Broken Bone(s)

 Tuesday night Ethan had a late football game, so I decided to stay home and get the girls to bed.  At one point in the night I called Rand at the game to tell him that Kate had fallen off our bed and wouldn't stop crying and her arm was limp from the shoulder down, and I was worried it was broken.  Thankfully just a bit later I called him back to say it had been a false alarm and she was fine.

You can imagine my surprise when about 15 minutes later Rand called to tell me Ethan had broken his arm.  I asked how he knew for sure and he said you could tell by looking at it.  I knew that couldn't be good.

 Rand rushed home to grab the insurance card and Ethan looked like he was going into shock and I was a bit worried.  I initially thought I would stay home with the girls now asleep in bed, knowing there was really nothing I could do.  After a few minutes I was going crazy, and knew I couldn't just stay at home and wait, especially if he ended up needing surgery, so I asked one friend to sit with the kids and another to take me up to the ER.

 (These pictures don't really do it justice on how "wonky" it really looked)  Thankfully they got him right in and my Father in law came in just before me to help Randall give Ethan a priesthood blessing.

 I couldn't believe what a champ Ethan was.  By the time I arrived he was no longer crying and was talking and still.  He was hurting pretty badly and it wasn't long before they gave him an IV and administered him some morphine.  The nurse had a hard time getting the vein to accept the needle because apparently veins clamp down when you go into shock as Ethan had.  Ethan didn't cry on the initial poke, nor as she fished around waiting for the needle to go into the vein.  Randall had to step out of the room at this point since he does not do well with needles and blood so I was glad that I was there.

I guess a boy on the opposite team kept playing really rough and threw Ethan down and Ethan tried to brace himself and it broke the radius and ulna a few inches above the wrist, thankfully missing the wrist and growth plates.  The break was really bad on the x-rays but at least we were able to avoid surgery.  They did have to heavily sedate him and have an orthopedist set it.  Ethan did well during the sedation, but was still fighting the staff quite a bit.  They asked us to stand outside the room while they set it and it was funny to hear them saying things like "settle down cowboy".  Apprently he was kicking pretty hard and the staff said next time they would think to remove his  football cleats  before the procedure :)

When he came out of the sedation, that was the worst part.  He was shaking so badly but wasn't cold and was thrashing around a lot.  He kept wanting to sit up and they kept asking him to lie down.  Finally he yelled out that his nose itched, and once they let him itch his nose he calmed right down.  That became quite the joke that if his nose itched, by golly, let him itch it!

This was about 1:30 am leaving the ER- he was in amazingly good spirits

 While we waited in the ER for radiology and the various things Randall took Ethan's mind off his arm by telling him all about The Hobbit, a family favorite on the Wilson side.  Ethan was so excited about it and kept asking for Rand to tell him more.  Grandpa and Grandma Wilson brought him the hobbit to read and he's really excited about it.

 After the game his coaches and some of the players came to see him.  Ethan is sad that he is missing the rest of the season, especially since they haven't lost yet, and will probably go to the championship.

Family and friends have been so sweet to bring by books, and treats and things to make him feel thought of.  His coach (ex-NFL Scott Mitchell) came by again the other night to check on him and bring him a basket of goodies.  Coaches wife has felt terrible and has been sweet to call almost daily to check up on him.

Ethan missed two days of school needing to keep it elevated and iced but he went back Friday and is doing great.  All in all we are really proud of him and how tough he has been through all of this.  Sadly the thing that has bothered him most about all this is the fact that the boy who threw him down "never even apologized"!  We go back to the orthopedist on Wednesday to re-xray and cast if all is looking good.  Hopefully in 6 weeks he'll be as good as new.

Sweet 16

 On Saturday of last weekend we had the chance to celebrate the 16th birthday or Randall's cousin "E" (for privacy I will leave out names)  This was not a typical celebration because "E" was not here to celebrate with us.  Last October we got a sad call late in the night  telling us there had been a horrific accident and that "E" had returned to her Heavenly Father.  It was extremely upsetting as you can imagine.  We felt terrible being so far away at such a difficult time.  Because of the circumstances surrounding her death, we felt that without question Randall should fly home to show his love and support to his family.  Well, "E" would have turned 16 on Tuesday, so her parents wanted to celebrate.

Early Saturday morning we awakened to one of the worst thunder and lightning storms I've ever experience in Utah.  Apparently many prayers were said by family that there would be at least a small window of calm so we could go ahead as planned.   Family and friends gathered together with balloon bouquets of various crazy patterns and colors.  "E" did not like pink but loved all things crazy and fun.  We picked out a cow pattern, polka dots and happy birthday balloons, making sure that none of them matched, because that's what she would have wanted.

