Tired!

I hate to be a complainer, but I am so going to today! I had an appt today with my orthopedic surgeon. He said that my bone in my arm is not healing correctly. It is bowing out because of my well endowed front section that spills over into my armpit. So, they are giving me a new gadget for my arm. I already HATE the one I have because it leaves me so paralyzed. Even typing on this computer is uncomfortable. Now they are giving me this foam cushion triangular pillow thing that straps around my waist and keeps my arm away from my body. As soon as I get the new gadget I will have Aqeel take a pic so I can post it. I am really not looking forward to this new thing. I am grateful for modern medicine and not having to undergosurgery, but I am starting to think that surgery is a nicer, quicker option. My arm hurts and I am irritated by my upcoming apendage, but I am grateful for modern medicine.

Wisdom Wednesday

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.' Maya Angelou

Lately I have felt a little bit like the one with two catcher's gloves. It seems that there are times in life where we get so focused on what we want that we loose sight of what we are giving. As mother's we are always giving to our children and husband's, but what are we doing beyond that? This is the trap I get caught in. I rely on the fact that serving our family is service enough, but I am affraid that I will be found wanting in the service department wondering why I didn't give more. It does not require much effort; a friendly call to someone in need, a helping hand to a stranger who needs help loading their groceries into their car, a few words of encouragement to someone needing a lift. These things are service too and these things I can do. The question is why don't I? So for this week my goal is to find a way every day that I can give a little extra to those whom I do not always serve.

Manic Monday - 4-Wheelers

Ok, so another low point...

Two days after we arrived in La Grande I decided to take my kids for a ride on Granpa's new 4-wheeler. You must understand that in my lifetime I have driven and riden on many a 4-wheeler, but never an automatic 8-cyl one. So, with all the kids in tow and Aqeel at the college siging up for school, we loaded onto the 4-wheeler and over to the empty field at the end of our block. The first couple trips around the field were fun and pretty uneventful so I decided to let Aysia drive. She got in the front and drove the rest of us around the field about 2x. Then it was Amaya's turn. We were facing a neighbor's horse pasture and Amaya pushed on the throttle and would not let go. I panicked as I saw the barbed wire fence and fence post right in front of us and froze. In my mind I was thinking "take her hand off the throttle" but I just froze. So, we easily porceeded through the fence. Next in our path were two horses. Again panicking I decided to try to turn. This resulted in me flipping the 4-wheeler 1 and 1/2 turns. The children were all ok except a few small bruises and scrapes. I however hit the manure and kept slidding for about 2-3feet. When I finaly came to a stop I tried to get up, but couldn't. For some reason my whole left side was numb and I couldn't breathe easily. Out of nowhere a man and his wife came running to our aide. They called the ambulance and I decided to explore my injuries. My upper right arm was extremely swollen and I was sure it was either broken or I had a dislocated shoulder. My right leg was painfully sore, but I couldn't sit up to look at it. Aysia ran back to Granpa's and fetched my brother Jaime who called Aqeel. The ambulance then arrived and strapped me to the transport bed and Aqeel and Jamie were able to give me a blessing before the ambulance pulled off. I was covered from head to toe in dirt and manure and earned the top award for dirtiest patient to ever enter the ER!!! The doctor cleared me for any neck, head,or back injuries and I went back for x-rays. The x-ray tech was so nice and gentle and found a broken humurous on my right side. For those of you who don't know bones, this is the bone between the shoulder and elbow. The ER doc put my arm in a splint and sent me off with some oxycodine and a referal to the orthopedic Dr for further assesment. The only wound to my leg was a punture wound from the barbed wire for which I was treated with a tetnus shot and bandage.

Four days later I met with Dr. Warren who placed me in a plastic hydrolic arm brace. This brace squeezes the arm to lengthen it and allow the bones to reset and heal naturally. It was pretty painful at first, but now (1 week later) I have no pain and mobility in my hand and forearm. According to the Dr. I will be in this dumb thing for "months" so we will see how this whole recovery thing goes. One benefit is that I no longer have to change diapers as I am unable to do so with only one fully functioning arm!!!!! Poor Aqeel has been so accomodating and has completely taken over as mother & father for our family. I am sooo lucky to have him around!!!

