Out of the mouths of 3 year olds...

So I am stealing ideas from Crystal again. I started her game at dinner where everyone goes around the table and says the best thing about their day, and the worst thing about their day. Lancer went first, and said the best thing was he did so much work at school, but the worst was that I made him finish his vegetables. Richie and I both said the best thing of our day was this game but our little Ryker, when asked what his favorite part of the day was replied "Tuesday". When asked the worst part said "yeah 12".

Counting my blessings.

This week I have been reminded of how precious life can be. I have 2 different friends on Facebook whose children were in the hospital last week and then I found out that my good friend from high school, lost her niece suddenly last week. The little girl was 8 years old and died within 2 days of showing symptoms of mono. (She didn't die directly from mono, and for the privacy of the family I wont give out specifics.) Anyway, it has given me a not so gentle reminder that our time here can be very short and I need to relish in every moment with my children, even when they take me to the edge of my sanity.

Take yesterday for example. Ryker was very difficult. We had to take Lancer for a follow up at Primary Children's and he would not sit still. All he cared about was when he was going to eat lunch. When the nurse came to take Lancer for the x-ray, Richie went with him and Ryker had a complete melt down. He screamed so loud, Richie could hear him and came back to sit with him. All the way there and back, the two boys fought. While we were waiting for the doctor to come in the room (over an hour), they fought. When we got home, they fought. I swear, Richie and I were starting to lose it. Luckily, Ryker didn't take a nap, so he fell asleep @ 7:45, which is a big improvement from the usual 11:00pm. Once he was asleep, I missed him. All of the fighting and screaming that had happened seemed like a distant memory.

At the follow up we got some great news. Lancer can start putting weight on his leg. He still will need the wheelchair for school and long trips for a couple more weeks, and no PE or recess for a month, but after that he can return to most activities. The doctor is planning on taking the rod out in September, in order for the leg to heal completely in time for next years race season.

In the x-ray, you can still see the break but it is starting to heal from the outside in. Looking at the screws makes me sick to my stomach, so you cam imagine my excitement when Lancer asked the doctor if he can keep them when they come out.

Richie and I went to Wendover this weekend. We didn't win any money and we both got or fill of second hand smoke to last a lifetime, but it was fun anyway. It was nice to get away and have a uninterrupted conversation. It made me remember how much Richie makes me laugh. Oh and it was SO NICE to sleep without a 3 year old foot stuck in my rib cage.

Oh no......not ANOTHER LEAK!

*****WARNING!!!! Vent post ahead!!!*******

So it has been another long week at our house. Richie and I have grown tired of Lancer sleeping on our couch and holding our remote hostage, so we brought down Ryker's bed for him to sleep on. Ryker's bed is actually Lancer's bottom bunk and so Lancer was happy to have his bunks back together again. Anyway, as we were putting the bottom bed in, Richie noticed some bubbling in the wall. When he pushed on it, part of the drywall crumbled and we knew we were looking at another leak. The warranty company sent a plumber out and first he fixed our leak in our master shower, and told us how to fix our problem with our pump in our furnace room, then moved on to cut a hole in Lancer's room and this is what we were left with.

It looks like the kitchen drain pipe cracked because of our house settling. It must have been leaking for a long time, because the insulation was wet and streaked with black mold. Some of it was stuck to the drain pipe like cotton candy.

This picture is hard to see because of the dust and debris covering the carpet, but when Richie and I moved Lancer's bunk bed to give the plumber some room, we were oh so happy to find the carpet wet and stained with mold as well. We also found the water damaged the wall almost all the way over to the window.

Isn't this insulation pretty? Some of it was so black, it grossed me out too bad to even take a picture of it. Here is the great part. The warranty company doesn't cover mold and it wont cover insulation, because it considers damaged insulation to be "secondary damage". I know I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I would consider insulation to be part of the wall. They said the plumber should have put the same insulation back in that he took out. So we are responsible for putting in new insulation and killing the mold. So the past few days Richie has been taking out insulation and trying to dry the studs out then we have been spraying bleach, Lysol and KILLS to try and kill the mold. The warranty company also didn't want to cover the extra damage in the wall, just patch the hole the plumber cut, but we think we have fixed that problem. We haven't figured out what to do with the carpet, I may be calling Crystal's family for some new carpet.

So Lancer is still sleeping on our couch. I plan on using this as a excuse to put some color on our walls in effort to give our house some personality.

In good news, Lancer started back to school this past week. We started him on half days and might keep him that way for another week or so. He still gets really tired and when he gets tired he gets very grumpy! Next week we go see his surgeon for a progress report on his leg.

The weather was so beautiful this week, I wanted to be outside working in my yard everyday! Needless to say, I was not at all excited to wake up this morning to see it snowing.

Happy Anniversary, Dics Rouglah!

Its our Anniversary today!

Honestly, we don't usually celebrate this day, we usually celebrate September 22 which is the anniversary of the day we met. I know that sounds strange, but thats just what we do.

Lancer is visiting my parents, so Richie splurged and took Ryker and I to the nice bowling alley;)

(Hey it IS our anniversary!) Anyway, we bowled a game and Richie and Ryker both beat me. Then we spent a ridiculous amount of money on arcade games, and finally left, broke and hungry. We then went to the Olive Garden and I made myself feel better about my lousy bowling with the tour of Italy. Ryker was a good boy for about 15 min. Then he ran around with his booster seat and then threw a fry at the table next to us. Basically, doing all the things we swore our children would never do BEFORE we had them!

