Please Don't Go, Fall!

I absolutely LOVE fall in Cache Valley.  It is one of my favorite times of year here.  In fact, this is when I missed Cache Valley the most when we were living down in Southern Utah.  I am hoping hoping hoping it will last just a bit longer before the snow flies when all I want to do is curl up in a fetal position and not emerge again until April.  This is also the time of year when I first met and started dating Jacob, so it always takes me back to those fun butterfly-in-the-tummy days.

A few weeks ago we decided to head over to check out the little side-of-the-road pumpkin stand right next to Ted's on the highway.  They had so many different varieties of pumpkins and the kids had an absolute blast picking out pumpkins.  I was kind of surprised they loved it so much.  It was so cute to see them all so giddy about picking out their own little pumpkins.  They would have taken a whole truckload if we let them!  I loved that we could actually get quite a few pumpkins without paying
an arm and a leg for them.

 As part of the usual Cache Valley tradition, we love to make it over to the Pumpkin Walk.  We have learned, however, it's much better to do it on an afternoon rather than wait to do it for FHE Monday night.  It gets so crowded that it's not really even fun.

So we headed over on one of the afternoons we had off for UEA.  It's probably actually the most exciting thing we even did over UEA.  How dare we actually stay home and get work done during school break- the atrocity!!

Allie stayed home to play with a neighbor, but me and the other three got out to enjoy the beautiful weather.  Such a nice day!!

 I had to get this fun little picture:

 I LOVED this exhibit.  I hope my kids will come to learn what a blessing it is to live in America.  I love this incredible country we live in.  There are so many good people.  Despite the craziness of this somewhat horrific election season, I choose to focus on all the good that is out there.  At the heart of it, Americans are good people and I pray that we all will turn to the true King of this great land and allow Him to be our leader.  Through Him this great nation can be saved.

(Pause while I get down from my soap box.....)

Of course we had to get pictures in nearly every character board.

Queen of the Wild Things!

Lexi has her little hands under her chin in almost every picture, I love it!

I love the double glasses action in this one:

It's always a good day when Jessie, Buzz, and Woody are on the job:

Hopefully we can enjoy these beautiful colors and sunshine for a bit longer before we hunker down for a few months.

The Sauce is the Boss

Last Saturday I drove Jacob out to Young Ward so he could "help" with farm duties.  Thankfully Dad and the brothers were willing to have him tag along and ride around to be the cheerleader while he stayed off his ankle!

When we got there, we found Mom busy in the kitchen working on applesauce.  Come to find out she had an orchard in the garage waiting to get sauced and processed, so we decided this Saturday would become the day to crack out all that applesauce.  I went back home to grab a few supplies and to enlist the help of some fellow saucers (aka the girls).

We ended up getting through all the apples and filled up the kitchen counter with beautiful jars of super yummy applesauce.  It ended up being a really fun day.  There is always such a huge sense of accomplishment to look at all your hard work sitting there all ready to head down to the fruit room.  Apparently I was so overcome with satisfaction I failed to get a picture of our rows of fresh-out-of-the-canner jars of steaming hot sauce.

Don't you fear, we are equal opportunity applesaucers and had all hands on deck!  When it comes to canning, the phrase "many hands make light work" is especially pertinent.  Oh yes Benson, you bet your sweet curly boots this made it on the blog- you included!  I know, you feel very honored.

Towards the end of the afternoon, I think everyone was very happy to see the final apple get cut up.

A perfectly pleasing impromptu Saturday project.  Say that ten times fast.

Horse + Barbed Wire = Surgery

Yep, the old saying holds true.  "When a horse gets tripped up on barbed wire, you'll end up having surgery on your ankle."  Or something like that.  Or maybe that's just a new saying.....

....Regardless, Jacob had a little snafoo with the ol' bronc and ended up damaging the soft tissue in his ankle.

Oh heck, for documentation sake let's just tell the whole story.  It's a doozy.

So Jacob and his horsie headed up the mountain to help out some ranchers who were gathering their cattle for the winter, and to try to get some good contacts for work.  Well, he was only about an hour into his day when the unfortunate incident happened.  Jim Craig was hot on the tails of a mama cow and calf when the two split and the mama cow headed in one direction and the calf headed another.  The horse headed toward the calf when Jacob anticipated him heading toward the cow, which led to Jacob getting off-centered on the horse and slipping further down the side as the bronc continued to run.  To get himself back up and centered, he dug his legs into the horse's side forgetting he had put on his spurs.  Well, with a spur in the ribs, the fine equine kicked into a higher gear straight toward a barbed wire fence.  To make a long story short, the collision with the fence took the legs out from under the horse, sending both of them tumbling down with the horse landing broadside on Jacob's ankle.  Yow!  I know, it just sounds painful! 

