My Life is not Boring

I stopped writing in my blog for two reason:
1- I should write in my journal instead. ... but I don't. I type about 85 wpm. I hand write about... I dunno, 20? So I don't write, because I'd rather type, but I'd rather have my children reading my handwriting. And so the cycle goes... and nothing gets written.
2- I thought my life was too dull. Too monotonous. Sure, I could have the blog just for myself so no one else read my "monotonous" ramblings, but I came to a realization. My life isn't boring. Sure, days have a routine, but that doesn't mean nothing interesting ever happens. Otherwise, what on earth would Matt and I talk about?
So... I am going to be on a post frenzy for a while to catch up on the last six months. A lot happened. Here are the bullet points (in order that they come to mind):
1- Yellowstone trip with my Dad's company.
2- Farewell to the Pontiac.
3- Matt leaves teaching job at Innovations.
4- General Conference lessons.
5- Paint My Game.
6- Salt Lake Comic Con and Fantasy Con.
7- Ghost town summers!
8- Random Matt & Beka Moments (<--really how I know my life isn't boring. )
9- Operation Underground Railroad (OURrescue on facebook)

Spring BReak!

Matt and I left Utah for spring break. He had a week off, so I took it off too! The only plans we had were "let's go see Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore." What the rest of the week would be, only the road would tell! An adventure!

We did not book any hotels before we left. Nowhere to be, just the road and whatever strikes our fancy. The first thing was a brown sign saying "history this way", so 50 miles later (shouldn't the sign be for something closer to the road?) we saw some awesome fish fossils. 

 Next stop that I wanted to see, Name's Hill. There are three places in Wyoming where you can see the names of people who crossed the West. Names Hill, Independence Rock and Register Cliff. Names Hill is popular because Jim Bridger signed it. Well, at least that's the controversy. As geeky history people know, Jim Bridger couldn't read or write. Some say he must've known enough to carve his name. Others say someone in his company may have carved his name.

James Bridger, Names Hill 1844

 Do you know what happened in 1844? Thinking of all the things going on at that time, this is awesome. Joseph Smith martyred and saints preparing to go west, A Christmas Carol was first published in the U.S., the first telegraph message "What hath God Wrought" was sent from the U.S. Supreme Court in D.C. to Morse (the inventor) in Baltimore,  Abraham Lincoln was campaigning for Henry Clay (Whig Party), and this one blows my mind and how fast time actually flies- 12 years before (1832), the last signer of the Declaration of Independence passed away of old age.

Anyway, I'm getting carried away. I just love history! Speaking of old stuff-

Saw this in a town we drove thru for gas. A wooden car. That's awesome!

Next stop was Martin's Cove and Devil's Gate. I was exited to see this with Matt. He's never been. If it weren't so cold and snowy, we'd've walked to the cove, but it was really windy and really cold. Not as cold as it was for the pioneers, and not as much snow, which left us to marvel at their faith. I was very excited at the end of the tour to find this: my great great grandmother!

Eliza Cusworth Burton Staker with her daughter Martha, her daughter and her daughter!
From Martin's Cove visitor center, where she and Martha (and son Joseph) were with the Martin Handcart Co.

Did I mention the wind and snow and cold? Yay for SPRING break! Every road we took had signs on the side of road with two lights above it. The sign read "If lights flashing, the road forward is perilous with deathly snow drifts and wind. Return from whence you came." Something like that. I wish I got more pictures of the car. This is the passenger side that faced the sun... like the ice mushrooms? We managed to stay ahead of the road closures until we got to Douglas. Can't go forward, every room in every hotel in this town is booked with other trapped souls, save two rooms. Guess how much they cost. Enjoy.... and we did. Room with a jacuzzi. Yep, definitely an early anniversary present. 

In the morning the roads were plowed, we could see long stretches of road that would've been invisible in snow during the night. We made it to Devil's Tower! The walk around was nice. 1.3 miles, no biggie. Matt was so excited to be there, he took pictures galore! I'm sharing my favorites. :) Here we completed a quest begun on our first camp trip together... find a good walking stick! Bug Sticks from the Badlands are fantastic! Got one the perfect height for each of us. The plan is to add patches to the sticks with future vacations.

