WHEWWWW

The New Year started with lots of activity and I am still recovering from the excitement.  Here is a short summary of the events that occurred since my last entry.  Hopefully I will keep up a little better through the rest of the year.

Turns out that there were a few more funerals after Uncle Orson passed away.  One was our good friend, Short who left us just before Christmas.  She was 84 and not in a good place – most of her memories were gone and her physical frame was severely damaged with age.  It was truly a blessing for her to move on to the Spirit World and reunite with family.  We will miss our visits but are grateful for the years of friendship we enjoyed.

It seems people like to depart mortality during the Christmas Holidays.  I guess it makes a nice time to reunite with loved ones who have preceded.  Maybe we will work our departure to coincide like that.  :-)

After visiting with family for Christmas our hearts are full of love and feelings of joy.  We are so blessed to have all our children right here in the valley and hope they aren’t too inconvenienced when we barge into their homes on a regular basis.  The lift we get by being with them is worth every effort we make.  Those delightful little (and some getting bigger) grand-kids are a great blessing for the years we had to wait to get them (Check out Missy’s blog for some of the experiences they have had this season).

On Monday after Christmas our little Joel (OK, he hates it when I call him little but he is the youngest) went to Brighton Ski Resort for a little snowboarding.  He has become pretty good over the years and really enjoys the adventure.  The only drawback is that he seldom goes with anyone else and he never wears a helmet.  BUT, his mother fixed the second part by getting him a really nice “dome” for his birthday.

So, his adventure was going just fine on the ‘gnarly’ slopes of Brighton (that’s what the guys up there said the snow was like that day).  He was doing so well that he decided to test his flying skills on a little jump…………. Except, it wasn’t as little as he thought.  He ‘flew like and eagle’ and then landed like a rock ------ on his back (yeah, pretty exciting, huh!!).

A delightful 'medic' that took good care of the smiling boy.

Paramedics strapping Joel down before transport.

And a 'thumbs-up' at the emergency room.

The end result was some foggy memories (though, not a burst noggin because he had his fantastic, mom-provided helmet on his melon), a bruised lung, some small bones in the back that were broken off (no major danger) and lots of bruises and sore spots.  He’s recovering at school and has some hard days but seems to be getting back in the swing of things.

It has truly been an eventful ending and beginning to a couple of years and I can’t say I wasn’t glad to go back to work.  But I am grateful for the experiences because I hate when life gets dull.  Until next time.