 You can imagine it was a difficult and emotional day.  D&D, her parents are the sweetest people you have ever met.  They have always shown me love and kindness as if I was a part of the family, even years before Randall and I were married.  Aunt D, spoke about" E" for a little while, telling us what a sweetheart she was and how "D" would often get a call from school with requests for doughnuts or pizza or whatever it was because someone at school needed some cheering up or it was their birthday etc.  Some of E's favorite things were crazy mismatched socks and eating skittles.  Aunt D brought everyone a party favor that was a crazy sock with a bag of skittles tied up inside. We all sang Happy Birthday and then released the balloons into heaven.

 I'm so grateful that we were there to remember and celebrate the amazing girl that she was.  I think it was neat that her parents wanted to try to celebrate the occasion rather than just mourn her not being with us anymore.  You could tell it was a very difficult day for them.

 After we released the balloons we all ate doughnuts and enjoyed the peaceful morning that came after the storm.

Labor and Play Weekend

 Friday of Labor day weekend, we decided we wanted to install a backsplash in our kitchen.  We had been thinking about it since we moved in but just haven't had a good chunk of time to do it.

 Some friends of ours Jessica and Justin came over to help us since Jessica said Justin had done tile and would be a big help.  Turns out Justin had never done a back splash, only floor tiling, but it was still nice to have the extra help and encouragement as I think the first few hours were the worst and hardest part of the project. Not to mention Justin getting stuck with the cutting and piecing around the outlets-the worst part.

 Saturday morning we were up early and went to family function that I will write about later.  Then seeing that it was the last day for swimming we went over to the pool with my parents and my brother and his family.

 We all had a great time.  Even Jane gets really brave after a little while and jumped in over and over again.  She even went under the water many times and loved it.  (click play to see her in action)

 In Jersey Kate went to a preschool that had "specials" each day that she attended.  One of which was swimming every Tuesday.  She spent a lot of time in the pool over the year so she is quite confident in the water and even jumps off the diving board.  She can jump in without a life jacket but I prefer it to be on.

 After watching all the kids jumping off the diving boards I decided that I wanted to too!  I decided that I'm not going to let my weight inhibit me from doing the things I want to do.  So I first jumped off the low dive, then the high dive.  Apparently Jane was so excited and yelled over and over "Mom did it"!  I was glad I had done it, and as I was leaving the pool a man told me that I was my children's heroine.  That made me feel really good about not letting dumb things like me in a bathing suit keep me from doing what I want to do.

 Monday we also finished up the back splash.  Grouting was much easier and faster than tiling, but boy was it exhausting.  The grout was heavy and thick and hard to squish around.  After a short space of me doing the grouting I passed that task over to Randall.

 Since Randall knows me so well and knows what a perfectionist I am he basically told me before we even started, that I would be doing all the tiling.  Justin did some piecing work on Friday but other than that I literally laid all the tile.  We have had too many projects in the past where I could find little details that weren't just right and it would make me crazy and I may have even been a bit upset at Randall, so this time he was wise enough to leave the detail work to me.  I guess I need to chill out a bit, BUT the end result really looks nice so maybe being a perfectionist isn't always bad :)

I'm amazed at how much the tile changes the look of the whole kitchen.  The cabinets look nicer, the appliances look nicer the counter tops etc.  It was worth all the effort it took and really looking back, not a bad project at all.   I would do it over again in a heart beat.  Now that I know what to expect I could see some more tiling in our future....  A great weekend for a little labor and some play time.

Ethan turned 10!

 August 29th Ethan turned 10!  I can hardly believe it.  He has informed me that he is now a pre-teen.  Heaven help us.  Thankfully Ethan is one of the best kids around, so I'm to worried about this pre-teen business :) His first gift was a swiss army knife.  Rand decided he just wanted to leave the knife tucked in his shoe so he would find it when he was getting ready for school that morning.  When he found it he was so excited and shouted "Sweet Mama"!  I've never heard him say that before but it was really funny and we were glad he was so excited.  He has been offering to cut or open anything and everything ever since.

 We started the day off with... you guessed it German pancakes, a family favorite.

 Then he opened up some lego's, one of his favorite things.

 He had asked for roller blades and was really exciting about getting some,but when I went to get them they were sold out.  I thought he would just have to go without.  I was worried that when he opened his gifts and there were no blades he would say something and be really disappointed.  He didn't say one word about it.  I was so proud of him for being gracious and happy with what he was given.

 That being said, my parents found some and gave them to him, so the day was saved anyway.

 After yet another football game with thankfully a win on the big day, we came back home for cake and ice cream.  G&G Wilson came through with his favorite... Legos!  I think Lego's is one of the best gifts ever and can never have too many.

