truly scared and true love

The first part of this post involves a practical joke played on my two youngest.  It's not something we do regularly, but it sure was fun.  Phillip and I watched the newly released on DVD movie "The Woman in Black" with Daniel Radcliffe.  I'm soooo glad I didn't see it in the theater.  It's pretty intense.  We had it for 24 hrs. so we made Amanda and Emily watch it later.  Isabelle was not interested in having nightmares, so she declined.  Later that evening, Emily and Isabelle went out to heart attack some girls in our ward for their bdays.  That's when the inspiration hit.  We knew Emily was freaked out by the movie so we decided to play a little joke on her.  We (Phillip, Amanda and myself) took my dress form and put a long black dress on it.  The dress had a hood attached, so we put a basketball inside for the head.  We then placed it by the backdoor and put a battery glowing candle behind it so it glowed the silouette.  It was creepy.  We had so much fun.  I just felt bad that Isabelle had to be a victim.  Well they didn't get home until very late, after we all went to bed so we didn't see their reaction.  But they recounted for us the next morning that Isabelle was first and as soon as she saw it, she got behind Emily.  Emily saw it and just froze.  She was frozen with fear.  It took her a couple minutes to figure it out and then she just started laughing.  And laughed for the next ten minutes.  Here's the pictures with the flash and without.

 kind of hard to see, but you can tell it's creepy.

I know, we're bad parents.  I just hope they don't get even with us.

Now on to a little bit lighter.  Amanda's good friend Beth is getting married tomorrow.  I didn't know what to get her, I didn't want to just get her a generic wedding gift, I wanted it to have a little meaning for her.  So I went thrifting.  I found this frame and it was perfect.  I didn't have to do anything to it.  It was even already distressed. AND had a burlap backing!!

I already had some scrabble tiles and played around with them until I liked the letter arrangement.  I glued them down and added some flowers that I made awhile back and waalaah.  A personalized wedding gift.  I also bought a big "G" for their last name at hobbylobby, keeping with the letter theme.

So there you have it. a little bit of chills, a little frills.
the end.

Guest Post : Isabelle

Hello fellow bloggers! Isabelle here. Nobody hardly EVER posts about me soooo.... here it goes!! I am 11 1/2 years old, I am out of school and starting 6th grade next year. The summer is always fun, and that's what it is this year.... FUN!! Tomorrow I will be babysitting! Just so you know I LOVE babysitting! :} My mother(Becky) signed me up for a 4 week Gourmet Cooking class starting June 1st.on Fridays. THAT IS WHAT I CALL FUNNN!!!! I never really do anything awesome in Summer so this will be the snickerdoodle for me! We also have a San Diego trip and fun like that coming up. I will also be visiting Grandparents and I will have a great time with cousins. And I know we will be going on a camping trip in August! This will be a summer to remember!!!! :}

Black Bean Salad

I've had this recipe for probably about ten years now.  I usually make it and serve as a side to a mexican dish or eat it as a salsa with chips.  But since I'm looking for easy fresh things to make that don't require the oven, I thought I'd try it as a main dish salad.  I didn't take pictures but it was pretty yummy.  Here's the recipe:
1 or 2 (I used 1 because I wanted less beans and more dressing for this dish) 15 oz cans black beans drained and rinsed.
1 cup corn ( I steamed a fresh cob of corn and then cut the kernals off.  Yum)
1 red bell pepper chopped (I didn't have bell pepper so I chopped a tomato)
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
3 or 4 green onions chopped
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
1/8 tsp. cayenne (or more, I like it with a kick)
1/4 tstp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
mix all together and chill until serving.

I sliced up some leftover grilled steak and put in the mixture while chilling.
Then I served it over some mixed greens and had some tortilla chips on the side.

It would be great with grilled chicken also.  Some chopped avacado would be yummy too.

Try it, you just might like it!

another Cook graduates

It's a little hard for me to swallow that my little Emily has graduated from high school.  I blinked and she grew up right before my eyes.  I'm so incredibly proud of the awesome young woman she has become.  She's always (except for some teenage years) been a bright spot in our family.  Always making us laugh, leaving us love notes, being helpful and just alot of fun to be around.  I present to you Miss Emily, the most recent graduate of the Cook family.

 Her choir group perfomed two songs at the graduation.

Getting her diploma on the jumbo tron.

 The family

 It was really sunny. and hot. and windy. and sunny.

