Gotta Take the Good with the Bad

Well, well, well, what crazy adventures have I been up to? Not many lately, but all that I can get my hands on if I can.

Had my catheter and pump removed a few days before I went on Spring Break, and since I was flying away to go see Wesley, they did not want to put a new one in in case I ran into issues with it close to 3000 miles from anyone who had a clue what it was we were doing. That's the downside to being the only one of your kind I suppose.

Anyway, with that no longer a concern at the moment, and after having been confined to my box for over a month, throughout the course of the trip, if I got the chance to do it, I did it. It was one of those 'gonna be awhile before I'm free again' mentalities that leaves you reckless and full of adrenaline....and results in reduced inhibitions, lessons learned,several injuries, and a minor concusion. lol.

Traveled all across North Dakota, Montana, parts of Idaho, and Wyoming, litterally. We had one heck of a road trip, and for never having read a map before, I only made one slight error starting out, and that was easily fixed. Saw so many beautiful sights it was crazy, so much diverse landscape up there. lots of new critters I'd never seen, like antelope...elk...yeah, that was it for this trip. Now all I need to see is a moose and a mountain sheep........not goat...sheep. I want to see a bighorn ram. That would be pretty awesome.

Yes, we started out in Minot, ND, spent the night in Williston, went to two services(we kinda totally missed the first...whoops, thought it started at 8:30). We drove over to Sidney, MT for the second. Probably one of the most powerful services I've ever been to. Really think that Pastor Les was speaking to me (he had no idea Wes and I were coming to service) and that God was trying to tell me what I'd needed to hear through the entire service, from the chior songs to the words of the sermon, I really do believe it was for me. I felt the Lord take hold of me and speak right to me, think half of the time I was in tears, of joy, of frustration, of anger, of not understanding, just everything I needed to get off my chest and had let build up and torment me, it felt like He was saying it was okay, and He really was there for me, to comfort me and show me the beautiful things in my life. That giving up, like I had been, was Satan's easy way out, and with He and everyone else on my side, I could beat him. I really can't describe it like I need to. Wes asked me after what I thought about the service, when I told him I really felt that it had been for me, he nodded and said he'd gotten that impression too and he was glad I'd felt that way too. Also during the service, I met Pastor Greg and his beautiful wife and family that until that day, I'd only met over Skype. We went back to their home and had an amazing luch that D'awn prepared. Outstanding! Had such a great time visiting with them, and their daughters are absolutely precious! They are just an absolutely beautiful family and have the purest of hearts. I love them to death and hope to see them again soon.

After visiting with Greg, D'awn, and their girls, Wes and I hit the road again and drove to Glendive to visit with Susan and Warren. Had a great time with them, wish we'd had more, but we still had a long drive ahead of us before we made it to Billings, which was our 1/2-way point. We stopped and got a motel for the night and in the morning continued on from Billings to Butte. We took the scenic way and headed through some national parks and after stopping in this little town and in this Western store (that I about had a heart attack in because prices were so low and there's no tax....) Wes and I went into this glass shop...oh man, very talented people! Well, after all that, we decided to continue on our scenic journey and go up along the continental divide, of which God timed just right for us to see a magnificent sunset. We made it to Butte just after dark and spent the next few days with Sterling and Angelina. We watched a few movies, went snowboarding, visited the hot springs, did some hiking, and overall, just had a blast.

This was also where I learned that snowboarding is harder than the hard I thought it was going to be. I need a lot more practice. First day, thought I had it alright, was convinced it was easier on the actual slopes, the faster you were going...that the slope was gradual....hahaha, I wish, it quickly became apparent I'd bit off more than I could chew. You can't ride those lifts back down. lol. Convinced it couldn't be that bad, I went with it, and overall did fine. Only fell a handful of times. Wes and Sterling took off after I told Wes he could, because he'd just be frustrated with me falling all the time. lol. Well, got going pretty good, built up some pretty good speed, felt pretty good about myself...then the hill dropped down pretty steep, I thought "s***" and went to go for it...well....one leetle problem...I didn't strap in. I hadn't thought I'd be up so long. I can't get up when I fall unless I unlock my one boot, so with falling frequently, I just left it out of the lock and rode like that, which you can do...not advised, but you can. Well, the very rapid speed I reaching terrified me, my balance got thrown off, my loose foot slipped a little bit and I was down in a big 'spifffff' of snow, the inside of my knee hit the open lock of the board and my entire body weight hit my right wrist as I tried to catch myself, it gave and in protest made a sickening pop. Well, needless to say, it hurt like hell. I got up, walked down to where it was flatter and attempted to ride some more, my knee protested greatly and after three more times of falling and trying to catch myself with my right hand had me convinced that I'd broken it. I'd lost the glove I was wearing which never dawned on me until much later. So, I swallowed my pride and walked down the rest of the mountain carrying my board while people hackled me about how 'you're supposed to ride the board, not walk with it," to which they got a smile and me telling them I was pretty sure my wrist was broken. They hushed really quick and mumbled apologies. Made it down and all was fine. We all headed to the hot springs afterward, and that was nice and relaxing.

