Baby, it's COLD outside!

Cokeville was blessed with a really long and unseasonably warm Fall this year. But that's all over now. We had our first snowfall on Friday and it snowed light but steady through Saturday until it got serious overnight and we woke up to this:

As I'm writing this post at 11:00pm, it's 17 degrees outside. It's October 12th, people!

Dan got our wood burning stove all set up about three weeks ago and we've been using it sporadically. But now, it's going full force!

Amazingly, it keeps us pretty warm in our bedrooms at night, and if you time things just right, it doesn't bake you during the day (although it has gotten up to 94 degrees in the living room when we've had it loaded with wood.) I'm still trying to perfect my fire starting skills, when to add more logs, when to open and close the damper, etc. I'm often so distracted by the kids or my other chores that I forget and have to start the fire again. Other times I forget to turn the fan on to circulate the air into the rest of the house and we start melting in the living room and I have to open the front door. Nothing quite like a fire blazing with the front door wide open! I'll get it figured out eventually.

This is our current setup. It's kind of an eyesore, a huge jail in our living room, but it keeps the girls from tripping and falling into the stove. We've been loving the ambiance and the warm, natural heat that the stove gives off.

By popular demand, here's a picture of me in my rainboots as the girls and I were heading to church this morning. It was quickly made clear that while these boots are waterproof, they are in no way warm. Looks like I have some more online shopping in my future! (Notice how Amelia is jabbing Mystery Boy, trying to put him in his place and remind him that SHE's still the baby.)

Amelia loves to tag along with Daddy when he goes to the wood pile. She didn't last 2 minutes tonight before she showed up shivering and begging to come back inside.

Thoughts on worshipping God

I've been thinking a lot lately about the different ways that people worship God. We all interact with God in different ways, and none is superior to another. I'm grateful for a Father in Heaven who knows and understands each of our individual personalities. Only He knows the true intent of our hearts and how our minds process ideas, so I have learned to stop judging and start recognizing and respecting the many ways people manifest their love for God.

Here are a few of my observations:

The Spiritually Inclined
These are the people who respond to God on a very emotional level. They "feel" things, they react to the Spirit easily and openly, they get the "warm fuzzies" when talking about God and Jesus Christ. These people thrive on hearing how God has helped other people in their lives, they are uplifted and inspired by others' experiences.

The Intellectuals
Other people get excited about God and the scriptures by immersing themselves in study. Just reading a chapter from the scriptures daily doesn't really get them jazzed about Christ's gospel. By reading others' words, comparing ideas, discussing doctrine with others, thinking of God outside the box of the typical Sunday School answers, this is how they draw closer to God and feel His influence in their lives.

Those who worship God by worshipping the land
I see this a lot in my new community and my Grandad Cox was definitely this type of person. These people are generally quiet, not necessarily real "churchy", but they see the evidence of God in nature. They love the beauty and challenges of the land. They love God's creatures and have respect for them. By working the land, they feel the goodness of all that God created and that is their religion.

The Dutiful/Those who worship God by serving
These are the practical, "get it done" kind of people who don't say too much about religion, but when someone needs something, they're the first ones on the doorstep. They value hard work above all else and measure their success by their effort, not necessarily by the traditional results that much of the world values. They are the "doers" that God needs so much to help care for His children here on Earth. I came across this quote from Heber J. Grant (president of the LDS Church from 1918 to 1945) and it really struck me:

There is but one path of safety to the Latter-day Saints, and that is the
path of duty. It is not testimony, it is not marvelous manifestations, it is not
knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, . . . it is not actually
knowing that the Savior is the Redeemer, and that Joseph Smith was His prophet,
that will save you and me, but it is the keeping of the commandments of God, the
living the life of a Latter-day Saint. [Heber J. Grant, Improvement Era, November 1936, p.
659]

