Relief Society

It was fast Sunday in Relief Society and sisters were bearing their testimonies.  One sister, who is a teacher in RS, gave her testimony.  She revealed that she would be moving in the next couple weeks and the thought came to me that I would be given her calling.

Sure enough, a few weeks later I was called to be a teacher in the Relief Society.  I was actually excited, this was the perfect calling.  Not too involved, but enough to keep me busy and focused on the gospel.

The week before my first lesson was to be taught, Kurt and I were called in to speak with the 1st counselor in the bishopric.  I assumed Kurt was getting a new calling...and I assumed wrong!  I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Relief Society!  I was shocked, but accepted.  I was a bit concerned about my ability to do the calling, I was (am) going through a rough time, but I felt good about it and that it would be for the best.  

I soon learned that my good friend Carrie had been called to be the 2nd counselor.  I was so happy to hear that I would get to serve with her!  Having people you get along with in the presidency makes things so much better- meetings are more enjoyable and I think the presidency is more effective.

It's been a couple months now and I can honestly say that this calling has been the best thing.  It keeps me busy when I don't want to think about things, and it has provided me with friends in the ward to be a listening ear and to provide comfort.  I hope they don't mind me sharing, but Carrie and Emma (the president) have both lost children as well. Different circumstances than mine of course, but they understand better than most what I'm going through.  And I've learned so much from their examples- it's not fresh for them (it's been 10 and 30+ years respectively).  I can see that they've gotten through these incredibly emotional, difficult times, and are better and stronger because of it on the other side.  

I have also been  given so much support from the sisters in my ward.  I love Relief Society for the first time in my life.  I love going, I love listening to other's thoughts and testimonies, I love the spirit I feel, and I love the sense of community- I guess that's Zion if we want to technical.  

I even sang a solo in Relief Society the other week for the presidency's Christmas program.  I was super nervous, I played the guitar too, but I think it went well.  One older sister asked if they were allowed to clap and I heard another 'whisper' "she is so cute!" to her neighbor.  I feel so loved by these sisters!  Some that I hardly even know.  It's a wonderful support system that I desperately need right now.  

However, the motto is a lot to live up to "Charity Never Faileth"

Yard Sale

My amazing ward (Carrie and Audra in particular) put on a yard sale to help with Henry's medical bills, funeral expenses, headstone, etc.  It was a herculean effort to gather all the donations, get the word out, organize everything, and transport it to the site.  There were 7 trailers full of items were taken to the yard sale location and more was brought to the site by individuals.  Most of the donations were from my ward and stake, but complete strangers dropped item's off at Carrie's house.

One member of our ward, we'll call him Bob, was asked to go pick up a donation from another member of ward, let's call them the Petersons.  Bob didn't know the Petersons, so he found their address and knocked on the door.  He explained who he was and why he was there.  The Petersons had several boxes ready to go and a couch too.  The next day, the Petersons called a member of the bishopric and asked why their items hadn't been picked up?  This was relayed to a very confused Bob.  It was soon discovered that Bob had misread the address and went to the wrong house.  To a house where the family just so happened to be getting ready to donate several items so they just gave them to the guy who showed up at their door.  Crazytown, USA.

The location of the yard sale was perfect.  They got permission to have it at the U-Haul place on the main road through Ogden, instead of tucked backed at someone's house in the neighborhood.  That in itself got way more people to stop by.  Also, the food truck Waffle Love came and parked at our event.  Bri had emailed them a couple weeks previous to see if they could come (thus helping draw in customers to the yard sale as well), but they were all booked.  The morning of Bri got an email that they had a cancellation and they would be able to come to our event after all!  The timing was perfect.  They arrived in the afternoon right when things were slowing down.  It definitely brought in more people who ended up buying items from the yard sale too.

One of my favorite moments of the day was right at the end.  It was decided to give everything away for free at the end so that we'd have less to haul to the DI.  A guy came up to me (I was by the register) and handed me $20 saying "I know it's all for free, but I heard this was for charity".  I smiled, held back a laugh, and said "yes. Yes, it is.  Thank you".  After he'd walked away those of us who had heard had a good laugh.  My name is Charity...in case you forgot.

The yard sale was crazy successful.  It earned over $5000.  More than anyone expected.  And the GoFundMe account also earned over $5000, that's over $10,000.  It makes me cry thinking about it.  The results of this yard sale certainly were miraculous.  I feel like Heavenly Father is taking care of my family.  He couldn't stop Henry from dying for whatever reason, but he still loves us and helped us out financially so we wouldn't have that burden on top of losing Henry.  I'm so thankful for all those who made the yard sale happen!  You are amazing miracle workers and I know you'll be blessed for helping my little family.  I wish I could do more, but for now all I can do is express my thanks.  I love my ward!

Visiting Henry

We have visited Henry's grave several times over the past few months.  It's almost been 6 months since he passed away.  The first time we went, we told Hattie we were going to visit Henry.  She replied "oh!  We're going to heaven?!"  We tried to explain that Henry's spirit was in heaven, but his body was still here on earth buried at the cemetery.  Such big things for a two year old to comprehend.  When she "drives" the car she usually drives to heaven so we can visit Henry and Great-Grandma.  That sweet girl.  She can warm and break my heart simultaneously.

September:

October:  My friend Carrie gave us this pumpkin to put on Henry's grave.  First, it made me cry, and then it made me think.  We can put more than just flowers on his grave.  Whenever I drive past a cemetery now I try to see what other people have placed on their loved ones graves.