I love my husband so much! I am so thankful that I am married to someone who works so hard so I can stay home with our wild monkeys, someone who makes me laugh so hard, and someone who makes me a better person. I love you Dics Rougah!

What a week...

This week has been crazy! Lancer is still wheelchair bound, bored and grumpy. We got a Wii, which helps pass the time and give him some sort of an arm workout, he does his homework and reads to me some, but honestly, he is watching a lot of TV. I swear, if I have to watch another episode of the Suite life of Zach and Cody or iCarly, I may go insane. Those shows are his favorite and they MAKE ME NUTS!! He is starting to slowly need less pain medication, but is still having a hard time with the crutches. He hasn't been back to school yet, but I want him to be able to move around better with the wheelchair and crutches, before he goes back. Thankfully, the school is great and has been sending his work home often. (Thank you, Ogden Valley Montessori!)
Richie has been great helping me and working from home. I cant imagine that he gets a whole lot done, considering all Lancer and Ryker do is FIGHT, YELL and SCREAM! He has been a big help to me, and especially to Lancer. I am very thankful to have a patient husband.
On Thursday, Ryker came down with some mysterious stomach bug. Of course, it happened when we were having family and friends over for dinner. Anyone who knows me really well, knows I have a serious phobia about throwing up. Richie came to my rescue,(thank you, dear hubby) and cleaned it up. Ryker was pretty sick the rest of the night and the next morning, so Friday morning I must have gone up and down the stairs 20 times, and made about 3 trips to the store, taking care of my boys who both wanted my undivided attention. He stayed really tired and grumpy through saturday night, which meant Richie missed the last day of coaching to stay home and help me.
Then on Monday, I got sick. I started to feel weird about noon. Achy and a sore throat. By about 6, however, that had turned in to EXTREME NAUSEA! I dragged myself to bed, leaving Richie to take care of the boys and dinner. Then in the middle of the night, the poor dog got sick and there was SUPER HUBBY to clean up that mess as well.
Today we discovered yet another leak in our house. The beautiful house we have only owned since August! 2 weeks ago, we discovered a major leak in our master shower, and today the carpet in Lancer's room was wet, so we figure it is coming from the furnace, water heater or drain. Thank goodness for our home warranty, which HOPEFULLY will cover these things. I am praying things start to get a little less chaotic at our house.

Well... the first part of the day was good!

Lancer had his final race of the year on Feb 28. He did really well. He improved his time a lot and I couldn't be more proud of him! Before the race, Richie's Aunt Janet, my Dad, and I went to the top of the race course to wish him luck and he got embarrassed and said " Can't you guys go to the end of the race course with the other parents?"

He is only 7 and I am already embarrassing him....I LOVE IT!!!

Anyway, after the race we had lunch and Lancer had his usual. 2 large slices of pizza, a bag of Doritos, a kit-kat and Gatorade. Then he left his family to go ski with his team, and that is where the day starts to go sour.

At the end of the day, I am getting ready to leave and have a exhausted 3 year old sleeping on me in the lodge when I get a phone call from Richie. The connection was really bad and this is what I heard... "Lancer...hurt....ski patrol.....John Paul.....Life Flight...meet us at hospital" What? Apparently, Lancer was skiing with his group on the top of John Paul, heading over to the Women's Downhill. He went off of a jump he had never hit before, and didn't know it had a flat landing. So he fell, hurting his leg. Luckily, the ski patrol came up about a minute later and then they radio the team and Richie hears it and arrives a few seconds later. They decide because of the injury and how far they are up on the mountain, they have no choice but to use

Life-Flight.

So I go out and pack up the car, just in time to see the red helicopter flying over Earls Lodge on its way up the mountain. That is when I lost it. I couldn't stand knowing that it was on its way to pick up my 7 year old. Richie said it was pretty surreal for him too, having it land 50 feet away, blowing snow all over everyone.

The Life-flight crew load him up and because of weight reasons, wouldn't let Richie go, and headed to Primary Children's Hospital. Lancer was so brave and when he got there, let the nurses know he had been there before for a febrile seizure when he was a year old, and he was allergic to penicillin. He still wasn't crying, but was very upset that they had to cut off his racing suit and his ski team jacket! My dad and I arrived first, followed shortly by Richie, just in time to find out he had a broken femur and would need surgery. The Surgery had to be postponed however because of the HUGE lunch Lancer had consumed a few hours before.

Lancer had surgery at about 8:30 pm and they inserted a titanium rod down the center of his bone and a screw above his knee. The doctor mistakenly called the rod a nail,and Lancer freaked out, probably picturing the doctor hammering in a old rusty nail down his leg with a hammer! After surgery, he spent the night in the hospital, and got sent home the next day with crutches and a shiny new wheelchair!

He is still in quite a bit of pain, with Richie and I taking turns sleeping downstairs, tending to his every need. He took his first shower last Saturday, and the screams coming from the shower when Richie took off the top bandages, where reminiscent of the psycho shower scene. He still hasn't returned to school, but he are doing it from home for a while, until he gets the hang of using his chair on his own.

In 6-9 months, we will go back to Primary Children's, to get the rod taken out. He should heal completely, although the break was very high, it did not damage the growth plates. He should be back skiing next year. (Hopefully, not hitting any jumps!)

I am grateful for all of the cards, letters and kind words that have been given to us. I am grateful that his injuries were not worse, and that he was wearing his helmet.