Update On My Brother Jake

So I know I haven't been good about keeping up with what's going on with my brother, but in my defense I was away for two weeks and was unable to get updates about him unless my parents called. So here's what's going on with him and how he's doing.

Jake was only in Afghanistan for a short period after the bombing. They flew him to Germany, and again-was only there for a short time. He was flown stateside about 1 1/2 weeks ago to the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in Washington DC. Since the bombing he has had 5 surgeries and needs at least one more.

He has a small-ish cut on his hairline on the right side of his forhead that is all stitched up, and he also has a large stretched out V-shaped cut on the right side of his forhead that has at least 20 stitches.

He also has some bruising here and there, but the major injuries were that both of his legs were broken below the knees.

His right leg was a compound fracture. He remembers looking at it right after the accident and his description of it isn't pretty. Thanks to the compound fracture, he had a wound on his leg that they had two drainage tubes coming out of so the wound would heal from the inside out. The drainage tubes have recently been removed. He had a rod put into his leg to hold everything in place, but it has since been removed and been replaced with a metal plate and screws to hold everything together so that it will heal right. While doing the surgery to put the plate in, they discovered that his ACL and another major ligament are torn, so he'll have to have surgery again on his right leg to repair those torn ligaments.

There are two bones in your lower legs. In Jake's left leg, one of these bones had a large & long break, while the other bone was broken into 8 or 9 pieces. As my dad put it, it was like this bone just shattered. He had the rod in this leg removed as well and had plates and screws put in but one of the bones shifted after the surgery so they had to go back in again and fix that.

I've seen pictures of his injuries and it brings me to tears to see how bad his legs are and the huge scars he's going to have. Not to mention that every time he goes through a metal detector the plates in his legs are going to cause a reaction, because they will be in his legs for the rest of his life.

He is very very lucky though. He's been struggling with why he's been so lucky and buddies of his who are older and married and have kids are struggling with much worse injuries or have died. He has received blessings from family friends who were stationed over in Germany, and from my dad while he was down in Washington for the last 2 weeks (and where my mom will be until Jake can come home). He's had bad flashbacks, and even some hallucinations from his painkillers. He's on a lot of painkillers and other medicines that make him sleepy but I am just so glad that he's still here. For those who live here in Vermont, by now you would have seen the newspapers and tv news reports about the bombing that happened to my brother. 5 men, including my brother, were in that vehicle. One was killed, the others all injured. It's hard to listen to what the other injuries were, or hear about the other injured soldiers at the hospital and what they are going through.

Jake is already doing physical therapy for his legs, and is doing better than expected. He has a wheel chair now, and will probably be in one for at least 3 more months. He recieved a visit from the VT state house congrassman and several others and recieved the purple heart medal. I am so proud of him.

I continue to pray for him and for the other soldiers and their families who are injured, still fighting, or mourning a death. These brave men and women and their love for this country and the people who live here continue to amaze me and I will forever be grateful to them. I will continue to post updates about my brother as I receive them. Thank you all for the kind thoughts and prayers for my brother and our family. This has been hard, but feeling the love of so many has really helped make this easier to bear.

The War Hits Home

So back in March I wrote a post about my younger brother getting deployed to Afghanistan. He's been there for a while now, going on missions and even defending his base from a attack in the middle of the night. We've been praying for his safety and hoping each day that it'll be another day closer to coming home-without any incidents.

Well...this morning started out awful (with Grace taking off her diaper and peeing on the floor) but I did not expect it to get any worse. And then-my mom tells me she got a phone call at 12:30 am (9 am in Afghanistan) from my very drugged up brother Jake. He and his unit had been out on patrol last night, driving an older army truck. They hit an IED bomb (a bomb that was burried in the road by the Taliban) and my brother was hurt. He is the gunner in the truck, and because of that it may have saved him from more serious injuries. The worst of the injuries he sustained-both of his legs are broken. He had to have rods put into his legs to help them heal right. We don't have much more information about him...just that he is in the ICU now and they are keeping an eye on his condition.

I broke down when I heard this. I have been crying on and off all day, thinking of the pain he had to go through and wishing I could take it away from him. Oh how I wish I could take it all the pain and awfulness of war away from him, or at least be there to help him through his recovery. At the same time though, I am so thankful that the Lord was watching over him and kept him from any further harm. I am so grateful that he did not receive more serious injuries. I know that the Lord loves him and has watched out for him so many times, and I am so grateful to know that my brother is still under the Lord's watchful and caring eyes. On the plus side (if you can get any pluses out of this) is that while he may be in hospitals for a while, and it'll take a long time for him to recover, he will be out of the war and hopefully not have to go back.

So thank you Jake, for the service you have given to our country. Thank you to the men who were with you, and the men who served with you at your base and the men who are still fighting this battle. Thank you to the families who are loving and supporting their men and women here at home while they are off risking their lives, fighting for something so important. Most importantly, I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for watching over my brother and bringing him back home. My prayers continue to go to the men and women and families who are still involved in the conflict over there and the job of those over here who are supporting their loved ones over there, and to those who are suffering losses and injuries from the many other attacks that are continuing to happen.

