September things

In September, we were very busy, which is normal. We had our Stake Primary Activity and my station was an obstacle course! It was fun, but labor intensive. But it made me feel great when several kids said it was their favorite station!

They all learned a song and it was absolutely powerful to hear them sing a song all together! They then got to sing it at Stake Conference. So cool.

We had a visit from Clyde and Evelyn. Nap time is always exciting with Mollie nearby.

We sent the kids off to school and went adventuring! We went down town to see the SLC temple progress. WOW its so amazing what they are doing to it. Can't wait for it to be complete!

Then we drove up a canyon loop to look at the fall leaves. We did see some and it was so pretty and relaxing. We wore them out I think but they were troopers with their recent injuries to keep up. 

We went to an RSL game which is always fun! 

And of course ran into Zhane! Such a cute kid. 

We made a trip to Idaho for gma's birthday. It's fun to get these kids all together and see how they are growing!

And my garden is producing some fun things. Last year I got mini carrots. This year I got alien carrots! They did a little better in my garden this year, but not much!

And I was pleased and disgusted to find this lovely circle of life photo in my garden one day. Yes, that is a praying mantis holing a big juicy caterpillar upside down eating it one bite at a time. Sick. And cool. 

And our temple is coming along so nicely! They started turning the lights on at night and it is just a beacon of light and beauty that can be seen all over the valley! I love it and can't wait for its completion!

And we took the kids out of school for a temple day. They are always special. And look at that clear blue sky! Happy September!

 

Parable of the Burnt Pizza

This night was one to remember so I added it in. 

The Parable of the Burnt Pizza... it's a long one.

Tonight the boys went to a race and I thought a pizza night with my girls would be fun. We headed to Pizza Hut because we haven't had that in a while. We ordered our food at 6:40.

I needed to pickup Brielle at 7:30 and started to panic a little that our food still hadn't come by 7:15. I was getting hangry. I finally decided to leave my girls and go get Brielle. Surely the Pizza would be ready when I got back, right?

At 7:45 the Pizza was still not there. I asked about it and they were just putting it in the oven. I felt a fire light..... Let me back up...

As I sat there for 90 min, I watched as a dozen people came in and tell an over-sized man how bad he was doing at his job and how the wait time was so ridiculous. They yelled and said unkind things. So I held my tounge.

I also watched this large man struggle to move his body as he worked as quickly as he could, panting the whole way. I watched him bring out orders over and over to busy, mean, hurried people and he got no thanks.

At 7:50 we finally got our breadsticks. They were delicious. As we ate, we watched a customer get up to leave. Him and his family had been at the restaurant for 2 hours.

Other grumpy customers watched intently along with me as he patted the large man on the shoulder. He said, "Hey, don't listen to all those guys. You are doing a great job. I can see how hard you are working and how busy you have been. You're a good kid. Keep up the good work and don't listen to those mean people." He looked him in the eyes, smiled, and left.

I watched the other people in line soften. Smile. And immediately relax their tense, impatient bodies as they remembered that this guy was a PERSON.

The big guy didn't move for a second. I think he was absolutely stunned by someone who took a moment to be kind.

Soon after that, our Pizza was finally delivered just before 8. We were starving and I was imagining how great it was going to taste. He sat the Pizza down. I smelled it before I saw it.... burnt Pizza.

The "regular me" opened my mouth to say- no way are we eating that- and demand a new pizza... but something stopped me. I closed my mouth & looked up at him....I think he was bracing for the worst.

I had a choice to make.

I decided to thank him, smile, and for tonight, choke down burnt Pizza at the risk of making this man feel even worse than he probably already did.

I don't tell this story to tell you how great I am. I was not happy. It took 1 man in a room of grumpy people to soften everyone's attitudes. One man who chose kindness over cruelty. One man who could see this person's worth hidden deep inside his large body. One man who's brave act lifted this man.

It took one person.

I yern to be more like this man!

I want to be more patient, more kind, more brave and more charitable. Tonight, I'm thanking the Lord for burnt Pizza, this hard working man, the brave kind man and the very valuable lesson I learned.

I hope we all can be more kind and see people's worth and not let our hangry moments allow us to treat anyone like any less of a person than the child of God that they are.

 

Purple Cast

Brielle was so excited to get out of her splint and get into a cast! She was very careful with her arm for 2 weeks while the swelling went down in preparation for a cast. 

On the 12th she got an xray that told the doc she was ready for her cast. We were so relieved at hearing this because we knew at this appointment we would either have to have it reset or get a cast. 