Then on to Mt. Rushmore... with a quick drive thru Deadwood, of course. We got to Mt. Rushmore in time to see it in light, but late enough to see the illumination of the yellow spotlights at night. It was awesome! Smaller than I remember, yet, still massive! 

The next morning we stop at the Cosmic Mystery Place or whatever it was called. Illusion central. An old house that sits on a hill, found by some kids wanting to build a cabin. Definitely worth a visit. Matt had seen in on some mystery show and was thrilled to be able to say he had been there and figured out how the illusions worked. Don't worry, we didn't spoil it for anyone.

We are standing upright, tho it looks like we're not!

Then to Crazy Horse.  We got patches to add to our sticks. There's a restaurant there with windows looking at the monument. It's massive! The sculptor's studio had a big box full of rocks from the last blast. Donate and take a rock. Mine sits on my desk at work now. Beautiful granite (did I ever tell you I seriously considered changing my major to geology? History in stone. It's fascinating, I don't care what Sheldon says!)

 

1/34 scale by Korczak Ziolkowski, what will hopefully be finished in my lifetime :)

 Now that we've seen what we left home for, what shall we see on the way back home? Mammoth Pit was on the map of Wyoming we had. Let's go there! It was intense. An old sand trap that was found by a farmer when his plow hit mammoth tusks. It has since gone deeper and deeper with no end in sight. They've also found an ancient bear, llama, camel. Definitely worth a visit. They only dig in July and the rest of the year is spent with preservation, cataloging and other lab work.

Our last stop before booking it home because we were vacationed out was Fort Laramie! A place I had always wanted to visit. It was not only a very important fort in the wilderness, but a critical stop and supply point for all travelers going west. Many buildings have nothing left, some have a little foundation so you can see where the barracks used to be. Others, like the old hospital have pieces of walls still standing, but not much else. To restore a building, NPS requires a certain percentage of the building still be standing, so they won't be restored without some serious private funding. A lot of supplies (roof, windows, etc.) of the buildings were stripped with the fort was abandoned in 1890 and used for the town, so there are homes with pieces of the Fort Laramie hospital roof!
 We got there after it was closed, but one park ranger was there for security until midnight. He walked us around and told us some stories of life on the fort.

The calvary barracks are behind us.

It was so nice to be away from our jobs and everything for a while. Just us and the open road! There's a lot still to see, so we have to go back sometime and hit Register Cliffs, Fort Bridger (much easier to manage, only 2 hours from Salt Lake), Fort Hays (used in Dances with Wolves, very close to Mt. Rushmore), Jewel Cave, the Wind Caves... yup gotta go back, but until then, I think we'll go south next spring break :)

Found this in my drafts.
Reflections on 2013...
Matt finished his double bachelors and got a job teaching math at Innovations High School. He's now looking to get his Masters, but we're not sure where yet. He's gotta find time to study and take the GRE first :) We moved out of student housing and into a real apartment where our fish swim happily (yes, the goldfish still live. One of our algae eaters died, tho. Farewell minion, tho didst well to keep yon tank clean). I completed another Nanowrimo (the Broken Sapphire... I think it's going to end up being an ongoing series. Too much for 50K words). One game of Hero Quest is completely painted and stored in it box in foam. Neil gave us a glorious review when we went up to play it, so now I just got to get pictures taken so we can sell it. The other 3 are almost done, just gotta paint all the ogres, goblins and heroes... yeah. That won't take long...
We got a new diagnosis on Matt's asthma. He was diagnosed as a kid, when they hesitate to give you steroids. After being sick for three months he's finally breathing and we got an awesome nebulizer that fits in a wonderful portable pack.
Our goals for 2014- Well, I'm going to get Galaxy of Fire edited and published. It's been sitting in my head since 2002 and on paper since Nano 2012. Time to get it done.
While we wait and pray for children to liven up our little apartment we're going to paint and play games and work and it's going to be an awesome year!

Thanksgiving History Lesson

Disclaimer: The following post is hyperlink happy and filled with lots of FIRSTS!

Why is Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday? How does Black Friday exist on a day after giving thanks for what we have? Please allow me to offer a little history lesson. (There are going to be a lot of links to Archives stuff) :D

Let me start with destroying the image we all grew up with.

