chinese fortune

Well I'll start by saying Happy Birthday Hollan!! Today we went to lunch with Hollan and Ady for Hollan's birthday. We went to the chinese place here in town. Isn't their little boy so cute!! We pretty much adopted him as our nephew, so we are now aunt tara and uncle rick. Well while we were there Rick picked a fortune cookie and his fortune read, "All your hard work will pay off soon." Okay so I don't believe in anything like fortune cookies, but hey we're going to take that one and believe it!! We'll take anything we can get!!

Rick has been doing awesome! We have to drive to Provo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for therapy. Everytime we go it seems like Rick is getting stronger and he can do stuff better and better. On Friday he got from the laying down to sitting up much better then he ever has, and his reflexes in his legs are getting stronger. Rick you are awesome!! I know your hard work will pay off soon, and it well be so exciting!!

So we all have trials to learn things, this is a well known fact. As we are going through are trial, it's amazing what I am learning. The first and most definite one is how much my faith has grown. This would be the scariest thing to go through if I didn't have a knowledge of this church and of blessings. Another thing I've been learning, is how to ask for help. Before this I asked for help with little things, but it really is humbling to ask for people's help because I feel like I should be doing this all by myself. Which I'm learning I don't have to do. It's still hard at times, but I think we're both getting better at receiving help and asking for it. I'm also learning what an amazing person Rick is. He faces this trial with his head up and he does everything he can to get through this. I knew he was amazing the day I married him, but this really has opened my eyes just how amazing he is. We all have good days and bad days, but Rick just keeps fighting through and he never looses his faith. I can't even imagine what it feels like to be him right now, but yet he keeps smiling and making everyone laugh. Rick you are my hero!!!!

Hopefully our house is getting closer and closer for us to move into. We are so excited! Our house is going to be incredible! We're going to have a beautiful house, incredible neighbors, the biggest miracle we'll probably see when Rick is healed, wonderful friends and family, and the list goes on and on!! Everything is good.

Well I haven't wrote for a while and like always I have great news! We went to a follow up doctor appointment on Friday with our neuro doctor. The actual doctor wasn't there but we met with his assistant who is also a neuro doctor. He was so surprised when he saw Rick. He said from the report that he got he expected Rick to not be able to do tons of the stuff that Rick can. Typically a C6 injury, which is what Rick has, shouldn't have any triceps or wrist movement. While the doctor was sitting there talking to Rick, Rick was grabbing his mug and taking a drink and moving his arms all over the place. The doctor said he could tell the way Rick was moving he's getting his triceps back and he can do tons of movement with his wrists. When Rick told him he tingles all over, the doc said that was a sign of nerve regeneration. So pretty much it was an awesome visit, because FINALLY a doctor agreed with us that he is getting things back, and the way Rick tingles the doc said it sounds like he will get it back everywhere(Which we already knew) but it's good to hear from someone else. He did say it takes a long time, nerves come back about a milimeter a day, but we think Rick's is going to come back a lot faster. It already has!! After our visit with the doctor we went and visited our physical therapists Shane, and we found out we start therapy again this wednesday. We're excited, it will be so good to have Rick start doing stuff with his legs and everything again. When Rick works his legs with Shane they sure do twitch and move after, and they still do but not nearly as much as when he works with him. So we're excited! Lots of driving for us, but we think it's totally worth it.

This weekend all of Rick's family came to visit. It sure was fun to see everyone again. We went from seeing them everyday to well... not. So it was really fun just to hang out and visit. Rick and I have an awesome family! Which we need it! It's funny because one day we can be in such high spirits and the next day we both feel like breaking down. But our wonderful family and friends sure do help pull us through. And the fact that we know this is just temporary sure does help.

Just a second ago I was rubbing Rick's back and I swear he's getting more feeling. He says he can't tell if it's moving but I think it is. Everyday it seems like it keeps getting bigger, we should get a marker and mark it everyday. I love seeing the improvements in Rick it is so exciting!!

We're home!!!

Well we finally made it home. We moved out of the hotel this morning and moved back into our little house, and it feels great! Our stuff is still all over the place, and I have a feeling once I get everything put where it goes it will be time to pack it back up and move into our new house. But I'm okay with that because at least we're not living out of a one room hotel or hospital anymore.

The exciting news of the day, is that Rick got more feeling!! In his lower back on his left side below his rib cage, there's a little spot that was tingling alot last night and today he can feel it!! It's so amazing to see the improvements that Rick makes every day, and it really is EVERY day!! His physical therapist worked with him today and said he felt stronger today and it seems like every time he works with him he says that. His whole body tingles, and it seems like right before he gets feeling somewhere it tingles stronger. It's so comforting and reassuring to me that he tingles everywhere, I already know all his feeling and movement will come back it's just so nice to have that to always remind us.

Rick just commented on how nice it is to be back in his recliner, and I have to say he looks great in it! He looks right at home which is where he should be. When I think of all the blessings that me and Rick have it is so overwhelming! Even simple things like us being back home and Rick being in his recliner is a blessing. Whenever I start getting sad or bummed out from our situation, it takes just a minute to realize we have so many blessing and there is no reason to be sad. We have a wonderful family, friends, a new house, a wonderful community, ward, neighbors, Rick's getting healthier every day, and of coarse each other. I know that this is all sounding corny and cheesy, but somedays you just need to realize all your blessings and just be thankful.