We're back!!!

Ok, so just a quick overview... The drive was great! My cousin came out to help me drive which made it so much fun for me! We bought walkie talkies for the two vehicles and had fun doing our "trucker" talk back and forth on one another!!! There were only two down points to the trip. The first involved a broken down U-Haul which required us to trade out to a different truck and delayed us 5 hrs on our 9hr drive day! Luckily some awesome elders from the O'Fallon, IL ward helped us out! The second hiccup was the best western in Wyoming. Now I know best western's are one the cheep end for hotels, but we were trying to save money and only wanted a clean bed/bath so we weren't very picky. Upon arrival to our room in Wy, we were met with an incredibly overwhelming smell of rosey room deodorizer. This should have been our first clue, but we just figured that since the carpet was a bit amp they must have just cleaned the carpets. Then at about 9:45pm we started getting into bed. When we pulled back the covers to one of the king sized beds we were met with a handful of pubic hair and makeup smeared on the sheets!!!! Then when we opened the sheets to the roll away cot there was dry chewed gum in the sheets! This was sooo grose. So, being the kind restrained person I am I called the front desk to complain. They changed all of our bedding and gave us a discount on our room. This was not enough for me. They offered to change rooms, but if the housekeeping wasn't changing our sheets why would they change any other room's sheets. So, I called around to find another hotel, but every respectable hotel was full. We decided to rough it for the night in our new clean bedding, but in morning I made sure that our room was compted.

So, other than those two low points the trip was great. The kids were wonderful! Portable DVD players are a godsend. Also, I may add that on your next long car trip bring along a child training potty seat. We did and this saved us countless stops to the potty. I even used it which completely boosted my ego cause my booty fit (somewhat) on the seat!!

Sorry...

Since I missed yesterday's posting we will have thoughtful Thursday. It has been a busy week as we have been packing the house and getting it ready for the U-Haul tonight. Tomorrow we leave to drive across country to our new home. We are almost all excited. I am actually not looking forward to being crammed in a car for four days. We are well stocked with snacks and dvd's. I am sure it will go by quickly, but still I am sure there will be fights, cranky kids that are tired of being strapped down by car seats, and plenty of spills. There will also be lots of fun and laughter and the occasional moment where the girls play nicely and are actually loving to each other! Now, on to the thought...

Maya Angelou said this:
'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

I have learned throughout the ups and downs of life that this statement is so true. I have had plenty of downs in my life and am only able to keep an optimistic perspective because of my ability to look beyond the now and realize that life will be better tomorrow!

Manic Monday - computers

I have always been very excited about the advances in technology, but only when they work properly. Last week my dearest little boy decidedto pull almost all of the buttons of the keyboard of my laptop computer. The next morning (Tues)Aqeel called around and found a place that would fix it for $45. So,later that afternoon he took it in to be fixed. When he dropped it off they said it would be done by Wed. afternoon. We were satisfied with that and waited the next day for a call. Around 4:30pm we still hadn't received a call so we called. The comp. people said they hadn't recieved that part and that it would be tomorrow (Thurs). So, again we waited. By Friday we still had not recieved a call so again Aqeel called and there was no answer. On Saturday we called, no answer. This morning Aqeel went down and picked it up still unfixed. When he brought it home I tried to use it and the keyboard, which worked before without the keys would not work. We called these people again and they said that the part had just arrived and if he brought it down they would fix it. So, today around 3:30 Aqeel took the computer back and stayed until they finished it (@20mins).

After all was said and done I was grateful the computer was fixed, but very irritated at the length of time it took. The moral of this story is...It doesn't always pay to go the cheap route!

Fond Memory Friday!

I am so excited to share this story! On Tuesday I took Aqeel to the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed in for our 6th anniversary. It was the Westin in downtown Greenville. We stayed in our room all evening just watching tv and eating room service. I was a lot of fun!! Here are some pics...



Lobby



Our room