Merry Christmas!

My Dad and I went pants shopping the other day. While stopped at a light on our way home, my Dad rolled his window down and said to a man walking in the cross walk: "Hey! Butt head! Merry Christmas!"

I almost died.  Of laughter.

The other day I was thinking of how he really has always loved making people laugh.  Now he does it more than ever!  I know he was probably trying to say "Hey!  Buddy!  Merry Christmas!"  I know he likes to make contact and talk to folks and be a fun guy.  He is really great!  I sure love him and admire him for all he does.

My Dad picked out the cutest little stuffed animal for my baby Lucy.  I love the things that he does all on his own, they are always so precious to me.  He is such a sweet man.  He is really not at all the dad that I grew up with but I love him a lot still!

Laughter! The BEST medicine.

“The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

The first time I heard this I thought "Yes.  That has to be me.  Crying literally does give me a headache and sinus issues and I don't enjoy it at all."  I am not sure everyone thinks my laughter is always appropriate, but there are times when my Dad will do something so crazy that its either so sad and depressing how far gone he is, or it is fun to just enjoy him as he is.

A while back my son Jimmy Jim was carrying around this ceramic alligator bank that we had as kids.  The whole time my Dad was saying "careful James!" and "don't drop that James" and "he's going to drop that in a million pieces."  Apparently he was very very worried James was going to end the nostalgia connected to this coin bank. Okay.  Makes sense.  James really might drop it, or who knows, throw it down the stairs?  Well it ended up on the coffee table in the living room with James no longer interested in it, and staring at it from his seat on the couch.  My Dad walked in and saw it there and took advantage of the opportunity.  "James," he said, picking it up, "watch how easy this could break!"  Then he ripped the alligator's head off. 

It was too funny.  I laughed a good 30 minutes about that.  Then laughed more as I took the pieces to the trash.

Oh, Dad.

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

Proverbs 17:22

Why can't I read Proverbs all day?

Liz

GO UTES! (Even though you stank up the entire place today!)

My Dad at physical therapy doesn't have much to do with what I have to say!  I do love this picture of him there.  By the way, my kids and I had a great time that day at physical therapy with him, and I was "not at all" jealous when he was getting a nice shoulder rub from the aides there!

I just wanted to make it known that my Daddy-o is a trooper.  He and little brother went to the last Ute football game today and although they weren't at their best (to say the least), and it was FREEZING and windy, he stuck out the whole game AND had a great time, to boot!

Who am I sir? A Utah man am I! A Utah man, sir, and will be til I die!

Really, who would have thought 18 months ago that he would be here to have that fun day with my Dad? I always say people in Utah either love BYU or they love to hate BYU.  It might be an understatement, but John definitely loves to hate and I think he has persuaded my Dad to join him.  (Even though Dad is a BYU grad!)

Today I took my son to the store and saw this hat.  It is way so cute and reminds me of my wonderful Dad and the hats he wears.  I don't know what to call it other than a "duffer hat" but I guess its called a newsboy cap!  Both of my grandpa's wore this hat and my dad and uncle and brothers---its sort of a family thing by now!

Dear Dad!

Dear Dad,

Just having had a new baby and with Thanksgiving coming up, I want to say that one thing I am VERY thankful for is my family.  I am SO thankful I get to be darling Matt's wife and a mother of such excellent children, I am so thankful for my parents, my brothers, my sister(s) in-law, and I am really thankful my Dad is here to know Lucy.


I love you Dad!  Thank you for being such a great Dad year after year!  Thank you for being such a great grandpa to my children.  Thanks for being a great example of a Christian and a Latter-day Saint!  Thanks Dad for loving me and always being nice to me.  For being the kind of Dad that has helped me understand better what it is that God feels for me.  Thanks for seeing the potential in me and helping me to find a great husband!  I am thankful for the opportunities you've given me.  Thank you Dad for making life fun!  I thought a lot of things were goofy, but those goofy things are the BEST memories I have.  I am so glad we have always been friends.