Sometimes we get so caught up in worrying about whether we're "feelin' it" with the whole gospel thing, that we let that interfere with what really matters. Maybe you're frustrated because you don't understand exactly how God works in your life, maybe you feel inferior because you haven't had a "great spiritual experience" in a long time, maybe you just find church tedious and boring. But guess what, those things aren't critical. What matters most to God is that we are obedient. He doesn't expect that all of us will have a deep and abiding testimony of Jesus Christ's atonement or Joseph Smith's divine calling, or that we will be masters of the scriptures. Sure, He would love those things for us, but that's not what's going to save us. What's going to save us is learning what God expects of us, what our duties are, and then DOING IT. God knows what is in our mind and He has compassion for our weaknesses. He knows the things that challenge us. That IS why He gave us a Savior, after all.

What kind of worshipper am I? A combination, really. I'm kind of the first one, emotionally responsive to the gospel, but that's usually driven by the second one. I have a hard time really "feeling" excited about Jesus Christ until I really immerse myself in some study. I am most lackadaisical in my relationship to God when I'm not praying with sincerity and humility or if I'm just skimming the scriptures without devoting some time and attention to thinking about them. I love to talk about religious things. Some of my favorite talks about the gospel have been with my friend Lori who belongs to another faith. And yet, being a spiritually driven person, I still value duty and obedience above all else. I wasn't always this way. I used to think that you had to show all the outward signs of being a believer in order to have a "real" testimony. This was a great source of contention early in my marriage. But as you mature you realize that being on a constant spiritual high is just not a realistic expectation. We all go through phases in our spirituality, things ebb and flow, and you have to be realistic enough to know that sometimes the best you can do is just as President Grant said: keep the commandments and live the life of a saint. God respects that effort even if we're not feeling particularly close to Him.

Dan falls squarely in the Dutiful category. He has always been loyal to me, treated his children well, worked hard, taken on challenges and served with his hands (I can't tell you how many ways he helped my Mom when we lived with her.) I have loved that more and more about him as the years go by. He's also an Intellectual. Church can be a real drag, more aggravating than inspiring, if you just hear the same platitudes spouted over and over again. Dan loved teaching Elder's Quorum because he could take the discussion in a different direction and really get people thinking different ideas. He loved to research things and ask hard questions. For several years of our marriage, I wondered and worried about how deep his testimony was, but I can finally see the evidence that he loves and honors God and Jesus Christ by working hard, being willing to serve, and sticking to his commitments.

I also used to think you had to be pretty pious to be a true disciple of Christ. But, again, God respects our individual personalities. Some of us thrive on humor, some of us struggle with our tempers, some of us are just quiet so no one really knows what we think. I can guarantee there are many men in this community who have cussed at cows more times than they can count, but they still know and love God and know where their blessings come from. You can go to church and worship God in your cowboy boots (as long as you clean the manure off first) or a sweater just as easily as you can in a suit. God looks upon the heart, not on the outer appearances (1 Samuel 16:7). God gives us commandments because He knows those are the tried and true things that bring happiness. But He is patient with our weaknesses and is always inviting us to repent and do better. I guess I'm just saying that you don't have to be Molly Mormon or Peter Priesthood to worship and love God.

What kind of worshipper are you? Surely there are other categories that I didn't even touch on. What makes you feel close to God? Are there things you wish you could change about your relationship with God and how do you think you could accomplish it? I'd love to hear comments, even if they're anonymous, but mostly I hope this will get you thinking about your own relationship to God.

Every girl needs a cute pair of rainboots

Now that I live in the boonies, I have been initiated into the world of online shopping. A couple weeks ago I placed my first order at Target.com. It was a few days after a big rain storm and I knew that we needed some good rainboots for sloshing around in the mud (especially since the path between our house and the Nates' is a dirt road.)

Here are the rainboots Lily chose:

Lily couldn't wait for a good rainstorm to blow through so she could wear her boots.

I didn't buy any boots for Amelia because we have some hand-me-down snowboots from Lily (remember, I'm a tight-wad) but Amelia didn't seem to mind too much. She sure had a lot of fun wearing Biggie's boots around the house!

