Katie's Tough!

Yesterday wasn't exactly what I had planned! Our good friends (Orahoods) are going to the temple this weekend after 40+ years of marriage to be sealed. We are absolutely thrilled for them and I was looking forward to attending their endowment session with them yesterday. I was doing a foot zone in the afternoon when both phone rang two times in a row (I hardly ever answer the phone while I'm zoning). After the zone was over, I saw it was Doug and a number I didn't recognize. I quickly called Doug and he said; "The school called and Katie had fallen and hurt her shoulder. The school felt like it was serious enough they didn't want her riding the bus home so the principal is going to be bringing her home." Of course, I am now feeling like I'm in the running for "mother of the year". I quickly called the school and they confirmed that she was quite hurt but she was already on the way home. I went outside and waited for them. When they got home the principal said "I think it's a collar bone."

Katie explained to me what had happened. I called our neighbor (the ER Dr) and found out he was working. His wife said she'd text him and tell him we were on our way. And off we went to the Emergency Room. I'm beginning to feel like I am meeting Dave way too much this way! He was so kind and came out to the waiting room, checked Katie out and said, "yup, we've got a broken collar bone. I think we need an x-ray to see what kind of break it is." Katie was so tough, after it initially happened, there were no more tears. She bravely smiled for the x-rays ;) and explained to everyone who asked what had happen. (I'm sure she gave them way more details than they needed!) So, after the x-rays I walked into the room where Dave was, as soon as I saw the picture I knew it was broken- and I don't even have a million years of schooling! She's now in a sling (can't cast that part) with strict instructions to not use it and let it heal, we'll see how well she listens! She is doing really well, she went to school today, although she's on Lortab so she probably won't think all that well!

Oh, do you want to know how she did it? She was at PE and was playing soccer. She and another girl were going full force after a ball when they crashed. Katie fell and the girl fell on top of her. Today when I walked Katie into her class (yes, in an effort to make up for failing yesterday I took her to school and even walked inside to talk to her teacher.) Katie's teacher was at the office on the phone with the mom of the other little girl. The other little girl was pretty sore but she was ok, but feeling so bad for Katie. It's funny, because the whole time Katie just kept saying "She didn't mean to fall on me, she's my friend, all of this just happened because of an accident."

Katie is such an independant little girl that this is interesting because she's needed help dressing, fixing hair and getting breakfast, at least it was her left arm!

Pictures

Here are the pictures I couldn't fit on the previous post.

Beautiful Rexburg LDS Temple- check out those clouds!

Love this picture of Doug and Bevan- that's how Bevan saw most of Yellowstone- on Doug's back!

Taking a walk around Jenny Lake. Love this sweet picture!

Bevan having fun playing in the puddles!

The whole bunch of us at Jenny Lake in front of the Tetons. We were lucky the clouds cleared enough to get these pictures. We were sad we couldn't see the Tetons more but the clouds did make for some amazing scenery.

Wonderful Adventure

I'd been itching to go somewhere, and because Doug can't take any days off work right now I thought we needed to take a quick trip somewhere over Labor Day weekend. Being a Union man Doug for sure gets that day off! ;) So, I looked and I looked. It needed to be somewhere cheap and of course couldn't be too far away. After much research we decided to go to the Yellowstone area. We stayed in "Tent-Cabins" at Coulter Bay. What's a "Tent-Cabin" you ask? Well, it's exactly like it sounds, half tent, half cabin. It has two cabin walls that have fold down bunks attached to them and a wood burning stove. Outside (under the cover) is a picnic table. We loved it! It was only $42/night and was easy camping. We took our own bedding and Doug's small Coleman burner. We would get up every morning and make hot chocolate and a yummy breakfast! We took lunch fixings with us and we'd eat in whatever parking lot we were in. Then we'd come back about 8-8:30 and quickly fix dinner. We ate taco soup, corn on the cob and hamburgers for dinners.

We spent two days in Yellowstone. It was nice to be able to take our time and hike and see what we wanted to see. We stopped and took pictures of the Tetons. Got out and put our hands in Yellowstone Lake (it was too cold to put in anymore than that!) We saw Lewis Falls.

