Ivy had the best weekend recently. We flew to Vegas to see my family. Fun fact about Ivy, the girl LOVES transportation. By that I mean, all things that move. Airplanes, cars (vroom vrooms), buses (round and rounds), tractors, go-karts. If it looks like it moves, Ivy loves it.
Ivy had been on an airplane before, but this was her first, what I like to call “conscious” flight. She had some idea what was going on this time, different from when she was 8 months old.
You can only imagine how exciting a place the airport was for her.
First, she got to ride on the electric shuttle to the terminal.
Billie, Ivy, Dad
Then, she had her first experiences with escalators. Ivy LOVES escalators. Of note, she is not a big fan of elevators. I guess that gravity shift for her little legs is a bit much.
Then she got to get on an airplane. Lots of curiosity mingled with excitement.
Then we had a 3-hour delay and had to exit the airplane. Did Ivy care? Of course not! More time to wander around the airport, looking out the window at airplanes. Yes, we did do that for 3 hours.
Ivy hearing announcement about DelayIvy pondering all the fun she’s about to have in the airportIvy exploring airport
By the time we got on the plane to actually fly, Ivy knew everything there was to know about an airport terminal and was ready for the sky!
She loved flying. She looked out the window and pointed out all the lights. She like to put her finger and thumb together to show that the cars and buildings were getting very small.
Ivy’s joy reached a peak on our return flight.
We had those moving walkways right by our gate. So we spent an hour straight going back and forth on that. I must emphasize that this is not an exaggeration. One. Hour. Straight. Back and forth.
Ivy has recently started doing this thing that is my new favorite thing in the world. When she gets extra excited, she says YES! And clenches her first and pumps it in the air – “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
Picture this with a happier face and you’ve got it:
So, when we started down the tunnel for our return flight, Ivy remembered what was coming, going high on an airplane. She excitedly started walking in front of us, fist-pumping and yelling “YES!”
When we landed at 10:30PM, her enthusiasm couldn’t be dampened by the late night. We got to ride her all-time favorite mode of transportation. A ROUND AND ROUND. If Ivy sees a bus, she’ll twist her hand around and say “roun n roun.” You know, because the wheels on the bus go round and round.
When we got off the round and round, she was disappointed. We had to tell her the round and round needed to go to sleep. This was ruined when we walked back to our car, passing 4(!) round and rounds. The excitement at each one was palpable.
Finally, we got to vroom vroom home.
Thus ended the best weekend of Ivy’s life.
Every time she has seen an airplane since, she points straight up, and says, “high.”
I consider myself a relatively laid-back individual. I have some high-strung tendencies that I try to keep under control. I would hope most people would say I’m a “go with the flow” kind of person.
There is one specific circumstance where all my patience, laid-back, go-with-the-flow ability goes right out the window. That’s for road trips.
I know I’m not alone on this. I’m one of those people that considers the 4.5 hour trip to Las Vegas as a Nascar race. That analogy holds true more for pit stops than in actual speed. I consider a bathroom break a great opportunity for that semi-truck I so meticulously passed to quickly catch right back up to me.
This angst once on the road starts well before we even enter the car. The week leading up to a trip I’m constantly thinking about what I need to do, what I need to pack, creating a checklist of what I need to pack, double and triple checking my list of what I need to pack, etc.
I drive Beth absolutely crazy. I’ve tried to tone it down for her sake. I’ve tried to “enjoy the ride.” She can comment on how successful I’ve been in that.
Last week we were travelling for Christmas. Imagine my average travel angst multiplied by 10. What presents do we need to bring? Are they wrapped? Did we bring warm clothes? On and on it goes. Which is why the coincidence of my Monday guided meditation was bizarre in its timing.
It was literally titled, “Daily Trip – My Urgency Story.” The meditation was described as “the antidote to your own urgency story.”
I listened to it a couple times throughout the week to try to mellow myself out. I’m not going to provide any advice here on mellowing out on trips. I already posted a hypocritical post two weeks ago. Don’t need another.
All I’ll say is this: if you think God doesn’t have a vested interest in your day-to-day life, stop and look.
That’s all.
He’s always watching and helping. We just need to see it.
Since I wrote that dramatic post about my near death it’s probably good etiquette to write a follow up about how I’m recovering.
