Near death experiences - feel free to share

I feel compelled to keep a record of this event:
Mine is pretty comical now that I look back on it.
Last Friday I decided to take my newly "purchased" bike (bought from my mom in exchange for groceries) for a ride. *Insert disclaimer here: I haven't ridden a bike in YEARS aside from the one other time I rode this bike a few days before. Thus, I was pretty wobbly still.*
I woke up early, got dressed, and headed out the door. I took my ride west on Hwy 20 towards Ft. Robinson. I wasn't really sure where I was wanting to go, but once I got to the turn off for the scenic route for Smiley Canyon, I knew that's where I was headed. I also knew it was a tough ride with most of it being uphill, but I'm adventurous and was feeling pumped and up for the challenge.
Puffing along, a motorcyclist passed me as I was heading up the first hill. He waved. I waved back.
As I got to the top of the hill, and watched the Motorcyclist spook some donkeys with their babies running across the road. I thought, "Maybe I should turn around. I'm not sure how those wild horses (because that's what I thought they were) will react to me riding by." But they looked tame enough and I was on my downhill descent at this point.
I looked off to the south and saw a herd of buffalo grazing about .3 miles off from the road. I didn't even know we had buffalo up here and it didn't dawn on me that I was now riding through "open range" territory. I thought about stopping to take a picture, but my momentum was going strong and I had a steep climb in front of me.
As I neared the what now were recognized as donkeys, I thought again that I should turn around and head back. But fearing I would spook them again & I was nearing the ascent of a large hill, I pushed the thought aside and kept going, thinking to myself that I'd turn around at the top of the hill.
So I did.
I finally made it up the hill and around the bend to a nice stopping point, enjoyed the view for a few minutes while I drank my water and then turned around to head back downhill.
I couldn't see down the hill, because it curved to the right a bit, but when I got around the curve, I could see the donkeys still in their place - they hadn't moved at all. I looked to the south for the buffalo and saw a lone buff standing on a hilltop. I assumed that the rest of the herd had gone over the hill. But then I looked to the north side of the street and wouldn't you know it, there was the herd - about 30 adults and half as many babies, all grazing on the hillside about a quarter mile from the road's edge. A huge red flag went off in my head but what was I to do? I was already cruising down the hill faster than my gears would allow me to pedal & stopping didn't seem like an option at that point. So I uttered a prayer to Heavenly Father asking for safety & kept on.
I crossed to the north side of the street as I passed the donkeys (I had slowed down enough to pedal as I was on flat road now) and then crossed back over to the south side to distance myself a little more from the buffs. I was watching them out of the corner of my eye (don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact) and they were watching me, too - but they didn't turn or anything, just stood still. All of a sudden, just as I had passed all of them, they turned and started running. Not down the hill, but across and down the hill - AT ME! My heart jumped to my throat, my legs started pumping as fast as my gears would allow & with every breath I exhaled I yelled, "Make them stop! Make them stop!" Over and over, I'm yelling to God above, "Make them stop! Make them stop!" I kept looking to my left and they were getting closer.
I saw impending doom as I looked ahead in the road and saw that it was going to start rising into the next hill very soon. In an instant I could see in my mind's eye myself lying in the ditch, trampled & broken with my bike askew & wheels spinning, buffalo grazing serenely nearby (because they're so gentle that way) and no one knowing where I was. I pedaled harder, still calling out to Heaven for some protection.
Just as I reached the point of ascent where I started slowing down, I looked back and just then it was as if a wall was put up and the buffalo made an immediate 90 degree turn (about 100 yards behind me). Gratitude and relief flooded over me and I immediately changed my "Make them stop" mantra to, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
I reached the top of the hill (luckily it wasn't as steep or high as the previous one) and looked back one last time before finishing getting the heck outta dodge!
As I left Ft. Robinson, I passed another cyclist heading toward the Fort and yelled at him, "Don't go up Smiley!" Because, hey, I didn't want his demise on my shoulders should he be trampled by buffalo.
I made it home (scared that the long-horn cattle that were grazing behind the fences as I rode past were going to jump the fence and chase me down) and told Popeye what happened.
I'm sure he thought I was exaggerating, because I have a tendency to do that. It wasn't until I drove him back up there to show him where it all happened that he realized what a precarious situation I was actually in.
I came away from this experience with a deeper appreciation of God's love for me, that He really does command everything that is in this world and that sometimes the Spirit's warnings aren't my own "chickening out" of a hard workout, but an actual warning. I also think, that if I was going to be trampled that I would have heard an audible voice telling me to turn around, you know, like all those stories we read in the Ensign. As I rode away that day, the Spirit confirmed to me that my work here is not done and that work comes in the form of 5 children.
I also learned to take notice of cattle guard locations. And that I will never ride Smiley Canyon ever again.
Do you have a near-death experience? Would you like to share it with us? Feel free.