• First- Buckled hats did not come around until the 18th century. Pilgrims (which is a general term like 'founders', so "puritans" would be more accurate) did not wear them. 
• The Native Americans were not in loincloths. Have you seen the weather in the north east right now? Yeah. 
• Forks had not been invented yet. They had knives and spoons. 
• There was no pop corn. 
• No turkey. They had goose, maybe swan or passenger pigeons. 
• They did not have pumpkin pie. They had pumpkin, but no pie.  

The images we grew up with came from Sarah Josepha Hale of New Hampshire (the same who wrote Mary Had A Little Lamb). She was the editor of a local magazine who campaigned for 17 years (and letters to 5 presidents) to have a nationally recognized Thanksgiving. The last, Lincoln, made it an official national holiday in 1863. (Did Lincoln declare a day of thanks because of a letter??? I don't know.)

Now that we're reeling from the image of turkey and pumpkin pie being stripped from our childhood, here are a few fun facts, to help you recover.

• The first Thanksgiving football game was Yale vs. Princeton in 1876. When the NFL came around in 1920 there were six games played on Thanksgiving Day. 
• The first parade was Philadelphia's Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1920. 
• Macy's parade came in 1924 with no balloons, but elephants, camels and lions from the Central Park Zoo. 
• The first balloon was in 1927, Felix the Cat. The balloons were not crazy huge either. How do I know? Well, they let the balloons go at the end of the parade so they'd float around for a while.

Also, the history of the cranberry sauce that we all love from this holiday has a fascinating history too, check it out from the Smithsonian here.


So Thanksgiving. The only account we have is from Edward Winslow (of the Mayflower) written in 1621. The letter was lost for 200 years and found in the 1800s by a Boston publisher, Alexander Young. He published it in 1841 (which I assume is where Sarah read it). The first Thanksgiving, they were miserable, but they were thankful. Of the 152 who made the trip to the New World, 53 remained. The weather had been awful, disease, malnutrition. It was a disaster, but the little group of 53 gathered to give thanks and... fasted! They celebrated having family, their health, and the freedom from tyranny and freedom to worship God that made the trip worth it. The Indians provided most of the "Thanksgiving feast".


It's a fascinating story, but how did it become the crazy holiday it is now?

Washington gave a Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3 1789. (Check out the PDF version under the picture to read it!) But is was not a national holiday. After Gettysburg, Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving and we would have one every year on the fourth Thursday of November. So, this year Thanksgiving is really really late. Why?

Here are some presidential declarations for the holiday. (Every president said something about giving thanks, but every President after Lincoln gave one every year, but to understand where Black Friday came from, the following were selected. I completely encourage reading them all. It's fascinating to see the ties to the events going on at the time and see the thanks they give God and the comfort offered to the people for better times ahead. These are only a part of the proclamation given.)

• First, Teddy Roosevelt, 1901- 

"I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby designate as a day of general Thanksgiving Thursday, the 28th of this present November, and I recommend that throughout the land people cease from their wanted occupations.  Several of homes and places of worship we should reverently thank the giver of all good for the countless blessings in our national life."

This was the FIRST time a President said it was a day off of work. It was unusual. Most people worked Thanksgiving and Christmas (yes, Scrooge was normal). It was thought of as crass to take the holiday off.

• Then, Woodrow Wilson, 1917-

"I, Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States of America do hereby designate Thursday, the 27th of November as a day of Thanksgiving and prayer and invite the people throughout the land to cease from their wanted occupations."

• Then came the depression. Herbert Hoover, 1931-  

"I therefore, Herbert Hoover, president of the United States, do hereby designate Thursday, November 26th as the national day of Thanksgiving and recommend that our people rest from their daily labors and in their homes and accustomed places of worship give devout thanks for the blessings which a merciful father had bestowed upon us.” 