I LOVE MY DAD!  I love you as you are, even when you say embarrassing things to random people in the store, even when you are frustrated or can't express your thoughts. I love the way you describe ice as a "big messy pot of freedom fighters" or how you call catch "boomsheeba."  I love you just like you are!  I love the part about you that thinks everyone wearing perfume or chewing gum is personally trying to annoy you.  I love watching you get excited about the Utes (GO UTES) playing football.  Dad, YOU ARE GREAT!  I love how you think about things deeply.  I love my memories of all those years, waking up and seeing you studying the scriptures at your desk early in the morning.  I love my memories of things you would get excited to take us to do.  I love your inventions, like ice turbans.  I love when you look at "House" and read "Help wanted."

I don't know what I would do without you.  I am planning on not finding out for about 50+ more years.  I love you so much and whenever something is really, really bothering me I always know who I can talk to in order to feel better.  You really have helped me so much in overcoming big heart aches.  You have helped me with your words and love and example. You are really one of my very best friends and one of my favorite, favorite people to talk to and spend time with.


Now it is my turn to help you a little more than before.  I hope I will always be as good to you as you have been to me.  I continue to look to you for a lot of things and you will always be my only Dad!  Thank you for all the help and support you continue to give to me.


I wish I could show you how much you have meant to me, and continue to mean to me!  I love you so much Dad!  TBI or no TBI, you are SO important in my life!  Your contributions to my life are so wonderful and important to me!



Thanks for being such a great Dad, a great dad in-law, a great grandpa to me and to my family.  I am thankful for you!  Thanks for being you!


Love, Liz, HDC-VP, GBH extrodinaire and collector of 10 gallons of balls.  :)

Long time no post!

Hello out there!

I never understand why people complain about lack of sleep with a newborn because I get a lot more sleep with a newborn than I ever do while I'm expecting!  Our family has had a wonderful, wonderful time with our new baby!  She is such a jewel and we are so blessed by her presence and membership in our family!

I keep a journal for each of my children.  My goal is to write in it twice a month and so far I have been able to keep up with that.  I just got a journal for my newest baby, Lucy, and I really enjoyed sitting down to write yesterday.  I already have so many sweet memories with my new daughter, and one of them is my Dad!  I have treasured and loved the experience I have had of introducing my children to their Poppy.  My Dad really seems to come down to earth, and get really sober and sincere when he has held my children.  Watching him hold Lucy for the first time was a neat experience for me, and afterward he commented on what a spiritual experience it was for him to hold her.

We go over to visit (except when we have a new baby we're keeping out of the cold!) at least once a week and it is so much fun!  Lately it has cracked me up to watch my Dad my children.  The other day my brother Ammon found this little alligator bank at DI and bought it because it was just like one we had as kids.  It is this ceramic bank, the alligator is sitting and his mouth is open and happens to be where you drop your coins in, if you dare to put your hand into and open alligators mouth!  :)  My son James was toting that bank around and making my Dad nervous, he was so worried James would drop it.  In one final act of desperation, and after several lengthy explanations, my Dad decided to give James a very visual lesson. He grabbed the bank and said "James, look how easy this could break!" and with that he grabbed the head of the alligator and ripped it off.  James looked very confused as Poppy was giving this demo and I was laughing my head off!!!  Oh Dad!

Tonight my Mom (love you Mom!) and I were talking about him and she was saying how hard it is to notice his progress because she is there to watch that pot as it slowly comes to a boil.  Really though, he is doing a lot better since last Thanksgiving.  Last year he sort of felt to me like Brian Regan looks when he talks about Pluto---okay you'd have to see that---but he felt to me like someone floating around in the air with not a clue about what was going on.  This year he is still not, not, not, not, not, not at all himself, but he really has improved.  He seems to be able to follow along a little better and seems to have way more of "a clue" than he ever has before.  So even though I expect he never will be "Dad" again that he was, I hope and I pray for continued progress in his on-going and life-long recovery.

The hard thing is being reminded of the way he was.  But who am I to complain?  I am not living with a TBI so I feel silly for even saying that.  I miss my Dad a lot.  I will have him back one day, I know it.  I am really excited for that.  I love reading the scriptures and feeling how much compassion the Savior had for the sick.  I love to read how He healed them.  Each account is so miraculous and I can't help but wonder what it will be like to see my Dad's healing take place, and to wonder what it is I will write down about that. 