Grand Duchess' Dog Bite Story

A lot of my blog readers (okay, all of them) are my friends on Facebook. So this low-down is nothing new. However, it has come to my attention that sometimes I have lurkers on my blog that don't get on Facebook that often. (SHOCKER!!!)
So, for them, here is a little low-down of the happenings in the Royal Household this summer.

About a month ago we took a little trip to Denver to visit my mom & dad & to take Mr. Fantastic to the temple to do baptisms there (his first time). It was an amazing experience for him. He had forgotten all of his batteries for his CI (AND the charger) back at home so he was without sound for a majority of the weekend, this included while we were at the temple. After the baptisms were over, we went out in true Royal fashion to eat some brunch. It was pretty good. I think we went to Perkins - nope, Le Peep.
Anyway.


Grand Duchess playing by the pond before dinner on Saturday evening.
 

Later that evening we were cleaning up from dinner. My sister, her fiancée, his 2 kids, my brother, & my parents (along with Popeye and all my kids) were all there. As we were cleaning up, Grand Duchess (who is now 4 1/2, can you believe it?!) walked over to Sarge (my brother's dog) and called him a "smart cookie".  Apparently Sarge didn't like that because he then bit her. None of us saw it. She came running over to me crying & I saw blood. Everywhere. I noticed something in her eye. Thinking it was a piece of wood & that she had been hit by a stick on accident by one of the kids, I reached up and was about to touch it when she yelled out that the dog bit her. It wasn't wood. It was flesh.
I grabbed some napkins off the table and applied pressure. There was so much blood that I couldn't tell to what extent the damage was. I called for Popeye to get some oil - but he didn't have any. So we started to track down my dad who was the only other priesthood holder in the house. Eventually he was found and a healing blessing was pronounced on her. She was blessed that her eyesight wouldn't be compromised but that with the help of the doctors she would be made well again.
My brother was so upset (rightfully so) and all I could do was hug him & tell him that we weren't mad at him, that it wasn't his fault & that Grand Duchess would be just fine. We then rushed to the ER.
There, they cleaned her up a bit & saw that half of her lower eyelid was missing and had a rather large gash in her cheek. There were some superficial scrapes in between the two wounds.
They didn't have the essential equipment needed to operate on her so they sent us to Children's Hospital. (We love Children's hospital!)

Resting before heading to Children's Hospital. Luckily her eyes were closed - her top lashes hide what's missing.
 

There, they doped her up on morphine and she was able to get some sleep. At 7:00 the next morning we got her ready for surgery. The doctors were so nice and clear on everything they were going to do to her. They wheeled her away & I went downstairs for breakfast. This was the first time that I cried. It was the only time I cried, too, for that matter. I was alone with my thoughts and worries (Popeye had gone back to my folks' house to help tend the kids) and the enormity of it all weighed heavily on my Momma Heart.

90 minutes later the surgeons came out. It was a success. He cut a small incision on the outside corner of her eye and pulled the good eyelid across concealing most of the damaged area. He then sutured the rest of her eye (in the inside corner) to form scar tissue so that they wouldn't have to graft from behind her ear. They also put a tube in her nasal sinuses, looped it up through her top tear duct & down through the bottom tear duct then back into her sinuses. This will keep the lower tear duct from closing while it heals - it's kind of like an earring - keep it in for a while then the hole will be there forever. We'll take the tube out in a few months or so. He also stitched up her face - 8 stitches, I believe. I was so relieved!
I got Popeye on the phone and told him to make his way to pick us up. By the time he got there, we were ready to be discharged. I didn't know what it looked like because she had a patch taped to her face.

Heading back to Nebraska.

Once home, we had to put eye drops in 4 times a day and ointment on the incisions. The tape was pretty nasty to keep peeling off her face, so I got some self-adhesive ace bandages and wrapped her eye patch onto her head. She was a little pirate. :) She was such a trooper.
Now we're home. It's a month later & it's been a crazy ride for us. There have been numerous phone calls, an emergency trip to the local opthomologist & a lot of sighing and praying. Her patch is off now. She popped some stitches in her eye and it has healed a bit differently than when we were first released from the hospital. I can see the tube in her eye, the tear duct is no longer on the inside corner but on the lower lid. I'm hoping the doctor will call me within a week to schedule a follow-up appointment to see if he wants to do anything about that.

