Saturday, December 31, 2011

Brent's Accident {pt 1}

Wheew what a whirl wind I feel like we have been through the past 2 weeks.
Tuesday December 20th Brent was in a car accident that involved a deer. He was on his way to a job site in his company truck with his wireline truck behind him that his helper was driving. He was on a two lane highway pretty close to home, the car in front of him hit the tail end of the deer and the deer propelled over that car and landed in Brent's windshield. The deer was dead thank goodness but it still caused a lot of damage to Brent and the truck. Brent doesn't remember much about it, he does remember slamming on the brakes. His helper, Travis behind him saw it all. He says once the deer hit Brent he swerved onto on coming traffic, swerved back, ramped a pile of logs and was a few feet away from landing in the pond. He ended up in the ditch instead. Brent got out of the truck screaming, he was covered in deer blood and guts. 911 was called and he was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Travis called me and I was still at home with Lucas, we hadn't left for work/school yet. Travis was very calm and told me Brent only had a scratch on his eyelid and I honestly didn't think it was that bad so I went ahead and took Luke to school and headed to the hospital. I will never be able to think Travis enough for that.
I met the ambulance at the hospital and I then realized how bad it really was. He was covered in wires and tons of blood, his eye lid was split in two right up the middle and his clothes had been cut off of him. I didn't know what to say,do, or think. He was barley talking but they assured me he would be ok. His bosses and coworkers filter in and out of the tiny room all morning and Casey one of his co-workers stayed with me throughout it all, again I will not be able to ever thank him enough for doing that. They did a CAT scan and X-rays and concluded he had a couple of eye fractures and a fracture in his nose also and his eye lid would require the hands of a plastic surgeon. We stayed in the ER room until around 1:00 we were then released to go to the plastic surgeon's office. So we (Casey, my fil, and I) take Brent to the Dr. Bias' office. We get in and he gets his eye lid sewn up and we are told to come back in a week to get the stitches out and the fractures will heal on their own.
We go home and Brent sleeps for the next day he wakes up and is in some pain but most of the pain occurs when he is asleep and he can't stay asleep because the pain wakes him up. We try a few different pain meds and nothing helps much and the pain is progressively getting worse. He is also in a lot of pain when he moves his left eye to the right. Christmas came and went and Brent did a wonderful job being "present" for Lucas but he really over did it. Everyday since Christmas his pain has gotten much worse. This last Wednesday we go to see the doctor that put in the stitches to have them removed and for a follow up. His eyelid healed up perfectly and in time the scar will probably fade almost completely away. Brent told him about the pain and about not sleeping. Dr. Bias said it was nothing to worry about and prescribed him more pain meds. Brent is very wise and told me to schedule him an appointment with a eye surgeon here in town.He could tell something was not right. I had it scheduled for the same day and a few hours later we went to see Dr. Renner.
Dr. Renner spent 3 hours with Brent running tests and analyzing all his symptoms. To conclude that his eye was much worse than we knew. He wanted us to go to a surgeon in Little Rock that specializes in Brent's problem.
The appointment was made for Friday. He sees Dr. Brock and what has happened is his eye nerve is being squeezed in the fracture and that is keeping him from moving his left eye to the right. It will not heal on it's own and he will have to have surgery to fix it. His pupils are also different sizes and there is nothing they will be able to do for that. Not the news we wanted. But Dr. Brock has done a bunch of these surgeries and has a 100% success rate. There are risks and things could end up much worse than it is right now but we are praying all goes well and he will be back to normal after the surgery.
Surgery is scheduled for 12:30 on Tuesday. It will be an hour long surgery, it is invasive, they will have to completely put him to sleep and they will have to move his eye to get to where they need to be to fix things. I almost cannot stomach the thought. I have cried my fair share of tears and I am trying my hardest to be strong for Brent and keep life as normal as possible for Lucas. Tuesday is going to be a very long day and the 2 weeks after that will be hard as well. We will then go back to Little Rock and if all has healed ok maybe he will get released for work sometime soon after. He may even still have to go to a neurologist after all this is over for some nerve problems in the eye.
A few pictures of the accident, they are kinda graphic.
I always try and see some positive in the sometimes awful things that life throws at us. I will say I have learned a lot about myself and about my marriage and how strong it can be when it needs to be. How good Lucas is when he knows we are hurting. How few family and friends really step up when you really need them. And how so incredibly grateful I am for the few that have. And we have some really great co-workers all of that has helped me get though the day to day. I cannot tell you how hard some of the easiest tasks have been and how I will never take my strong and healthy husband for granted again. I will also never let a friend going though a hard time without doing something to help. I am so grateful God gives us trials and hard times to learn in.
Please keep us in your prayers on Tuesday.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Weekend Round-Up!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I sure did, spent a lot of time with my 2 favorite guys and a little bit of time with the girls, couldn't have been better!



Friday I hosted a "Favorite Things" party, It's kind of like Oprah's favorite things show, but not!ha!



I invited 8 ladies and had them bring 7 of their most used or favorite thing/item/product.
We had quite the assortment and it was really a lot of fun! I had us play some games and we ate snacks of course and got to catch up. It was nice and different than your run of the meal dirty santa party. I am planning on doing it again next year!



