Yeah Carsen! He finally gets to go to school (Pre-K)!
Katelyn, so happy to go to school. Ask her what she thinks now.

Jacob says 'Why are we taking pictures?'

Updates on Life!

So now... to update you on my life since the last post of the bull.

School has started. I had good intentions of posting pictures of the first day of school, but intentions are all I have. Jacob is now in 5th grade, Katelyn (as she is now called) is in 3rd, and Carsen started Pre-K. The school has had a rough start with the kids only going half days, but have now resumed to full day, except for Carsen. The older two both want to go back to their old school because "this one is too hard", but I am amazed at the growth of knowledge they acquire at this school. I love it.

In September, we had 2 birthday parties and 1 elder's quorum party and I am partied out!

Rob's back was slowly recovering, but since then he has gotten a vertebroplasty where they inject 'cement' into the bone that was crushed. He is feeling about 85% better. I know he was the one hurt, but this takes a huge load off my back, as he can help me more around the house.

He was able to go to the Tenney reunion. I met him put there the day after it started and the following day, lost my wedding ring. The one I waited 10 years to get. I am very sad, but trying to remind myself that it is just a ring and I have what is most important to me.

I keep myself busy with scouts, aerobics 5 times a week, physical therapy for my back 3 times a week, running kids to piano, soccer, scouts, school, planning school parties, transcription, cleaning house, laundry, dishes, trying to finish Bringer, et cetera. That leaves no time to blog, but I'll try harder.

Life is good. I'll work on the pictures.

John remembered

It has been so long since I've posted and this may seem an odd thing to post about, but...

About 4 nights ago I dreamt of dear friend who passed away about a year ago I think (Oh, my Gosh! Sarah Rees Lee reminded me that it was actually 4 years ago. Wow! how time flies). In my dream, we were young again, at some church activity, smiling and happy. Nothing really happened in the dream. It was just him and me and his brother Rob and Jen Bailey and some of the old gang, having a good time.

I have no idea why I dreamt of him, but it brought me to a remembrance of all the good times we had. For those who read this and don't know who he is... This is John!

John was a fun loving, happy, good looking guy whom everyone seemed to love. I always had a good laugh with him around. I knew John through church, though he was maybe a good 3 years younger than me. I was also privileged to work with him at Steak'n Shake for a while. I loved it when we would get to work together. He brought so much fun to the work place.

I remember one time after work, I was supposed to drive him home. We ended up trespassing on the golf course his father managed and 'borrowed' a golf cart and drove around the course together. Then we went to the golf course pool and 'modestly skinny dipped'. After we were done there, we drove over to the elementary school and climbed onto the top of the school building and sat there talking on the roof and watching cars goes by until early in the morning. He was easy to talk to and so fun to be around. Granted, he didn't always make the best choices in life (who doesn't), but he had a good heart and I often smile when I am reminded of him, like in my dream the other night.

So to all those who know him, I hope this brought good memories of him for you. For all those who don't, know that you missed out on knowing a wonderful person. I wish I had a picture to share, but I gave them to his dear mother to be remembered.

I miss you John!

Yeee-Haaa!!!!!!!

Mechanical bull + Rob = Broken back.

Yes, that's what I said. Tuesday night Rob had an after-work party at Cadillac Ranch, a restaurant in Tempe Marketplace. Dutifully taking his turn and after signing the waiver, he got on the bull somewhat boasting that he was raised on a ranch. The restaurant employee took that as a challenge and spun him around a dozen times then wrenched it the opposite direction. Rob flew off and landed on the back of his neck, then his feet flipped over his head. He said he heard his whole spine pop all the way down. He was stunned for a moment a, then rolled over and got up. His back hurt, but he shook it off for a whole couple minutes, then it got progressively worse. He called me to come and get him knowing that he wouldn't be able to drive home. He started losing feeling in his right leg and they eventually called the paramedics. I showed up at the restaurant in time to see him being strapped down to a board. They were taking no chances. I met the ambulance at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Hospital.

I waited for approximately 30 minutes (reading the last book in the Twilight series *awesome*) then went back to see him. We waited another 90 minutes for him to get some pain meds. He said it was the most painful thing he had ever felt. He first dose of morphine didn't quite do it for him and they gave him another dose about an hour later. He went for a CAT scan. Then we waited again for the results. My dear friends the Hulls let my kids spend the night so I didn't need to worry about them.

We got the results back and it showed a compression fracture of L1 which is somewhere below the middle back. No surgery is needed thank goodness, but he will be off of work and any stress for about 6 weeks give or take, then 3-6 weeks of physical therapy. He was very lucky.

We had to get his car from the parking lot, so once I knew he would be out for a while, I said goodbye until morning and called my first ever babysitter who is now getting married, picked her up and she helped to drive it to his work parking lot where my other good friends, the Reeds, picked it up the next day and drove it home.

I drove home after that, got about 3 hours of sleep and got up, cleaned up for a while, waited for my kids to wake up. My friend Gina called to ask what was going on. She told me that Jacob was upset, I had him come home. He cried a little and I told him Dad would be fine, it would just take a while to heal. He felt better. Funny how the only time I cried was when I saw him crying. Jacob sure does have a tender heart under all that funny guy stuff.

I got the kids situated with the help of more friends and went back to the hospital. The only reason he couldn't leave earlier was because he couldn't endure the ride home. The Reeds (wonderful as they are) let me borrow their van. We folded all the seats down and put a mattress in the back of it. He was finally discharged at about 4 in the evening Wednesday. He was able to get in to the van and we had a not-so-fun for him drive home. He was able to walk upstairs (I wasn't sure I could carry him), made a bed for him on the floor and he's been there ever since. Our friend Tim Hull installed bars in the bathroom to make it easier for him. We did have to go to our primary doctor the next day, again NOT fun, to get some muscle relaxers. They seemed to help a lot with the pain. So he is just trying to rest now and get better.

I want to thank all the people that have helped us, from our kids, to meals being brought in, to car borrowing, to bars installed, to blessings offered and given, to just plain support and love given. We are definitely blessed to help such a wonderful support group. And also thanks to our Lord and Savior who never gives us anything we cannot handle. I'll update later. Love to all!!!

4th of July weekend

Here we all are at Mom and Dad Tenney's. We were actually winding down the weekend. A most excellent weekend, I must say! Carsen is opening his presents with all his cousins there to support him. I really tried to buy him gifts that didn't entail video games or T.V. and anything electronic. So poor Carsen got mostly books. He loves to read books right before bed. I think he got like 8 books, some toys from cousins and Magnetix. He was happy though, so yippie to me!

One of the funnest and funniest things that we did is pictured here. Candi and Jared had a family reunion up in Idaho and wanted to try out their game they made up on us. This game entailed all the 'brothers' (oh, and Tom Despain) starting out in a circle. The object of the game was to get everyone elses shoes off without yours being taken off. This went on for about 15 minutes. It was hallarious.

Once again showing 'Boys will be Boys'

Here are some cousins playing games. Katie, Logan, Cara, and Tayhlar.