7 years ago my husband was given another chance

Happy SEVEN years of life Josh!

Yes, my husband is more than 7 years old, but it has been seven wonderful years since God saved his life.

On June 26th, 2003 Josh and I went roller blading at a nearby park. The previous night we had been shopping at Dick's and found a great deal on some roller blades for him.

We were having fun and laughing about the tight butt I would have if I kept roller blading all Summer, LOL. We then came to this big hill that lead down to the lake. It was paved and people biked and walked it all of the time. Josh kinda looked at me like, should I?? I don't quite remember too much but I remember him looking back at me like, Here I go. And the not so funny thing is I was thinking about how fun it looked and almost followed. That's when I saw him collide with another person and fall. I kept looking down thinking get up already...that is when I heard someone yelling "call 911."

I panicked and starting freaking out, I whipped my roller blades off and threw them, I ran down he hill as fast as I could possibly run. When I got down there, I asked someone what he looked like, before going near him. She told me there was blood all over, coming from his head. I was balling and in hysterics, yelling about how that was my husband and who knows what else. I went to him and held his head and was talking to him in his ear, which is when I realized he was foaming at the mouth and unconscious, not answering me and probably not hearing me either. I was relaying info to the wonderful person who was on the phone with 911. I then realized that we had no health insurance and that I had a little girl at home, and started panicking even more and running around in hysterics. A bit of comic relief...I remember going over to a group of people and yelling and screaming "This is why you wear helmets, make sure you wear your helmest..." I was in hysterics and not thinking clearly because I never would have done this normally:)

All I know is that there was a group of people walking up the hill and supposedly didn't see Josh coming at them until it was too late. Josh ran into that person (as far as I know nothing happened to that person). It seemed like forever until the paramedics arrived. The driver was super nice, a christian as well, and let me use his cell phone after he said he didn't have one. I called my friend Ang and told her to meet me at the hospital now. What a friend to not ask questions but come anyway.

So anyway, we get to the hospital and they tell me to wait in a room, and a social worker will be there any minute...she never came and I was loosing it. I had no idea what was wrong with my husband, if he was living or what. I just started calling number that came to my head..one of which was a lady I babysat for..why I called her I had no idea, but she called the church for me, and that night so may church friends came to the hospital to be with me and pray. Ang and Ben stayed the night in the waiting room with me, as we still had no idea what was going on. He was in ICU and really late at night so they wouldn't let me in.

To make a long story kind of short, Josh ended up with 4 separate skull fractures and the only reason he lived is because his ear drum burst (the blood was coming out of his ear) to let the bleeding from his head drain. The skull fractures were pretty bad, and everyone kept telling us how amazing it was that he was alive and for the most part recovering perfectly.

Josh was in ICU intubated for about 4 days, when they took the intubation tube out is was still a few more days before he was coherent. Well, enough to insist that the TV was the telephone!!
My favorite memory is the day after they took the intubation out, a friend Patrick came by to see him, Josh had barely spoken 5 words since the removal (it is very painful, his trachea was very swollen), and Pat asked him what's my name Josh..it took him about 2 minutes but he muttered "num nuts" a name they called each other. From that point on I knew he would be ok!
I had taped pictures on his bed so he'd see Merci and I and remember us...I didn't know what kind of shape he'd be in when he woke up.

Josh had to spend another 3 week in brain rehab. They worked with him to get his brain functioning again and other functions, motor skill, physical therapy etc. He did great from the start, but there was a lot of memory gone and his brain wasn't functioning at the normal speed. It was still very hard for him to even think..it hurt..obviously. He hated every minute of being there. I only missed seeing him 1 day of his month long stay.

To this day I don't know how we paid our bills. I worked 1-2 days a week at Babies R Us, and that sure didn't cover it. God was so faithful in our time of need.

All of our hospital bill were paid by the County, we never saw one!