This enraged many people. They wanted to work. Unemployment was 16.3% and businesses believed (as is customary when a president recommends national days off) the President just told them to close their doors for a day.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939- 

To this point it was still the fourth Thursday. Now, 1939, FDR, now in his third term (how he had four terms as a president is a conversation for another day), was hoping to boost the economy (we're nearing the end of the Depression now) by giving shoppers and business some extra days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, it was moved to the third Thursday. This officially connected the holiday to shopping and away from God. A Gallup poll at the time showed 59% of Americans disapproved of the change. (Check out a New York Times article snippit here.) 22 states went with the third Thursday holiday. 23 said no, had it on the fourth Thursday because it was not about shopping, it was about drawing nearer to God. (Yes, I know that only adds up to 45 states. It was 1939, there were 48 states, but I don't know which one the last 3 went with.)

The news of that day sounds not unlike today's political atmosphere. Press called it the "Republican Thanksgiving" because it was connected to God, the founding and Abraham Lincoln. The 23rd was known as the Democratic Thanksgiving. Some calling it "Fransgiving" after FDR.

Even Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies made fun of it in 1940 showing a segment (called Holiday Highlights) with Thanksgiving "for Democrats" on the one date and a week later "for Republicans."



In 1941 Congress officially declared it the 4th Thursday, and FDR signed it. The Wall Street Journal declared the move a bust because there was no real boost in retail sales. In 1941, during World War Two, America still had a problem with shopping on Thanksgiving because that is not what the holiday was about. The war could have had something to do with sales too, I assume (note sarcasm). Now, tho, it is a big boost in sales. Now Black Friday isn't a Black Friday at all. It starts earlier. Some stores were open on Thanksgiving for the frenzy. FDR would be pleased to see all that money going places.

While I hate Black Friday (for reasons Studio C shows well), this holiday is what we make of it. We need to make the choice to be thankful. First, to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who provide hope, forgiveness, and from whom all good things come.

Playing catch up

Ok, going to catch up and then be more diligent in my blog posts. I don't write in my journal, and I don't post anything meaningful on facebook, so it's this or nothing. (I type so much faster than I write, so here goes.)
The scar on the top of Matt's foot from the glass in the previous post is the dominating feature of that foot. You don't even notice he has toes before you admire that scar. I'd be envious, but I have a scar on my left wrist from moving... nothing quite as dramatic as glass. I was cleaning out the space under the sink and my arm scraped across shrink wrap box teeth on the way back out. It was just a scratch! I'm amazed is scarred so nicely.
My left hand as all my scars. I'm right handed. Go figure. The middle finger has a scar going around the base like a ring. I flew a kite in the park with my brother, Grant, once and foolishly had the string around my finger when I pulled without telling him to let go. I think doing that a few times could cleanly cut my finger off. Good to know. I like scars. They preserve a moment and a story on your flesh to think about later.

Anyway, I digress.

We have moved back to my hometown. It's lovely. I love the Cottonwood Heights/Holladay/SLC Inc. area. Honestly I don't know what we are anymore. No town wants to be associated with the other because one doesn't want to sound rich because of where they live or something. I don't know.

We love the porch. We watched fireworks from there! I don't know whose show it was, but it was awesome! I read the Declaration of Independence and Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.

Matt is a math and astronomy teacher at Innovations High School! YAY!!!! This has many pros and cons.

Pros
- He loves seeing those 'a-ha' moments. They make the job worth it.
- Teaching has always been his dream. Granted, he wanted to teach college so he could teach the higher maths, but he's trying to persuade as many of these young minds as possible to go into math in college.
- The school has a digital curriculum and allows students to take classes at their own pace. Some even graduate early. He wishes this option was available when he was in high school
- This school has a lot of the kids the other schools kind of gave up on. They do well at Innovations, and he gets to know them all. The principal is impressed he gets to know the students so well so quickly. Matt has a God-given gift of empathy. It has really been a blessing.
-It's SHAWSOME! (a word the students have bestowed on Mr. Shaw. We love it!)

Cons
- The school has a digital curriculum and so he teaches 6 classes and every student is turning a different assignment from a different part of any of those classes. It makes grading slow, so he brings work home a lot. Plus side for me is he doesn't play xbox anymore and I get painting time in while he works.
- Teenage words such a "cray-cray", "YOLO"... he completely despises due to their overuse. He things such word are "stu-stu!"(I had never heard of these before he started teaching.)... ah, and he also can no longer enjoy "what does the fox say".
- The suits. I think he looks dashing, but Matt used to pride in the fact he didn't own a suit. Oh well it's a plus for me!


