  So proud of Emma and her ability to be kind and patient amid her suffering. 

Busy preparing

End of school years bring on preparations for the next.  Emma tried out for a few new groups and was accepted to the Sahuarita Teen Advisory Council (like a teen town council), and the Walden Grove a Capella group, Red Harmony.  She will continue to do STUCO and has decided to go back to piano lessons after a year break.  Emma is over the moon excited about doing it all next year.  I am already stressed on her behalf.

Sydney also has some exciting things going on next year.  The biggest one is that she will be home schooling.  To make a long story short: she's always wanted to try it and the social scene at GEA was no longer a positive experience for her.  So, after six months of watching her struggle and begging me to let her do it, I conceded.  At first, I was overwhelmed and scared.  I started doing research, talked to several home school moms, and began making plans.  I've even gotten a little excited about some of it.  She is planning on going to Walden as a freshman, so this is just a one year hiatus from public school.  Wish us luck!

Each year, my kids amaze me with the talents and hard work.  So proud of all they do and who they are becoming.  Love them!!

Christmas Experiences

This past year, we decided to gift each child with a fun experience.  Something they could go do instead of just have.  It has been so fun for each of them to cash in on those gifts the past few months.

Emma and Sydney got to go to a glass sculpting class.  They made glass flowers.

First, they gathered the hot glass onto the metal pole.

Then they rounded it out and added color (a special kind of broken glass).

They used large tweezers to pull the edges into petals.

And once they created a stem, they disconnected the glass from the pole.

After a few days of cooling off in the oven, we got to bring them home.

Sydney's on the left and Emma's on the right.

Aiden got tickets to a Monster Jam event.  He got to bring a friend, so of course, he invited Luke.  Brent said it was a perfect show for them and they had a great time watching the trucks and voting on their favorites.  Definitely needed the ear protection!

Taylor got a month of horseback riding lessons.  It has been so fun to watch her get more confident with the horses and enjoy riding them.  She was even trotting and doing obstacles by the end.  Watching her sparked my own longing to have a horse, which has led to some exciting news (more on that to come).

This is a Christmas tradition that I'd love to continue.  I feel like our money is much better spent making memories than on things.  And these are things I wouldn't otherwise have paid for.  It was fun to have Christmas stretched out for a bit longer!

Chick Fil-A Madness

Amelia has been talking about her love for Chick Fil-A for years.  So when it was announced that we would be getting one 15 minutes away, I was pretty excited.

For every grand opening, Chick Fil-A does some kind of event for the first 100 people. This time, it was an overnight campout in the parking lot....in January....on one of the coldest nights we have had.

If you can complete the campout without leaving the parking lot, you get a years supply of Chick Fil-A.  Yes, you read that right.

A YEARS SUPPLY OF CHICK FIL-A!!!

I was able to convince a few friends that this would indeed be a fun adventure and well worth it.  They were easily fooled.

Turns out that more than 100 people showed up, so we had to enter a drawing.  Thankfully, my friend Angel and I were drawn.  Tabatha was an alternate (she get the prize if someone drops out), but Bethany was turned away. :(  Honestly, by the time that was all decided, we were sooooo cold and I wouldn't have been too upset at the idea of sleeping in my own warm bed.  We had been standing in the parking lot for 4 hours and I hadn't bothered to get my coat. 

Thankfully, after our numbers were called, we were allowed in the restaurant.  We filled out the necessary paperwork, got fed some chicken sandwiches for dinner and were given a parking spot in which to set up our tent.

Angel had a propane tent heater and, let me tell you, it saved the day.  We got our tent set up and snuggled into our sleeping bags to warm up.  We even had a movie to keep us occupied.  

I slept in my coat, hat, gloves, and several layers underneath all night.  

After a good 4 hours of sleep, we were woken and told to line up and claim our prize.  An hour later, we were on our way home-with a gift card for 52 #1 meals!

We may have gone for dinner that very night.  And I may have seen these two ladies there too. :)

Ski Bunnies

Thanks to Grandma and Gramps' Christmas money gift, we were able to do another ski trip this year.  The kids haven't stopped talking about our trip last year, so we were excited to see if their skills were really as good as we remembered.  They were.  These kids are pretty great skiers for living in AZ!!

We took two days off school (super stressful for Emma) and joined a big group of friends at the Sunrise Ski Slopes in Pinetop, AZ.  It turned out to be a huge group (thanks to Jani and Marshall Hart-the fun family) which made it fun because there was a wide variety of skill, age, and chaperones. We brought Luke Marble with us and spent two days telling those boys they were not ready for black diamond runs, even though they swore they could do it.

Brent, Luke, Aiden, Miranda,Taylor, Emma, Savanna, Wyatt

Brent spent a majority of the second day giving more intermediate lessons to the kids that were ready to learn how to parallel turn and stop.  It was fun for me to see him enjoying this.  I realized that he enjoys teaching when he is passionate about the subject.  Watching him teach soccer, especially refereeing, makes him light up too.  Sure love that guy.

By the end of the second day, it was clear that I am now the worst skier in the family. I braved a blue square (for the third time ever) so Taylor could try it.  I fell.  She never did.

Sydney is the most cautious but can usually handle more than she thinks.

I didn't see much of Emma and Brent was usually off with the boys, so I didn't get a lot of photos of them.  

We drove home (5 hours) on the evening of the 2nd ski day.  Getting home around midnight was tough.  We were so tired!  But well worth the fun.  So proud of our kids and grateful when we can make fun memories like this.