This is the part where we add in a HUGE thank you to the heavens in recognition of a LOT of blessings.  This little incident could have been so much worse.  Thankfully the horse landed only on his ankle, and missed smashing any of his vitals.  Thankfully there was no head trauma.  The horse ended up with a large gash that needed staples, but otherwise came out unscathed.  Pretty amazing considering of what could have been.  Yes, firm believer of angels!  I truly feel he was protected.  Gotta give credit where credit is due!  (Okay, so that one might actually be a real saying....)

After a week of a swollen ankle and limping, Jacob stopped over at Ryan Rigby's to ask if he thought Jacob needed to have it looked at.  He answered in the affirmative, so an x-ray followed up by an MRI confirmed that the soft tissue sustained some major damage and needed repair.  Not to mention an old cartilage injury was discovered.  Bale twine and duct tape just weren't going to cut it this time.  (I need to insert here how much we have absolutely enjoyed working with Dr. Rigby!  He has been so wonderful to us and I feel confident knowing Jacob is in very competent hands.  His nurses have been so very great to work with as well.)

Wednesday, October 12, 2016 will go down in the history books as the day Jacob went under the knife for surgery.  Since an MRI can only show so much, the doc was hoping he would only have to do a scope to clean up the damaged tissue and the procedure would be fairly simple.  He figured the cartilage damage wouldn't be significant enough to warrant any repair.  But, he would just have to get inside and look around to determine exactly what needed to be done.

Sheesh, this is really wordy.  I hope we appreciate all this yada yada someday.  

Jacob was such a gem.  Despite a mild protest, he let me take a pre-op picture.  He's even smiling!  

Here's the ankle, although a bit of the swelling had gone down.  Looks like his ankle swallowed a tennis ball.  Hmm, actually it looks like a ghost with toes swallowed a tennis ball:

We MUST give Jacob a big thumbs-up for not passing out when he got the IV in!  He had two amazing nurses who did excellent at keeping him distracted and popped the IV in without him hardly knowing.  I was proud of the ol' chap.  

We got set back about a half hour due to the surgery before Jacob running a bit longer than anticipated, but soon he was back in surgery and I was left to wait it out.

It was rough, let me tell you.  With a Diet Coke, a heated blanket, and a quiet room, I think I may have gotten the better end of the deal...

When the doc didn't come back after the hoped-for 20 minutes of a quick scope, I figured Jacob ended up with more repair than he was hoping to have.  Sure enough, when Doc Rigby got inside with the scope and took a little looksy, he determined that the cartilage did indeed need repair and that the ankle would require some hardware to support the ankle bones to allow for proper healing.  Along with this was a loose piece of tendon that had sheared off in the accident that needed to be removed.

Here's Jacob's new hardware.  This is as if you are facing Jacob and looking down at the top of his foot/ankle. 

 

The little circle-looking thingers on the outside left are just something in the wrap that was still on his leg when he had this xray done, but the other bright spots are actually on the inside.  There's a metal plate on the left that is screwed into the fibula, then they drilled two small holes through his bones with thin bands that go through to the other side and are held in place by what they call "buttons" that are on the right.  (You're cringing, I know.  Slightly nauseating.)  This device helps hold the bones in place while the tendons and ligaments heal.  It will become his new permanent fixture.

As for the cartilage, there was a fairly big flap-like piece that had to be cut out, and then the remaining damaged area had to be filled with a mixture of donor cartilage and Jacob's own blood platelets.  This "reconstruction" is what is going to be the longest to recover from.  Jacob has to be completely non-weight bearing to allow the cartilage to regenerate and be strong enough for him to start walking on it again.   

There are some perks, however.

Lexi gets treats and coloring pages at his check-ups:

Just because Jacob can't walk doesn't mean he can't talk!

Not to mention he has a sweet new set of wheels.  Ooooh baby!!

I've got to give Jacob credit, he has been doing pretty darn good.  He keeps off it like he should and has been maintaining a fairly positive attitude, despite the fact it's killing him not to be out enjoying this beautiful fall weather.  Of course we've got another month or two ahead of us before he is free to walk unassisted, but we'll keep hoping for the best.

Guess it's better to count blessings than burdens, right?  Right.

Bedtime at the Israelsens

Not quite sure how it started, but after we say prayers and read scriptures before bedtime, the kids LOVE to have a "don't smile" contest.

It's simple: the person who can go the longest without smiling wins.  If you are ever having a bad day, please come on over around 8:30 and join in the game- you are bound to get a good laugh and TONS of smiles...despite the name of the game.

There are many tactics used in trying not to smile when Mom and Dad are staring at you trying everything to get you to crack a grin.