 The grandparents

 The fab friends

Congratulation Emily dear!

Cleopatra sings Spiderman

We are getting back to some sort of normal around here. Logan is being a good patient and getting through the best he can.  Thank heavens for xbox and pain meds!

This is graduation week for Emily.  She had her final choir performance last week at the choir ice cream social.  They were supposed to dress up as characters.  She chose Cleopatra.  She sang Spiderman.  Crazy girl!

The Next Phase

Yesterday on Wednesday May 9, we brought Logan home from the Hospital.  It had been eleven days since his accident.   I was pretty surprised that it happened so soon.  According to his knee surgeon, he would need to be in a care center rehab facility while he recovered.  But Logan is stubborn.  He wanted to go home, so he showed them what he's made of.  Along with an awesome and funny physical therapist, they worked together to get it done.  He can move from the bed to his wheelchair using only his forearms and scooting on his back.  He can also move from his bed to the toilet chair with just a little assistance.  There was no reason for him to remain in the hospital at this point, he just needs to recover and rest.  And you don't get much rest in the hospital.

He has had alot of visitors, which is really great.  Family, friends, coworkers, church members.  The support has been amazing.  He's had some really terrific people caring for him during his stay.  It can be a little frustrating dealing with so many different doctors, nurses, therapists, etc. but he's really fortunate to have gone to such a great Trauma Hospital with so many dedicated people who know their stuff!

So now we begin home healing.  Taking it one day at a time and getting through it.  He's been about as patient as anyone can be in his situation.  But he's basically at my mercy since I am now his full time nurse, awhaaahhaaaa(evil laughter) not really, maybe sort of.  I think we're both going to master patience during this ordeal.

So we bid farewell to the hospital and hope that we never again have to take up residence there!

Knee surgeries

Logan had surgeries on both of his knee caps on Friday.  He was in surgery for about five hours.  They put six screws to piece together his right knee cap.  They had to remove his lower left knee cap because the pieces weren't big enough to work with.  Tendons or ligaments ( I never can remember which one) were attached to the remaining knee cap.  While they were working on his knees, his hand Dr. was working on his wrists, adjusting the pins in his right hand and casting his hand and arm, and putting a new dressing on his left arm and wrist.  Needless to say, he was in excrutiating pain when he came out of surgery.  And unfortunately for him it was shift change when they brought him up to his room, so he had a new nurse who was scrambling to get him some pain relief.  He had to call the Dr. and find out what he could give to Logan.  There were some tears, and crying out for relief.  It was a hard thing to watch.
But he is doing alot better, and they are working hard at managing his pain and finding the right combination of meds that help him.  It takes a pretty high dosage to even have an effect on him.  We don't know how long he will be in the hospital.  He will have to keep his legs straight and non weight bearing for six weeks.  That wouldn't be too big of a deal if he had use of his hands and arms.   But because of those injuries, his recovery will be more challenging.  He will either remain at the hospital and work with the therapists there or go to a rehabilitaion therapy facility to help him function while recovering.  And then the real work will begin, getting those legs to bend again after six weeks.  I know a little something about this because I had my legs casted for six weeks after double knee surgery when I was 15.  It is hard and painful.  Very painful.  But he can do it.
It's a real bummer to be stuck in a hospital and any encouragement you get is much appreciated.  If anyone would like to send him a card, here's the address to the hospital:

Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn
7400 E. Osborn Rd. Room 625
Scottsdale, AZ 85251

Thanks so much,
Becky

The real story

I would like to clarify things and set them straight.  The last couple of days have shed alot of light on the rescue situation regarding Logan after his fall.  We have had visits from four of the hikers in the group that witnessed his fall.  They all have been very concerned about him and wanted to see how he is doing.  There were about ten in the group that were repelling down the canyon when Logan and Kristin came upon them.  The last group of the day, as it was about 5:30.   Some of them were already down and some were still at the top.  After he fell, the two men who were only a couple of feet from where he landed, pulled him from the water.  He had blacked out and had slid down into the water of a very sloping rock that went into a pool of water about 30 ft. deep.  They got him onto the rock, got Kristin down safely and took off whatever clothing they could spare to cover him and keep him warm.  Some of the group left immediately to get help, hiking a mile and half to get cell phone service.  Others left to see if they could help direct the rescue team to his location.