Bring Me Sunshine

This video by The Jive Aces is probably my favorite of all time!  I love it!  It is so cheerful and happy!  I hope you have a minute to watch it.

Sick James

My son is sick right now.  Yesterday I got to spend alone time with him and I realized there are a few benefits to people being sick and one of them is how things at home (my home at least) get to slow down for a while. I'm not talking about the dishes or laundry because those, in fact, pile up faster when people are sick.  I just love how the little people slow down.  They aren't running around pulling books off shelves, coloring on the carpet, flushing things down the toilet, emptying the fridge . . . I feel like this: aaaaahhhhhhh!

However, they drink their extra fluids, take peptobismal and then we're done.  It's nice to have people slow down for a day or two mostly because I know they are going to speed back up.  That's the way I prefer life.  Normal and crazy and in a home made messy by busy little children.  I believe that must be one of the many hard parts about things like a TBI.  There actually is no hope my Dad and others like him will speed back up.  There is no hope that in this life they will speed back up.  This is a done deal.  This is my Dad for the rest of his life, this is what he's like.  You know what?  I love him!  He might eat cups of butter and sour dough starter, stumble when he walks, say crazy things (i.e. we were in Costco and he turns to an Oriental man, speaking with an accent my Dad couldn't understand, and my Dad says "Hey, have you ever considered learning English?" and he said it out of sincerity to help this guy who "can't communicate" with the people he works around) but I just love him!

I was remembering the Mother's Day before his stroke, he wrote me a really nice card and gave me a gift card.  I was remembering his writing on that and how he wrote "I wish I had some Daiiiirrry Queen!" and the way we used to joke about that line from a movie we both love.  I really missed him!  In a very real way, he died the day he had that stroke.  He's just not the same.

But I am so thankful because while the reality of who he is today is painful, the reality of what he will become is glorious!  Thinking of the Savior Jesus Christ and His unmatched loved for all of us, His willingness to give His life and then to take it back is a glorious truth that gives me a lot of hope for the future.  That is the reason I can choose to laugh when he says about the guy walking by "He doesn't know it, but Stuart and I could take him out" instead of crying every time I'm reminded of how brain injured he really is.

I am so thankful for Jesus Christ.  I know what He did is REAL.  I know the Resurrection is REAL and really will happen to all of us.  I know these things!  I was raised in a Christian home, and LDS home, and I am so thankful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my heart.  I just don't know how to survive anything without it.  I am thankful for the scriptures and I know they are true, there are great lessons to be learned there! 

I love the scriptures of the man by the pools of Bethesda who had been there years and years, only to be healed  by the mercy, love, and power of Jesus Christ.  I know I am not perfect, my body is not perfect, but I know I will be made perfect through the gift of the Resurrection.

I am very grateful that my own Dad helped me to learn these things and to know them for myself.  I hope I will do the same for my very precious children, and help them to learn to turn to Jesus Christ in all things, to pray to Heavenly Father, to love and serve others, and to repent and pray for mercy.  I know our Father in Heaven wants all of us to pray to Him and love Him.

Brethren We Have Met To Worship

May I just say there are some FANTASTIC hymns out there?  I found this one not long ago and I find myself thinking about it all the time.  I like to sing to my children in my barely able to sing voice.  I figure---and I hope---that since I am their mother it is sweet to them.  This is one I am working to memorzie all the verses for the sing to my son.  I want him to be a missionary just like his dad and just like my dad!  I hope he will take the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people all over the world.  I don't know how folks get along without Jesus Christ in their lives! 

Come, let us bow down in worship.
     Psalms 95:6

BRETHREN WE HAVE MET TO WORSHIP

Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God;
Will you pray with all your power, while we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.

Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe;
Death is coming, hell is moving, can you bear to let them go?
See our fathers and our mothers, and our children sinking down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around.

Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses’ sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior, tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.

Is there here a trembling jailer, seeking grace, and filled with tears?
Is there here a weeping Mary, pouring forth a flood of tears?
Brethren, join your cries to help them; sisters, let your prayers abound;
Pray, Oh pray that holy manna may be scattered all around.

Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners, till our God makes all things new.
Then He’ll call us home to Heaven, at His table we’ll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.