Matt's got a new goal. He's going to finish grading (last count was 19 assignments to go, but each new day adds to that). He also has to create his own answer keys even tho the curriculum is already set up. Go figure. Anyways, he's going to finish grading, paint three pictures AND get them on the wall (He's done one already, check it out!)

THE SCREAM! All in neon paints!

In the meantime, I'm painting Hero Quest as fast as I can so we can resell them. (Not a very good pic, but here's the first game 3 orcs and 6 goblins short) Some of my paints are starting to dry, which has made from some awesome looking blood on the swords.

Well, it's November, which means it's NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. (NANOWRIMO) The word count for this blog does not count toward that 50K, unforutnately, so off I go! I'm writing a fantasy, it's great fun!

Painful Potato

A week ago a glass bottle of chives hit the kitchen floor with a shattering smash. We swept it up and moved on with our merry married lives. Then once upon an morning Matt was making breakfast and stepped on a potato. At least, he thought it was a potato. You know that feeling, you step on something, you're not sure what, but your feels like your foot can't quite touch the ground. So, to remove said potato, Matt tried to brush it off on his other foot. He stood again... yet there was still a potato mushed in the  arch of his left foot. That was when he looked down. The other foot was now covered with dripping red lines.

Looking at the bottom of his foot he saw he had stepped on a pointed piece of glass! Still feeling no pain, he pulled out the pointed shard and watched the blood flow. For a moment he looked at his feet in wonder. How did I not notice I was cutting myself? With careful steps, he moved to the couch to sit, but unable to. The couch is occupied with stuff Beka is organizing. Well, was. Now it all needs to go.

"Beka. I need to sit."

Wondering why he can't clear a spot himself, she turns to him, prepared with a sarcastic remark. What it was, I don't know for it disappeared when her eyes saw blood dripping down her husband's feet. 

"What happened?"

"I need to sit down." 

She cleared the whole couch in a rush and he lay on his back, putting his feet on the arm. Now the pain has successfully sent its signal to the brain and he's shuddering. 

After some Bactine, gauze and tape, he looks no worse for wear. The puncture doesn't look deep, but it's hard to tell as blood blocks the view.

That day, after soldiering thru the pain with shoes on, Matt got a tetanus booster shot. Just in case. Hopefully it was worth it because after two days of a fever and STILL having a sore arm, the injection sight is STILL warm to the touch. A shot has had longer lasting pain than a puncture wound of glass. 

Stupid shot.

The puncture site two days later

Three scratches of the glassy potato remain

Trial reminds us what we're thankful for!

Matt and I were SO excited! Being only 4 weeks along our excitement couldn't be contained and we told the family. Matt even bought a shirt with a loading bar on the belly for me to wear. I wore it once, to break the news to our parents. I was never nauseous, I didn't feel any different. I mean I didn't feel ANY different from the month before. I was surprised that I never "knew" I was pregnant. I was surprised by the test. I always thought I'd just know and a pregnancy test was just verification.
Now we were pregnant! Finally! I started the pregnant diet. Gave up soda, sushi, set my first appointment. Which I forgot about and cancelled yesterday. Why?