In true 6-year-old fashion, Lily preferred to make funny faces at the camera instead of modeling her new boots.

I also got a great pair of rainboots:

They're actually pretty comfortable, easy to slip on and off, and they make me smile. Who says little girls should have all the fun?

I also purchased some slippers for the girls since our house is almost all hardwood floors or tile. Lily wears her "Indian slippers" around all the time, but I'm still trying to convince Amelia that her Hello Kitty slippers are great for keeping your feet warm, not just trying on, commenting on the cuteness of the "keee", then taking them off.

Playing the Credit Card game

You know the credit card companies are NOT your friend, right? They're not there to make your life easier or more fulfilled or to make all of your dreams come true. They're in business to make as much money off you as they can. And they will take every opportunity to stick it to you so they can increase their profit margin.

We've learned this lesson the hard way as we've had interest rates skyrocket with one late payment or just because they reviewed our credit report and saw the total amount of debt we had. Two examples: one card had a 3.99% fixed-until-paid-off rate, but we had one late payment and they changed our rate to 34.99%. Holy crap! Needless to say, we moved that bad boy to the top of our debt snowball and used our tax return to pay it off completely. Another example was a card that had a 9.99% interest rate, but when the company did their periodic review of our credit report, they decided to ream us because we had a high debt balance. The rate jumped to 28.99%. These rate increases have increased our debt balance by several hundred dollars every month because of the higher finance charges.

How do you begin to dig yourself out of the credit card hole? There is no other solution than to start by cutting up the cards. You will never get anywhere if you keep the card for "emergencies" or you'll end up buying that pair of jeans you "just have to have." You MUST learn to live only on what you make. Only spend cash or what's in your checking account. For a society that treats credit cards as a part of life, something everyone has and uses, it's takes a couple of months of anxiety to get used to this new system. It's hard to let that go of what feels like a security blanket, but now, a year after acquiring no new debt, I feel SO much more financially secure.

Another thing I had to do to start getting a grip on our debt was to make a Bill Due Date list. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally overlooked a payment by a day, or I planned to pay it on the due date, but didn't make the 1:00pm cutoff for online payments. On my Bill Due Date list I put the due date for credit cards (or any other bill that will punish me for a late payment) 2 days before they're actually due, that way if I forget to check the list for a day or two, I have a little cushion. This simple Word document has really kept me on track. I used to just keep the bills in a stack with the due date written on the front of the envelope, but I'd forget to check the stack for several days or I wouldn't even open my mail for a week. Now, with my list, I love the satisfaction of putting a check mark next to each bill. Cheesy, but it works for me.

Lastly, I cannot stress the importance of making a budget every month and actually sticking to it. The easiest way for us to accomplish this has been to use cash envelopes for everything that is not a payment to be made to someone. So rent, credit card payments, utilities, doctor bills, etc. we pay out of our checking account. But everything else like groceries, entertainment, gas, clothes, babysitting, toiletries, etc. comes from cash envelopes that we get out of the bank at the beginning of the month. I can testify that this definitely cuts your spending because you can visually see when funds are getting low and you have to control yourself and not buy things you don't have money for. We got off our cash envelopes during August and September because of the move (lots of new household expenses) and Dan's accident (we didn't know how much income we'd have so we decided to just use our debit card and transfer from savings as needed.) Well, that definitely reflected in the bottom line. We went way over budget on some things. So for October, we're going back to cash envelopes as soon as Dan's check comes in a couple of days.

I've kinda gone off on a tangent. The reason I originally started this post was to tell you how negotiating and persistence can pay off in the credit card game. You'll often hear people encourage you to do balance transfers to get lower interest rates. Get a 0% interest promotional rate, and when the rate goes up, just switch to another card. We did this for awhile, but there comes a point when you have so much debt that the credit card companies stop even offering this to you. Or if they do, it's only for a small credit limit of $1500.00 or something. And when you have as much debt as we do, that just doesn't even begin to make a dent in it.