Here Kenna employs the "disfigure your face" move in an attempt to keep that smile from spreading up her cheeks.  Mildy effective.

Ty man here is trying to pull the extreme boredom tactic.  Good try, little buddy.  Doesn't last too long before you are showing us your teeth in a big grin.  Maybe sitting on the ball brings a little extra good luck?

There is some major effort going on here as Allie pretends to be completely enthralled in her book. Gotta give her a little credit, out of all 4 it seems to be working best.  The other 3 are on the verge of a smile. 

Don't forget the popular suck-in-your-face-like-a-fish maneuver that Lexi here is demonstrating.  Unfortunately pretty soon those fish-face dimples turn into full smile dimples!

Ha ha haha ah ha ha!  This inevitably brings many smiles and giggles into our living room.  Next time you are feeling a little down, just try NOT to smile.  It works wonders!

I Love To See The Temple

Now that the oldest 3 are back in school full time, there's plenty of time for me and my little buddy Lexi Lou.  She keeps pretty close tabs on me during the day and is usually not too far behind me.  I have actually been really enjoying our time together.  For the most part she is over her frequent toddler tantrums and is pretty good to have as my sidekick.

The other day while running errands over in Brigham City, she looked out the window and spotted the temple.  From the back seat she hollered, "Hey Mom, I found the temple!  Can we go to the temple?"  It was a beautiful sunny day so I figured this would be a perfect little impromtu outing. 

Lexi just loved being able to walk right up to the temple.  Of course she insisted we get a picture.  I wanted to try to get her in the picture with the entire temple as the background.  You have to look really close, but on the bottom of the picture just to the right of center there is an itty bitty Lexi standing in front of the fence!

As I looked at this picture, I was taken back by the enormity of the temple and how teeny Lexi looked in front of it.  I couldn't help but have the thought that this should be a metaphor for my life.  I hope that I can always let the temple overshadow any trial or problem I have and keep things in perspective.  Of all I know from my years of attending the temple, I know for sure that I actually know very little of how incredible it really is.  As we walked around the temple, it was so peaceful and beautiful.  Of course Lexi would be drawn to it!  I so hoped that she could feel the beauty and peace in her sweet little 4 year-old innocent way.  So grateful for her little prompting that gave us a somewhat simple yet very profound afternoon.

I love you my Lou Lou!  I hope you always keep your love of the temple.

Phonetics

As I was perusing the contents of Ty's backpack this afternoon, I came across a little paper he had worked on today.  As I read what he had written, I couldn't help but giggle.  As you can see here, he was asked to brainstorm ways he could get to school.  He chose to break up his sentence into 3 different sections:

Yessirreee folks, aren't we all just dying to get to school on "a giant mosquito?"

LAUGH. OUT. LOUD!  I love it!  Now THAT is thinking outside the box.

The best part though, is the next page- his picture:

Just to clarify, that is not TY riding up on the shoulder of the giant "musceeto."  Instead he chose to draw KENNA riding on the giant mosquito.  Why Kenna got the honors I have no idea.  He was so proud of himself when I had him tell me about it!

It is SO FUN to watch as my kids start to put sounds together to make words.  I love to see all the little tidbits they can come up with.   

Time Out For Women 2016

I'm not quite sure why, but the past year has been such an incredible time of learning for me.  I have gained so many great insights and feelings that I am so extremely grateful for.  Can't always say that lessons learned come easy, but they are appreciated nonetheless! 

A few weekends ago I joined the Israelsen gals for Time Out For Women up at the Spectrum.  Oh how I loved this weekend!  The speakers, the music, the company, it all was beyond fabulous.  It was most definitely a spiritual feast for me, and the Spirit filled me with beautiful personal revelation and learning.  Thankfully I had tissues.  They were put to good use.  Yep, I have no shame in saying I am a cryer.  No matter how hard I try, I just can't help but leak out of my eyeballs.  Frequently. 

I have but one picture that I took the entire weekend.  Yes, just one.  But let me tell you, it's a gem.  You want to see it?  Yes?  Oh, well, fine, just because you're special I will share my one picture with you.

   
Ah hah hahah haa haa ha ha!  Yep, that's me and my dearie Sista Maria.

So TOFW was sponsoring a service project to help out the local refugee center.  The project was to color letter cards that are used to help the refugees learn english.  Maria and I took this picture to send to Bekka to tell her she really missed out on coloring with us for the last little bit!  I really think it hit home.  I'm pretty sure Bekka was incredibly touched and inspired by us.  I mean really, look at us!  That is the epitome of inspiration.

No really, go ahead and laugh, I totally get it.

Thank you ladies for such a perfect weekend.  I could go on and on and say so much about this weekend.  I will just sum it up:  my cup was filled.