Can you see that red line on her eye line? That's the popped stitches. You couldn't even see that before.

On top of that, we're moving - again. But I may have said something about that in my last post. Needless to say, we'll be cramped and we will be putting a majority of our things in storage.
Popeye has been testing with Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) and Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP). Last week we found out that MHP is starting his background investigation and he just completed his polygraph exam with MSHP. A few other agencies that would be nice to work for have opened up their hiring process again, so I should expect him to start filling out more applications this week.
Hmmm...
Yep - that's it for now.
Carry on.

Major changes. Again.

About a month ago Popeye came home from his two-week training with the military in Seattle. The next day he was called into the office and was fired. There was no warning. He had no write-ups, no disciplinary actions taken against him, nothin'. This stemmed from the hate of another deputy and instead of attempting to find out what was really going on, his employer just believed the lies and canned his most honest, hard-working deputy.
That day Popeye came home and I could visibly see the change on his face, in his walk, in the way he interacted with me and the kids. He was relieved. He was lighter. He was finally happy.
Happy until the lies continued and then the anger set in. It was easier, it seems, for Popeye to forgive and move on. He did it beautifully. Wrote a small email to the sheriff - never addressing the lies or pointing fingers of blame. Just gave a few words of advice and wished him luck and told him there were no hard feelings.
I, however, am struggling. I get one thought in my head about that man and it snowballs. The thoughts are a barrage of negativity that I can't seem to control. I want to approach him and tell him that he was wrong. I want to tell him that he has been deceived. I want to tell him how I've felt about him since the first time we talked almost 2 years ago. I want to tell him that the reason we continued to have WY plates on the van was not Popeye's doing, but mine. We were under the impression that Popeye was being deployed to Gitmo (remember that post a long time ago?) and that I was going to go back to WY while he was gone. We were anticipating getting a job with Laramie County in Cheyenne - why bother changing plates if we were going back? So I went to Cheyenne and re-registered the van. And bless my husband's heart, he won't let me take the blame. He just accepted the decision. I want to tell Sheriff Karl Dailey that he is an idiot. I want to tell him that a community that has been struggling with law enforcement for years was finally accepting us - was finally accepting Popeye. They like us. They love that Popeye does his job with patience, love & tolerance. They've made changes and they've come up to me and are so sad to see us leaving under these circumstances.
I want to tell that Sheriff that he is wrong. I want to tell him that he is a power-seeking, egotistical tyrant that had a personal vendetta with my husband and he abused that power. I want to tell him so many things. I want to use profanity. I want to yell and scream.
But I can't. It wouldn't change a thing and it would only make the feelings worse for me.
(Let me insert here that legal action is a no-go since Nebraska is an 'at-will' state and Karl could fire Popeye for having blue eyes if he wanted to.)
So on Sunday night, after conference, Popeye sat down with all of us. I have been feeling very over-whelmed with the fact that the money is starting to dwindle away and there isn't any hope of income in the near future. He sat down and recounted the story from the Book of Mormon of Nephi and his family crossing the sea on the ship that he built. He told the kids how Nephi's older brothers had tied Nephi up for 4 days and had threatened anyone who would help him. And because of their actions, they weren't able to get to the promised land right away. He said that our family is the same way. Unless we repent; start being nicer to each other, having scripture study & family home evening, helping happily, etc... then we're going to stay stuck here and we'll never get a job somewhere. 'Tis true, the Spirit confirmed this to me, as well.
After talking with them about all of that, he sat us each down and gave each of us a priesthood blessing. Some of them were sweeter than others, some of them were almost complete chastisement.
Mine was oh so sweet. But I'm having a hard time with it. In the blessing he told me of the truthfulness of the atonement. How the atonement wasn't only for the sins of the world, but the frustrations and anger as well. He counseled me to utilize the atonement so that these feelings can be gone.
I don't know how to do that, though. How do you forgive someone after they've hurt you as badly as they have? How do I keep these horrible thoughts from consuming me? How do I let Christ take over? If anyone has any experience with this, I'll be happy to listen to your counsel.
So we find ourselves looking around us and picking out what we are going to sell. Some of our treasures, some of the things that make us happy but won't get used for years to come - if at all, some of the bigger items that would make moving more bulky but would help to finance it if they sold. The couches will go. My beloved white leaning shelves. My scrapbooking supplies. Armoires. and the lovely knick-knacks that make me happy when I look at them. But I know we should try to get rid of as much as possible.
I don't know where we're going to go. There are only 25 school days left (maybe 23?) and then there will be nothing holding us here and we will move on somewhere. When I find out, I'll let you know.
So.
That's what's going on here. Today we're enjoying a blizzard (Snow Day) which means cleaning and baking. YUM! I do believe I smell some cookies baking right now - Popeye's really good at cookies. I think I'll go have one.
Carry on.

