It's hard to decide where to begin when so much has happened this past year. Hmmmm...... I guess I'll just choose a few of the most important events and go from there. You know, blogging is hard for me. I feel like everyone else just either have these amazing hunky-dorey lives or they are just more optimistic than I am. While I am happy, I need someone to rub off some of that silver-lining on me. I say this because this past year has been the hardest year of my life. Or should I say, the past few months. My bishop recently told me, "laughter is the best medicine". He is right. I need to laugh more. Anyway, I'll go more into that soon....
First off, I love my family. I really do. I feel so extremely blessed to have all that I have. I am also so grateful for the many material things that I have. While I don't live in a life of lavishness, on the contrary I live a great life which is a little more modest, but secure. Through this whole economical crisis, I'm grateful for my husband's job that has remained steady and secure so we can have the things we need with a little selfishness on the side.
We went to my favorite place just a few weeks ago. Disneyland!!!!! Everyone knows that I just love that place. Chris' amazing twin brother Charlie along with his amazing wife Carrie let us stay with them in their Irvine, CA condo. We had great trips to the beach with them and they even spent the day at Disneyland with us one day. They took care of our dog a lot of the trip. Unfortunately the little stinker decided that he needed to "mark" all over their house! Sorry guys!!!!! My sweet little nephew Isaac was also so good to share all of his toys with his rambunctious 3 cousins! It's hard to share at the age of 2 and he was amazing!!!
Cracker (Charlie and Carrie's dauchsund) and Oliver (our Cavachon).
Lucy giving her daddy a kiss while he's laying in the sun.
Ginny and Isaac checking out their seashell collection.
Isaac soaking in some of that lovely salt water air!
Chris and Charlie battling the waves. Too cold for me. No thank you!!
Of course the other great part of our journey was the fun trip to Disneyland. We went two days with my mom and dad, my brother KC, his wife Lynnette, and their two boys Zach and Miles. It was a fun group. We also went the third day with Charlie, Carrie, and Isaac. I just love this place. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
The whole group getting ready to start a great Disney Adventure!!!
Asher on the Haunted Mansion ride with his Gramp. Asher absolutely LOVED Disneyland, but spent a lot of time plugging his ears because some things were a little too loud for him.
Chris and Lynnette took the younger kids to visit some Villans while the other adults and Ginny went on an adult ride. This is the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.
Asher on King Triton's Carousel. He loved the merry-go-rounds.
My dad, Miles, my mom, and Lucy on Winnie the Pooh.
We ate a delicious dinner where I had AMAZING crab cakes at a restaurant inside the Pirates of the Carribean ride. The restaurant is called Blue Bayou. KC, Lynnette, and their infamous Pirate son Zach!!!
Ginny liked her Fantasia Mickey Mouse hat!
Meeting Mickey Mouse!
Lucy loved meeting any character she could get a hold of, but Goofy and Pluto were the most exciting for her.... well, maybe they come in second after Mickey.
At the beginning of July, we had a Wood Family Reunion right here in Price. It was nice of everyone to be willing to come here for the occasion. We had people travel from Boston, Ogden, California, New Mexico, and even South Africa!!! It was Chris' parents, all of his brothers, spouses, children, and even a few pets! We went to a Lake, floated a canal, and mainly had a great time just lounging in the backyard catching up on life.
At the end of July we had the first official Keele Family Reunion. My Grandparents, their children and spouses, their grandchildren and spouses, and even great-grandchildren were there. Every single person was there!....except for my one cousin Jeremy who is faithfully serving his mission in Jamaica right now. Good excuse. Well, the second day into the reunion, we were up on the mountain and Asher tripped and fell. It didn't seem like anything too dramatic, but he was screaming hysterically and holding his arm. He has a high pain tolerance and I could tell that something was hurting really bad! Chris and I decided to take him off the mountain down to the Beaver, UT hospital. I knew there would probably be a crack. Boy, was I surprised when the PA comes back to us and says, "He needs emergency surgery right away!" He didn't crack a bone, he completely busted the bottom of his humorous completely off and it had shifted over! Here is a picture of the x-ray. You have to look closely, but you can see down by his elbow the problem.
