Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a great quiet time spent with my family in a small city with all the yummy food and company to place a smile into my heart. I am grateful to be alive. Not many people can say that you have had a second chance at life and that your life was saved. Hopefully to continue on a mission in this life to help uplift those around me. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for a cute, funny husband that keeps me laughing when I want to give up and hide.

I dedicate this funny blog to my sister Sophie Lofie and My Grandma Mary Lou. I hope you get lots of laughs and that you can add to your list as well.

1.If God had a fridge he would put your picture on it with a very cute magnet.
2.If God had a computer he would put your picture on it for a screen saver and a personalized mouse pad.
3. If God had a Visa Card he would download your picture and smile every time he used it.
4. If God had a car - he would personalize it with your name on the license plate.
5. If God had a restaurant he would name the most exquisite menu item after you.

May we all remember our Thanksgiving's in our lives and remember that God laughs too!

Smiles and Pies

Grandpa Hopkins' hand with Livi

This week has been a really difficult week. It was a roller coaster of many emotions, learning new information about the car accident and heart ache of permanent impacts on my health that impact my future forever.

On Thursday I met with Platoon A of the South Salt Lake Fire Department with the paramedics and the firefighters that rescued me from my car. I will blog about this later. I am waiting for pictures to come. The impact that this luncheon had on me was inspiring. Those men and woman in uniform work under extremely dangerous circumstances and they are truly heroes and need a huge pay raise - in my opinion.

Thursday was my Dad's birthday. He has had a father's impact on my life and heart and I decided to bake him a chocolate pecan pie. This was a huge accomplishment for me. It included cool whip and raspberry puree. My Dad has always been the silent quiet type. He has been a huge example of service in heart stretching ways. Military service - he is a veteran and helped everyone with the cars, planes and cleaning chicken coops name a few. Well the pie was a hit. Happy Birthday Dad - thanks for being there for me through this heart wrenching 5 months.

Small impact huge impression in my heart. Today I went to my parent's ward due to my Marathon brother in law R - receiving the priesthood. Damon and I both received a huge heart warming welcome and I know that they really supported my parents and family during this last 5 months. The most heart touching for me was to see the Primary Kids that I worked with last year. All of them came up and gave us hugs and told us about Thanksgiving Plans and what was going on with school. It was a neat experience to think that not only did we teach them but they taught me about how strong their spirits are and how much we can learn from the children and what a great example they are to me and after a long week, I gathered strength from their smiles.



May we recognize the father's and father figures in our lives, may we remember that an impact sometimes isn't seen until later and that smiles can bring strength.

Answers

Sometime answers come through others. I think that one of the purposes in this life is to search for answers. Sometimes the answers we receive are to help others on the path of this sometimes crazy life.
One of the answers that came to be in a round about way was all of the people that I have met due to the car accident. There were so many people that open up their hearts and touched my life in a way that I never thought was possible. Who knew that I would find a friend that share my interest in having "dog children" or a champion horse rider that would get me back up on the "saddle of life" in walking! Or a RN nurse that flew with me in the Air Med helicopter and "flew" right into my heart with the challenges that she has overcome as well.

Sometimes the answers never become resolved. Possible they never will. I think that these are the most heart -wrenching and the most difficult for me.

In watching Marie Osmond this week it hit me and it hit me hard. (Yes when doing crafts galore I have Oprah on in the background!) She said, "If we live in the "what if's" - we stop living."

May we recognize answers and may we all live.

Foot

Today my sister Sophie and I spent what felt like an eternity at the orthopedic center at the University of Utah hospital. Here is the news.... my foot probably had breaks in it, that were not seen on any of the x-rays because they were small. They grew together in the wrong placement therefore making me walk on the right side of my right ankle. You may wonder - wow how do they correct something like this? Tomorrow bright and early I am going to get a CAT scan of my foot and then most likely bring on surgery number 12. Yep that is right more surgery.

If you do not laugh than you cry.

Tonight I had the experience of going to out to eat with a dear friend K that I met at Health South. She had to come back to Utah and go to surgery. It was great to see both of us out of our wheelchairs. Here is to transportation Mark, the nurses, PT & OT and the best Chinese Food! Good luck and thanks for visiting.

May we all laugh.

Little Things

We had an opportunity to adopt Mazie Mae from our dear friends M & J. She has added a lot of work in owning a little puppy but her and Ella get along very well. It is great to see Ella play. Mazie loves ice and will stand by the ice machine and push the ice around our hard wood floor and chase it. It brings me a smile to watch how a little thing of ice, can bring her happiness.

Damon and I went to St. George to get some sun. Of course he had to watch a little thing of a BYU football game and since they won. He was happy and in a good mood. It was good to get away for a while and I didn't take any wheelchair with me!

We ate dinner with my sister-in-law Shantel - she told me a little thing of one of her students asking how to spell happiness. It was great to spend time with her and to laugh.

Ask my sister Sophie Lofie - Does a little thing of fast food cause pregnancy?

One little thing with ten little fingers and ten little perfect toes - has wrapped herself around my heartstrings and not a second goes by that I don't think about her in fact it has been 120,096.00 little seconds and each second my heart beats with teardrops because she is not in my arms such a tiny little thing has taken up all of my heart.

May we all recognize the little things of life.

Dancing

I recently came across a quote that stated, " Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... it's about learning to dance in the rain."

To be honest there are days in which I just wish for the storm to pass. It feels like time has ended and - it didn't ask my permission to do so. Everything that I planned has now had to take a detour and I am not good with detours.

Halloween came. I had a dream that I would dress Livi up and be able to take lots of pictures and celebrate our first Halloween together. I was left feeling cheated. Cheated in the fact that everything including my body was destroyed and no one warned me or informed me that changes would happen.

Ankle - you would not believe how much your ankle holds your foot and allows you to move and walk correctly. My ankle was broken in three places with compound fractures - meaning the bone was coming out in three places. Now I am walking on the side of my ankle due to the plates and screws and the hardware and this is probably how I will walk for the rest of my life. This causes pain every night when I go to bed - I have muscle spasms in my ankle and my foot. I am not sure if I will ever Dance again.

Storm - I have dealt with many storms. One of the hardest storms is that I carry physical scars that are tied with heartstrings. Every time I see the scars on my legs, knees, ankle and tummy I physically carry with me the memory of Livi ripped from my body with no memory of this happening. Each day I see the scars and I think - not only are these scars but they are scars etched in my heart.

Damon and I went to visit Livi for the first time. I have not been ready before. It was good to go with my rock - Damon. We had time to contemplate and be with our daughter. It was peaceful and it gave me comfort that Livi is buried close to one of the Grandmothers she is named after. As I stood there - leaves where dancing in the wind and the sun was shining and it was a beautiful fall afternoon. I choose to bask in the sunlight and remember the happy times of the memories that I had with Livi and my Grandmother.

May we all Dance.