My view from my spot on the couch, Love my tree!

Also my new Tano came in this weekend, it is the "Shopper" style I am usually a "Boogie Bucket" girl but thought I'd try something new :) I love the mix of black and brown, I have a real phobia of wearing black and brown together but this bag is gorgeous and I think I could get out of that mind set! ha!




I got gifted some old mason jars so I washed them up this weekend, I just love mason jars can't wait to do something with these.




Saturday we got all bundled up to go ride the train at the park, well I guess everyone in the tri-county had the same idea because when we got there the line was all the way though the park! It would have been at least a 3 hour wait I could not believe it so we went and did the next best thing Chick-fil-a and Toys r us! Lucas went to sleep on the way home he was so worn out!


Sunday we cleaned out the garage so I can park my new baby in out of the cold ;)


We also did a ton of eating this weekend, o my word! I am fattening us up big time but I made the best potato soup EVER! And it was so easy!


Potato Soup

8 potatoes

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

1 onion

salt

pepper

3 tablespoons of minced garlic

1/2 block of cream cheese

and some seasoning salt


Peel and cube your potatoes and put them in the crockpot with your water, broth, cut up onion, garlic, pepper, salt, and seasoning salt. Let all that cook on low for ehhh 6 to 8 hours.

Then I took my hand mixer and kind of pureed the mixture and added the cream cheese. Let it cook down for about 30 minutes and your done!

SO GOOD!

We garnished with bacon crumbles and cheese.


Have a great week!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tidbits for Thursday!



  • Whoa am I really posting a tidbits post, it's been so long!



  • We have SO much going on right now it is nuts! I am trying my hardest to slow down this season but it just doesn't seem possible.



  • Lucas had his Christmas program at school Monday night and O My Word, I die of the cuteness of his little class! He did so good dancing and "playing" the guitar I was so proud :)



  • We still need to go and ride the Christmas train in town, see Santa, and go light looking the days are just going by so quick! I'm hoping to get to all that this weekend O and our Christmas pictures got to do that this weekend too!



  • Are you exhausted yet? I tell ya....



  • Friday I am having a "Favorite Things" party for some of my special girlfriends. I can't wait, I have some fun stuff planned! I will most definitely have to report back about how that goes.



  • I found these pictures that Brent took a few weekends ago, I am really loving having a good camera to capture things.











  • Our weekend trip to Branson could not come soon enough! I cannot wait to get away and really enjoy the season.


Monday, December 5, 2011

The {White} Sofa

*disclaimer*
Lately I feel like all I talk about on here is possessions, but with a 2 year old and a full time job its not like I am going to lavish parties or vacations and in light of trying to keep things not to personal around here all I am left with is fun stuff so that is that :)

Sunday I did the all dreaded couch washing! I was only dreading it because I had heard that once the covers were washed and dried they were really hard to get back on Oh and the fact that we wouldn't have a couch to sit on for a whole day, O the horror!!
But Sunday Brent had to work so I thought what the heck Luke and I can watch movies in bed all day, once I realized that I was ready to get going with it and so I did. 3 loads of of slipcovers, a whole morning and huge mess later I had a clean and great smelling couch again. nice.



I will tell you what I did in case you have a sofa like mine or are planning on getting one, Oh who are we kidding so I can remember how I did so I will know next year when I do this ;)
I can only get 3 of the slips in my washer at once so it took me 3 loads I did not wash the bottom corner cushion because it never gets sat on and most of the time has blankets piled there. I washed them on cold and delicate with regular laundry soap and a scoop of OxiClean. I also dried them on low for about 40 minutes and took them out while they were still damp so I could get them back on the cushions easier. They came out great! And the best part they are clean I cannot tell you how happy that makes me feel, a clean smelling grimmy free couch is priceless to me, I am in love again!

Here she is all dressed up for Christmas!



The red pillows are 2 Christmas napkins hot glued together and I stuffed one of my "everyday" pillows inside, I didn't want to have Christmas pillows to store but I wanted the look so there ya go I made both of them for $4! The red throw is Lucas' he got at his baby shower, one of my mom's friends made it for him it stays in his room during the year but is the perfect color for Christmas time!











Then there is my wal-mart poinsettias, this is my first year to have real poinsettias at Christmas. I had always thought that they were so poisonous to cats and dogs (like if my dog stiffed them they would kill over) but come to find out an animal would have to eat a ton of the leaves and neither my cat or dog are interested in eating flowers so I can have poinsettias that makes me happy too!






All this decorating is not in vain I am having my very own "Favorite Things" party this Friday! I am very excited and cannot wait to see how it goes!






That is it for now,

talk here soon!


Thursday, December 1, 2011

{Currently}



Obsessing over: Baking, boots, Christmas, my new Tahoe....

Working on: Favorite Things party, learning new things at work, Christmas gifts....

Thinking about: babies: all of them my current ones and future ones.....

Anticipating: Date night with my husband tomorrow, lots a Christmas parties, our Christmas trip and Christmas Day with my boys...

Drinking: Cranberry Sierra Mist :)

Wishing: for things to go as planned ha!....