Memorial Weekend: the continuing story...

I left off on Monday morning after Nate's accident. I slept on the floor all night (well, if you count 3 hours being all night) so I was sore and of course we both smelled awful because we'd been camping since Friday without showering. So after we spoke with the nurses, I decided to go to my sister Deanna's house and shower. I left Nate sleeping, flat on his back in the bed. He had to lay flat on his back because the doctor hadn't evaluated his head, neck and back x-rays so they didn't want to move him without knowing he was ok and nothing important (besides his pelvis) was broken.

After driving to my sisters house and taking a lengthy shower we decided to get some breakfast. We drove to this little home town restaurant for breakfast (reminded me a lot of LD's in Richmond) we ate, and then I went back to the hospital. It felt so good to be clean. My clothes from that I had on the day before were caked in mud (mostly because I fell when I was running to the truck).

When I got back to the hospital, I sat with Nate and just read my book that I had in the truck because he slept most the day. He was in a lot of pain and he was starving. They wouldn't let him eat just in case he needed surgery, so he hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. At about 5pm the nurse and the doctor came in saying his back and neck were fine so they could take off his neck brace and let him sit up. FINALLY! He had been flat on his back for 26 hours!!

Before the brace came off....

During...


After


After they had his neck brace off, he asked to have his hair washed. It was so greasy and dirty from camping! The aid came in with a shower cap that has a leave in shampoo/conditioner thing in it. They put the cap on him and she massaged his head. Here is the before and after shot of that. I'd heard of those caps, but I hadn't seen one before. Pretty cool.




Enos, Dallas, Doug, Twig and Sperm came up on Tuesday to see Nate. They stayed for a few hours and then left, but not without Enos leaving Nate quite the collection of DVD's to choose from. He brought his whole case and left Nate about 15 movies. Definitely better than watching daytime television! It was so nice of them to come down and see Nate. They are all so supportive and very reassuring. Doug was still wearing his arm sling from his accident a couple weeks before. (He had wrecked a dirt bike of High Creek Canyon and did lots of damage... so he knows how Nate feels).

Dallas and Doug


Twig


Gradually as time went on Nate began sitting up, and a little while later, they finally stood him up for the first time. He didn't take any steps that first time, but he stood with the walker.



The next day he was determined to walk. He took a few steps forward, and a few back. And it just got better from there.


Nate really liked the strawberry/vanilla swirl Ice Cream from the Primary Childrens cafeteria. (Deanna informed me that Primary's has way better food than U of U so I took the 2 minute walk and went there for meals.) We always brought ice cream back for Nate's room mate Perry too. I didn't get any pictures of him... but he was a funny guy. He was in his 50's i think. Him and Nate got along really well. He was in a four wheeling accident and broke all sorts of bones.


Perry got discharged a few hours before Nate and while Nate was sleeping, he created this. On the side it says "Call Perry" and had his phone number. They already started planning a camping trip together. I'm sure we'll see him again someday.



I went home Monday night and drove back Tuesday morning. Then I had to work 1/2 day on Wednesday, and came down again. Nate's parents came down on Wednesday and spent the day with him, and they stayed the night at Nate's Aunt Ann's house so they could be with him Thursday. I had to work all day Thursday because it was my Summer Citizen Orientation. When I was working, Nate texted me and told me they were transfering him to Logan Nursing and Rehab that afternoon. Luckily his parents were there and they were able to bring him to Logan so he didn't have to be transported by van. I went to see him as soon as I was off work. It was so nice to be able to just drive to the rehab and not have to leave Logan anymore. It was nice having him close to home. Not quite as good as having him home, but better.

Memorial Weekend turned Disaster

Many of you know that Nate and I are really big into camping and having a good time riding four wheelers and dirt bikes. Well, this memorial weekend wasn't any different. We decided it would be fun to go with (almost) all of our friends (sorry doug) and head out to Mountain View, Wyoming to go riding at the "Badlands". (They have been rightfully named). Since we sold my four wheeler last year Nate decided that I needed something to ride so he went down to Motorsports Unleashed and talked with his old buddy Todd Barlow and rented me a Suzuki 400. Nate wanted to leave around 3 on Friday, but it ended up being more like 5:30. So by the time we drove the 3+ hrs to the badlands it was dark. We didn't get to do any riding on Friday night, but we still had a good time visiting with our friends. And in the mean time, we got to meet a few new friends, Georgia (his real name is Thomas - but we like Georgia better) and Jake.