November: We found these solar powered lights to place at his grave, the "H", and the plant with ornaments.  The poinsettia is from Uncle Todd and Grandpa- there's one on Grandma's grave too in the background.

We stopped by on our way out of town and got to see the lights on.

We ordered Henry's headstone back in September, but it's still not finished.  I'm getting anxious about it.  It's getting easier to visit the cemetery.  I'm glad it's in a town I love, Iona, Idaho, and in such a peaceful location.  It really is quite pretty there.  I doubt Henry's spirit spends much time there, but if he does stop by (not sure how these things work) I'm glad there's a good view.  

Hattie's broken leg

On August 25 (Kurt's birthday), Hattie and her cousins were out jumping on the trampoline.  Apparently she got bounced really high and came down hard, but landed on her feet.  She immediately started crying and was carried in to me and Kurt.  We decided to wait until morning to see if she felt better.  That night was ROUGH.  Poor girl.  We took her to the doctor the next day, but they didn't find anything wrong.  The pushed, pulled, squeezed, and rotated her leg and she didn't make a peep.  Not an 'ouch', no crying, nothing.  When the doctor asked if this or that hurt, she wouldn't respond.  But she still refused to walk.  He told us to come back in a few days if she still wasn't walking.

We went back a few days later.  A new doctor this time (it was Saturday so we went to Instacare) but he did all the same things with the same result- Hattie didn't react.  But she still wouldn't walk so he decided we should go down for an x-ray.  And good thing we did- Hattie had a buckle fracture to her right tibia:

See that indent on the right side of her bone (opposite the arrow)?  That's the fracture.  It's a very common break in young kids apparently since their bones are still rather elastic (compared to adults).  They put a splint on her and scheduled an appointment with the orthopedic doctor for Monday.

We had another really rough night (the splint kept slipping and was not comfortable) but she was feeling better on Sunday so we ventured to Grandma Honey's for Roth family dinner (no, we're not Roths but they include us anyways).  She started moving around, rolling, scooting, and crawling and had fun drawing with the chalk.

On Monday we went to the orthopedist and Hattie got her first cast on!  To our great surprise she chose purple over pink:

This is one of my most favorite pictures of all time.  She is TOO CUTE!  While in the purple cast she started walking and then even running all over the place.  She hardly slowed down at all.  She felt tons better after a couple days in the cast and started sleeping through the night.  Thank goodness!

After two weeks the purple cast was removed and a new one put on.  She chose pink this time.  The x-ray showed the bone was healing nicely.

Little stinker would only make silly faces for the camera!

After another two weeks in the pink cast she got the boot put on.  Her leg was 99% healed at this point (after only 4 weeks!) but since you can't tell a toddler to take it easy they put her in a walking boot to protect the bone and slow her down a bit.  It really did only slow her down a bit.  She did not like the boot at first- she was afraid to bend her leg.  But after a day she was back to running around being her crazy self.

She wore the boot for one month.  It was nice that we could take it off to give her a proper bath and she was able to remove it at night while she slept as well.  The problem was she never wanted to put it back on!  Oh well, we got through it.  The day she got the boot officially of I forgot to bring her other shoe!  Hattie wasn't too concerned about it.

Initially I was annoyed that this happened- really?  Hattie has to break her leg just weeks after Henry died?  But then I realized it wasn't so bad.  We had been through much worse.  And I learned that having a crying child is less concerning than having one who can't cry at all.  In the hospital we could hear other kids crying on occasion.  At first I felt sad, but then I thought they were the lucky ones.  They were still able to cry, still present enough to know they were in pain, they were still fighting to live.  Sorry to bring you down, but just remember- when your own child is crying it's, in a way, a good thing.  I'm so glad that Hattie's leg healed so well and isn't causing her any trouble at all (she's been out of the boot for 2 months now).  We have a final follow up appointment in March.  We expect all to be well (knock on wood).

Happy Birthday Kurt!

We were happy to have the Winsteads visiting us during Kurt's birthday week. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to a baseball game, because Hattie broke her leg!  We had cake at home and then a VERY rough night (we didn't know she had broken her leg yet).

I am so thankful for Kurt!  Neither of us had any idea what lay on the road ahead when we got married, but I chose a wonderful companion to go through all these challenges with.  I'm incredibly grateful for his strength, devotion, faith, and that even though the most difficult trial I can imagine, we have grown closer.  I love you Kurt!

A week later we made it to an Ogden Raptors game.  Happy late birthday Kurt!

Hattie got a free ball!

Traveling Home

The plane rides home weren't bad.  Hattie fell asleep just after take off on our second flight and slept until landing.  Traveling with kids is always an adventure, and a bit stressful, but Megan and I survived!  I can't decide if it's easier to drive or fly.  They both have their own difficulties.

Thank you Mom and Megan!  Overall it was a wonderful trip!  Love you!

Last Day

We were going to spend our last day packing and cleaning up the beach house, but there was a little misunderstanding.  The owner of the beach house knocked on our door and asked if we were packing up.  We thought it was weird (and she was rather abrupt) but said yes, we're working on it and that we'd be out early tomorrow morning.  She then informed us that we were already supposed to be gone and the next tenants were there and waiting to get in.  Whoops!  After her initial brusqueness, she helped us to gather all our things and clean the place up.  Luckily, Sam had stopped by so he watched the kids while we cleaned up.  By 11am we were packed and ready to go!  We spent the rest of the day hanging out at my mom's and the girls played in the kiddie pool.  They had a blast!