You know the card I told you about that went from 3.99% to 34.99% and we paid it off? Dan wanted me to close it, but I decided to keep it open to see if they would make us some great balance transfer offer. Since the card was cut up, I didn't worry about accumulating more debt just by keeping the account active. Citicards made a few attempts to get us to put something on the card, but none of the offers were that great. Then finally, 6 months after the account having a $0 balance, they offered us a 4.99% fixed-until-paid-in-full rate on balance transfers, up to our full credit limit. I got excited, thinking I'd like to get rid of that 28.99% card that was killing us on finance charges.

But, drat! That card was also through Citicards and you can't transfer a balance from the same institution. I almost just forgot about the balance transfer, but then realized maybe I could strike up a deal. I had been calling on that 28.99% card every couple of months to see if they would lower the interest rate, but they wouldn't. So I called today and told them I was interested in doing a large balance transfer with the 4.99% fixed offer, but only if they would lower the interest rate on the other card to 12% or lower. Wouldn't you know, they reviewed my high interest rate account and found that I "qualified" for a 12.99% interest rate. Funny how acquiring more of my money in new debt made me suddenly "eligible" for a lower interest rate on the other card. Just goes to show you that they're not there to help you out, they're there to make money.

The bottom line is that the change will save us at least a couple hundred dollars a month in finance charges and will decrease our payments remaining by about 18 months. It's so easy to get frustrated with credit card companies, but if you start doing the smart thing (cut up the cards and hammer away on the payments) you can start negotiating much better terms.

Mostly I just wanted to brag that I finally won one with the credit card companies today. Yay me!

I think (hope) I've been bitten by the Creativity Bug

It's been quite some time since I've done any scrapbooking. I've been so busy and never have the energy to drag out all the supplies and try to be creative. I've been a little stressed about the fact that I'm having a new baby in 3 months and I'm not anywhere near being done with Amelia's baby book. For Lily I did a 12x12 album of her first year and admitted defeat after that, agreeing with myself that if I could just do a book of each child's first year, that would just have to be good enough.

Occasionally I get emails from Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks magazines telling about new products and such. I usually just delete them, knowing I'm not going to do any scrapbooking until I have the rest of my client photo work done and off my conscience (still designing 3 albums.) A few nights ago I was up at about 3:00am with some wicked heartburn, so I stopped to browse the email announcing the Kit of the Month.

For the first time in a long time, I got excited about scrapbooking. There might just be hope for Mystery Boy to have a baby book. Check this puppy out:

It's everything you need to create a 12x12 baby album and everything is reversible so you can use it for a boy or girl. What really sold me on the kit was watching this video of Becky Higgins showing off the kit. I love the journaling cards and the cool skinny sections for writing details about each month. I also like the family tree section, the time capsule section, and the sections for mom and dad to write something. The kit also includes several memorabilia pockets and divided sheet protectors so you don't have to do a full-on layout on every page. When I found out the whole thing only cost $44.95, I knew I had to have it.

Here's hoping I'll be creative during the long cold winter in Cokeville!

Forget Disneyland

The Cornia Ranch is the funnest place on earth.

A couple weekends ago we all went out to a ranch just north of town to visit with the Cornia family. Lily had been begging to go jump hay bales with her friend Kaylee so we thought we'd all go for a visit. Dan has known the parents for a few years and he took his gory pictures and recounted his injury story. I visited for a few minutes, but as soon as the kids headed outside, I followed with my camera.

I haven't had that much fun taking pictures in a long time. It made me think of my Dad and how much fun he must have had following us around and taking pictures when we were kids. His slides are such a treasure now.

There was a fresh batch of kittens at the ranch and the girls were in hog heaven. As I was taking these pictures it totally reminded me of when I was a kid. We camped at the KOA a lot and it seemed like there were always kitties around to entertain Becky and I.

Where did those kitties go?

There they are. Ooh, and they look hungry, too.

Can I keep this one, Mama?

I showed Amelia how to make a kitty toy out of a tall piece of grass.