I sure love you Shake, and I am so proud of you and what you believe in and what you are fighting for. Fight hard to heal fast, so that you can come home and finish your recovery with us. Love you so much buddy!!

Last Day of Preschool

Yesterday was Gwen's last day of preschool. I wish she could continue to go there. The program was amazing, and Gwen's teachers were so wonderful. I was so excited for her to do another year there, and to have Gracie go there and learn the same way Gwen was learning-hands on. As I was leaving yesterday morning, her teacher (who I knew in high school) gave me a big hug and I started crying!! What a baby I am!! Gwen didn't even cry when I picked her up after preschool was over.

So, thank you to the wonderful teachers and people who helped out with this preschool program, and who did so much for Gwen personally and for the love you gave my little peanut. We will sure miss you all!!

Earthquake!!

So I guess there was an earthquake today. It was a 5.5 magnitude quake in the ontario/quebec border region that many people felt here in Vermont and in New York, and even as far away as New Jersey.

I called my parents (who are away for the afternoon) and asked them if they felt it where they are, an hour north of where we are and 30 min. from the Canadian border. They said they did. They asked if my sister and I, who are at home with my kids, felt it too.

Nope. Not a thing. Lots of people from our ward, and lots of my sister's high school friends say they felt it. But did we? Nope...not a thing. Oh well. At least it wasn't centered here, right?

Update

Just thought I'd write and let every one know how things are going. Thank you to everyone for the congratulations about moving. This has been one hard year for us and we're so thankful to everyone who's prayed along with us and helped us through this trial.

Robbie is now on his third week of work at his new job at Steel Elements International. He likes it so far, but is a little concerned that they are going back on some of the incentives they gave Rob in order to get him to take the job, namely insurance incentives (and with three kids, insurance is important). Hopefully that can all be worked out and things will run smoothly after that. He takes time every Friday afternoon to go look at houses but everything that we've liked from pictures on the realtor internet sites has turned out to be bad-stairs need replaced, windows need replaced, only half the house has siding, the floors are warped in places, the basement needs to be completely rewired, etc. We're hopeful that we'll be able to find something soon, but realistically we don't think we'll be moving into a place for at least another 2 months. Meanwhile we'll either continue what we're doing now-I continue to stay at my parents with the kids while he drives down to New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon and come back Friday night for the weekend, or we'll try to find a place that we can rent month to month (not likely though). Between all that driving though Robbie's been doing some fishing and mostly spending time with us.

I have a whole new respect for single moms now. I get some help from my family which is so nice but most of the time it's just me and the kids. It kind of sucks to not really have something to look forward to every night-namely Robbie coming home from work. And I am loosing a lot of sleep. I have a really hard time sleeping at night without Robbie here-it's just weird to have the bed all to myself. And the girls are totally taking advantage of the fact that it's just mommy all the time. Tantrums, fighting, yelling, screaming...oh, and bed time is the worst. I've had a lot of nights where I am up till 11 or 12 because I'll get Georgia to sleep, put her in her bed and then have the other girls just wake her right back up because they'll be playing in the room instead of laying down. So I'll be up with Georgia, getting her to go back to sleep, until 10 and THEN pick up after the kids and get things ready for the next day. I don't know how single mom's do it. Other then that, I am doing okay and things go pretty smoothly. My sister babysits the girls for an hour a day so I can run on the treadmill and shower, my mom taxi's us around (since Robbie has our only car), and my parents help out when the girls goof off/argue/refuse to eat at meal times. Hopefully we'll figure out a solution soon so we don't have to keep this up for too much longer.

Gwen is getting so big!! I can't believe that in 3 weeks she'll be 4 1/2!! She just completed her first year of preschool-hooray!! I am so proud of her and all that she is learning. She can now count to and recognize any number from 1-20, write her first name, recognize and write most letters of the alphabet, and is even starting to sound things out when we read together!! She is such a smart little girl. And her memory is amazing!! She is constantly telling us and others about things that happened weeks and even months ago-and there's no way I can pull things past her any more. Her preschool was right next to the town pool, so as a "parting party" they opened up the pool for two days just for the preschoolers and Gwen got to go swimming in a real pool for the first time and she had a blast!!

Grace turns 3 in a month...how crazy!! I still think back about moving to our "white house" as Gwen calls it a week after she was born. Hard to believe that she's already almost 3. She is looking forward to starting preschool (if we can get moved in time) but we're still having issues with potty training. She just doesn't want to do it. I wish I could find some way to get her interested, but maybe she'll be like Gwen and decide one day that she is finally ready and she'll just do it all the time. Here's hoping. She's become quite a thinker and has an amazing imagination.

Georgia starts nursery in 3 weeks!! HOORAY!! It's kind of weird that for the first time in 3 years we won't have at least one child to take care of during 2nd and 3rd hour classes at church, but I gotta say I am SO EXCITED for Georgia to go to nursery. She can be quite the little nightmare during church when we try to keep her quiet-she's ready to go off and play with friends. She's talking so much more now-we can almost understand her most of the time. Some of the newer things she's been saying are: okay, tis-do (tissue), noe (nose), boh (book), gigi (gracie), gwi (gwen), ado (shoe), nee cookie (need cookie), nack (snack), abee (sippy). She says a lot more words than these, but I can't even think of them all, so I won't bother listing them. Can't believe she's getting so big.

