Happy Birthday Dani Lou!

It has been a good day. Day 49 of Our Adventure.

Kirk has been sore the last few days and as you can imagine, this does not work into his instant recovery very well.  We are one week away from returning to work light-duty and he is really pushing himself to be able to be sitting/standing/walking for more than a few hours at a time.  He will get there, and if you ask me, I think he is doing fabulous!!

 Today is Dani's (our oldest daughter) birthday and we celebrated with her favorite meal of Gnocchi.  For those of you who did not have the pleasure of having an Italian Nonna (grandmother) who taught you some of those amazing old-world recipes....I am truly sorry.  You have really missed out.  Please enjoy the actual aerial view of her Gnocchi, fresh green beans and squash, homemade rolls and homemade apple pie.....













Trust me...it was REALLY good.



She is worth it.  We are so blessed to be her parents.  She is a wonderful daughter, sister, wife, grand-daughter and friend.  We are constantly in awe of her compassion, goodness, intelligence and beauty.  If we are one tenth of what she is...we count ourselves pretty darn lucky.

Dani, Bryn and Kirk at the 2012 Orem City Firefighter's 5K.

Happy Birthday Dani Lou!!!

Shadows

Day 30. Wow! Can you believe it? I sometimes still have to pinch myself to make sure it's real.

Kirk got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card today (he calls being stuck in bed Jail) and was able to take a drive to Northwest Orthotics to have his turtle shell resized. He has lost so much weight that it is not supporting him like it should. I called this morning thinking they would just come to the house in the next few days but they wanted him to come in today!








We have been working with Russ since the night of the accident and he has been wonderful to continue altering the shell so that it fits Kirk perfectly. Thank you, Thank you Russ!












The entire outing took almost an hour and a half and Kirk seemed pretty happy about getting back to his "cell". I even left him alone for a couple of hours (gasp!!) and he lived through it! Good thing that Bryn stopped in to check on him and I am sure she rescued him from certain death.


While Kirk and I were driving back from Provo we were next to a pest control truck that had a picture of a large spider with an even larger shadow. The thought crossed my mind and quickly came out my mouth, "I think the reason people are afraid of spiders is because their shadows are  so big." Kirk chuckled and politely agreed.




As I have continued bustling about today I kept thinking about that spider shadow. Shadows are scary! Think of the most terrifying movie you have seen. Right before the scariest part you hear the heart pumping music, there is major darkness and then......a shadow. I read once that FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. That is a shadow!
Our Adventure has had some shadows. Little shadows. Big shadows. The biggest one is the shadow of the future. We have made so many plans, just like you have, but we really don't know what our future will bring until a little more light appears on the scene. We know this will just take time. That doesn't make it any less scary, but we can handle it. Something about an Adventure.......it is full of excitement!!
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Swagger, Soda and Sis

   19 days since the accident and life at home seems to have found it's groove. We've changed up the ever-changing routine, again, trying to find the happy medium of comfort and pain control by starting the day with a walk.  It was early but we all had a smile on our face, even the dogs.  Kirk is hoping that a wake-up walk will help his muscles stretch back out after a night in bed.  I am hopeful with him. And we will see what tomorrow brings.

   Kirk's favorite, and extremely young, sister Peg came by today bearing a soda and a smile.  Bryn and Dani both got some "Dad Time" today too.  I know it helps his day go by so much faster when someone is there with him.

He is absolutely "desausted" as our niece Haillie would say. He walked a few times tonight stepping up the speed and not looking back. He is facing forward on his recovery and his focus is to get up, get stronger, get well and get back to work.

I read Kirk some of the wonderful comments you have left here, on Facebook and in my email and he is so surprised that he has inspired anyone. "Why would anyone be inspired by a guy who did something dumb and has to work at getting better? Doesn't everyone who gets hurt just want to get better as fast as they can?". Actually, I don't think that is always the case. I think Kirk is an amazing exception.

Bryn and I walked with him this evening. I took the camera along, just incase something would inspire my thoughts tonight. I was walking behind him and noticed the guy has some swagger with that turtle vest on! It's a good thing he had other clothing on or we may have lost him in the camo. He was even able to climb the three steps to he door with no assistance. It is all progress and we will take it bit by bit, piece by piece until the beautiful picture is all put back together.

Patience Grasshopper.....

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