Oh Hai!

Wow, time really flies when you are avoiding the computer so you can't get some of your projects done. If you are expecting me to say that these said projects are actually finished, then you are sorely mistaken. I did finish of a few, but more about that later.

Most pressing news here is that my darling sister Teryn (shown her with her daughter) was involved in a terrible four wheeling accident this past weekend. They were in Moab for UEA weekend and had been out four-wheeling. They were riding back, just minutes away from camp, on a road going at least 40 mph when Teryn saw a dip in the road too late. When she hit it, she catapulted off hitting the ground first with her hands dislocating her elbow and then rolled several times breaking her back. Poor girl was completely aware of every second she was falling and rolling just praying for to stop knowing she was hurt. Her youngest, Landon saw the whole thing too. Not something you want your child to see.

She had to go alone in the ambulance from Moab to Salt Lake because her family needed to pack up the camp. I can't imagine how scary that would be for her and her family! So back to the same hospital that Papa just came out of, she was x-rayed and cleaned up and fortunately, she didn't need any surgery, but unfortunately, she is in a back brace for three months, the first month, being on 24-hours a day and complete bed rest. That has to be the worst part of it. If you know Teryn, she is so energetic and works hard and long. Just being bound to the bed now and the future pain she might have with her back will be so frustrating for her. Please keep her in your prayers for her recovery and sanity. She's home from the hospital tonight, happy to be in her own home and bed and have a chance to rest. I can't wait to go and see her to pat her head, hear her story and give her lots of good sympathy and love.

Baby it's cold INSIDE!

Our furnace is not agreeing with us. I guess it's too tired and sleepy to wake up from it's summers rest. It just doesn't want to stay lit no matter how many times we light it, he just poops out. And ya know what, it's COLD! Ya know why?? Baby, it's SNOWING outside!

Brrr.....

For now, we are huddling around our tiny space heater, planning on cooking lots of warm food today to eat all snuggled up in our blankets. Now I really, really wish that I would have bought those $15 fireplace logs so we could at least have a fire downstairs but thankful for the gigantic hot chocolate I bought this week.

Update on Papa

Papa is doing good. I wasn't able to go to down to the hospital until after work Friday night. I was anxious to be there and thankful that they let visitors in that late. It was good to see Mom, although she was very sleepy. She was planning on going home with Teryn so she could get some good rest. Since I was the last one to be there with him, I stayed for quite awhile just wanting to be with him. I was grateful to go and visit him for the first time by myself so no one would see me cry. It's hard to see him in pain with all of his wires and tubes but he looked much better than I thought he would. Memories of seeing my Mom after her surgery were swirling in my head. She was very bloated and swollen it was shocking. Papa wasn't and it was a relief.

Understandably, he was very sleepy after the surgery. So sleepy that he couldn't wake up enough to be ex-tubated. Hours passed and visitors came and went without much luck. Many jokes were cracked of course. Everything from Sleepy Beauty - Sleepy, but not beautiful (a la James) to the fact that he is just so tired because he never gets enough sleep so he was making up for it. The darling nurse Linda teased that he was a cheap date - a little went a long way for him.

I watched Linda as she fussed over him making sure his wires were all tidy, rubbing his back to get the circulation going, washing his hair and combing it for him, fluffing pillows, readjusting his position and tidying up the room all the while humming "I Need Thee Every Hour" which was Papa's mom Grandma Reta's favorite him. She was such a southern doll. Born in Georgia and had the accent and mannerisms that are so charming to me.

They fussed and fussed trying to help him to wake up. I stayed through three attempts before I worried that I would be too tired to get home safely. It was hard to leave him without family being so close to finally waking up. Thankfully, Teryn lives the closest and was there when he was ex-tubated after 3am. One of the first things he asked for was Mom.

By the end of today, he was released from ICU, had most of his wires and tubes pulled out, was sitting up and had even gone for a walk and was talking more coherently. All is looking good!

The next few weeks will be hard for him as he heals. Hard for Mom to help take care of him and NOT ask him to do things. That I think, would be next to impossible because he is always doing things for her. It's just how he is, always serving. :)

I am so grateful for prayers answered, faith renewed, skills of the doctor and fantastic nurses. I am grateful for my family for pulling together to let everyone know updates and visiting him as often as they could. And most of all, I am grateful for my Papa.

Witch

To keep my hands busy and my mind off worrying about my Papa, I whipped up my witch tassel and I think it's soooooo stinkin' cute! I am in love!

Purples, greens, black and polka-dots decorate this fat tassel now hanging off my kitchen shelf. The cute ribbon adorned metal hat complete with spider is just making me happy! The pictures just don't do it justice. It's darling!

Papa

My sweet Dad is having open heart surgery this morning. I feel blessed that he was able to find out and have his heart fixed before the heart sustained any damage. He's in a wonderful hospital with the best doctors. I still can't help but worry about him. It's a very difficult and painful surgery to recover from. He's in our prayers. Please feel free to keep him in yours too.

*update: He's out of surgery and everything went beautiful. Now we just have to get him through the recovery.

Festive Fall Decorations

Last week, I felt that I needed a project. So I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up myself a project. Three projects to be exact.

• First up, I got a cute little candle ring to hang on my shelf hooks like Nicole did. It didn't really work, so I layered three smaller wreaths, added a ribbon and hung the too small wreath on my front door for a short while until I changed it out to a Halloween wreath concoction. An old garland, an old witch which I think is cute (however, her arms are looking a bit awkward aren't they), layered on top of a new wreath made something festive. We will see how long I leave it up there before I tweak it.

• Then I decided that I needed to make a tassel and ended up making three with one more in the works. The first one, I made to hang on my front room armoire. I think that I want to tweak this one a bit.

• Then I needed some festive ones for Fall. I like the first one the best.

The third project needs paper to finish it. I am having a surprisingly hard time figuring it out. I am determined to get it done so hopefully, it will all work out.

Aww shucks.

Lucky me got some love from Young House today for my new front room. Aww shucks. They are so nice. *blush*

Go check them out and leave them some love.