A Day in the Life...

Tim tried a new treatment the other week called Accousana. It's a type of shock wave therapy. This little machine sends volts of electric shock through this tube.  It only recognizes where damaged tissue is, so when she tried it on my hand I couldn't feel a thing. But when it hits areas that are damaged, it hurts. The shock sends oxygen and increased circulation to the area, which decreases inflammation and sets an environment in which the area can heal itself. Tim had to rank on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad the pain was in any one area, then she would crank up the voltage until he couldn't handle it anymore. So... it's a really painful treatment. But, after the initial time (which lasted about an hour), he had decreased pain overall and increased mobility. He went almost a whole weekend without pain meds, so it was a win. He's signed up for eight more treatments. The goal is to get increased length of pain-free days, and when he hits about 90% pain free, the remainin...

 My uncle Lee died last week.  He's my aunt Barbara's husband, who is my dad's sister. She died in 2016 and I think he finally reached a point where he didn't want to wait any longer to be with her. I have about one billion memories of my aunt and uncle.  They were who we spent every single holiday with, summers with, winters with. My mom was exactly right when she shared that Lee and Barbara opened their homes and hearts to our family and treated us all like we were their children. I have soooo many memories of their home in Sandy. My mom and dad, Shandee, and Ty and I all went up to see him before he passed. I realized that while I don't mind death, I certainly don't enjoy watching someone die. It actually made me regret all the years since I've been married and had kids not going and seeing him and Barbara more. I wish my girls could have gotten to know them. They were funny and loving folks whose hearts ran deep. Some memories of my uncle: One year for C...

 This is not a phenomenal picture but it is cool. Yesterday morning at 6:30 Dakota and I went to Smith's; it's stayed darker in the mornings later and later, and when I pulled into the complex I couldn't believe the silhouette of the mountains. So I stopped and took a picture. I wish the parking lots lights had all been off.  Oh well. Isn't it so beautiful? It'd be so weird if we weren't' surrounded by the tallest reminders of God, right? I took yesterday and today off of work. My sister and I went shopping and I bought these darling little bowls. I think they are maybe five inches across, so they're small. I decided we'd have soup week and eat soup every night. I didn't make dinner last night, but tonight we started off with cheesy potato and ham. In homemade bone broth. Delicious. We got home late last night and I told Micah to go change into PJs and brush her teeth... then I found her like this.... I took off her shoes but otherwise that's...

I think it's fair game to put up Halloween anytime after August ends. We love Halloween, so we've already dug right in. We went to Halloween Spirit to look at everything Halloween, tried on masks, and tried to scare each other with the crap they have there. Kota decided she wanted to be a cowgirl so she got this hat. Easy peasy- throw on some jeans and a bandana... Micah used her own money to help buy this Gremlin costume because that's how much it matters to her.  Copper tried on all sorts of stuff but walked away empty handed because we found Harry Potter stuff for significantly cheaper online... I spray painted some vases and empty bottles for my Halloween mantle, which I think turned out pretty great. I had piles of stuff to give to the DI because I wanted a different look. I didn't take a picture, but Micah snagged all of it and put it in her room... Bring on fall weather, hoodies, heaters on my feet, soup for dinner, and Halloween...  

We've spent long and short weekends camping. It's so much work and so worth it. This last time we went with our friends, Stewart and McKenna and their kiddos. Micah and Stewart fished...