The human body is a truly extraordinary thing. Blows my mind that some people think this thing that has a trillion parts working perfectly together can have fallen together like a puzzle from the sky. My healing has gone extremely well. It’s gone so well that Beth has had to remind me on multiple occasions about the seriousness of my accident.
Seriously. I think about what happened, and it doesn’t coincide with how smoothly my recovery has been. That’s not to say it’s been a complete walk in the park. There is a fair amount of pain, my head is constantly leaking, my arm hurts. All in all, it’s not that bad.
The truth is, my comfortable recovery may be due in large part to my on-staff nurse (I love you!). Beth has been the most attentive, caring, helpful person ever. Sometimes I wonder how she’s caring for me and a newborn all at the same time. Beth has daily and sometimes multiple times a day re-dressed my wounds. She’s taken off the bandages, helped clean, re-anoint, re-bandage my head and shoulder at least once a day since I was hurt. No wonder I’m healing well.
There was one night that was extraordinarily painful. The fifth night I think it was. We had wrapped my arm and shoulder like normal. Over the course of the night it itched and stung and hurt. Around 11pm I unwrapped the wound. I applied more ointment which didn’t help. Then I made a potentially grave mistake. We have some antiseptic numbing spray that in bold red letters on the bottle says “NO STING.” The greatest act of false advertising in the history of false advertising. The only defense I can think of is maybe they claim it’s no sting, instead it BURNS. It hurt so bad.
I spent four hours basically pacing around in pain. It’s crazy, a gaping head wound and it’s the road rash that is hurting, by far, the most.
Again, I feel extraordinarily blessed with how I’ve improved. I even worked a half day the first week. I would have worked another half day if not for the great night of burning arm. I attribute my recovery, apart from my visible angel here with me (Beth), to the same thing I attribute my life. I believe God and angels I can’t see are attending to me daily.
I want to thank everyone for their support while I’ve been hurt. It’s heart-warming to get messages of love and care from so many people.
In my last post I talked about the two things my mind rested on. God and family. There’s something that wasn’t said that I want to make sure is extremely clear. Family doesn’t only mean blood family. We’re all family here and while I’ve been blessed with the most amazing blood family, in-laws, wife, and daughter, it’s my extended, non-blood family that feels over the top.
As I’ve been hurt I’ve thought about all the people in my life that I can rely on. When I came to Arizona I moved away from all family. I didn’t know that I’d end up having so many people basically adopt me into their care. Friends that will drop anything to help me, offers for me to come over for holidays, help moving, help with my car. I was blessed with a roommate who’s family became my family away from home.
There are so many people I owe so much to.
This is personal, something I’ve never told anyone. In my prayers I often ask God what I did to deserve so much love? A loving family, loving friends. So many people that care for and watch out for me. It’s something I’ve asked often. I don’t know what I did to deserve so many amazing people in my life. All I know is I’m grateful for them.
So, thank you everyone for continuing to help us and watch over us. Thank you for the love. It means so much.
God and family.
____________________________________
Here is the progression of my arm healing (If you’re looking for day by day healing updates on my head, gross, go watch pimple popper videos). By the way, I’m not flexing in all those pictures, I still can’t fully extend my right arm:
Day 1
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 3
Day 3
Day 3
Day 4
Day 4
Day 5
Day 11
Day 11
Can’t end with mutilated arm pictures, to lighten things up:
Hopefully to uplift someone, anyone. Believer, nonbeliever. Member of the Church of Jesus Christ, member of any church, member of no church. I’d like to teach people who know nothing about this faith some of what I believe. I’d like to share with members of my faith the things that have impacted my testimony.
Recently a new motivation has emerged. With a daughter on the way I realize one day she can read all this. Whether or not anyone reads any of this. One day my daughter might.
Right now, I’m posting individual posts that are unrelated to each other. Mostly my thoughts and musings. As I post more, I plan on categorizing posts into certain sections. If someone could come to this page and read a quick one to two-page entry and leave slightly uplifted, that’s my ultimate goal. Most of my writing I hope to be somewhat thought provoking. Just things I’ve thought about or ideas and concepts that have really impacted me and changed the way I’ve looked at life.
I hope for this to be informational. I was greatly impacted by the writing of a man, John Pontius. As I read more, I’m impacted by the writings of many people who took the time to put thoughts on paper. Maybe something I write one day will help someone. I also hope to discuss what I feel makes the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ special. I hope for people not of my faith to read, and maybe have something stirred in their souls. Something that reminds them of where they came from, and maybe have a desire to learn more about Christ’s Church and what makes it so important.
