My New Toy

Anna was kind to me this week and allowed me to purchase a new toy ( I only had to get down on my knees and beg 3 times). I have been riding my 1983 Shadow for the past four years. I has been a good bike.  When I purchased it, it was just black and chrome which make it always look dirty so the first winter I had it I took it apart and painted it red.  The bike has been fun but I think I have grown out of it.  The opportunity arose to purchase this 1998 Suzuki Intruder 1500. It is 15 years old but it is in beautiful condition.  It runs awesome. Now Anna and I can go on trips that are more than 30 minuets away.  The shadow was just too small and uncomfortable to go any further than that. 

Time to put her up for sale!

My new friend.

Our First Real Camp Out

This past weekend we went up to Powerhouse with our friends, the Dennis Family. I believe everyone had a good time.  It is always a bit chilly but very beautiful up in the mountains this time of year. 

The boys and Momy waking up 

Tyler and Jacob in Tyler's un-finished shelter

The boys were out with in minuets of leaving the camp site and continued their nap when they got home.

Our Fishing trip

Today we took the boys fishing to the Smithfield Hatchery.  We all had fun and luckily no one fell in. Each boy was able to catch about 6 fish in an hours time including Jacob.  The fish ranged from 14"  to 22" trout (no lie!). Lots of fun!!!

Past moments

This past fall was a busy one. Between school work and play we finally finished the club house 

First snowman of the year

Sister Katie's wedding (Sammy busting a move whit his cousin Sabre)

Katie and Brad

A Scary Week of events

Two weeks ago Miles started getting the croup and like the normal pattern it went from one boy to the other, by the end of the week Miles and Sam were getting over it and Jacob was taking his turn. Sunday his croup got a lot worse and was having a hard time breathing so that night we took him to the ER here in Tremonton and they admitted him into the hospital because his oxygen was low.   They gave him some drugs and did breathing treatments.  He was a lot better late Monday so they sent him home.

Tuesday he started to get worse again and that night he slept till about 3 in the morning by then his breathing was so strained that he was working to breath. Anna kept doing the breathing treatments with the nebulizer but nothing seemed to help (Most of you know that with Croup the night time is the worst so we were hopping that he was going to improve when morning came. If not Anna was going to take him to the doctors)

I had planned to go snowmobiling with Jason, so that morning I got up and got packed and headed out with the thought that he was going to get better, and if not Anna was going to take him to the doctor.

After I left Anna got everyone up and got them dressed and gave them breakfast so that when the Doctors office opened she would be ready to take Jake in.  Just at that moment the boys began to fight over my I-Pad and Jacob started to have a panic attach because with the added stress he couldn't breath.  Anna immediately had the boys put their shoes on and run out into the car (for the first time in their lives they did what she asked the first time she asked)  and she took Jacob to the ER.  Anna called me but with the little info she gave me I thought it was a repeat of last Sunday so I still headed to Preston where I could give the truck and machines to Jason and Spencer (our employee) so they could still go and then I would drive Jason's car home.  At that time I got pulled over because the policeman didn't like the way I had the machines loaded, which looking at it now stopped me from getting any farther away from home. Just after the Policeman let me go with a warning, Anna called and said Life Flight was on its way to get Jacob. I immediately turned around and headed for the ER.  I got there in time to see them before they got in the chopper and headed to Primary Children's Hospital.

Jacob basically had such a bad case of croup that it had closed off his airway.  There were moments in the ER that he was non responsive. It was scary to say the least.  When Jacob was coherent he was usually mad and kept slapping everyone.  He even threw a toy truck at the lady that was loading him on the gurney for the flight.  He spent two days in the PICU and one day on the regular floor.

Jacob is just fine now, other than he is eating everything in sight to make up for the food he didn't eat when he was sick.

One thing that I would have to say about this experience is that I am glad financially we had everything in order, we have a fully funded Emergency fund (As Dave Ramsey would call it)  and we are out of debt.  Between the emergency fund and our crappy insurance this is not going to send us into financial distress. We were able to focus on what really matters.

Accidents

About a week and a half ago Anna and I were talking after dinner when Miles came running in to find the band-aids.  He wouldn't say why he needed them but we could hear Sammy screaming out in the club house.  Anna went out there and found Sammy bleeding all over the place.  He and Miles had a scissor fight and Sam lost (I am not sure what they were thinking). He is the first little boy to be taken to the emergency room for stitches.

A few days later Jacob was running around with the vacume attachment in his mouth when he fell and cut up the inside of his mouth. Luckily the doctors office was open so Anna didn't have to take him to the emergency room.  The doctor said he would heal real quick, no stitches needed.

Last Monday I was climbing around in the attic of a church I was working on. I slipped and instead of going through the ceiling I spread out over the trusses to catch my fall (I have had to patch too many holes in ceilings due to employees falling through them this past year). I heard a crack when I hit the truss.  I just laid there in pain unable to breath.  I eventually made it out of the attic. I felt like a horse had kicked me in the side.  I didn't go to the doctors because I hate paying for them, but I am almost positive that I cracked a rib or two. Sleeping has been uncomfortable for the past week to say the least. 

Hopefully the accidents are over with for a while.  

This Year's Juice

This year we worked with a family in our ward to make apple juice. We made a total of 30 gallons of juice.  We did all the pressing and processing in our back yard instead of over at my parents house. Doing it at home made it a ton easier because we had easy access to water and shade. I think the hardest part for me was to listen to our neighbors little girl. None of our boys stand around and talk your ear off like this girl does so i'm not used to it. Don't get me wrong she is a nice little girl. I have always been taught to not talk when you are working. This girl never stops and any answer is followed by a why or how come. I was almost ready to tie our dog up next to me to keep her away (she is terribly afraid of dogs even tiny ones like ours).

 

I thank the kids for the great sidewalk art.