Dadness

Looking back, my Dad has always had a really funny personality.  Michelle and I were talking about a time when my Dad and my brother John were helping me move out of my college apartment two hours away from home.  After we had loaded up the truck that John was driving back home full of my stuff, my Dad pulls out a bundle of ropes and says "Hold on.  My son is not going to look like one of those idiots with their tarps flapping all around the freeway" and proceeded to tie down every square inch of the back of that truck!  In the end, I think his son did look like a different kind of idiot on the freeway.  The kind that looks like is hauling Shelob's lair around. 

My Dad is also looking for either a husband for Michelle or a wife for my brothers.  He apparently thinks any unmarried person of the opposite gender would be a good match for any of them.

One last random thing to throw in---speaking of dating people---John is dating a gymnast and we were all together not long ago.  While Lia (super sweet girl) was talking about gymnastics, my Dad says "You know, I'd really like to get one of those gymnastic outfits."  It was meant to be funny and it was.  We never did get out of him if he wants one with leggings, or without?

BIAU

I have written a little about attending the Brain Injury Association of Utah conference last year with my mom and Dad.  It was pretty funny to say the least.  My Dad cracked me up again and again.  The last lecture was by a psychologist who spoke about dealing with depression and anxiety in people with Traumatic Brain Injuries.  At one point, the doctor said something like "success it isn't the absence of tragedy, it's moving on despite tragedy." So my Dad turns to me and says "Well that's better than pot."  It was pretty funny.  I don't know where that came but the craziest things come out of his mouth, and usually they make me laugh.  He is so funny!

Someone we heard from there was a young guy whose wife had fallen down the stairs and sustained a brain injury.  He talked about how their one year old-ish son was so sad without his mom and all the devastation their family was experiencing while they waited for answers.  I felt so sad.  It is amazing how horrible TBI's are and how fully they affect the people and families.  I have often wondered about that situation and prayed for that family.  It is so hard.  I hope wherever they are that they have found a way to "move on despite the tragedy."  That was something our family constantly felt and I think is very common---looking for answers that only time will tell.  It is a dumpy situation to be in and have to wait through.  I'm real sorry for people suffering these things.  I hope people find that there is a lot of comfort in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

I love this hymn!  It makes me feel lifted up and happy when I'm needing a boost! 

Jesus Lover of My Soul
Jesus Lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly
While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O, my Savior hide, Til the storm of life is past.
Safe unto the haven guide, Oh receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none; Hangs my helpless soul on thee.
Leave, oh, leave me not alone; Still support and comfort me.
All my trust on thee is stayed; All my help from thee I bring.
Cover my defenseless head, With the shadow of thy wing.

I do love to think of Jesus as the "Lover of my soul" and the souls of everyone else.  I know He really did suffer for our sins, our pains, our disappointments and grief.  I also love the awareness this hymn brings to my total dependance on the Savior Jesus Christ.  I don't know how, but I feel sure that one day all these things will be made up to us. I pray for people out there affected by so many of life's tragedies and hope each individual seeking will find Jesus Christ and the comfort of the Atonement.


 

Family

We have had an unusually high (and FUN) number of family get togethers this year.  My Dad's side of the family got together this month at a great park and we all had a lot of fun!  I don't ever feel nervous about it, but I always know it will be different for people and interacting with my Daddy-o.  I do feel sorry sometimes, because I know my Dad and I know he would hate really understanding how injured his brain is. 

It is actually a lot of fun to see him talking to people and trying to come up with what it is he remembers with a particular person or event.  Most times, he will get it right in the course of his repeating it six times.  He's pretty impressive. 

Doughnuts!

I know I shouldn't laugh all the time, but I would rather do that than get real down and depressed about things!  Like the other day when we went out to do some stuff together.  We always go out for doughnuts.  I know, I know I should take him out for wheat grass juice or something but my Dad used to take us to Arctic Circle for as many twist cones as we asked for.  So my thing is doughnuts.  Anyway, he is supposed to be dieting-----sort of-----he takes a medication that puts weight on him.  I always tell him "If mom finds out she might tell us to stop and then we can't get doughnuts anymore."  It cracked me up the other day when, after our trip to the doughnut shop, he walks in and brings the doughnuts up (wink winking) in front of my mom.  Haha, I think he is enjoying doing something sneaky.  Well, I was wrong, my mom didn't tell us we had to stop at all.  I'm glad because I love an excuse to eat junk too.