It was fun for the kitty until Amelia started whacking him!

Is she gone yet?

Lily, Kaylee, her neighbor Brayden, and Amelia had fun exploring all over the barn.

There was a grain chute that the kids climbed down and plopped in the grain pile.

Amelia was fascinated by the shaft of light coming through a small window. When I saw how cool this light was, I almost started hyperventilating, thinking, "don't stop, don't stop, just let me get the right camera setting."

This one of Amelia and the one of Lily holding the kitty were my favorite shots from the day.

Whoo-hoo!

Lily couldn't believe Kaylee had her very own little motorcycle. How cool to be a ranch kid!

Headin' for the hay bales.

The bales were taller than me.

Which leaves the question, how did the ranch dog get up there?

Good times!

The Energy Suck

I don't know if it's the stress of the last three weeks, the unfortunate truth that I'm no longer a spring chicken, or the fact that this baby seems way bigger than his sisters, but I am exhausted.

It used to be that naps were a guilty pleasure of mine. I loved to curl up for a nice 3 hour nap when I had the free time. But when I was busy, I would stay up and get stuff done during Amelia's nap. Now the naps are no longer a luxury, they're a physical necessity. It seems like forever since I've had a good night's sleep and I wake up dragging every morning. Amelia hasn't been sleeping well, Dan has needed help with meds and such (up until last week, anyway) and I swear I have to pee 5 or 6 times a night. I guess it's good practice for when Mystery Boy gets here, but I'd much rather just get some sleep while I still have the chance.

My body isn't handling the stress of pregnancy with as much spunk as it used to. I had it pretty easy when I was pregnant with Amelia because Lily was 4 years old and could fend for herself in a lot of ways. She was also old enough to understand when I couldn't carry her around and why she wasn't allowed to jump all over Mama's belly. I've been having more cramping and overall fatigue this time, surely due to lugging around a two-year-old and doing more physical work than I might otherwise do if Dan weren't injured.

I had a little breakdown today at naptime. Amelia has a nasty cold and was up most of the night last night. So when naptime came around today I was in desperate need to crash. Amelia fussed in her bed, so I took her into my bed, which usually soothes her right to sleep. But she was antsy and kept getting up. She wouldn't lay down, but she was rubbing her eyes and crying and looking pitiful. I tried to just ignore her, thinking she'd eventually fall asleep. But she didn't. She started writhing around on the bed, whacking me in the belly multiple times and I finally yelled, "Amelia, stop it!" and started bawling. Dan, who I didn't even know was in the house, came running in to see what was wrong. I said, "I'm just so tired." So Dan took Amelia away so I could sleep. He ended up driving her around for an hour and a half. He can walk around without his knee immobilizer now, but it's very difficult for him to carry anything while walking. Though I was relieved that he was taking Amelia, I felt guilty that he was struggling to carry Amelia with his hurt leg, and I felt so lame for not being strong enough to handle her by myself. I bawled a little more and finally drifted off to sleep. Freakin' pregnancy hormones, they have been doing overtime on me lately.

After we moved to Cokeville, I was feeling pretty happy here and feeling like maybe it would be possible for us to have a 4th child in the future. Life is easier to manage here, I was feeling refreshed, and I thought we could give another kid a really good life. But then I look at myself, tired and emotionally spent on a daily basis, and I think, "maybe I owe it to the kids I already have to just stop now and try to be the best I can for them." I have really been neglecting Lily lately. She's in school until 3:00, usually plays with Kamille or someone else after school, and by the time dinner rolls around I'm just done for the day. I need to be investing more time and energy in my children instead of selfishly fantasizing about going away and being by myself. All those years while I worked, I dreamed of being the fun stay-at-home mom that did crafts and went for walks and taught my kids stuff. But I just don't seem to have the energy for it. I was talking to my sister Becky today and she reminded me that pregnancy is a total energy suck because your body is working overtime, growing another human, and that things will be better once the baby is born. I'll be sleep deprived, but at least I'll get some of my physical energy back.

