A Couple Funny Stories

The pain medicine I'm taking for my neck has been pretty mild, but it has made me a little over- emotional and confused at times. For example last night I went to bed very early at 7:30. I woke up several hours later extremely confused about where I was, how late it was, and what was happening. Right before going to bed I watched a half hour of the show Chuck. I'd never seen it before and I suppose coming into it without 4 seasons of context set me back a bit. I was very worked up being disoriented and Emily tells me that at one point I yelled out, "I watched 30 minutes of Chuck and it has RUINED MY LIFE!" Somewhere along the same rant I also yelled out, "WYDONA!" I don't know if that is a name, place or expression, but Emily says it was pretty funny.

Today Emily volunteered to watch a couple neighborhood kids while their parents went to a funeral. They were curious about my neck brace so Abbey explained my surgery to them. I told them that if I took the brace off my head would fall off. They got very wide eyed, but then moved on to go play. Later on they were eating some popcorn and as I walked through the room one of the boys said, "I want to see you take your head off!" I said, "Okay!" and started to unstrap the neck brace. The boy stiffened up and said as firmly and directly as possible, "Do NOT undo that!" I guess he didn't really want to see my head come off! It's had me chuckling all day.

Post Operation

Well, I am back from the hospital with a thus far successfully fused C5,6 joint in my neck. It hurts to swallow and there is a lot of general pain in my neck region and down into my back. I'm tired and sore, but as far as I can tell I don't have any more numbness and pain down into my fingers! The doctor said that the disc looked like it had been damaged for years, which is a nice confirmation considering that I've had pain for years. He also said I seem to have responded very well to the operation. I'll have to wear a neck collar for the next 6 weeks, and the fusion process lasts a full six months or even more. No Thanksgiving football this year! I don't need to go back to work until next Tuesday so right now I'm just trying to lay low and get healed.


My department sent me some get well flowers and Emily and Abby got me a gigantic bear (which I think Abby has claimed for herself now). I've had students and neighbors and ward members check in on me. Thank you for all the prayers on my behalf and for my family.


Emily told me that while I was in the hospital, they went to an all you can eat restaurant and Abigail was so excited. She went over and over again for olives, shredded cheese, cucumbers, noodle salad and purple jello. She said to Emily, "This place has all my favorite things . How did they know? They must have seen me coming!"

Belated Update on the Summer of a Thousand Milestones

Hello all,

Emily and I would like to apologize for not blogging for SO long, but we have some really good excuses! In the last four and a half months we've accomplished quite a lot. You would have gotten a lot more detail if we had kept up, but here are the highlights in more or less chronological order back to July:

1. Abby had a great birthday party. She had lots of friends over and one of the highlights was to throw water balloons at her dad.


2. July was spent looking for a house, going on a mini vacation to Lake Michigan, packing the apartment, finishing the dissertation...

3. In August Benjamin turned 30 and successfully defended his dissertation (Emily got to watch it on Skype). We also moved to Iowa, closed on our first house, sent Abigail off to kindergarten (she loves it, of course), started the job as an assistant professor and had friends from Michigan and family from Utah come to visit. It was a very good month!


4. September was all about settling into our new place. We got a new freezer and all got sick. Here are some random pictures of our place, inside and out. The last one is of Emily paying the Wii fit in the basement...


5. This October (and up to the present) Benjamin got called as the Elder's Quorum President (again) and Emily is the Primary Chorister. Benson just started crawling right at 6 months and he is just beginning to experiment with solid foods. Benjamin's Parents came to visit just before leaving on their mission to Russia and in two days Benjamin will get surgery for the herniated disk in his neck.





Well, sorry it had to be such a quick update. Hopefully we'll be a little more diligent in the coming months!