Of course we saw lots of hot pots and sulfur pots (stinky!). We saw Old Faithful and all of the geysers. I think we did about every 1/2 mile trail that there is in Yellowstone.

We saw some things close up (like the Buffalo- or bison- who were within 10 yards of our car) and the things that weren't close enough we'd use Dad's binoculars!

We hiked the Grand Canyon (although due to construction we couldn't go as far as we wanted. We did "Tom's Trail" which is basically 380 stairs that go straight down. Ugh! It was a hike, but well worth it to see the beautiful views of the waterfall.

We had a great time. The weather was wonderful! Except the last day when it started raining at night and poured all the next morning. Luckily, we were just planning on going to Jackson Hole anyway so it worked out alright. We stopped at Jenny Lake and walked a little way on the trail and then headed to Jackson. It was too cold in Jackson to do much so we just drove through and then stopped at Bubba's to eat lunch. Yum! Great bar-b-que! On the way home Doug wanted to go see the new Rexburg Temple. That temple is quite pretty. (I'll share a picture in another post- I can't add anymore pictures!) Then we ended up having to stop and get a new windshield washer. We had a great time and I'm already planning our next trip there. Although I don't know when it will be- we'll definitely be going back.

Ahhh, life...

A few months ago I read a man's blog and he said somthing like; "It seems I either have nothing to blog about or I am so busy doing stuff I don't have time to blog." I could totally relate! I have definately felt that way, especially lately. So, what has been going on? Or has it been that there has been nothing to blog about. Well, the answer is a little bit of both!

In an effort of trying to make my blog "real' and not just the cheery part of life I think I need to say, life has been a little bit stressful lately! Over Labor Day Weekend, I read a book called "Debt Proof Living" it is an excellent book, with excellent ideas. For quite a while Doug and I have known we needed to do something to improve our finances and this book seemed to be the answer. So we set up the "Rapid Debt Repayment" program and have been working hard to get our finances in order. Fortunately, this is wonderful for me to feel, even if we have very little money, at least I know where it is going and I am in control of it. Unfortunately, it has made me a little stressed about what we should do with our money and it's made me stressed when mistakes are made with handling the money. I think I have to learn how to deal with that a little bit better! I'm working on it, it's all part of the process and I truly believe our lives and marriage will be better because of it. I would really encourage everyone to check this book out!

Last week (Sept 8-12) Doug was gone to his Electrician classes. Part of his apprenticeship requires that he attends classes for one week every other month. Since it's so expensive to drive back and forth he stayed with Leslie and her family (thanks, Leslie, for putting up with him!). I'm not used to having Doug gone. He's never gone. But he was gone for 5 long days. Actually things went better than I thought they would although I was busy. He was also able to spend a little bit of time with his brother who was here for his wife's grandma's funeral (did that make sense?). That was definately a blessing for him to be down there for that. During this time we received a little bit of troubling news. It was hard for us to not be together to support each other. (Don't worry, we're all fine- just needed to process.) But we all survived, and we were all grateful to be reunited! Everyday Maddie would say "I just can't believe how much I miss my Dad!" I think it's good for us to be apart occassionally- it makes us appreciate each other. But, boy, I do need some "me" time right now! (If I can hold on, we're having a scrapbook day next weekend!)

We've also had some WONDERFUL times! One of them is coming up in the next post.

I Laughed Out Loud!

As a background, Maddie has been asking me to come eat lunch with her on "pizza day". I told her to let me know when it was and I would see if we could come, she hadn't mentioned it to me since. Until yesterday, Bevan and I walked out to meet Maddie at the bus. (Not something we do everyday, but Katie wasn't on the bus and we had been stuck inside all day so we decided it would be a good distraction.) Maddie got off and excitedly ran to us. After the basic discussion (how was school, etc...) this was the discussion that followed:

M: "You didn't come eat pizza with me."

Me: "Was that today?"

M: "No, it was on Thurs. Ethan, the boy in my class, his mom is pizza president and she decided that would be pizza day."

I thought about it for a minute and then laughed out loud! I thought about who Ethan was and realized that she meant "PTA president", then I laughed because I realized that she thinks the PTA president has a lot more power and importance than she truly has. I've been grinning about it ever since!