Happy Summer!!!

Happier for me that the end of it is getting closer!  I don't like to be a spoil sport, but, if I'm being honest---IT'S JUST TOO HOT!  Too hot for my dear old Dad and too hot for me too!  We really have had a fun summer though.  We all have done a lot of sitting around in the backyard here at "Mathilda's" and lots of water gaming.

Speaking of that, the 4th of July was TONS of fun.  My family and I came over for a little BBQ that weekend.  After dinner we were all sitting in the shade of the tree out back.  Completely unprovoked, my Dad apparently got this great idea.  He went inside and got a big bucket of water and came out.  When I knew it was meant for me, I got up to walk off and he totally drenched me.  He got me from behind!  Which I promptly informed him was against the rules of engagement!  He ran inside to get away from me, so I snuck around front.  When I opened the door to sneak inside, he was there waiting for me with another bucket of water and got me in front.  So I was soaked!  The only retaliation I managed was getting Matt to convince my Dad to look around a certain corner, which I was waiting behind with a turned on hose.  I don't need to say it, but it was FUN!  My Dad sure is fun.  I was surprised at how long he kept running around and how he out smarted me more than once.  :)

Not a great picture, but this is the result of the water fighting.

"Happy birth new baby!"

"Happy birth new baby" comes from a foreign friend.  It was such a cute little thing she said at the birth of my first baby, that I have just kept it alive!   

We have had so much this summer!  Just like every other family in the world, I daresay.  One of the best events at any time of year is a new baby!  My bestest friend and cousin Marissa had her first baby a week and a half ago.  She is SOOO cute!  My Dad and I went together to meet baby Elyse in the hospital.  He really thought it was cool to be a GREAT uncle once again.  Seeing Marissa and her new baby was a real tender thing for him, and it was real sweet to hear all the thoughts he had about it.  :O)

I've had two of my own babies, and one more on the way, so excepting my own children, I do believe baby Elyse is very likely the CUTEST baby ever born!  She looks just like her mommy.  Elyse has great, great, excellent parents and by all accounts is doing well.

Happy Father's Day!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!

That card was written by my three year-old daughter, Peach Pie.  That girl is so amazing!  She said to me eight or more months ago "Mommy it's time for me to learn my letters."  Okkkaaayyy.  Hmmmm.  Not sure how to teach them to you!  After months and months of her asking I finally thought "Hey, why don't I pray about this?" and found some good answers that have worked great for her.  Including a little dry erase tracing book and she is now a self-taught writer and alphabet pro.  She can recognize all the letters, she knows them capital and lower case, she's got all the sounds down and she is even sounding out words.  I don't need to brag any more---I'll end it here by saying WOW do I have a little smarty on my hands!  She is such a joy!

 

For Father's Day, we went over to my parent's house on Saturday for time honored BBQ style food that was, DELICIOUS.  After dinner, we sat out in the back yard and chit chatted for a few hours and had a great time!  My children were invited to a very fancy Toy Story birthday party earlier in the day where the activities included decorating sheriff hats.  Charity brought hers and when my Dad put it on I just laughed my head off.

It wasn't so much the purple feather or the fuzzy glued on balls or foam flowers.  It was a reminder of William Holden in one of my TOP 5 favorite movies, Stalag 17.  I just hope anyone reading this who hasn't seen that movie will do it---it is fantastic!  It's about American and Brittish POW's in WWII and it is very entertaining and pretty much perfect!  Anyway-in the end, Bill Holden's character is sneaking out of the camp with a hidden soldier the nazi's wanted to put on trial for blowing up a supply train.  When he gets the bag of civilian clothes, he pulls this Swiss looking hat out (that looks like this little brown sheriff hat and even has a feather in near the same spot) puts it on and says "I'll look pretty stupid yodeling my way across the Alps in this!"  When I told my Dad he resembled that scene he laughed a lot too. 

 

Happy Father's Day to all fathers!  Happy Father's Day to mine!  He has been a perfect Dad!