The good news is that Mystery Boy is healthy and active. I went for my OB appointment this week and had an ultrasound. He weighs 1 1/2 pounds and looks really healthy. I was totally bummed, though, because we requested a DVD recording of the ultrasound but when we got home it was blank. He was doing really cute stuff like hiccuping and sticking his tongue in and out. And confirming that he is still definitely a boy.

Have you ever seen the movie Two Weeks Notice with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant? When Dan and I were driving back from our doctors appointments on Monday, we hit Highway 30, just 20 miles or so from Cokeville, and I found myself wishing for an RV to drive by. Remember that scene in the movie when Lucy and George leave the tennis club and Lucy is suddenly attacked by the two chili dogs she ate? That was totally me. Sitting in the car, fidgeting, taking deep breaths, rolling down the window to ease the hot flashes, fanning my face, leaning sideways in the seat, moaning... If only an RV would appear and I could go duke it out with John. But alas, there is nowhere to stop between Randolph and Cokeville. I was so desperate by the time we hit town that I seriously considered stopping at the Flying J instead of driving the 6 or 8 blocks to our house.

See, a little potty humor always cheers me up.

24 weeks and counting

The Man just cannot stay away from power equipment

The only thing worse than a patient in a lot of pain is a patient who's suffering from excessive boredom. They begin to think irrationally about their injury. They're so tired of just laying around that they're willing to take chances just so they can squash the boredom.

Only 10 days after trying to cut off his leg, Dan was back in the wood pile, splitting logs. He'd been eyeing Brian & Becca's new machinery for a couple of days and finally succumbed to its wicked allure. The first day he'd gone to look at the log splitter, almost simultaneously Brian and I hollered at him. "Step away from the power equipment!" Dan pshawed and argued that the log splitter was infinitely safer than a running chainsaw.

Whatever.

On Sunday evening Dan decided he'd had enough of being couped up and he went to give the log splitter a test drive.

Brian's dad Keith heard the machine running and came out to see what the crazy kid was doing. It's actually a pretty impressive machine. You just lay the log on the cutting area, pull the lever, and a giant blade slowly slices into the wood.

In terms of mobility, Dan can walk around pretty easily with his crutches and knee immobilizer and now he's walking mostly just with a cane. If he's standing still he has enough strength to lift a small log (nothing too heavy) and put it on the splitter, but he can't carry anything and walk at the same time. He still has to concentrate all of his strength and coordination when he's walking.

He goes in for his first follow-up visit with the surgeon this Monday, the 22nd. The doc from Kemmerer called this afternoon to see how he was doing. Dan was out at the woodpile and (thankfully) the doc told him that he still needed to take it really easy because the wound was still at risk of rupturing, even two weeks out from the date of the injury. Dan's been trying to get as mobile as possible because he's worried about adhesions (scars) forming on the wound, thereby decreasing his muscles' ability to return to full strength. But the doc told him that because of how developed his quad muscles were (gotta love those sexy biker legs) and the way that the skin naturally tapers above the knee, the wound is under a lot of tension, so you just have to take it super easy and let it heal. You just plan on getting some adhesions and then working them out in physical therapy.

We'll know more after the visit on Monday, but for today, Dan at least walked away from the wood pile after getting off the phone with Dr. Hinshaw. Reason prevailed, if only for a brief moment.

Hopefully that will save me another night of "I told you so" when Dan comes to bed in agony, saying he overdid it again.


You gotta admit, though, it's nice to see him up, looking sexy in his Carhartts.

I'm in love...

...with Cokeville. I may never leave.

This morning Amelia and I were just headed out to walk to the Post Office. (US Mail doesn't get delivered to your house here; everything goes to your P.O. Box. Amelia and I walk the two blocks into town to check the mail most days since she is begging to go for a walk the minute she gets out of bed every morning.) I saw a truck pull up to the house and I knew Dan was sleeping and it would be hard for him to get up to answer the door. So we hurried back to talk to our visitor.