 Two of them stayed with Logan until they decided they were becoming more of a liability to the recuers because they were getting cold with their lack of clothing.  They said it was a really hard decision to make but they felt it was the right one.  They had to swim out of the canyon in the dark and hike the several miles to the trail head.  They met three rescue people as they were coming out, but for some reason those people never made it down to Logan.  It wasn't until about four hours later that a special SAR team from Payson reached him and were able to get him out on a floating board, through the water, over boulders, and up the switchbacks to the helicopter.  We learned that teams from all over responded to this emergency.  Coming from Globe, Payson, DPS, Fire Departments, even a horse and mule rescue organization was there to help.  And the hikers never left, they were there with the rescue teams the whole time.

      We have come to the realization that these people saved his life.  Logan was very angry thinking that these hikers called for help and then just abandoned him for the four or five hours that he was there waiting.  That couldn't have been farther from the truth.  It hit him pretty hard when he learned all of the details and heard what really happened.  He was very emotional.  There were so many people who had a part in his rescue and we feel such gratitude to them.  If those hikers would not have been there when he fell, his outcome would not be such a happy one.  How do you repay something like that?

A life saved.

Thank you All!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has commented, texted me, called and visited and most importantly prayed for Logan and our family.  Emergency trauma is well, a traumatic thing to go through.  But we knew from the beginning how blessed we were that it could have been so much worse.  Things have calmed down a lot and Logan is doing as well as can be expected.  They re-wrapped his wrists and arms so now he has more use of his fingers and began texting right away.  He even talked the nurses into letting his xbox be brought in because he isn't a TV watcher, so he needed something to pass the hours. 
Thank you Mom and Dad for spending your day with us and for the lovely, lovely flower box.  I know it was made with love.  I know your visit meant alot to Logan and it really did to me.
Thank you Janet for the sweet flowers and chocolate, you're a good friend.
Thank you Sis. McGee for the delicious homemade bread, it tasted so good!

Logan will be having double knee surgery tomorrow to repair his knee caps.  We're just taking it a day at a time.

I'll keep you posted on his progress.

Becky

That's my Boy

Well, I'm going to try and make this brief since I'd really like to go to sleep in a few minutes.  Let me just start by saying that Logan has never fit into any mold.  He lives life by his rules, does what he wants, takes chances and risks, lives for the now.  He's always been that way.  I could go on and on with examples to support that.  But I won't right now.  Let me sum it up.
      He went to Roosevelt Lake on Saturday with his girlfriend to do some hiking.  They parked the car and hiked for miles into a canyon where there were cliffs with pools and waterfalls below.  He's been there a couple of times before.   But the other times there was a rope to help you repel down from one ledge to the next.  This time there was no rope.  He thought he could do it without the rope just scooting on his bottom the five feet or so to get down to the ledge.  His shoes slipped out from under him and he fell the 30 feet down to a rock next to a pool.  There were other hikers around and the rescue report says the bystanders pulled him from the water face down and unresponsive, so it's a little unclear if he asperated or not.  He's been coughing up stuff in his lungs, so maybe so.  The other hikers went to call for help and then they eventually left one by one, leaving him and Kristin alone, in the dark, cold and extremely injured.  About six hours later they saw the lighst of the helicopter searching for them, and finally the firemen or paramedics came and lifted him out of the canyon over boulders, and through water to the waiting helicopter.  I got the call at 3:30 Sunday morning.  If you've ever gotten a 3:30 call, you know it's not going to be good.  I got another 3:30 call once from the police regarding Logan.  3:30 seems to be the magic hour.
        So to make a long story short.  He broke both wrists and had to have surgery to repair them.  He had a dislocated shoulder and elbow and also a broken bone in his elbow.  He has a fractured nasal cavity causing his face to be swollen.  He chipped a couple of teeth and it looks like his whole upper bite has shifted.  His knee caps look as if they have been smashed with a hammer, there are multiple pieces of bone and wiil have to be surgically repaired.  But other than that, he's fine.  Nothing internal, no brain injuries, no spinal injuries.  And that is a miracle.
   This is how he looked the first time I was able to see him.  He had just came out of surgery.

         At that moment it doesn't really matter what he has put me through in the past.  You never want to see your child like that.
This is the next day after he got off the ventilator.  Much better

And this was today while he was sleeping.

Here is one of his very swollen knees.  You can't even tell it's a knee.

Needless to say he has a lot of recovery ahead of him.  But he's strong and stubborn.  I know he'll do fine.  And maybe this will actually cause him to slow down and think before he acts.
Maybe.