Looking Back...

Alright, I interrupt the regularly scheduled updates of how intensely crazy life currently is (with a new stress about one of my kids thrown into the mix), to share these old photos we recently came across at my Mom's house.   My Mom has a new diagnosis that I'm not ready to talk about on here yet, but it's a doozy that requires a lot more testing and will severely affect her life in the future.  We are all still trying to process.    In the meantime, she's been trying to go through boxes and I thought it would be fun to share some of the treasures we came across.   

Here's a couple of me from when I was a baby...

I see glimpses of my kids in these....

And this one was with me and my Mom taken on the day before my younger brother was born. It was May 1974 in Germany and I was 13 months old....so basically still a baby myself!      

I love this sweet family photo from around 1977.  

This one was taken around 1979 or so in Oklahoma City, and includes my Uncle Mike (in back), Kristina, my cousin, Ashley, Pete, Nate, my cousin, Aaron, and me (in the front row).

This one is 1988 with me holding my brother, Tim.   My hair was clearly in fine form in the 1980's.  

These were taken around 1999...

Look at my sweet Littles, who are now almost 31 and 29!   

These pics are on display at my Mom's house...

Look at those cute little smiles...

I thought this old drawing of mine was cute and kind of funny.   I'm guessing that the teacher had written the writing prompt up on the chalkboard and I very obediently even added the blanks to show that I filled it in!   Haha!   And the fact that I was excited to "play around the house" for Spring Break is also kind of funny.   

Here is an old letter Cami had written to her Great- Grandma Hepworth.   She passed away in 2009, so it was sometime before then...

 My Mom has a very hard time parting with items like these, so taking pictures of them and sharing them here on the blog is a good way to preserve them for future posterity.   Perhaps I'll have to start posting these flashback posts more regularly again...


 

A Change of Plans

Emma has spent the last several months training for an upcoming triathlon later this month.   She was working hard and getting her mileage to where it needed to be, when about 10 days ago, we received a phone call from Emma while we were on our morning walk.   She very calmly explained that she  had gotten in a bike crash about half-way between our home and Provo and that she needed medical attention.  We knew it was something because she's not one to ask for help often, but she was so calm, we honestly didn't think it was that bad.   We were about a mile and a half from home when the phone call came in, so we immediately turned around and booked it as fast as we could back to home.   Once there, we grabbed the car keys and took off for Pleasant Grove, where we frustratingly hit road construction along the way.    

We felt badly about how long it took us to get there (probably 45ish minutes from the time she called), and, looking back, we wish we had asked a friend to come pick us up from our walk, so we could have at least gotten home faster, but that's only in hindsight we thought of that.   When we finally arrived to the site of the crash, we were grateful to find a kind lady, that had happened across her on the trail, had waited with her until we arrived.  She had even gotten a blanket for Emma when she had started shivering...I think at least  partially from shock. 

Long story short, I took her to the hospital where we learned that she had broken her collarbone in two places!   They called it a Z shaped displaced fracture, which means that the two ends were displaced  with a small fragment of bone lying loose in between.

They don't operate on collarbones very often, but Emma's break was severe enough that they recommended surgery for a (likely) quicker and less complicated healing process.  In the meantime, they put her in a sling, with orders to wear it day and night, only taking it off to bathe. 

Thankfully, other than the banged up collarbone and a few minor scrapes, she was totally fine.  Her collarbone bruise, though, was pretty epic as far as bruises go. 

She stayed at home with us for a couple days while she figured out how to live one-armed.  Some of the most difficult tasks included getting dressed, putting her hair up, and taking her sling on and off, but, with practice and a few adjustments, she figured out how to do everything other than putting her hair up on her own.   She is also not allowed to drive.   After she was a bit more independent, we brought her back to her apartment, so she could be more active in the social life of her ward.   

 

 Her surgery was scheduled for Wednesday, so Tuesday night, we headed to Provo to pick her up after she finished up a temple trip with her ward. 

 

But because she can't drive and they picked the Payson Temple to attend, rather than the Provo City Center, we ended up waiting longer than we expected for her.   So we made sure to impress all the young students as thoroughly as possible, and walked around BYU campus at 10:30pm in our pajamas!   Yes, we are cool like that. 

Eventually her and her friends returned to Provo, then we headed home and got some fitful sleep, then we brought her in for surgery on Wednesday morning...

During pre-op, the anesthesiologist commented on her red hair and said he'd take that into account when administering the anesthesia.   We laughed, because, while we still think of her as  having "reddish" hair, it's much less red than it was when she was young!   

Wasn't she the cutest?!