Monday August 20th 3:00 am: I woke up in PAIN. By 5 my getting in and out of bed had Matt up wondering what was wrong with me... gave me a blessing.. checked my symptoms online (it sounded like appendicitis), called my mom (cell phones are a wonderful blessing at times like this, and knowing my mom was likely up certainly made calling Doctor Mom easier) and went to the ER at the University of Utah Hospital. I was hunched over... almost bent in half... walking to the car. We took the short drive to the hospital, (a blessing we lived soo close) got out of the car and walked in. I was furious to discover my pain was no longer as agonizing as it was. I'm at the ER and I feel a little better! AUGH! I filled out the paperwork while Matt parks the car ....yes, I thought of Brian Regan... (Pain is ongoing... I realize this is just your job and you aren't the one who decided I had to fill this out, but seriously people! You want to know my name and address? Is that really necessary right now? Brian Regan began to play in my head.) Any health conditions? "I'm pregnant and overweight." For some reason being deaf didn't enter my mind for that list. (Matt mentioned this to most people who spoke to me at the hospital because I rarely understood anyone the first time they spoke.) We're escorted to a room with a narrow bed, TV and a curtain separating us from being seen by any staff that may be in line of sight. IV goes in my left arm ... at least I thought it was just an IV... it had morphine. Morphine... going straight to my veins. I thought they were just making sure I was hydrated. Therefore I was very annoyed that my pain was gone and I was in an expensive ER. Time to go home. We can't afford this.
In comes a nurse/intern/I-don't-remember-what-he-said-he-was comes in with a computer on wheels.  Name, address, (Can't you get that from the last 2 people I gave it to?) religion, allergies.. and then comes the Brian Regan bit. "How would you rate your pain on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst pain you've ever experienced?" When I decided to come to the ER I was a high 8 low 9. I had no problem with 9. Couldn't say 10... not a broken femur :) However, now that my pain was gone... unless the nurse was poking around "Does this hurt?" ... I felt FINE! "I was an 8, but now unless you poke me I'm a 0!" Matt decided after the nurse left with that answer in the computer was a good time to tell me I was on morphine. ....for some reason I couldn't deduce that they had given me something for the pain....
They drew blood a couple times, then asked for a urine sample. I discover I'm bleeding. Forget the urine sample. I opened the door "I'm bleeding!" The nurses don't seem worried, but they don't care about the urine sample anymore, Matt covers his mouth in worry. Time for an ultrasound on the belly AND the stupid pelvic one. Painful when your symptoms mimic appendicitis. They did an ultrasound and left us there to wait for what a doctor thinks of the images. I thought the images looked grey with some black spots. Apparently the black spots were ovaries. Ok, well, they're there. That's good. I'm only 4 weeks along so you aren't going to see an embryo anywhere, maybe they'll see some clues for appendicitis? We wait for 10 minutes. A doctor comes in and looks again. What does he say before he sends us back to our room? "Best of luck to you." We both over analyzed that. The way he said it was like "I don't know what to say to you." Why doesn't he say "have a good day" or something? Luck? Something must be wrong.
We sit in the room for a little while before nurse comes in to tell us what happened. Ruptured Ectopic Pregnancy. My vitals are normal so I'm not bleeding to death, but they need to look in there, maybe they can save the Fallopian Tube.. maybe not. Either way, they gotta get all that blood out. One nurse said "it was never a viable pregnancy." Oh how I wanted to say "shut up", but I just said "ok" and he left. Matt and I had a cry. Then in two nurses come again to repeat the risks of the surgery because they have to. 3 incisions. Belly button. Left ovary, right ovary.

Dad comes and he and Matt give me a blessing. Amen, and cue nurses. We need to put in another IV... they tried all over. I'm part fish apparently. Right arm... can't get it! Left hand... nope can't find a vein, but tried anyway. Right arm again... nope. Hmm... Right hand... nope... again!... Nope... Right arm again... hmm... Left THUMB! Dang. Thought I saw something blue.... (at this point we're now in pre-op)... ok, I'm going to try your right foot. Ok. I'm drugged. I don't care. Matt and Dad both don't do well with needles. I did fine as long as they didn't count to 3 before the sting. I finally told them after the 4th time not to count to 3, just put the needle in would ya? Dad just doesn't look. Matt doesn't look while looking at either my groggy expression or the floor in horror. I don't know which he thought more... my poor wife or dang incompetence! (He says 'my poor wife'.) The decision is made to wait until I'm under anesthesia. 9:30 is the time I see as a mask is put over my face and they tell me to breath normal. A blessing we live in a place and time where this surgery is possible, where anesthesia is possible!
Blink. Blink.... 2:15. Wow. Is it really 2:15? A nurse gives me ice cubes. Sooo good. A tube was down my throat and so any hopes of not having a sore throat are gone. My throat was sore until Tuesday. Not bad. Ice cubes are good :)
I'm out of it. Apparently I'm on a few pain killers. I feel groggy. Matt and Dad are there to greet me when the bed I'm in is wheeled to a room. I remember talking to them, but no idea what we talked about. I do remember them telling me they couldn't save the tube, so we have a 20% less chance of getting pregnant, and they took out 200-300 mL of of bleeding from the rupture. Apparently my body will think it's pregnant for several weeks, and I can't lift more than 10 lbs until September 17th. (May I say, today is the 27th of August. I haven't taken any pain killers today. Not even ibuprofen. I feel much better so I'm annoyed by this rule. I'm sure anyone who's had a C-section can sympathize with my thought of 'my arms work fine!' ... I know that's not the point, but that's what goes thru the mind.)
Anyway, "You can go home soon as you can get up and walk to the bathroom." I drink and drink and drink. We go home a little after 6 :) Matt's parents picked up my prescriptions and gave them to us at the hospital so we had no stops to make. Just go home. (Matt's mom was amazed last week to see that I could walk and function normal on percocet. Apparently it's a doozy drug, but the only thing I noticed was that when I read my scriptures some of the letters changed occasionally. A blessing! I'd hate it if no pain also meant no functioning.)
Matt helps me get in the car. He helps me get out back at the court. A neighbor sees me walking weakly and takes my other arm helping me to the door. He's a chef supervising several hospital cafeterias, including the U. He says he'll bring dinner on Wednesday. Mmmm! It was goood!