As I write I’ll share a lot about me. I wanted a section to describe, briefly, who I am and how I got here.
Anybody reading on my page will immediately notice the strong religious theme. It’s what I think about most. For a portion of my life, it was not this way.
About me:
I was born in Payson, Utah in 1990. I moved to St. George, Utah when I was ~5. I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada when I was ~9. I lived in three houses from ages 9 to 18 in Las Vegas. We moved a lot and that was always difficult for me while growing up.
Payson, UtahSt. George, UtahLas Vegas, Nevada
In 2009 I moved to Arizona to go to Arizona State University. I decided early on I didn’t want to go to UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) or UNR (University of Nevada Reno). I wanted to get out of Nevada, I wanted a fresh start. I had no family in Arizona. Las Vegas wasn’t far, but I would be completely on my own.
I still remember when I was driving to Arizona for orientation with my mom. She got sick on the way and we stopped. I think we were in Boulder City, about an hour into the drive. I took her to the emergency room. My dad drove there to be with my mom. I had to be at orientation the next morning. I drove to Arizona by myself. It was the first time I’d driven that kind of distance alone and was symbolic of me becoming independent.
I went to ASU for five semesters. I studied construction management. I always did well in high school with minimal effort. I’m one of those obnoxious individuals who brags about never studying in high school. Boy did I learn my lesson once I got to college. My grades, with zero work ethic and desire, quickly reflected my effort. It didn’t help that I soon realized I wasn’t interested in what I was studying. Construction management can be interesting, but it wasn’t for me. There’s only so much I could take learning about the strength of concrete.
Like if you get the reference
My junior year I officially dropped out of college with (of course) the intention of going back and finishing once I found my passion. I say “of course” because that’s what we all say. During school I found that I was much more interested in parties, poker, and basketball than I was in learning about safety standards of construction sites. When I stopped going to school I continued to live on campus and enjoy college life, minus the higher education part. I spent a full year couch surfing. I’m sheepish to admit now, but I look back fondly on that year. It was a year spent staying up until 5am, waking up at 1pm, sneaking into the student rec center to play basketball, getting food, finding a party, rinse/repeat. It may sound like a pathetic use of time but it’s something I think I needed to experience.
If my daughter ever reads this – not everyone needs to experience this. That’s part of why I’m writing. To show that I made mistakes and lived life a certain way. Ultimately, I can’t regret it because it eventually got me to where I am today. I have learned through my own experiences where true happiness exists. True happiness comes from serving others, giving yourself to something bigger than yourself. True happiness comes from loving others. I had to go a round-about way to learn what’s important in life. Not everyone has to make things as difficult as I made things for myself.
During my time couch surfing, I was working odd jobs here and there to have enough money for food and extra-curricular activities. I went to Utah near the end of this adventure for some “soul searching.” After “finding myself,” or not finding myself, I ended up back in Arizona working as a helpdesk tech for two companies. I went with one of those companies 3 years later when they switched offices and took over as the Systems Administrator. I now (as of 2020) work for a managed services provider supporting various companies with their technology needs.
As I write this blurb about my journey and my past, many thoughts come to mind of what I learned along the way. I might refer back to this when I need a topic to write about. Like my lack of desire studying something I wasn’t passionate about or the years spent partying and what that taught me about what I want out of life.
Faith-wise, I started falling away from the church, due to my choices, when I was 16. I always had a testimony of this restored church, of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and Jesus Christ. That never changed. Despite my many mistakes and many wrong decisions, I always knew it was true. When I went to ASU I lost contact with the church completely. It amazes me to look back and realize I didn’t even know where the church building/institute building/anything related to the church was on campus. It’s like I’d lost connection with that part of me.
Throughout the years I’d attempt half-heartedly to return to church. It never stuck. I was completely inactive from about 18-25. Seven long years of inactivity.
As of this year, 2020, I’ve been back at church for four years and never been happier. I hope to express through my writing the joy the gospel has brought me and share some of my experiences that can maybe help others. That’s the hope. I’ve felt drawn to writing these entries so if one person is helped it’s a major win.
And if all these hopes fail, I’ll at least be able to look back on everything I’ve written. One day I can show my daughter and she can know I always believed. She can see it wasn’t always easy. She can see life has ups and downs, but it will work out. Have faith. That makes this worth writing.
No Coincidences 