Saturday we got up, ate some breakfast and decided to go for a ride. We rode hard and had a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much arm work it takes to handle a four wheeler. It's been almost 2 years since I rode, but man, I was feeling it after a few hours. We crossed over this fence (random that they have a fence in the middle of freaking no where) but anyway, we get across it because Dallas and Enos were telling us about this really cool cave we needed to go see. So we finally get to this area and we have to get off our bikes and hike.

It literally was one foot in front of the other because there wasn't any more space than that.



Out of the group, only me, Nate, Dallas, Enos, Skogs and Georgia hiked to the cave. I guess I impressed Enos and Dallas because, well #1- I was the only girl willing to hike it and #2 - i was ahead of Skogs, Nate and Georgia. They kept saying that I was a "bad ass" because I hiked it. It was also cool cause they kept telling Nate how lucky he is to have a wife that will get dirty with the guys. GO ME! We get up to the opening - and OH MY GOSH!

This is Dallas crawling thru it.

I was scared, but I didn't hike all that way to punk out, so I "thought skinny" and went on thru. Here are just a few more pictures of the cave and the guys. These guys are freaking awesome! They are accomodating because I'm a girl, but they don't baby me either. I love these guys.



ENOS


GEORGIA



We hiked out of the cave (it wasn't very big) and took a few pics.


There were these really cool "rifs" from water and erosion. love it!





This is one of the holes that you can look out of in the cave.



We hiked up and over to see this area that had been carved out by water and sat there for a good hour or so just chattin it up and eatin sunflower seeds.



L-R Dallas, Enos, Nate, Skogs and Georgia


DALLAS


Me and Enos (Nate said we look like a couple. We thought that was pretty funny.... and accurate by looking at the picture)



Good ol Skogs and Georgia (believe it or not, but Georgia is 37! - He is also called "Old Man" but only by Enos)






That night the girls decided we needed a "girls ride" so we went and had a BLAST! Here are a few pictures from that:


ME


Me climbing! (Just a note: I was the only girl to make it around that loop!)


Me, Cari and Cadi


Skye, Cari and Cadi




On Sunday, we woke up and kind of bummed around camp for a bit. Well, then we decided to go for a ride. Spanky had showed up (Dallas and Enos' step brother) and he was riding like a bat out of hell. He rides hard and fast all the time.

So a bunch of us head out for a ride. Homer, Skye and I were behind everybody else by a little ways. The ride was really fun, and then we come up on this hell. Jake had turned around and was motioning for me to stop. I stopped and he says the words that I never EVER want to hear again. "Nate's hurt, I'm going back for my truck." Of course he didn't go into detail because he was hurrying, and of course I'm about ready to fall off my four wheeler because I didn't know how hurt he really was. I carefully went over this hill, and there he was. Laying on the ground. I hurried and stopped. Jumped off my wheeler and ran to his side.






He was talking and moving his head around so I knew that his neck was okay. It wasn't broken. (THANK HEAVEN). So Skogs is doing his fire fighter/emt check on Nate to see if he can move his legs and feet. He tried moving and then screamed! He knew that something was wrong with his hip because he couldn't hardly move his right leg. Spanky had some IB's and a muscle relaxer so he gave those to him. We were trying to talk to him to keep him calm and keep him from going into shock. It started raining, so everyone started taking off their sweatshirts and covering him. Spanky pulled a head sock and a thermal out from his bag and wrapped his face up. You could smell them from 10 miles away they stunk so bad, but it was keeping him warm, so we dealt with the smell.

The tail pipe of his bike was completely full of dirt. His bike was about 30 feet away from him when it was all said and done. And micraculous, the bike has NO DAMAGE! (stupid thing).



Jake came back with Enos (who initially wasn't with us on the ride) and they brought a dirt bike ramp, and the couch cushions that Enos' sleeps on. They got it ready and tried very carefully to lift Nate onto this make shift backboard. I've never heard someone scream so loud in pain. Once he was on the backboard, they put tie-downs around him to keep him steady, and then loaded him into the back of Jake's truck.



Spanky rode back with me, guiding the way, and Jake very very very carefully drove the truck with Enos in the back trying to keep Nate still, and shielding Nate with his body from the rain.