Inside I collapse.. slowly... and gently.... to the couch that is big and soft. A free couch from a family that moved out of the 1400 court months ago. I look at the damage. Bruises on the right and left side, and more little wounds from where they tried IVs on my belly. No idea where they found success.
I sleep on the couch. Matt slept on the floor next to me. He woke me up at 3am to take medication, then I went back to sleep. I slept for most of Tuesday, with my dear honey rushing to my side whenever a groan escaped my lips. My visiting teacher came over and braided my hair, brought dinner, talked (talking was especially nice as silence left me trapped in my head which was a emotional roller coaster.) Lynell and Jonathan came over and gave us cookies, a scarf, a new game to try, and a promise of dinner. Chili's. Mmmmm!  Grant and Steph came by and made me laugh plenty. Laughing hurt, but still the best medicine!
I planned on going to work Wednesday, but my caring husband turned off my alarm clock to ensure I'd sleep. My mom came and took care of dishes and laundry. We walked around the court, well, Matt walked, I shuffled. Our neighbor chef gave us his specially made cooking as we walked back to the apartment. Watched a lot of Doctor Who.
 I went to work Thursday. Full day! A get well card was on my desk signed by everyone at the archives and everyone that saw me was wondering why I was there. I was in pain after work, which caused Matt to pick me up early Friday so I put in 6 hours instead of 8. He's so sweet. He worries so much about me. He says he's never seen such a stubborn side of me. I say it's not stubborn. It's Hibbert toughness! If I can sit on the couch and watch Doctor Who and call that recovery, I can sit in a chair at work and look at microfilm. It's seriously a low stress job.
I am grateful I was only 4 weeks along. I can't imagine losing a pregnancy after having felt the baby kick. A week later I have resumed the life I had the previous week (minus the 10lbs limit). I am grateful to have such a caring husband who looks out for my health better than I do apparently :) I am grateful for friends and family who immediately offer assistance to help in recovery. The Relief Society President found out from my visiting teacher, and it was cool to tell her we didn't need meals because between good neighbors, good friends, good family... we couldn't think of anything we needed. Everything took care of itself then night we got home. I am so thankful for our calling. I have met amazing patients at the hospital. People who were stuck at the hospital for weeks, and just wanted to go home. Frustrated, but unshaken in their faith in Christ. We met a woman who had brain surgery. She bore testimony of the Atonement that no one in the room could doubt she was speaking the truth. I am thankful for the way my parents raised me. To endure, be tough, and never let anything shake your faith in Christ. I don't feel that God has taken anything from us. I don't feel like we're being punished for anything. It's a trial. Life if full of them and they are what make us grow. Elder Holland said we all must take a few steps to Calvary, endure a few moments in Gethsemane. Though I find myself crying occasionally (I blame hormones because I don't want to admit I'm not done crying about this) it is not because I have lost anything. We will have a family. I don't doubt it.