 Ethan requested this chocolate mousse crunch cake, otherwise known as death by chocolate.  He sure has good taste in desserts.

Ready...

set...

blow...

Phew.  Only he forgot to make a wish :)

 While I'm obviously biased, Ethan is really one of the very best kids around.   He is smart and kind and helpful and conscientious.  He is a deep thinker and is often asking out there questions about things he's been thinking about.  He can recall crazy facts and knows a lot about all different sorts of subjects.  I sometimes wonder if he has a photographic memory.  He loves to read and has read all but one of the Percy Jackson series this Summer and the Fable haven books.  We actually have to tell him to put  his book down and go to bed.

4 years old on Easter Sunday.  

 Ethan works hard in all that he does and truthfully we have pretty high expectations for him in all that he does because we know he is capable.   I tease Ethan relentlessly, out of love of course, and we joke that with me around, nobody could ever bother him because he can put up with anything.

 Ethan just finished his Bear in scouting and is advancing to Webelow and was worried that he "had just made it".

 We decided this week that we needed to make a change with his school and asked him how he felt about it.  We explained why we thought it would be a good choice but left the decision up to him.  He said "Sure,  I think I would like to do that".  Ethan really loved his friends and school in Jersey and was even going to start to play the trombone this year.   He has always been a good sport about our many moves and never fights us on the decisions we make.  Ethan is mature beyond his years and is one special boy.  I'm grateful I get to be his Mom and see all that he's capable of.  We love you buddy!

My name is Ashli I'm 34 years old

 How embarrassing!  I put some random picture of myself up here, but this is me at 34 years old.  I had a birthday last Thursday making that little fact official.  And while I don't particularly like pictures of myself I realize how rarely a picture is taken of me and that I need to document that I am in fact a part of my family and our journey.  Anyway...

 A few weeks ago Randall called from work and said he had to go to Vegas for work and I should come with him. He thought it would make a great birthday gift a few days early.   I think it was Wednesday and we would leave Monday.  I'm not really all that spontaneous, don't really love Vegas, and was hesitant to ask anyone to watch our kiddos.  Thankfully my parents were more than happy to watch the kids so I decided why not?

 We flew into Vegas late Monday night and were starving so we ordered some room service.  Hey we are on vacation right?

 The next day Rand had meetings form 8am to 8pm and then a work dinner that I tagged along for, until late into the night.  So, while I was sad that I wouldn't really be seeing Randall anytime during this trip, it was heaven to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

 In fact it was rather comical the debate I would have with myself.  "Should I nap?  Should I site see?  I should get in as much as possible while I can, when I can do anything I want...  But, I'm alone and I can have a quiet nap, and sleep as long as I want too?!"

 So I got up and went to the gym for 90 minutes so I could eat what I wanted too, and I truthfully enjoy working out.  I went to the pool for a few hours, read a book, took a short nap, watched cupcakes wars on TV in my room, walked around a lot to the different hotels, and ate blueberry and lemon crepes in "Paris".  All. by. myself.  It was lovely.

 The only thing that would have made it better was if I we were really in Europe, and Randall wasn't working.

 My favorite thing about Vegas is the fountains at the Bellagio hotel.  Sadly I think they were broken because one afternoon I sat and sat and waited and waited... and they never happened.  I googled when I should expect them and still waited and again...nothing.  I was super disappointed, but what do you do?  Wednesday Rand had meetings again until our flight left so I was alone to do as I wanted.  We were home by Wednesday night, the kids had a great time, my parents did great, it was a nice quick get away, and the perfect birthday gift.

 On my real birthday Randall made me breakfast before work, then, I had invited my Mom and Kate to go to lunch.  We went to Los Hermanos because I still have not had my fill of Mexican having gone without in Jersey for so long.

 It was a really nice lunch and it was weird to think how grown up Kate has become.  She just sat happily coloring her paper and talking once in awhile.  Because of Kate's and my birthdays we got free fried ice cream and it was delicious.  Are you sensing a theme here?  Me and food are BFF's.

I LOVE this picture of the 3 of us.  

 I had a great birthday and felt very loved and spoiled with calls, texts and several friends dropping by unexpectedly with little gifts or goodies.  It was a really nice day.

 On Friday Rand was worried I would feel sad that we didn't go to dinner or do any cake or anything so we made plans to go out with some friends of ours from grad school.  We were going to suggest In and Out for dinner, but they suggested Sundance so how could we say no to that?

It was a gorgeous and cool night.  We ate outside on the porch and enjoyed catching up with our friends until late.  I couldn't be happier.