I hurried back to camp and started to get the truck. Spanky thought that the truck would be too rough for Nate. Luckily Alaska and his wife Danielle were there in their 4-runner. So we hurried and pulled all their sleeping stuff out, and folded down the backseat. We were prepared to get Nate there. Then we just had to sit and wait for Jake to come in his truck. When he finally arrived we very carefully shifted Nate into the 4-runner and pulled the ramp out from under him. (This again was VERY painful for him). When we finally had him loaded we pulled away from camp and headed toward the Evanston hospital. (Evanston is about 45 minutes away from Mt. View - but first we had to drive very slowly to the main road.) Alaska had to stop and get gas because there wasn't enough to get us to the hospital, and Nate needed to pee. Well, obviously he couldn't get up and go. I tried to talk him into holding it, but he was bound and determined he was going to go so they didn't have to give him a catheter at the hospital. So what did I do being the wonderful wife I am? I bought him a gatorade bottle and helped him pee in it. FUNNY SITE let me tell you!

After finally getting to the hospital, the doctor and nurses (all female by the way) got nate out of the 4-runner (not very carefully it seemed) and into the ER. They got some morphine running thru his veins and took him for x-rays. He came out with a broken left wrist, and 3 fractures in his pelvis. HIS WHAT? Yeah, his pelvis. One of the WORST fractures a person can have. They expressed their concern about internal bleeding, and told me they were life flighting him to U of U hospital. When they began prepping him for flight, I left to get the truck so I could head out and go to the hospital with him. Right when we left, I gathered my thoughts and made the dreaded call to Nate's mom. When she got on the phone, she didn't even say hi. All she said was "whats wrong". They weren't expecting to hear from us until Monday afternoon when we got back, but this was only sunday. Mothers intuition I guess. She said they would head down quickly so they could be there with him while I was enroute. The guys were awesome and got our stuff loaded into the cab of the truck and had Tommy (our dog) all ready to go. I got there, had a momentary freak out, the guys calmed me down and I drove all the way to U of U hospital from Evanston in about 3 hrs. Nate wrecked about 3pm, we got him to Evanston around 5:30pm and they flew him out at about 7:30pm. It was a 25 minute flight from Evanston to SLC.

About midnight they finally moved Nate from the ER to his room. His dad, my dad, and Ben gave him a blessing and then they all left while I stayed with him for the night. The nurse tried to tell me that it was policy that people couldn't stay the night, but he didn't have a roommate so I insisted that I stay. After about 3 hrs of sleep between the both of us, it was finally morning. Out of all of this, all I can say is that I am so grateful that we have such amazing friends. I have never seen so many people band together and literally take the shirts off their backs to help their friends. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends, and I am so proud to say they are my friends. I would do anything for these guys, and it's good to know they would do the same. I honestly tried to think of how many friends I've had in my life that would do anything for me. I can count them on 1 hand. Now that I have these guys in my life, I can't count them all. So if you guys are reading this, thank you and we love you.


To be continued........

One of the "Honey Do's" On My List

I know I suck at posting and some of my posts are not very exciting. But this one was very exciting to me. When we bought our house our bathroom had carpet. Who ever the idiot was that said carpet in the bathroom was good idea should be shot! If anyone reading this has carpet in their bathroom, I just have to say that I'm not going to apologize for any statements that I make that could offend you. :-) Anyway... when we bought the house we were spending quite a bit painting and putting up new light fixtures so we decided we could handle the carpet in the bathroom for a while. Well, 2 1/2 years later we finally put in a tile floor. I wasn't able to be home in the beginning of the process so I had Nate take some pictures.

He caught Tommy in this picture. It looks like he had started to rip up the carpet and then remembered to take pictures for me.




This is right next to the tub where water sometimes gets out when you're showering. GROSS!

And the worst- right by my toilet where we had leaking issues right after we moved in. We put in a new toilet (because I couldn't stand the idea of using someone elses toilet in my own house), and for some reason it was leaking, and it completely soaked my carpet. (hence... the other reason why carpet in the bathroom is DISCUSTING!)


You know... my friend Kelsey will vouch for me that the bathroom is the first thing i clean and it's always clean. Can you imagine my discust when Nate pulled up the carpet around the toilet and the entire floor was rotting! We had to put down new plywood around the toilet and tub too. SICK!

But.... here is the finished product....

Playing Mommy

My brother Brian and his wife Kelli went to St. George and Vegas for 5 days and 4 nights. Well, there wasn't anyone to watch Brycen or the dog. So when Kelli called me to see if I could watch Brycen while they were gone, I thought for a second, but decided to accept. It's good practice... but mostly Brycen is a VERY happy child, so i figured it wouldn't be too bad. The other reason I decided to watch him was because i was on my "mandatory 5 day furlough" that the University required during spring break week. I didn't have any plans anyway so it was something to fill up my week!