Rick workin at the houses, helping with insulation

Rick and his wonderful therapists Shane and Andy
Well this weekend was a good one!! On saturday me and Rick had a bbq for everyone at the houses. They've done so much for us, that the least we could do is cook them one good lunch. Rick's parents helped us out a tons and barbequed the meat for us and helped set everything up, and we just hung out and visited. It feels so good to be around friends again. After we ate lunch Rick went and helped put the insulation in. There's a little button you have to flick back and forth to turn it off and on, and that was Rick's job. He had a good time being back out at the houses working again. I know that he wanted to do more, but soon enough he'll be out there again workin away. On sunday we went back to our ward in Monroe. Our church starts at 9:00, so it was quite the challenge to get there on time. We use to wake up about 20 minutes before, but now it takes us about two hours to get us both up and ready. But we made it there, and we were only about 10 minutes late! Everyone was so nice and told us they were happy that we were back home.

This of coarse is a huge trial and challenge for me and Rick, but there is one thing I'm going to miss when Rick's healed. I get to spend all day with Rick and just hang out with him, and I LOVE it! I think I've fallen in love with him all over again. We go on drives alot these days and I love just talking to him. I think when he goes back to work the first day, I'm going to miss him like crazy! Don't get me wrong, I can't wait for our miracle, but in the time being I love hanging out with him, and getting to know everything about him.

Great day!!!!!

Well today Rick noticed that he can feel lower down on his chest!! Right in the middle of his chest between his rib cage, he can feel it! He said that when he touches it, it kind of feels like a blanket is on top of it. I was so excited when he told me that. Rick really does have little improvements every day. Most spinal cord injuries, you can see improvements from month to month, but we can see Rick's improvements every day! We had physical therapy yesterday and occupational therapy today and our therapists are really nice. They both said they were suprised about how well Rick is doing just two months after his fall.

We also decided that we are going to move back to our house that we were at before. We didn't know if it was going to be possible, but we went and walked through it today and realized that it will work till we get to move into our new house. The hotel is nice, and the people here are so generous for letting us stay here, but there's just something about being home that's priceless. One of our wonderful friend/neighbor came and helped us in our house today, and he is being kind enough to build us a ramp so we can get Rick in that house. We are so blessed to live in such a wonderful community with such caring, and amazing people. We moved into that house right when we got married, and it's crazy how attached you can get to a little, old house. I'm way excited to live there again for about a week or two till we move again.

Everyday we're reminded of how blessed and lucky we are to know such amazing people! And everyday I'm reminded how lucky I am to be married to such an amazing man. I know we're going to get through this, and the only way I know I can is because I have such an amazing husband.

We're home!!!! Well we're kinda home. We're staying at a hotel till our brand new house is done. We had a chance to go see it yesterday night, and we love it!! We are so excited to move in and start our new life there. It was so fun to see some of our friends last night, we've missed everyone. But the weird thing about coming home is that there is alot of mixed emotions involved. Of coarse we're excited to be out of the hospital, and among friends and family, but at the same time we already miss going to therapies and our wonderful therapists. At the hospital we had a schedule to stick too, and we got in a pretty good routine. This morning I realized at 11:00 that we hadn't had breakfast yet. Our morning routine takes us about an hour or more, but hopefully that will get faster. All day yesterday I was so emotional. I was happy, scared, excited, anxious, and just felt out of place all day. I think in the back of my mind whenever I thought about going home, I just thought that everything would go back to normal, and now that it's not normal yet reality kind of sets in. We know that everything will go back to normal, and it will just be a journey, kind of an adventure, till we get there. We have our new physical therapists coming today, so I'll let ya know how everything goes!!

Here we go!!!

Well, Becky has been doing a wonderful job keeping her blog up and letting everyone know what's been going on. But we figured since we're going home on Tuesday we better start are own blog to keep everyone updated on Rick's recovery and on our life. I just want to start out by saying THANKYOU to everyone for all the support and love we have recieved. We have an amazing family and friends and support system. We know that we wouldn't be doing as well as we are without you all. We have truly seen how amazing people can be and how many people have helped us in this time of need. We know that we will continue to need help as things progress, but we know that we will always have people to help us, and that is such a wonderful feeling. I could name people one by one and tell something amazing about them and how much they've helped us, but that would take days and days. Just know that we are so touched by everyone and so appreciative for things that people do for us.

We get to go home on Tuesday! We're so excited! We're going to live in a hotel for a little while till our house is done, then we get to move in to a beautiful, new house! We can't even believe that so many people pulled together and is building a wonderful house that we can go home too. And we are so excited that we're going to have the coolest neighbors and friends living in our neighborhood. We're so excited to live there and start our new lives and recovery there.

I'll always post the wonderful progress and improvements Rick is making, and I think there are going to be tons!! Some times I start to feel more like Rick's nurse than his wife, so I just want to tell him how much I love him. I couldn't do anything without you Rick, and there are no words to tell you how much I love you. You are such an inspiration to so many people, but to me the very most. You are so strong, physically and spiritually, and I am so lucky and blessed to be your wife. I love you my sexy husband!!