She was very brave as he took her splint off and very carefully casted her arm. Of course she chose purple! 

She was glad to finally be able to move her elbow since the splint went above it to hold things in place. It was a little rusty feeling to move it, but within a few days she was moving it easily. Kids are so resilient! 

And on Sept 26th the day finally came she was able to get it off! She took great care of it and it didn't smell to bad and wasn't extra dirty like i thought it would be. 

With a quick swipe of the saw, her cast was cracked open and off!!!

Notice the uncertainty on her face. I think she was expecting it to hurt. 

She had 2 more weeks in a brace that she could take off at night and we celebrated with going to Thirst for some treats. 

She's been so tough through this process and hardly complaining of pain or how not fun it was. She was a little champ. Now we'll see if she ever gets back on that BMX bike!
 

15!

Carter turned 15 this year! So crazy. Time flies. 

He was showered with gifts. 

He's a Jone's soda lover so we all gave him a new flavor of one. 

His big gift was his new BMX clothes. 

All he wanted to do was boat so we skipped out on school and hit the water for one more time! 

And Bri was a champ sittin in the boat keeping her arm dry. 

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

And this addict wanted Five Guys for dinner. 

Later he had a few friends over for games and treats. I'm grateful for this good group of kids. 

And no cake for this boy, just trifle always!

Happy Birthday kiddo! you mean the world to us! We are proud of you and the kid you're becoming. Thank you for making our lives easy and loving us despite our imperfections. Keep making our job easy! We love you so much!
 

Broken Arm #2

I knew with BMX that we would have some bumps and bruises but I thought they'd all belong to Carter. Brielle expressed some interest in BMX so we thought, why not let her try it! We soon were met with broken arm #2 for our family. 

She did so good in her first 2 races!

And the third race she got a little confident and caught a little air and crashed right on the first table top. She was a little confused and you could tell it hurt. But she never cried. Just stood up with some help and walked off the track after dad ran out there to help. 

Carter did well and got another first. 

Brielle didn't complain too much but said she was a little uncomfortable. Her arm had a huge bump but because she could move it and wasn't screaming in pain, I thought it was just a monkey bump. I put some ice on it and she went to bed. 

The next day the bump was still very visible! And hard. I though oh shoot, this IS broken! 

We had quite the run around trying to get her seen! We first went to Insta care and it was packed! So we turned around and left. I then remembered there was an xray place that said they accepted walk ins on their voicemail so we went there. they wouldn't see her without a doctors recommendation. We then called her Dr and said we needed to be seen now. He was able to see her fairly quickly. Then he sent us to the hospital for xrays....he said that he thought it probably was broken. Ugh. 

The xray tech confirmed it was broken and sent  us over to the ortho place. 

The break was pretty severe! That arm bone should be totally straight. 

The ortho docs told us they'd have to set the bone! AHHHH!!! WHAT?! My poor Brielle. They said we could go back to the ER if we wanted pain meds...but at this moment it was 4Pm and we had been running from office to office. I didn't want to go wait with her in pain again. I let her choose. I told her it would hurt really bad but it would be over quick. She chose to do it without pain meds. Oh man....I had no idea!

We learned where a chinese torture device truly came from. They put her thumb into a wire contraption that would hold her arm in the line it needed to be in. They then hung some weights to pull her elbow down. They pulled up with the torture device as 2 docs squoze her arm as hard as they could. I wasn't prepared for the crunching and grinding of bones. So sickening! She was screaming and I wanted to help but couldn't get to her. It was an awful few min!

She was in so much pain!

By the time we got her home we both were exhausted. She was put in a hard splint with strict instructions to not use it or move it or else they may have to set it again. We had to take this pic with her trophy though to remember! 

Later we were playing charades and the first card she drew was this one....she just sat there with her arm in her sling and said - I'm doing it! We all died laughing when we saw what it was!

And as days passed the carnage on the rest of her body started to show up. This was the bruises on her side. 

And a perfect handle bar bruise to her chest. Poor baby! 

 She isn't sure if she's ready to go back to BMX or not, but I was happy after six weeks in a cast she was atleast ready to ride her bike around. It was hard but she did everything like a champ! School was a little hard for her but after I asked the teacher to tape her papers to her desk then she did  alot better. Showers were a challenge but we got it figured out! We even took her boating one more time and had her wrap up her bag and I hung on to her arm while she got in the water. I'm glad this didn't happen at the begining of summer !!!

She was over the moon when some flowers were delivered to her from Taylor and Jordan. What a nice little gesture to cheer her up. It totally did the trick!