Sometimes you need to stop to count the blessings

There are some moments in life that make you stop and think about all the blessings you have been given amidst all the hardships that might befall you. June 5th of this year was one of those. I had just bought a groupon for a discounted photography session since we hadn't had a professional family picture taken in about two years.  It was a beautiful day and so the family went out front to enjoy it. KP had just been helping little C learn how to ride a bike. The other two girls were riding around on their bikes as well.  KP, being the playful dad he is, decided to grab our pink Barbie scooter and race "B" while she was on her bike. He didn't want to lose or give "B" an easy win, so he was going fast, really fast, and then "BAM". LITERALLY- "BAM". The scooter had got caught in a crack of the cement on the driveway and immediately stopped, and KP had such a momentum going that he ended up going over the handlebars and then landing on his face pretty hard. The whole family was there to witness this. I thought he would come up with a big goose egg on his head, but no, it was much worse. After we decided to go to the urgent care, and then being told to go to the ER for a CT scan, we found out that he had fractured the bones in his forehead depressing them into his sinus cavity. What can I say? When my husband plays, he plays hard. Remember that photography groupon I just bought that morning? Yeah, ironic isn't it.

Blessing #1- Having a husband that has time off to be with his family
Blessing #2- Having a husband that plays with the kids
Blessing #3- KP not getting a concussion; if he had, his career would have been in jeopardy or been ended
Blessing #4- The head injury not leaving him with brain damage or worse
Blessing #5- A friend being available to take my kids in an instant so I could take KP to the ER
Blessing #6- Not breaking down in tears for stress relief-more like a miracle for me since tears come easy
Blessing #7- Men who hold the priesthood and were available to give my husband a blessing
Blessing #8- Good doctors, hospitals, technology.... the list could go on.

He was looking pretty good after 24 hours. You could see the bruising and swelling getting worse.

  The doctor told him that the worst day would be day 2 after the accident. It was. We have pictures, but you don't really want to see them, trust me.
About a week after the accident, he met with the doctor. The doctor told him that they would have to do surgery, and if they didn't he would have a noticeable dent in his head after all the swelling went down.So we mulled it over- hhmmmm,  noticeable dent in head or noticeable scar on eyebrow. It seemed there was no good option. So KP went for a second opinion. That doctor also said that the surgery needed to be done so he wouldn't have more serious problems in the future.

Blessing #9- Having resident doctors in our ward for my husband to talk to.
Blessing #10- Having an ENT resident that he trusted, give him a referral to the doctor that later did his surgery
Blessing #11- Having enough sick time for work stored away to use for recovery time
Blessing #12- Having the surgery be an outpatient one- whew, no hospital overnight stay

Now before all this even happened we were deciding whether to stay here, or transfer out west closer to family. We sold our house, so it was a good time to move. We were just in a temporary rental and needed to make a decision so we could be settled somewhere before the girls started school. Well, this accident made up our minds that we would be settling here. No interviews for awhile. But then with the girls starting school on August 1st, and KP's surgery in early July I was feeling a little overwhelmed with how we were going to fit a move in and make it all work. 

Blessing #13- Friends who watch our kids overnight so we could do a Friday night Temple trip 
Blessing #14- The peace that comes while in the Temple that things will work out
Blessing #15- Finding a big enough rental house that is within our budget
Blessing #16- Having that future landlord hold the house for us because we can't move in with one week before KP's surgery and still can't move in several weeks after KP's surgery because he has to recover.

KP is looking pretty good about a month after the accident. I took a picture before he went into surgery. He is still wishing at this point that he didn't have to do it.

Blessing #17- Good friends who watched my girls all day while KP had his surgery
Blessing #18- Having surgery go well with no complications
Blessing #19- Having a hill behind our temporary rental that we could walk up and still watch fireworks the day after KP's surgery and celebrate the 4th of July.
Blessing #20- Recovery goes well and he is cleared to go back to work

Mostly, I feel blessed to have a wonderful husband.

Summer catch up

We have had an interesting summer, maybe more memorable then we wanted it to be. It started when KP had a mishap on a scooter-or should I say over the handle bars of a scooter. We ended up visiting the emergency room that day..more on that in another post. 

Life still had to go on.. and here is a little bit of what we did this summer..

The girls took tennis lessons.

Little C had her own lessons on a different day. She was the only girl.

While A & B had their tennis lessons for an hour and a half, little C had quality time at the park with mom and dad.

We saw a few free movies at the movie theater.

Little C is mad at me in this picture because I didn't buy a big tub of popcorn that all the girls could share and went with individual size portions instead. I think she had dreams of holding the big popcorn on her lap the whole movie and getting her fill of it. She has to get a lot of it when we have it, because I don't buy it often, and I must have been weak or feeling guilty that day. :)

Since "A" made me dinner for mothers day, then "B" wanted to make KP something for fathers day. She decided to make manicotti. 

She didn't want me to take pictures because she was still her pajamas. She is mixing the filling here.

Concentrating hard on filling the manicotti noodles.

Manicotti, peas, french bread and lemonade, all made by Miss "B".

We did make it to Conner Prairie this summer. It was on our list of things to do. I was disappointed when I forgot my camera at home, but I was glad that my phone can take pictures even if they weren't as good.

Girls had fun with the water pump and playing in the water... they eventually watered the garden behind it too.

They tried the games that the kids would play way back then.

"B" is balancing a tin cup of water on her head. They had a race between some kids.

We went the day before KP's surgery which was around 4th of July so they had some independence festivities going on that day.

They painted a mural. Little C was wondering why all the characters were animals. She wanted to paint pictures of real people who lived back in the old days.

 KP is still KP even after his face injury. He still likes to make random funny (contorted) faces when I take pictures of him.

The girls had fun making statue of liberty hats. It was hot that day, but pretty fun. A nice family outing.
The girls also had swimming lessons most of the summer. The older two really just worked on strokes and technique. They are done with swimming lessons now. They had fun diving off the diving boards. Little C was even brave enough this year to jump off.

I had the pleasure of spending the week with 18 (yeah that's right-18) exceptional young ladies for an Activity Day Girls G.R.E.A.T  (Acronym-Girls really enjoying activities together) Day camp.

We would meet at one of the girls houses every day to do a lesson, crafts, games and other activities.

The girls played a game called "Balloon Master". It was all fun and games until the girls  who were the masters got the tape stuck in their hair. Note to self: Give them a hat, or change it somehow if I ever play this game again.

 "B" having fun getting her team mates to stick as many balloons on her as possible.

My girls had fun that week playing and working with the other girls. It will be an awesome young womens in a few years.


Now we are living the nomadic dream as we get ready to move yet again after 3 months. Not looking forward to the move, but looking forward to being settled once again. Life is life and you "just keep swimming" some days.Good news is that we are staying in Indiana a little bit longer. 

We didn't get to do all that we had planned for this summer, but we tried to do what we could.