Well, that's about all that's going on right now. No house yet...hopefully we'll find something soon or hopefully the right house for us will come on the market soon. Again, thanks for all the congratulations and the thoughts and prayers from you all-really appreciate it. I'll let everyone know when we finally find something.

We're Moving!!

Yes, that's right. We are indeed moving. One of the companies that Robbie interviewed with this past Friday offered him a job and after a lot of thought and prayer we feel it is the right thing for our family right now. We are very nervous and scared because it is a HUGE new step for us to take but we know that it is right for us.

Sooo...we are moving to New Hampshire. Yeah, not too far away. Only about 2 1/2 hours from where we live now, but still a big step for us. Totally out of our (or my) comfort zone. Robbie's job is located in a town called Hudson, NH, which is about 2-5 minutes from Nashua, NH. We are looking around those areas for a place to live, but since this happened so fast, Robbie will be going down on Sunday night so he can start work on Monday, and try to find a place while the kids and I stay here.

So, that's the news. Still doesn't seem real...lots to think about...lots to do. Nervous, but excited. We have been blessed, and have so much to be thankful for. I'll keep updating as things continue to happen.

Gwen Has Allergies!!!!

Last Thursday Gwen came home from preschool, complaining that she was itchy. Didn't think anything of it, especially when she woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me she was really itchy (yes, that means I was too tired to respond and told her to go back to sleep). That then started a cycle of waking up some mornings with her eyes glued shut with gunk and crust, or her eyes still open but swollen and with gunk/crust on them. She also had a few nights where she was so itchy that she had red splotches all over her skin from itching, and where ever the red splotches were, she broke out in hives. I was concerned about it since she's never ever had hives before, and I decided to take her to the doctor after seeing that her face would break out in hives just for crying for longer than 5 minutes, something that definately has never happened. So I took her to the doctor on Tuesday.

What a joke. From now on, I will make sure that she sees her regular doctor and no other doctor in that office, because he told me the hives were just from her skin being sensitive from a cold she had had almost 3 weeks ago. Really? Then why hasn't that ever been an issue when she's had a cold before in the last 4 1/2 years? And he didn't even really address what was going on with her eyes until I reminded him as he was getting ready to walk out the door. Wasn't concerned he said. Maybe a little bit of an allergy he said. Blah. Told him both symptoms started around the same time, but what does a mother know compared to a licensed pediatrician?

So I decided to conduct my own tests and keep a journal of everything and then take her back to the doctor and possibly an allergist. I have allergies, and I get itchy eyes/nose/skin with lots of sneezing/runny nose and sometimes a bit of a cough. But to be open minded, I paid attention to everything-new bath soap, new sunscreen, pollen counts, and of course everything she ate. I talked about it a lot with my aunt, who is a nurse, and bounced ideas off Robbie and mulitple other family members. It seemed that her skin was getting really irritated by something, and that something had to be bugging her eyes too, because both symptoms showed up at the same time.

I had begun to suspect some type of pollen, but a conversation with my dad this morning really made the decision for me. We were talking about how much pollen was coming from the pine trees this year. When I went to pick up Gwen from preschool yesterday afternoon, my car had been sitting in the driveway since 10 am, and it was COVERED in yellow pine tree pollen. Seriously, I had to wash my windshield there was so much pollen on it. My dad and I talked about it, and we both think because there's so much pine pollen everywhere, and since I had a reaction to it as well (got on my back...had to use a metal dinner fork to scratch my back it itched so bad) we're pretty sure that pine tree pollen is the reason for the itchy/red/gunky eyes and the red/itchy/hive skin. It's just as bad today-my dad washed his car yesterday before coming home around 4, and it sat in the driveway all day, but when he came home from work today around 12:30, his car was covered (he used my mom's car to get to work today). I went out a few minutes before he came home to check the mail, and I could see where I had walked on the driveway because there was so much pollen on it (it's bright yellow). The wind had even blown huge piles of the pollen up against the garden hose on the walkway-so gross. But thank goodness for finally figuring out that it's a pollen allergy and we can give her something for it.

Oh, and for some reason unknown to us, after both of us receiving new callings (Rob's the new Young Men's president, and I am not only a Relief Society teacher but I am the Enrichment Leader-and I know it has a new name, but for the life of me I can never remember it), and thinking we were going to be here for a while...that may not be the case. The job he has right now is thinking about waiting for a year now to promote Robbie (instead of right away like they talked about at first) and if they do promote him, they're not looking to give him a raise, which is kind of silly. Anyways, Robbie has had two different companies call him interested in interviewing him, and both happened thanks to Rob staying in contact with people he's applied with (and been denied) or from working with them previously. He had both interviews today...the first one went great, and he's still at the second one right now. It would require us to either move to New Hampshire or Massachusettes, but then again they could both be dead ends again. Just another trial in our journey. Praying hard that one of the two works out though...the first interview went really well and looks very promising, since it's a company he's worked closely with before. So, fingers crossed!!