The next day we spent kinda lazing about. Wes, Sterling, and I went hiking up a mountain while Angelina was in class. Then we all met back at the house where she was making chili and we both ended up baking some cookies, had a blast. The chili was to die for! Then we all went to their Bible study. That was pretty neat. They were doing a study on names, and at the chance we might have shown up, had included Wes and I too. It was a nice little group, had fun there too. The following day, Wes and I went snowboarding again. I stayed on the bunny slopes, and they kicked my ass harder than the bigger slope. I was getting control really good, hardly ever fell, except off the lift, and almost got it figured out how to stand up. Had a really good run when I saw Wes and another guy on the lift, I waved in the middle, made it at least til they got behind the trees and the speed overthrew my balance again(mostly because I'm not used to it and it's a little scary), and I had an impressive spray and I was laughing, had been exhilarated by it, and ready to give it another go. Well....Wes was watching the second time...I was going down fine, started to build up good speed, and idk, but my board started sliding sideways and backwards into this ridge, enough to put the back, forward edge of my board into the snow the way I had my weight centered, and next thing I know I hit the ground backwards, landing on the base of my skull at the top of my neck, on my back with my head down the mountain, hurt like hell, I know I cussed pretty loud, knocked the wind out of me. I couldn't see straight for about 10 or so minutes, and was pretty nauseous, and for some time I couldn't move. When I finally sat up, the world spun for me for a few minutes which added to my nausea. I was done for the day, I walked down that one too.

Still wasn't feeling too hot when we made it back to the house to clean up to meet up with Sterling and Angelina for dinner. Made it through, had a great time, shot some pool, bowled a few games, and went to bed.

Next morning Wes and I said farewell to Sterling and Angelina, thanked them for everything, and set off for Jackson Hole.

Which became an adventure. See, 511 and the park service claimed the roads were open through Yellowstone...turns out they weren't, we found this out when we stopped in West Yellowstone...the last town right at one of the entrances of the park. We'd based the last leg of this trip on the fact that they would be...the following day, I had to be at the airport by 3:00pm...you can see where this could be an issue. Far too long a trip to go back the way we came, we headed on down to Jackson Hole, taking a detour through Idaho. We only had about half an hour to look at the town, but we got picture in front of the antler arches and walked through a couple art galleries. One of which Wes has been dying to take me to, the photography was absolutely beautiful! He has some pretty darn good taste! We headed out through Grand Teton National Park, which was thankfully open, where I begged Wes to please let us kill 30 min and watch the sun set over the peaks and relax just a little. He had no problem obliging. It was soo pretty. This was where we got to see the elk, hundreds of them, and one big ol' bull elk, he was quite impressive and majestic, took our breath away, we had to use binoculars to see them up close, but you could make out his rack with your eyes, it was that large.

From there we began an impossible drive back to Minot.

The plan was to drive through the night til we reached Billings, stop and rest, and hit the road again. The roads were too icy to attempt in the dark on the mountain grades, so we stopped sooner than we'd have liked, still about 4 hours away from the MT border and a little bit more than that from Billings, which was 8 hours from Minot. It was 10:30pm. We'd have to get up and leave at 3am if we even had a shot of making it, and we were going to be close. after mapping out the route and making sure time worked, and waiting for them to deliver pizza to our room, we got to bed at midnight. 3 hours of sleep, and hardly any the night before from the night out we'd had.

Needless to say, I learned to drive stick the next day...on a hill. Got pulled over 30 min after starting out too, as I was going down a grade, 3 mph faster than I should. grrrr. Had to get going again on another hill and hope not to stall out the car or slide back into the officer's car.

Somehow we made it though, God was kind. Although I did not want to go, almost did not leave, literally. Wes called up Nick asking for his help in reasoning with me that school was important and I needed to finish, since he wasn't sure he could. Well, Nick never answered, so he tried Katie. She didn't answer. Probably good things because Nick told him why not to let me stay, mom and him would be extremely happy for me to be happy, and it's a good thing that Katie didn't answer, because I'd told him I'd sold my car and everything else and that she'd helped me to before I left...lol.

Needless to say, I got back on the plane and am back in FL...have been for a few weeks. Wooo.

Was doing great on pain, I did an upper extremity seminar with DeAnna and TouchBionics for some OT's wanting to learn how to better help patients. It was the first time I'd been able to wear my prosthesis in months. Talk about happy, and it didn't hurt...well, got excited.. then tried to go back to working some...got a ton of stuff thrown at me to accomplish, I tried, but within reason, and had to admit after I was in agony, that I couldn't do it. So I effectively resigned my duties permanently, and will be moving the end of may. Not really as hard a decision as I'd thought it was going to be, but think it's because it's for the better, and I know that.

Anyway, my pain has been manageable...but now it's starting right back up the way it was, my meds are becoming ineffective, and it was bad enough to wake me up the other night and keep me up. I have slept horribly the past few nights because of it. It is an issue as I'm writing this. It is getting worse day by day. And Wesley was right in saying I kinda did it to myself. the strain of working, and getting hurt...again, but I don't want to talk about that, still pretty miffed, but sometimes I really wonder what goes through people's minds. Anyway, that is that, just gotta take the good with the bad.