August 

What a month!

The first day of August was our official moving day. We got the keys a few days earlier and rented a U-Haul to move in the plants and yard furniture and boxes from the garage. The moving truck came on the 1st and we moved all of the house things in.

The first night of having the keys, before our moving truck came, Jessi and the kids and I stayed the night on the floor of our new living room.

Three days later, John, my Dad and son John were working in the shop making room for our trailer to fit in.  The shop has a second floor storage space that needed to come down for the trailer. John was on a ladder and fell about 15 feet onto the concrete floor. He had to be transported by ambulance to OHSU Trauma ICU. He had two skull fractures and two bleeds on his brain. He stayed 4 nights in the ICU. He was sent home for a day, but his headache was so bad that I was told by the hospital to get him back in for another CT. It showed more swelling, so he had to be taken again by ambulance to OHSU and stay another night in the ICU. The pain in his head was horrible for weeks. Slowly it has gotten better. He finally will eat and can sleep pretty well at night. After 6 weeks, he can do most things, but has zero energy.  That is frustrating to him because he has so much to do around the new place. 

Jessi insisted that I not go home to sleep. The kids had notes for Grandpa on my pillow when I arrived. I was checking on texts and looked down at the foot of my bed and there was my sweet audience.

John (son) had a friend, Vinnie, from Salem that came up and helped the guys get the shop finished and they moved the trailer in for a surprise for his Dad when he came home. It was a huge burden off me to know that it was all done.

The kids had welcome signs posted for Grandpa's arrival.

John's progress each day. I think the biggest challenge for me was trying to get him to eat.

Dennis made two trips up to check on his Dad's progress.

I am so thankful for my kids and parents for all their help through this time!  Offers from friends and family have been sincere and I would have asked for help if I had needed it, but these guys came through so well, I didn't need anything more. 

Two other huge jobs that we knew would be a temptation to John once he was home was removing the awning from our patio and tearing down an old tractor shed. The kids all pitched in, along with my Mom and Dad and we got it done. I just didn't want to risk John going out there on his own and having another accident with this one barely healing.

Before and Afters

The last two weeks of the month, Jessi had to return to the school for work, so we had the kids here with us. We did the annual school clothes shopping, took Arianna birthday shopping and played here a lot. Below is where I found my rubber spider... the kids keep me jumping.

Josiah has been doing all he can to help Grandpa around the place, mowing, weeding, and bringing in the trash cans. 

Years ago, I took a class at the college and grafted a pussy willow and gave a start to my parents. They planted it out back by their swimming pool, which is now their fish pond area. Last winter, it split and fell in two directions, but not all the way to the ground. It was broken and leaning in awkward places against a fence and there was no way that it could be taken down by my Dad, even with help. He ended up hiring a team to come out and remove it. They had to bring in a special lift to get to it. It provided good entertainment for all of us, but left a huge gap where it had been.

Great Grandpa gave the kids tractor driving instructions which was a huge hit!

Arianna turned 10!!!

One evening while cooking dinner, I noticed a lot of water on the kitchen floor. I tracked it down to the faucet leaking. With John all laid up with a cracked skull, it was up to me to unhook it for him to see if it could be fixed. Of course the whole thing was sealed up and could not be fixed, so I drove to Home Depot and bought a new one, came home and installed it!  Myself! He provided moral support and I even let him check if I had everything tightened up enough, but I could not allow him to do the job he hates the most in his condition. Even if he did like plumbing, that is not where his fragile head should be, under a sink like that. Besides, I was pretty proud of myself and I really did not like that old faucet anyway!

The kids had one last adventure with me at the water slides. It was so fun! Lina was afraid to try it at first, she really gave it her all the first two times she made it part way up the stairs and came back down. After watching the other two a couple of times, she finally made it down all by herself. From there on out, I could not get her to stop.

John finally felt good enough to try eating out. We met up with my parents at the golf course and enjoyed a nice view of the mountain while we ate.

Sunrays through the sprinkler.

One of the prettiest sunsets I have seen, right from my own front yard!

We are in the final weeks of waiting on our new addition!!!

Last January when we left Africa early because of the plane accident, we expected that would be the end of Africa. But Roane Travel has been amazing to us through all of it. First off, with all of their help in getting me home asap when we received the horrible news. They sent a gift basket of cookies with their condolences. Later, they informed us that instead of just writing off the rest of our trip, they would give us credit to return and finish. They did not have to do that because we had not purchased travel insurance. At first we didn't think so, but after thinking it over, we decided to try it again in the fall. We booked for September. When John fell, I figured we would have to cancel. But the doctor has given the go ahead with travel for him. She felt that it would give him something positive to look forward to and that it would not hurt him at all to fly. So next Tuesday, we board a plane to Tanzania! John does not do well flying under normal conditions, so I am praying that he can handle it with the added head problems. Once there, he can relax and recover with no yard work calling him to get outside. 

Tanzania here we come!