Josh was supposed to have been in occupational and physical therapy for 1 year following his accident, after his 1st appointment of each they said he didn't need to be there.

Today Josh has very minimal damage. He cannot smell... we aren't sure how this happened...and he lost sight in the bottom right quadrant of each eye (if you divide the eye in fourths).

I am so thankful to God and all who helped us in our time of need. I am ever grateful for the miracle of Josh's life (there we more accidents after this that could have easily taken him from me...but didn't), He will never know how much I love him and am grateful he is still here with me.

Originally posted June of 2007, rewritten June 2010

Tomorrow is 31

Josh will turn 31 tomorrow. Such an old man, I know. You'd think he was turning 50 or something by the way he talks about it. But really 31 isn't very old. Maybe if I stopped calling him "old man' everyday, that might help too...lol. I love him not matter how old he is, and he truly doesn't need to run out and buy life insurance just because he is old. I know with out a reasonable doubt God had big plans for this man! I can't wait to see what they are.

I love you and have a wonderful day, even thought you are working and not spending it all day with me...

Bragging rights

I wanted to brag on my husband a bit.
He has done SO MUCH, since we moved in.
He makes whatever I mention I might want.

I LOVE how handy he is and the fact that what he makes comes out so much better than I thought it would!

We have HUGE lack of counter and cupboard space, well usable cupboard space, that I can reach without a ladder...LOL.

We have very deep cupboards, which is good but causes much more rearranging and digging than preferable to get at stuff.

I had mentioned I wanted slide out things on my bottom cupboards, we were looking at Lowes but they were either cheap or really expensive, so he MADE me some.

Just like that!
I mentioned it as a future purchase/project.

So here you have his handiwork, Oh and I have a few more projects to show off as I remember to take pictures, and I still have to show the finalized kids rooms.

30...thirty...30

My wonderful husband turned 30 yesterday!
I have a little over 2 more years until I am 30, and I am sure it won't be so bad!
Didn't do much, he worked around the house, we went to 2 different Home Depots and also to Lowes, which made him happy! We also went out to a nice restaurant for dinner.
A nice casual day.

I made him his favorite, Peanut Butter cookies, today.

He got his house by 30 and hopefully he will have a car to buy performance parts for by his 50th=)

Happy Birthday LOVE.

Very familiar with

My husband is very familiar with roofs.
That is because he works on them every day.
I am not quite sure how I deal with it but I do.
And yes he has fallen off and has even gotten electrocuted off the roof before.
If you don;t believe in miracles, call me I will tell you the stories.
There have been angles watching over my husband, that is for sure.

I hate that he is so high up, I kinda pretend in my head that he isn't, and then when he is on a job I drive by I FREAK.
LOL

My hubby works on slate roofs, tile roofs, metal roofs, but not shingle roofs.
He fixes, replaces, makes better, but he isn't a roof cleaner. he even does custom copper roofs and gutters, that's where the money is! Copper!

We like those copper thieves, you keep hearing about;)

twenty~8

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

We got to spend a lovely day together today and I enjoyed every moment of it, especially since he was out of town for the 9 nights the last 2 weeks=(
I hate when he is out of town, but it does make for way more appreciation!

Here are some pictures and thoughts!

I love you BABY!!



You are mine and I am yours.
As you would put it
"We just fit"



From where you were 6 years and 6 months ago,
you have come farther than I ever expected
you to be, daddy. Daily I see changes in your love
and tenderness that our baby girl needs.
Remember that as a girl, she WILL look for her acceptance in YOU!



I know how excited you are to teach Ethan all you know!
He looks up to his daddy in so many ways at even this young age.
He appreciates your excitement in cars and tools. I hope he continues to.
I pray that he becomes best friends with you. You have come a long way and have SO much to teach a son!


You are the best husband and father I could have asked for.
You were made just for ME, and we made them together with our Father.
Could there be anything greater?

Pictures by Sweet Dreams Photography

He is out of his mind!