The man introduced himself and I recognized his name as someone who had been recommended as a handyman that might be able to help us get our wood stove installed and help with other chores around the house since Dan was hurt. I assumed that Dan had called him and he was there to look at the wood stove.

I was completely flabbergasted when he handed me a check for several hundred dollars and said, "I figured you guys would be needing some money right about now." At first I was confused, thinking it was a check I was supposed to hand on to our landlord for something and then it dawned on me that the money was for us. This complete stranger who didn't know us from Adam, who had just heard about Dan's accident around town, was giving us money just because it felt like the right thing to do. He said, "I've just been thinking about you guys for the last couple of days and I felt real strongly that I should help."

There are no words for the feeling that came over me, this feeling of "this town, these people are amazing." You would never get this in the city.

You hear stories about stuff like this, but nothing like this has ever happened to me. I was stunned and said something stupid about us being fine financially because Dan could work from home still and we had some savings. I asked him if Dan had called him about the wood stove and he said no. I said, "well, we could sure use some help with that. But we're OK financially and I'd rather you saved this money for someone who really needs it." I asked him some questions about the stove and awkwardly gave him the check back.

For the first couple of hours after he left I was on this euphoric high, totally jazzed by the genuine kindness and charity for a complete stranger. Then the more I thought about it, the more I started thinking that I might have hurt his feelings or come across as ungrateful by not accepting the money. I don't think it was necessarily pride that kept me from accepting. Two years ago we were in a financial situation where we would have desperately needed that money and I remember that feeling. I was thinking that the money would be better given to someone who needed it more than we did. But the more I thought about it and talked to Dan about it, the more I thought, "Yes, we could use his help in the form of time, but maybe right now he has more money than time to give, and I totally spurned him." I felt horrible.

So this evening I went to his house and apologized for my reaction. I explained that no one had ever done anything like that for me before and that I was just dumbfounded by the whole thing. I was a little teary-eyed as I explained that I didn't want to come across as ungrateful. I said, "If you have time to help us at the house, that would be great, but if the money is what you'd like to do for us, we'd be very grateful to have it." He went and got the check and gave it back to me. He and his wife explained that after they'd been to Stake Conference this past Sunday, he felt strongly impressed to offer us some help. He talked about living in a small town and how everyone helps each other out and supports one another.

I am overwhelmed and grateful. I told Lily about it tonight as I was putting the girls to bed and I said, "That is exactly the kind of thing Jesus would do."

All of you who are praying for us, God is answering. Thanks and we love you!

This one's not nearly as gross

Dan took the dressing off his wound today and here's what we found.

Dan's comment was, "Geez, it looks like Lily sewed this thing up." I said, "Well, they weren't exactly working with a clean-cut laceration." I thought it actually looked pretty good.

Unfortunately, Dan is hurting worse now than he was a couple of days ago. He overdid it a couple days ago, trying to get out and walk a bunch. You know how he is, can't stand to sit still. But he's really taken it easy the last two days. He's trying to wean down off the Lortab and Valium because it gives him bad headaches, but his leg is hurting something fierce. He hates being doped up and is worried about the Lortab running out before his check-up, but I'm like, "Just take the damn things! You nearly cut your leg off. It's gonna hurt like hell for more than just a couple of days. We'll just get a refill."

This morning we were putting a new bandage on Dan's leg and taping it up. We'd run out of medical tape, so we used painter's tape. Awhile later when I went to change Amelia's diaper, I discovered that she had taken a piece and taped up her "owie" just like Daddy. Love that kid!

Now, let us discuss something of great importance.

Behold, the Mighty Urinal.

While I am happy for the ease and comfort it provides for Dan in his hour of need, I think this contraption represents one of the great injustices in human anatomy. Seriously girls, how much would you pay to be able to use one of these bad boys right after having a C-Section? Our only options are catheters (eww) or getting our sore aching birth-traumatized bodies out of the bed and squatting on the toilet. It's so unfair.