Oh wow, it's been forever since I've written anything. I guess maybe it's about time to give you an update on my life so you know that everything's okay. You know, in case my last post gave you a scare.
So everything is pretty much back to normal for the most part:
- Except I'm still getting over my concussion. Laaaaaame.
- And we only have one car now. But that's okay! We were looking for one for a while, but have come to the decision to make do with the car we still have. Which means that Johnny will take my car (even though he hates it) to work when he finally goes back and I will take the bus or borrow the truck from my parents. And that's fine with me.
-We've started getting regular massages and adjustments from the chiropractor. Which is niiiiiiiiice. Especially because our insurance covers it.
- Johnny hasn't been to work in almost a month! It's been great having him around, but now I don't know what I'll do when he has to work again because I've gotten used to having him at home. What?? I'm going to have to cook for myself now? Have I ever done that???
- My staples came out 2 weeks ago this Monday and I am pleased to say that my head can hold itself together again.
- Oh, and I can never sleep on a road trip again. Whether I'm driving or not. And that sucks.
Aaaaaand, that's about it when it comes to everything related to the accident. I plan to get another post up soon about a more fun topic, but we'll see how that goes depending on my motivation this week.
That's our car, Lupe. We crashed her this weekend and now she is dead. I doubt any of you would consider this to be a blessing and usually nor would I, but really, the car came out looking the worst.
Here's the story...
This weekend is Thanksgiving weekend as well as General Conference weekend (GC is a time where members of my church gather to hear the counsels of our prophet). Every year, Conference is held in Salt Lake City where thousands can attend in person and millions worldwide can listen via internet. This year, Johnny and I got tickets to go to Conference and so we made preparations to go down. On Friday we set out on a 12 hour journey down to Salt Lake. But as you can guess, we didn't make it.
Just after we passed Great Falls Montana, I was at the wheel when I dozed off for a moment. The next thing I knew, the rumble strips jolted me awake and to avoid going into the ditch I over corrected and ended up veering off the other side of the road away from the oncoming traffic (blessing #1). We were travelling at 80 mph (130 km/hr) so that gave us plenty of momentum to tumble and roll about 100 yards into a farmer's field. Thank goodness we didn't hit anyone else on the road (blessing #2)
When we stopped I was pretty dazed and disoriented, but I soon made the connection that we'd crashed and I was the one driving. This part was pretty foggy for me because I'd banged up my head pretty good and had a stream of blood running down my face. But Johnny tells me that one of the witnesses to the crash, as well as one of the first on the scene was a trained nurse and he took really good care of us while emergency responders were on their way (HUGE blessing #3). Lucky for us, we weren't too far from Great Falls, so the ambulance arrived quickly (blessing #4).
Johnny and I were taken separately to the hospital since they were able to get him out of the car before me and they had to use the jaws of life for my door. On the way there I was so scared because I didn't know what was happening with me and especially because I didn't know what was happening with my husband. I'm pretty sure I asked the girl taking care of me how he was doing several times. As for me, I had a large gash on my head and because they were concerned about my neck, they slapped a neck brace on me and strapped me to a board, which was NOT comfortable.
At the hospital they ran a few tests on me and put me through a scanner to determine if there was any internal bleeding and to check on my neck and spine to be sure everything was fine. Once I was deemed healthy, my neck brace was removed and I was released from the board. As they were cleaning my wound to prepare for the staples, Johnny found my room and came to hold my hand. He'd managed to get away with a few abrasions on his face and a banged up forearm. So basically, he's Superman. After my gash had been cleaned and numbed, the doctor came in and stapled my head back together. About a half hour later, my parents were there to pick us up from the hospital. The state troopers had called them to let them know about the accident, so they were there just in time for us.
There are so many things about our accident that I am grateful for and there are so many ways that the circumstances could have been much worse. God was definitely looking out for us this weekend, and now we get to spend our thanksgiving at home surrounded by our family. We've gained a new appreciation for the things we have, that's for sure!
Even though I doubt these people would be reading this, I'd just like to give the biggest shout out along with my deepest gratitude out to:
- The witnesses who called in the accident and made sure we were okay.
- The emergency response team who got us out of the car and to the hospital.
- My nurses who took such good care of me despite my whining.
- Johnny's nurses who apparently didn't need to do much, but still saw to his needs.
- The doctor who stapled me together.
- The state troopers who called my parents and made the mood a bit brighter with Johnny and I as we joked around about hockey and superstitions.
- The missionaries who gave me a blessing in my time of need.
And... last, but certainly not least:
- MY PARENTS who came to our rescue and helped to get the blood out of my clothes.
Watch out world, we did some creative writing exercises in my Exploring Creativity class tonight.
You know what that means!
Clearly, I'm going to be the next Margaret Atwood. Or Stephanie Meyer. Naw, I can write better than Stephanie Meyer.
Either way, watch out! I'm going to write the next best-selling novel about vampires and teenage girls killing each other in a future dystopian society where the winner ends up being a boy with a lightning scar who can talk to snakes.
What's this??? It's my birthday today? Well, I should probably write something to celebrate!
Only greatness can be born on October 1st. Look who shares a birthday with me!
Julie Andrews - Musical greatness. Plus she's practically perfect in every way.
Jimmy Carter - 39th president of the United States. You've gotta be pretty awesome to be president. (Except then I don't know how Bush got in...)
Zach Galifianakis - Though I don't appreciate all his movies, you gotta admit, the man's hilarious!
King Henry III - He's a king, duh! How much more awesome can you get?
I've turned 22 today, so I decided to share 22 things about me that you probably didn't know.