My husband, who dislikes the holiday season because of the shopping nazis this time of year, decided he wanted to go shopping today! He hand my brother woke up and headed out at 3 AM. I guess they have had good luck. They were like #20 in line at Comp USA this morning, although Comp USA had their huge door buster sale last night from 9PM-12AM. He may not be getting the best of the best deals, but he is getting some pretty good ones! He said he just wants to spend $$ today..which I was quick to point out, that we need to be spending $ on others and not ourselves!! Oh Well, he is having fun=)

He got this

He got this...this was the best deal!!
He got a few of these
and
He got this, for Merci!

And who knows what else he will come home with!

To My Husband

This morning as I was checking blogs to see what I missed the last few days, I saw THIS.
I was excited and thought I should do the same. Last night I was feeling overwhelmed by my disorganized and very messy house due to the busyness of this weekend. Josh had gone downstairs to the computer to play with his new toy, an iPod Nano. I had to make dinner in a horribly messy kitchen, and the kids were being very noisy and wild...which I have a very hard time dealing with, I like peacefulness=) I got mad and was thinking of how I wished he was at work or something, since he wasn't being helpful anyway. He did come up and help me wash some dishes, so I wasn't super mad, but still annoyed that he thought he could just waltz off and do his own thing in the first place. My selfishness, not his. And really I love the little time he is home and cherish it more than anything, I was just being a grump...Sorry babe!

Today after I put Ethan down to nap, I laid on my bed and picked up the opened Bible next to my bed, Which happens to be a couple's devotional Bible. Last week I had been reading in Ephesians (the same verses our pastor talked about yesterday...kinda cool), and I began to skim over the stuff I had been reading to refresh my memory. What stood out to me, which I wanted to blog about, just to remind all of you was:

Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"

I then remembered the conversation Josh an I had with his mother yesterday about Joy. So I looked up 1 Peter 1 and read it. Good verse on Joy!! I looked over to the little devotional for the day titled "Differences Strengthen Us" so I began to read it and it was a good reminder to me...and probably for a lot of you also.

Here are some excerpts:

Passage for the day 1 Peter 1:3-9

Mike Mason, in his book The Mystery of Marriage, uses the word "otherness" to describe the ways in which spouses are different. He observes, "Our natural tendency is to treat people as if they were not others at all, but merely aspects of ourselves. We do not experience as the overwhelming, comprehensive realities which we feel ourselves to be. Compared with us, they are not quite real."

We are always growing toward the understanding that the person we married does not innately think and respond as we would. He or she is a different person, a mystery well worth the time it takes to unravel.

God was really cool in the way he took me to these verses and I am thankful, because I definitely need to uplift my husband in any way I can!

SOOOOOO Here are 13 things I love about my husband.

1. The smell of his skin.
2. His goofiness, although rare.
3. His hugs.
4. His faithfulness to providing for this family. He works outside when it is 99 degree+ or when it is 10 degrees-. I couldn't do it, THANK YOU SO MUCH.
5. His random cards or flowers, he isn't big on remembering holidays, but when it is out of nowhere, it means so much more!
6. His LOVE. I am SO thankful I don't have to wonder if my husband really loves me. I can feel it.
7. His growth as a father.
8. His childish excitement in the things he likes...cars, tools...=)
9. His striving to get his business started, You can do it babe, you can do anything, don't be scared, don't worry you will do fine!!
10. His booty...so squishy and firm...hee hee. (don't blush babe)
11. That he is learning to find good deals, like me. LOL. One of the main reasons I am not mad about the Nano...LOL!! you deserve it.
12. His tolerance of me.
13. The way he and I just work together, no matter our differences.

I love you in so many ways I cannot list them all. Thanks for wanting me, thanks for sticking by me, you could have so easily left me with Merci to worry about for the rest of my life but you stuck by my side through these hard 6 years. I Love you Joshua Ray, more than I could ever express.

XOXOXO