Friday, June 22, 2012

This is How It Went Down (or maybe I should say, This is How HE Went Down)

Thursday, June 21 -- The sun was setting, it was a beautiful evening, so Potts and I decided to take a leisurely bike ride around the neighborhood. 
I was just ahead of him on Bluffview (just five or so blocks from home) when I heard an “AHHHH!”, a horrible crashing sound, and turned around to see Randy and bike flat on the pavement. Blood was literally GUSHING out of his head. I ran to the nearest house and knocked and rang frantically. It took some time, but an elderly man finally came out in his bathrobe. I probably startled him to death, but asked for a cloth which he immediately procured. 
I was THIS close to calling an ambulance, but bravely decided to take a look at Randy’s head first. I had had some experience with head wounds (after Jenni’s bike crash when she was five, and after accidentally bashing David in the head with a cutting board when he was little) and I knew wounds to the head tended to bleed A LOT! This was a lot more than A LOT, but I told Potts (who miraculously had not blacked out) to keep pressure on his head, raced on my bike home to get the car, leaving him with startled neighbors. By the time I returned, the bleeding was under control.
I drove him to the nearby St. Mark’s Lone Peak Emergency Center and asked, “What in the world happened?”
All that Potts could recall was that he noticed something was amiss with one of the lines to his brakes. He reached under the bars to “fix it” and before he knew it, the handlebars turned sideways, stopping his bike short. He flew over the bike landing face first into the pavement.
Doctor Hunt spent nearly an hour digging gravel and grass out of Pott’s head and scrubbing his wounds clean. Then he deadened them (which about killed Potts off) and stitched his foot (which Potts thinks got ripped on one of the gears) his nose, and what he could of his forehead (much of this was gouged out and their was nothing to stitch.) 
The nurse wrapped him up then sent him to get a CAT scan to make certain nothing was broken. Miraculously he was still all in one piece.
All in all, he was treated in the ER for over three hours. 
I found out that I do not faint at the sight of blood, but I sure got light-headed during the cleaning out and stitching up part.
Potts will be okay. I think it damaged him emotionally more than physically, but we’re giving him loads of love and attention.
(I hesitate to mention that just two days ago while riding our bikes, he ran smack dab into a parked car.) I think I’m going to buy him some body  armor before I let him ride again.
Friday, June 22 -- Randy slept well, but awoke pretty sore. Our children were terrific and gave him loads of attention. Michael brought Smoothies, David and Katie brought pizza. The boys gave him a priesthood blessing of comfort and healing. Emily and Jenni called and cheered him up. Audrey and Matthew came in the evening and brought Frosties from Wendy’s.
It took over two hours to soak the gauze off his wounds. I’ll tell you, that was a labor of love on my part. I hope the worst of all this is over.
Take a look at his smashed glasses. Notice the nose pieces are totally bent backwards!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

AJ for a Week

Emily, Joe, and AJ are living in Boise for the summer. Joe is clerking with Chief Judge Winmill. Having them just six hours away feels a lot better than clear across the country. They were able to come for Memorial Day which was THE BEST!
After the ballgame and food fun, Joe headed back to work in Boise and Emily prepared cupcakes for a friends wedding in Arizona. She left the next day and...
AJ was with me for a whole week! What an easy-going little guy. I don’t know how his parents did it, but he LOVES nap-time and takes two lengthy ones a day. I just laid him in the portable bed, gave him his binky and soft puppy, and covered him with his blanket.  He SMILED at me as if to THANK me! No whining, no fussing. It was unbelievable! Then again, Katie and David’s little Paisley does the same thing. Maybe little ones are just different these days.
Does he ever like to imitate! Here is AJ mimicking Potts’ watermelon-eating face.




We made a visit to Potts’ studio --

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Old Couch

We retired our green leather couch and love seat and replaced them with a nice new set from Costco. 


Lucky for us, Sandy has a clean-up day when we can put nearly anything INCLUDING the kitchen sink curbside to be picked up and thrown away.  So... we put our broken couch by the curb.
I busied myself, as I do weekly, mowing the lawn.  (Potts does the more difficult edging and trimming for which I am MORE than grateful.) As I finished up, I realized that I hadn’t seen Potts for awhile.... 
Well, I found him.  He was curbside, lounging in the old green couch chatting with the neighbor boys. It was a pretty adorable sight. That man will always be a young boy at heart; that's one of the things I love about him.