1. As a child I wanted to marry Raphael the ninja turtle.
2. Even though I'm all grown up and married now, I've contemplated getting a nightlight for our place because sometimes I'm afraid of the dark.
3. I have double-jointed elbows and I think they're gross.
4. I crack my knuckles even though people say it's bad for you.
5. I hate cats. But kittens are cute, so I hate them for trying to make me like them.
6. When I'm eating ice cream with a spoon sometimes I blow on it like I would for a spoonful of hot soup. And then I feel silly because ice cream isn't hot.
7. I have a slightly irrational fear of caterpillars.
8. I like to cut my grilled cheese diagonally.
9. God made georgia mud fudge blizzards just for me.
10. I pick up change on the street as long as it isn't a penny.
11. I have a bad habit of getting parking tickets.
12. Summer is my favourite season for the heat and it's a toss-up between fall and winter for my favourite pretty season.
13. I've recently noticed that I do this weird thing when I'm putting on sweaters or hoodies. As I'm about to put them over my head, I suck in some air and hold my breath until my head pops out the neck hole. I have no idea when this started because I've only noticed that I do it within the past month.
14. I play the violin. Did you know this? If you do, bravo, because I don't share that fact too often with others.
15. I cannot pick a favourite colour because I love all colours. The only requirement I have is that they are vibrant.
16. I hate scary movies. I blame them for making me afraid of the dark.
17. I looooove chocolate. But I don't like white chocolate. I guess I'm racist.
18. I think that men's feet are ugly. I haven't met a man who has nice looking feet.
19. I don't own a brush.
20. I am a very jumpy person and therefore easy to scare. (I probably shouldn't have shared that with some of you)
21. I love listening to classical music. My children will probably hate road trips with me because I listen to lame music. (Unless I raise them to love classical too!)
22. I've lived my whole life thinking I am an american citizen, but my mother has just recently informed that I was wrong. I'm full on Canadian!
So I saw Brave last night with my mum and my sister and I loved it. My favourite character was by far her father because he reminded me a little of my own father. He's this big brutish guy who can do everything and probably scares most people when they first meet him, but when it comes to his daughter, he's a big softie who supports her in all she does, especially if it involves being awesome and not chasing after boys.
However, I did have one issue with the movie...
Her hair was completely unrealistic! Merida had big, thick, poofy, gorgeous red hair that never tangled and was always bouncy and full of life. The fact that she never got anything stuck in it was a miracle to me. The thing that annoyed me most was the bounce her hair had. It's as if her hair had a life of it's own, and I know she didn't have a blow dryer or mousse to get it to do any of that crap!
I`m just being ridiculous. I really did love the movie and I really did love her hair. Disney seems to be on a kick recently of giving its princesses crazy hair. (liiiiike Tangled for instance??)
If you haven't seen Brave, go see it cause it's awesome! Or don't. You have your agency, make your own decision!
I made a protein shake after morning training and I mixed milk and water with my powder, so I couldn't really tell at first. But now I've got a funny taste in my mouth and my stomach doesn't feel too good. Blah.
Anyway, that's not what this post is supposed to be about. I wanted to tell you about my trip to Utah! Since I mentioned it in my post about my summer, I should let you know how it went. And show you some photos.
This is Johnny's first picture on the blog! I am married to a hunk :D
We shot stuff! We spent a weekend in Logan with Selina and her man and this was one of the things we did with them. It was pretty fun. The last time I shot a gun was 4 years ago, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit.
We visited Temple Square. This was taken on top of the Conference Center. It's a sand blasted mural which we thought was pretty cool. If you ever visit Salt Lake, you must visit Temple Square and learn a thing or two about us crazy Mormons.
We ate the most AMAZING cupcakes ever! Down in Provo there's a magical bake shop called the Sweet Tooth Fairy where they make your sweet dreams come true. We also may have brought a dozen cupcakes back up to Canada with us the day we left. Om nom nom!
We visited the Hogle Zoo. It was fun to walk around and look at all the animals. My favourites were definitely the elephants and the rhinos. Johnny looooved the gorillas. (Naturally. He's practically a gorilla himself).
And we played with my little cousins. We stayed at my Aunt's place once we left Logan and the kids absolutely loved Johnny. Whenever we were there, he'd hardly have a second to himself. I've always told him that if we have a little girl, she would have him wrapped around her little finger but Johnny's always said he'd be able to resist...
But after spending a week with THIS little cutie, he's discovered that he is an absolute sucker for girls with big, brown adorable eyes. And if our babies get my genes, they're gonna be just like her! (Except a little lighter maybe...)
And that's our trip in a nutshell! We had a blast and I loved seeing my family and exploring the Utah valley with Johnny. We will most certainly go down again in the future.
I hope you didn't. I hope you were all so busy having wonderful summer adventures that you didn't miss me at all. Or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, I hope you were having equally wonderful winter adventures to distract from the lack of me in your blog-life.
I had a great summer. And I feel all ready to go for school this semester (not really. I've still been making last minute changes to my schedule).
Here's what my summer contained:
One week in Utah. Complete with time spent with my best friend, Selina as well as a small branch of my brown family.
A new job. I work for a wonderful lady named Jo and I can't wait to tell you more about her.
One week spent in northern Alberta getting to know my newest nephew.
A generous helping of the Settlers of Catan. A LOT of Catan.
One season of club rugby. It was great going out to practices and games and meeting some new faces.
A weekend in Whitefish. Helping my friend Becks photograph a wedding.
One week at Kootenay. Camping with the family in the best place on earth!
One wedding anniversary celebrated more than a week late. I'll explain why later, but I'm sure those of you who know our situation already know why.
What did you do this summer? I hope you had a good one!