We had always heard about redheads possibly needing more anesthesia during surgery, but didn't know that was something actually backed by research and science until the anesthesiologist mentioned it.   We were impressed at the anesthesiologist's attention to detail and were only disappointed that we didn't hear a report back as to whether she actually did require more than a non-redhead of her size would have required. 

The surgeon said the surgery went smoothly and she now pretty much has a bionic shoulder.   I have no idea what kind of imaging this is, since it doesn't seem to show bone, but this is what the surgeon showed me when reporting to me about how it had gone.   He said that the plate goes along the top of the clavicle and the screws are holding the two displaced pieces in  place.  The area in the center of the plate without screws is where the loose bone fragment is.  It was too small for screws, so that's wrapped into place with some kind of surgical string (if I understood that correctly). 

She still wears the sling full-time for two weeks, but she should regain her mobility more quickly with the surgery and she already has pretty significantly reduced pain than when everything was all disjointed in there.    She stayed at home with us for a few days, which is something we (and the dogs) very much enjoyed...

And now (five days post-surgery), she is in California!   It is a graduation trip she planned with her friends long before this accident happened.   We were a little unsure as to whether the doctor would clear her for air travel so soon after surgery, but he gave it the thumb's up!   I probably warned her a few too many times about how she needs to take it easy, not push things, and to listen to her body, but I have confidence that it will be the fun celebratory experience she helped plan.    She's a little sad that her trip, especially her day at Disneyland will be a much different day than she'd envisioned, but she is happy to be there!   And that's a gift she's embracing-- all things considered. 

Maybe I can talk her into doing a write-up on her trip when she gets back!    Have a great week, friends!

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A Sweet Little Birthday Boy!

This past week marks  ONE YEAR since our little grandson, Oliver Glen, was born and I couldn't be more thrilled to be here in Alabama celebrating with him and his family in person!  

I know I may be biased, but I kid you not when I say that this babe is as sweet as sweet comes!    Not only is he a little mister smarty pants, but he's also got a sociable and easy-going personality.  

When he was a newborn I thought he looked like our side of the family, but the older he gets, the more I realize how much he  looks like his Dad!   That's Garrett on the left and Oliver on the right.   I swear they look like twins born 30-years apart...

Oliver says, "uh oh,” waves, claps, stacks blocks,  and roars like a dinosaur on command.   He loves playing ball and pushing around his little walker toy.   He's an efficient crawler who seems right on the verge of walking and I'm constantly surprised at his attention span, especially for things like playing catch and playing jumpy jump (me helping him jump up and down on my lap).   He certainly enjoyed his little "smash cake" for his birthday, but did not devour it like Lucie had...

I am so grateful for our little Ollie boy and only wish they lived closer...

So I could get more of his squishy snuggles {and time with his family}!

Have a great week! 
 

What I'm Doing At Church

 Before I get to the meat of this post, I want to preface it by telling you about  a problem I have.   

It's something I've struggled with my whole life and I thought I'd outgrow it someday, but, alas, I have not.   

I have a deep-seated desire to not be normal....but not so abnormal that I'm too weird.  I just want to be  original and a little unexpected.  You know, totally an easy balance.     

That  may or may not make you laugh based on how well you know me, but it perhaps does explain a little of my quirkiness.  

So, if you were to peek at my LDS Tools right now, you'd see I have three callings....

One of those callings was extended to me by a member of the bishopric, the other two I volunteered for. If you've been following along here for very long, you know that making church programs  is something that makes me super happy.  It's not work to me; it's something I just weirdly enjoy doing and consider a creative outlet for myself.   And it's good that I don't usually have to lobby too hard to get this job, since it's not one that's in high demand! 😁  

I try really hard to make the programs beautiful, informative, and unique--though the church copier often leaves them looking less beautiful than I'd prefer.  Here is a glimpse at the inside of this week's, though I admit, it was an off week for me because I'm working on a different (much smaller screened) computer than usual.  

I am very proud of my back page, which spotlights all the missionaries serving from our ward!  

So every week I create these paper programs, update an online ward bulletin, where I include many more details about the items mentioned, and create a kids' activity sheet to go with the Come, Follow Me lesson for that week that gets handed out in sacrament meeting.  All in all, I probably spend 3-5 hours on all this in a week  and mostly love every minute of it....though it's not my favorite thing when I'm traveling.  