The thing about new years resolutions is I feel I'm setting myself up for failure. Last year I thought I had some pretty weighty - yet attainable - goals. Aw who am I kidding? I've NEVER kept a SINGLE new years goal I've set for myself.
My dad made us make goals when we were little and so from a young age I've proven to be a failure in the goal-keeping department.
That doesn't mean I don't try.
But this year will be different. Oh, don't you worry, I'm not setting myself up for failure this year. No Way! This year I'm not making any hefty goals. I'm making one. One goal that I KNOW I can keep.
....drumroll....

This year I am going to try harder.

That's it. I'll try a little harder at reading my scriptures. I'm going to try harder at fitting into my skinny clothes (which I'm getting there already - ahem, 6 pounds and 6.75 inches in 2 weeks). I'm going to try harder at being a great wife and mother.
I read a blog post (located on my piterest board under 'parenting made easy') recently from a woman who started to belittle herself while walking her son to the bus stop. It was the first time she had done it in ages and at first she gave herself a pat on the back but then the negative thoughts started flooding in. Thoughts such as, "Who are you kidding? One time in months? You're a horrible mother!" After the barrage of negativity she pushed the thoughts away and thought something like, "Yes, but you did it today. And THAT is a drop of awesomeness in your bucket." And then she picked up a marker that was on the floor instead of stepping over it for the umpteenth time - drop of awesomeness. She kept doing those little things (a piece of fruit with her daughter's lunch, running a load of laundry, wiping the counters, etc...) and kept adding to her little bucket of aweesomeness. Well, turns out there's more to this spiritually.
She teaches the young women at her church and asked them to use the medicine dropper to put in drops of awesomeness (water) into a bucket on the table and to get it to fill up. By the end of the lesson, the girls had been coming up with all kinds of awesome things they had done that week but didn't get anywhere close to the top of the bucket. That's where her pitcher of water came into play. She dumped it into the bucket, causing it to overflow (she had the bucket inside a large bowl) and explained that it was Christ filling the bucket for them. He picks up our slack. :) I LOVED that.
So. This year's resolution is to try harder to fill my bucket of awesomeness. And then I'll let Christ fill it the rest of the way up and we can be a team!

On that note, it's time for me to wake up the munchkins and get them ready for school.
Have a wonderful week!

Christmas in the Royal House

This year we got an elf assigned to our family from Santa. Her name is Trixie. The first day she came, the girls were quick to point out that she needed a skirt. So I went downstairs and whipped that little number up for her and set it on the window next to her.

 

 

We left for the afternoon and came home to find her attempting to make another skirt. She sure did make a mess of my sewing area. I knew from that moment on that we needed to learn patience a little more since she didn't clean up after herself.

(She had already moved on when I took this picture.)

 

 

She was a very mischievous elf.

She baked cookies.

 

 

She went on a date with Ken.

 

She undecorated our Christmas tree.

 

She decorated a smaller tree isntead.

She had a marshmallow roast over a candle.

 

Some other things she did was clean up the girls' room and hide in their stuffed animals, go for a joy ride on the tricycle, stacked the kitchen chairs, turned our milk green (the kids were convinced they would receive some of her magical powers if they drank the green milk).

It was a lot of fun for the kids and for Popeye and myself.

 

The next few pics are of the kids before their Christmas concert.

 

 

Their performances were fun to watch AND listen to.

 

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Our family was sponsored by Toys for Tots again this year so what was going to be a rather meager Christmas turned out to be a fun morning. Popeye bought me a new beater for my kitchenAid - it has a built-in scraper on it (LOVE!). He also bought me my first gun - a .22 rifle. I can't wait to go shoot it. He took it to work that night and cleaned it for me.

I ended up getting Popeye a bike trainer and a new stereo for his jeep. He was really wanting a new puppy, but I couldn't bring myself to go down a puppy-training trail.

It was a fun, quiet Christmas spent performing random acts of kindness to strangers. we were trying to do as our Savior did and bring people closer to Him through our actions.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I pray that 2013 will bring us all some excitement and peace and happiness!