Camp Hawkins

This Summer i had the privilege to volunteer at a wonderful camp for children and siblings of kids with Congenital Heart Defects. Camp Hawkins. It was named after one of my heroes Dr. Hawkins. He is the surgeon who preformed all but one of Jaxsten's open heart surgeries. He passed away from Pancreatic Cancer a few weeks before camp. Seeing all those special kids enjoying camp (because of him) was such a great tribute to a great man.

It was so much fun watching these kids enjoying life. It was the highlight of my summer. They are all so special. It was fun meeting new friends and parents of kids with CHD. The volunteers were some of the neatest people. Jaxsten keeps talking about his buddies at Camp Hawkins.

One of the neatest things was watching Jaxsten and Trey. When Jax was born and awaiting his first surgery at PCMC. I met one of my dearest friends Robbie (Trey's mom). There was 4 HLHS kids all there at the same time. All of us moms grew so close that month. Robbie was one of the moms and we have stayed in touch. When the boys turned one we had a big birthday party together. Then we all went to the Zoo together. It had been a while since the boys had seen each other. It was amazing to me how they immediately acted like long lost buddies. It was fun seeing these two boys that were at one time fighting for their lives together, now enjoying each others friendship and comparing battle scars at Camp!!
I can not wait until we get to go back next year!!

Summer 2011

We started off the summer at a fun family reunion with my mom's family to Pirates Cove. A fun little place between Vegas and Hoover Dam in Nevada. We had sooo much fun. My kids have not quit talking about it. We always have so much fun with them. My mom needed the trip realy bad. She had just completed her battle with chemo. She was diagnosed a year prior to the trip with stage 4 Colon Cancer. I think the trip did her some good. We did alot of swimming of course, went to Hoover Dam, visited and enjoyed the company of a wonderful family. We were all missing Grandma and Grandpa and everyone else who could not make the trip. We will see ya all next year!!

Summer

Last summer one of my biggest fears for Sayler happened. Because of her Autism she has no fear and doesn't seem to understand consequences. Sayler was hit and run over by a motorbike. Tyler and I were getting ready for the 24th of July cleaning up the lawn. Sayler loves to ride on the lawn mower with me. Of course the noise is too much so she keeps her hands on her ears the whole time, but she seems to enjoy the ride. The bags had gotten full so I pulled over to Tyler hoping he could help me hurry to dump them. Sayler and I got off. I started to help Tyler and Sayler took off running across the road over to the neighbors to play with the gravel in his driveway. Just as we started dumping I heard a motorbike headed up the road, so I sat the bag down and started for Sayler. I new I wouldn't make it to her so I yelled for her to stay there. I think with me yelling and the loud noise of the bike scared her so she tried running across the road. I will never forget what I saw. Every time I think about it I can still see the whole thing replay in my mind. The bike and Sayler met dead on and Sayler was hit and drug over 40 feet. I thought for sure she was gone. When Tyler and I got to her she was unconscious and I could see that her leg was broken, and the top part of her thumb ripped off. What seemed like minutes but I'm sure was only seconds she came too. I called 911 and they took her to the local Hospital where Life Flight had been called. They intibated her there and prepped her to be taken. As we waited and just before they took her Tyler gave her a blessing. A simple one just saying "Everything would be OK, and the Doctors would know what to do to help her". After he was finished they loaded her up and off they flew. Just that fast. I then had a min. to really think about what just happened to my beautiful little angel and I could not compose myself. I thought that would be my last good bye to her. Tyler and I immediately started for Salt Lake. The longest 2 hr. drive of my life. I continued to loose it more and more, as the accident kept re-playing over and over in my head. There was no way she could survive that hit. Tyler kept trying to comfort me telling me that she was going to be OK. I finally turned to him and said "YOU DON'T KNOW THAT! HOW DO YOU KNOW!" He told me it was because he never felt that strong of a spirit before when giving a blessing. I then felt the same calming spirit come over me. When we got to Primarys they immediately took her in for surgery to fix her fractured femur and torn thumb. She was out of surgery and in ICU by the next morning. A very very LONG night. They kept her under that entire day so they could do some testing to see what the internal damage was, but they couldn't find any. The Doctor came in and told us they would extibate her but they were still going to go over the images and tests because there was no way with the severity of her external injuries that there was no internal injuries. I know that the reason they could not find anything is because of our faith in the power of the Priesthood. The only thing they could come up with was a big concussion and the affects of that are hard to say because of her Autism. Her little angel friends were with her that day. Its been a long recovery. She had to go back in for surgery at the begging of this summer to remove the Flex Pins in her leg. She did great!! Her leg still seems to bother her a little at times, but she is a tough little cookie!!

Getting Started

I am finally doing this!! It will just take time to learn how to do this so everyone be patient with me. What a time to start I have so much that has been going on in the last little while. It will take me a couple days to get caught up.
I have to start with my little Sayler and my wonderful world of Autism. Yesterday I was really busy trying to get my house cleaned up and in order. We have been so blessed with allot of moisture this year and because of all the water our basement keeps flooding. I was trying to get my upstairs all together so I can gut the basement. I had my kitchen and front room all spotless, floors mopped and had moved to the bedrooms. After being back there for a min. I walked into the kitchen and Sayler had taken a small bottle of baby powder and sprinkled it all over the kitchen floor. Frustrated I threw the bottle away, vacuumed and mopped the floor again. I then got busy finishing my bedroom. Just as I got busy again I thought I better check on her more frequently. I walked into the Kitchen and again but this time a large bottle of baby powder all over. I mean everything was white!! Wood floor, table, tile, couches, stove it took me another hour to get it all completely cleaned up. I couldn't get mad because I just kept thinking to myself; do it to me once shame on you, do it to me twice shame on me. Yes there is no longer any baby powder in this house.
Today we were outside playing with some friends and enjoying some sunshine. Of course there is no relaxing involved with Sayler running all over the place looking for dandelions to pick. After chasing her around trying to keep her off the road she had finally climbed into the car under the shade. My thought was oh good, this will keep her where I will not have to chase her for a while. I made sure the windows were rolled down and started down the driveway towards the other kids with Kinzee right behind me. Just as I got to the side of the house I seen a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see my car slamming into the side of my house. My heart sunk. Where was Sayler and Where was McKinzee. I ran to the door of the car to see Sayler examining how that just worked but no Kinzee. I was so scared to walk behind the car because the last place I had seen her she would have been hit by the car for sure. I walked behind the back and to my relief no Kinzee. Here she came bopping around from behind the tree " OH NO Mommy, Car!!" I think it took a good hr. for my nerves and heart to get back to normal.