My other calling is *still* Relief Society Activity Coordinator (going on almost 2 years now).   It's  a calling I struggle with, but I'm doing the best I can with it.  We had a few month lull without an activity, because of some stake and other Relief Society things that I had nothing to do with, and I think that lull got me out of my routine and made this last activity  a little extra hard to plan.  I had the hardest time lighting a fire to get buy-in from the sisters on it and I literally had 5 baby pictures collected for it two days before.  So when sending out my last minute email (something I do at least once a week for the online ward bulletin), I wanted to make it more than just a boring old email.   Here's what I ended up sending....

Somehow my goofy email worked and I got 24 more baby pictures in the two days before the activity started.  The turn-out was great...

The food (prepared by a member of my committee) was  delicious and beautiful! 

And people loved the baby picture game!  I had them hanging up like this, making them a gathering place in the room. 

I made worksheets  and had copies for everyone, so they could guess.   It was such a fun conversation starter and I loved watching all the sisters discuss among themselves who was who.   Totally a hit! 

Apparently I made my picture too easy and people guessed me right away...

So that's me right now.  Just plugging away, doing my thing, and {mostly} loving every minute.    

Your Mom is Weird

Letter written to our missionary:  4/17/23

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Hello dear missionary of mine!  
How's life in  the land of Ports and Dams?   How fun that I still get to make  Dam jokes with you even in your new area.   You probably thought you would get to escape those eventually, but...NOT YET! 

I'm fully aware that my obsession with beavers/dams probably puts me squarely in the "weird category", but I'm okay with that.  At least I'm not also obsessed with sending stupid little 4x6 pieces of thick paper in the mail, because that would be truly weird.  

Oh wait.  Never mind.

I do also send doughnuts to your cousins who have birthdays...

Maybe that makes me slightly more normal...

I also seem to have an issue with dogs following me home...

For approximately the 5th time since moving to Utah, we met a loose dog on our morning walk and had it follow us all the way home.     He had no tag/collar on, so we posted on the community FB page and pretty quickly found the owner to Maverick.  He was a pretty sweet guy, but we laughed that this never once happened while we lived in VA or PA, but somehow it happens on a semi-regular basis here in UT!   Maybe we smell extra meaty or something now.  

I also can't stop looking for "matching" pictures to show Cami after she sends me a  picture of Lucie.  She sent me this one to show how Lucie was wiping her hands in her hair like a napkin, so I found one of Cami doing the same thing...then found one of me doing the same thing.  In other words, apparently messy eating runs in the family!  

I guess it might be  slightly weird that I've started looking for "wishing rocks" to show your little cousins after I read them a cute picture book during Spring Break about different types of rocks you can find.   It gave me Adam vibes to be walking along the trail with a pocket full of rocks...and to now have a pile of rocks on my windowsill for whatever future date we might see the King Boys again. 

On Sunday, we decided to channel our inner Adam even further and took an afternoon drive to Bear River Bird Refuge.   It was a lovely day and I had fun using the Merlin App (an amazing discovery) to help us identify some of  the different birds. 

We saw American avocets...

A snowy egret (we didn't need the app for this one)...

An American coot...

A yellow-headed blackbird...

 American white pelicans...

A white faced ibis...

And some hungry Gooldicus Birdicus... {there were too many bugs to eat our picnic outside}.  We definitely need to take you there when you get home.  You would love this place!  

Also, on a different, but related note...Spring is kind of here and I've stopped crying every morning when I see the weather forecast...I also am enjoying post-dinner walks a few times a week.   {PS  I only joined BeReal to be friends with your sisters and the three of them are literally the ONLY friends I have on there (not that they post very often or anything).   Someone else tries to add me and they are instantly and cruelly denied! I will probably let you be my friend in 15ish months or so though, so don't worry.}

In case you're wondering why I only said Spring was "kind-of here"...

There are still way too many cold days in the mix for my taste...not that I'm complaining too much.  I am definitely reveling in the sunshine and not having to wear my woolen outerwear every day for now, but, heaven help me,  if it snows on my birthday, there won't  be enough beavers in the world to justify the  torrent of dams that will flow forth from my mouth. 

Sorry. 

I guess I better go read my scriptures  or something {I'M ON MORONI 9, SO ONE MORE DAY!!!}.   Or maybe send a few postcards.  Or think of a spiritual thought to end with...

Here's a quote in President Nelson's GC talk that stood out to me:  

"The Savior’s message is clear: His true disciples build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire—no matter how difficult the situation. True disciples of Jesus Christ are peacemakers."

It made me think of you and the other missionaries out there making the world a better place and it made me thoughtful about what I could do to be a better peacemaker.  

I hope you have an amazing week!  We can't wait to talk with you tomorrow! 

LOVE YOU!!!!
Love,
Mom