Torture Time!

After many weeks of pain dad did indeed get his new knees. As you know he has cancelled many times before so I guess we are glad it is done now--well, as he says, the jury is still out--he'll let you know in 6 weeks or so. We were very blessed to have Tom give him a Priesthood blessing on Tues night. He gave a good blessing that brought us peace and comfort. We were both nervous. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and faith and prayers. We are so blessed to have this in our lives. We arrived early at the hospital and I knew we were in trouble when the RN started to shave dad's legs and he was ouching about how much that razor was hurting. He did survive though and he did humor me and put a smile on his face. Dad was pretty sedated that first day, thank goodness. They had two machines going on him to straighten and bend his knees. He has to have those going at least 10 hours a day. He got up that night and made a few steps to the end of the bed before he had to quit. He had a great physical "terrorist" as he named him but he did push him and it was quite painful. I missed the picture of dad and him going down the hallway with his walker. His PT tried to motivate him to keep moving by telling him if he caught the nurse that was just ahead of him, he could keep her. Dad loves visitors. Tom and Kristy made it up on Friday with the girls and dad loved it. Reed also stopped by after work and had to watch him do his PT--that was hard to see. Then, Christie and I and JD and Addie made a stop later. If anyone called they were likely to be on the phone for awhile, he said cause it got pretty boring in bed there all day. Saturday evening they released him to go to the AF hospital for a week. Dad made friends with all the people he had wait on him and could tell you quite a bit about them. He was generally very grateful for everything everybody did. (Except the PT) He had a pretty good night despite all the moving. They didn't make him extend his knees at AF like they did at TOSH so it was a lot more comfortable--probably not very good for recovery though. And, they don't have quite as good of equipment here so they can't keep his knees on the machines at the same time so they do one knee for a couple of hours, then the other one. He will have to have that thing going day and night here. We had a special experience this morning. I was just leaving dad to go to our ward when Bro & Sis Mower, who had been in our ward when I was a youth (they are Dr Mower's parents and he coached at AFH) and Bro& Sis Sheen--Trav's student council advisor--came in to offer dad the sacrament. That was a great surprise. They are called to the hospital branch to do that. It was fun to visit with them. Sis Sheen said to tell Trav hello and that she hopes he is blessed to have children exactly like him. It was a pretty sacred experience to have them administer the sacrament to dad and also to me. We so appreciate all the food, calls, visits, love, care, concern and prayers that you all have offered. Dad and I realize how truely blessed we are and how the Lord has answered those prayers on our behalf. Thank you so very much. Last week we celebrated Joshy's birthday. He had a great time lighting his birthday cake and being with his cousins. Trav & Allison and family are coming new week! They will be our first guests to stay. We are excited to have them come. I need to do a disclaimer though. I haven't done a thing to decorate the inside. I have been waiting for my talented sister to give me ideas but she has been so busy--which is a good thing for her. I don't even have a bedset or towels or shower curtain, or a lot of the furniture I need or toys or even the pingpong table, etc, so I am sorry. We will just love having your company though and not worry about all this other stuff. Reed says Nicole and Jenna had a rough night so he took them into the Insta care this morning and they both tested positive for strep. It is hard when school starts as everyone gets exposed to so much. We hope they get better soon. Jer and Liz were making tomato juice yesterday with the abundance of tomatoes they have. I haven't heard how it went. They were on their way to visit dad today. Laura got to go to Colorado for a few days the beginning of the week. John spent his time studying but was glad when she got home Weds night. Kim says her camera broke so she had to miss taking pictures of Tyler's birthday yesterday. He was so excited to tell me about his Star wars hat and promises to send me a picture when they get a camera. I am so glad Kim has her blog up and running again. We missed it. Hope you all have a great week. Dad is in 258 in TCC. Now that we have grass we need to have visitors--no excuses. Sure love you all, Mom

Beautiful!

Friday afternoon we got our long awaited sod. What a great site. Dad got up Saturday morning to get a head start before everyone came but when he went out, the Berry family--mom, dad and 2 sons were there and had done quite a chunk of the front yard. They had got there around 7:00 and went to work. Dad had helped their son with his eagle project after we had moved in so they had promised they would help. Jer showed up shortly after and they worked until we ran out of sod. Brother Parker came for the last little bit also. We are so grateful for their help. Sherry (Parrish) Berry even went home for a few minutes and brought back hot bread! That is Jer on the left side there. Dad was a pallet short on the sod measurement, so when Darren showed up, they went down and bought another one. Reed and Bren showed up also and by the time I got back with Isaac from his football game, they had it mostly done. Dad's friend, Dorothy, from Earthtec also showed up and she helped with quality control. We were done before 1:00. Tom showed up after everyone had left, so he and Isaac went to work cleaning the street. We are so grateful for all the help. The sod is beautiful and it makes a big difference. We are very blessed. We have to have a house warming party soon. Trav and Allison will be here for conference so that may be a good time. Kim reports they are getting internet this week so hopefully she will start blogging again. She has picked up a little side job and earns a little money so that is good. Dad's surgery is Wednesday so keep him in your prayers. I think both of us are a little nervous. No news on the house so we will probably test the rental market. We appreciate all the prayers and concern. We love you all. Thanks for being such a great family!

The mighty hunter

We had a great time in last weekend in Beaver with Gary and Millie. They were great hosts and have a great house there. After we got there we went up the mountain a little ways. Gary brought apples to cut up and feed the deer. Dad had a great time having them eat out of his hand. It was Tom who cried after one of dad's hunting trips--"Mom, dad shot Bambi". I understand why he was so upset. They are really beautiful animals. I think dad didn't mind not having a gun in his hand either. The next day we went to St George and Gary and Millie bought us lunch for my birthday, then we went to the temple. After we toured Brigham Young's home there until we went to the play. It was a great ending to a great day to see Les Miserables. I still love it! We got home in time Sunday for a family birthday party! Isaac let me share cake, candles and ice cream with hime on his birthday. Thanks for a great dinner and company and the gifts. Isaac had his friend birthday party on Friday and that was a lot of fun also. He has a good group of friends. This is his volcano cake--it was an Indiana Jones party!

Brody's special day!

We were so thankful we could be in Colorado for Brody's baptism day. He seemed so thrilled to be baptized and was so excited that so many of his cousins and aunts and uncles could be there with him. I thought the whole day was very special--the talks, the music, the spirit. We loved being there with your family. Thank you Trav and Allison family for the food, the fun, the spirit in your home and for being such great hosts. It is a very great memory of Brody's baptism. Gracie wanted so much to be in this picture of Darren and Christie's family. Grandpa finally took her, but we captured another stowaway. (Taylor????) All the little girls loved Laura, so they usually have one of them in all their pictures. Alyssa was particulary happy to see her aunt LaLa again. We couldn't catch Tom and Kristy's family at the church so I made them suffer for a picture at home before they could change their clothes--except Joshy beat me. We missed Kim & Daniel, Jer & Liz and Reed & Allyson and families. It was a houseful! Thanks again Brody for being such a great young man. Other fun memories of this trip were the late night trip to Kohls with the girls and 2 little girls. They got pretty bored of shopping after awhile, so they found things to entertain themselves and us. The girls had fun giving Laura their stuffed animals. I was impressed she could "sleep" through a few minutes of it. John and Laura went back on the airplane with us and took care of carrying our luggage, etc. We felt like we were quite pampered.