This is my ADORABLE NEPHEW!


Brycen is definitely a binkie boy. Can you tell? When he did that I thought it was so cute so I had to take a picture. (little does he know that mom and dad are slowly weening him off of the binky. so sad...)


Brycen decided that because he found my Skip-Bo cards he would play 1000 card pick up! (Have you ever seen the size of those skip-bo decks? THEY'RE HUGE!) But in the end he didn't pick up a single one. Hmmm... that didn't work out the way I thought it would.


Jeneil and her girls, Taylor and Makenna came over on Thursday to play. And then friday we got together with Kelsey and her niece Brynly and Brittany and her little boy Jacob. Play dates are very fun! Saturday Brycen had his first experience getting in the hot tub with me, my friend Becky and her two kids, Owen (who is 4 days younger than brycen) and Kya. Brycen loved it. He just chilled on my lap and enjoyed the warm water. (Just an FYI- it wasn't turned up all the way so it wasn't too hot for the kids).

Brycen is definitely a night owl. This is the last night that I had him, right after he fell asleep at MIDNIGHT! My sister in law is very lucky and is able to stay home with him, so going to bed late isnt an issue. I'm usually in bed by 9 so this kid really wore me out!


As I mentioned before I had one extra dog. Well, I didn't mention that Kelli's parents went on this trip too. They also have a dog. So I became a mom and a kennel club all in one day! Tuffy (brian and kelli's dog) is the dark one, the one in the middle is Bandit (LuAnn and Sheridans dog) and the farthest one is Tommy (my baby). As you can see they were VERY tuckered out after wrestling and playing for hours on end.


I thought these sleeping pictures of the pups were cute. I was tripping over them every moment of every day.. but brycen had a blast with them and they really enjoyed each others company.
Tuffy

Tommy

Bandit (he sleeps and sits with his legs out funny. it's cute)

Well... you can't imagine having 3 dogs in the house and no battle scars on the child. On Sunday, the very last day I had brycen he bent down to pick up his binky cause the dogs were rolling all over it when they were wrestling and he got a FOOT in the EYE! You can see his battle wound right in the corner of his eye. He cried for a second and then got over it. He did say "NO" to the dogs. But he very quickly forgave them. And you can see the smile on his face behind the bink.


I learned a lot playing mom for a few days. Going from no child to a 19 month old was a definite experience in itself. He is a really good kid and he was so much fun. I haven't laughed and giggled so hard in my life. I have seen a lifetime worth of Handy Manny (but I must say is MUCH better than baby einsteins). I think brycen was very good preparation for parenthood. When I do have a child... I'll let you know the comparison. LOVE YOU BRYCEN!

Coopers 3rd Birthday

Cooper Jon Lundgreen turned 3 on March 8. He is getting so big! It's amazing how fast they grow up and how much they know at the age of 3. He surprises me every time I see him. He's so smart! Here are a few pictures of his birthday. YEAH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY COOPER!

This is the best smile I could get cooper to give me. Usually he CHEESES it!




This is the really cool wooden train set Kade and Kallie gave to Cooper. He had so much fun pushing the trains along and making fun track designs.

Cars is the DEFINITE choice of cake for cooper. A few of the cars had been taken off by the time I got over there to take a picture, but you get the general idea of what it looked like. WAY CUTE!
Cooper blowing out the candles. THE BIG 3!!!

NEW CAR!!! (FINALLY)

Well, I finally was able to get my new car! For those of you who didn't know, I drive a 1994 Geo Prizm with NO A/C. It's a really good car and gets great gas mileage, but it's was freaking hot in the summer time!

Anyway, so I have been researching for a long time and been keeping my eyes open for a new car and a good deal. Well, I finally picked out his adorable Nissan Altima. It was a REALLY nice car. So I finally get a day when Nate can go with me, and guess what.... he hates it. He thought the body was ugly, he didn't like the way it drove yada yada yada.... and i kept saying "but it's so practical!" So we being walking around the car lot, and he notices this really cute Pontiac G6 and is like "see, you can have a practical car AND a good looking one!" So we drove it, and let me tell you.... it was freaking love immediately! So i just wanted to post and say my husband is really sweet, and this was my valentines present. (I actually got it like a week before valentines... but that's ok) This is my new car! I LOVE IT!!!