This is in the hospital bed in Beaver. You can tell how much his left elbow hurt!
If you look at the humorous bone (big bone) at the tip by his elbow, you can see how the bottom broke off and shifted up a little bit. My poor Asher!
Here is Asher with his cute orange cast. His dad wanted orange so that he had some Phoenix Suns spirit!!! Go Suns! I took Asher up to a hospital in Provo where an Orthopedic Surgeon was waiting for him. Asher had a 1/2 hour surgery where they put the bone back into place and held it there with a couple of pins. 4 weeks later, they removed the pins and TA-DA!!! We now have a functioning elbow again. He was such a trooper through the whole ordeal.
In the middle of August, Chris went on another deep-sea fishing adventure in Alaska with his dad. They fished for Halibut and Salmon. Here was Chris' biggest catch of the trip. My sweet mother-in-law stayed with me while Chris was gone. She was a wonderful help!
Chris and his 77 lbs. halibut.
There are so many other fun things that have happened the past year. Ginny is now 8 and in the 2nd grade. She is getting baptized this Saturday. Asher will be 6 next month and is liking Kindergarten at his Special Needs school. Lucy is 3 and enjoying time home with mom. She has been completely potty trained for a long time now. We traveled to Las Cruces, NM in May to see Chris' parents for a week, I took my girls to see Annie at Tuachan in St. George, Chris' cousin Kinsey from Maine stayed with us for a week to spend time with us and get a taste of the western side of the US. We went to Goblin Valley, and also had a day at Lagoon with KC and Lynnette's family. A few fun adventures down to Beaver to see Grandparents as well. All and all, it was a fun filled summer.
Now, the reason why I mentioned earlier that this has been the hardest few months of my life is because I have entered into the world of Panic Attacks!!! Anyone else ever have this problem? Mine got to the point where my whole body would tremor. It looks like I'm having a seizure, but I'm completely coherent and aware. My stomach was so nervous and shook up that I couldn't eat for a few days and I lost 12 lbs. during my worst week. I even had a hard time sleeping because any little noise would scare me or make me nervous. My parents had to come up and stay with me for a week and just help me and my kids. For a long time, I just sat on my upstairs couch and staired out the window. Life in general just scared me. I still have issues with that on a daily basis, but not near as severe as last month. I do have to take medications now to keep me calm and relaxed. I went from being scared to death to even walk around the block to where I went with my family to Disneyland a few weeks ago. I was scared to go, but I did it! As much as I love my sweet little boy, a Psychiatrist and an Internal Medicine Doctor both think Asher was the underlying reason for this problem. I love my son so much, but he has been so much work mentally and physically that I think one day my body just snapped!!! I guess a lot of people have had this happen to them, but keep it very private. I have chosen not to keep it private. The reason? While I've gone through this, being able to talk with other people who have dealt with this has helped me so much. I want someone else who will later go through this think to contact me if they go through this because I'd love to help. I also go on a daily 3 mile walk with a friend to just get out of the house, have someone to talk to, and get some cardio in at the same time. I still don't feel normal and I HATE that. The doctor said it may be a few years before I feel completely like myself again. It's been the scariest and most emotionally draining experience of my life. It has caused me also a lot of depression.
We often question why Heavenly Father gives us different trials in our lives. For a long time I couldn't understand why I have to go through this. I've tried to find my own silver-linings in this and I have come up with some good lessons that I have learned from all of this. Mostly, I've learned that I just need to love my son for who he is and just love the many wonderful things about him and not sweat the things he may never do.....like speech. There are many other things I've learned, but I won't go into all of that. I have to give special thanks to my parents for all their love and support as I've gone through this. They have been AMAZING. Mostly, I have to let my husband know how much I love him. He's been a great supporter and he's been so patient with me.
Anyway, there is a year worth of blogs in one post. If any of you made it all the way through, I'm sorry. I probably bored you all to death, but thanks for reading anyway. I'll try to post more often in the future.
