Appendicitis, Round 2

As we were getting ready to leave Mom and Dad's Tuesday morning, Levi started feeling sick. Mom knew something was seriously wrong with him when he barely ate a couple bites of breakfast, and then lay face down on the carpet while I finished getting my things together. Not at all like his usual perpetually hungry, chipper self.

We made it 10 miles down the freeway before we had to pull over and vomit the first time. Not a good sign. We started booking it to Cheyenne because the pain in Levi's stomach was getting worse, and he recognized what it was. As we ran into the Cheyenne ER and Levi started swearing at the nurses to cut the dang thing out this time, I'm sure they were concerned that he was dilusional.

(A side story here. Levi was already doped up pretty good on morphine by the time the admissions lady came in to get our detailed info. She asked who his doctor was and Levi yelled out "HOULIHAN!" She looked confused at the nurse and said, "Who's his doctor?" Levi again answered her and said, "Well, maybe that's not her name. I dunno. Some WOMAN doctor though. That's the name of that woman doctor on M.A.S.H...." She was highly offended, I was mortified, and Levi barely remembers it at all.)

In contrast to our last adventure with this organ where we were in the ER for 5 bloody hours, they did a CT scan within 25 minutes, and we were on our way up to surgery in another 20 minutes. I'm SO thankful we were still close enough to Sidney that my parents were able to come. They calmed my nerves considerably, and had the Elders come so that they could give Levi a blessing when he got out of surgery.

My invalid.

Dad gave him a blessing, and my parents stayed with us the rest of the afternoon. Levi was a lot quieter this time and didn't make as many joke with the nurses (although he did call his night nurse Houlihan too. *sigh*) It was a rough night full of vicodin, percoset, and machines beeping nonstop, but the next day they told Levi they would let him go home.

After being delayed a full three hours past when they said we would be discharged, we made it into the truck and set off on our 7 hour journey. Thankfully Levi still had the heavy hospital drugs in him, so he slept most of the way to Rock Springs, where Colton and Brandie had hot soup ready for us. We are so thankful for them!!

I was sorely tempted to stay in R.S. and travel the rest of the way the next day, but Levi was dying to sleep in his own bed and so we trudged on. We made it home late Wednesday night, and woke up early to a text announcing the arrival of a new M7 niece - Cami and Dustin finally got to meet their baby girl, Hadli Mae.

I was so worried that Cami was going to have the baby while we were gone and we would miss her first day of life! Thanks for waiting for us, Cami :D

After a week that seemed like bad news on top of more bad news, Hadli was the ray of sunshine we needed. Ü

Memorable Memorial Day

Levi and I were planning on surprising my parents with a visit over Memorial Day weekend, until my mom called and said that her friend was coming to Utah June 2-9, and they could catch a ride over here with her. Well, there went our surprise. In the end, we decided it would still be worth going because Dad needed new tires and wanted them from Les Schwab. So on Saturday, we loaded up the truck with 4 new tires and some tools, and set off on our long distance service call.

  

The only pretty thing I've ever seen in Wyoming is the thunder clouds.
We thought it looked like someone took a paint brush to the sky :D

And then, things started happening and haven't stopped since.

When we were almost to Cheyenne on Saturday, Dad called to tell me he wasn't sure who would be home when we got there, because Zane was at the ER. A couple hours later, he was home with...

... a lovely blue cast on his broken arm! If you ask him how he broke it, he'll happily tell you, "I was playing Spiderman." Obviously, Spidey needs his web if he's actually going to fly.

On Sunday we went to church and then Dad, Levi, and Zane enjoyed thinning the prairie dog population. I will spare you the graffic details, but they were definitely successful. Levi used Zane to get his sights in a little with the Nerf gun first.

That night, we got a call from Levi's mom that his brother Justin and wife Jessica had their baby girl 2 months early.

Little Alyssa was born 3 lbs. 13 oz. and is breathing on her own now. Not the kinda phone call you want to receive, but we are so thankful she's here and healthy!! Isn't she a doll:)

Monday was a decent day, with the required trip to Cabellas, and a REAL family picture! Ü

...and the only bad news was for the raccoon family! Woot!

And then came Tuesday. Which was a day so full of events that it deserves it's own post. To be continued...

Solar Eclipse 2012

We were lucky enough to live in the area that would be able to see the solar eclipse last Sunday! I tried all week to find somewhere in Logan that had the special solar sunglasses, but couldn't find any. I think the news said the planetarium in Salt Lake sold over 20,000 pairs. Not much hope for us then. So we did exactly what they told people NOT to do, and tried looking through several pairs of sunglasses, and a camera lens. Which means while we're probably going to go blind, at least we got some decent pictures! 

Why Helloo Summer, My Old Friend!

In front of the waterfall in Twin Falls Canyon

This was our very last picture of Summer 2011. And we have been anxiously awaiting the return of our favorite season. Thankfully it looks like we're not going to have to wait til July again for it to warm up. Woot!

Levi's been working SO hard to restore an old canoe that Mom and Dad Campbell let us bring down from the farm to Cache Valley. Apart from living through many Arbon winters and a few random bullet holes, it has also been sawed in half and patched back together at some point in its sad life. But Levi was bound and determined to make it float.

After spending over 30 hours sanding, patching, priming, spraypainting and putting new PVC pipe on the edges, Levi said it was time for a test run. (He also ingeniously sprayed the inside of the canoe with a rubberized undercoating, because no one wants to get fiberglass slivers from sitting in canoe.)

And our finished product:

Hooray, she floats!! Levi's giddy with excitement at the prospect of a whole summer devoted to fishing. I'll have to post a picture of it from the outside later. Well done, love, well done. Ü

Our Hero, Dallas

Our brother Dallas Nutt is a former Marine and served two tours in Iraq before his 21^st birthday. He is a Geology student on the Dean’s list at Utah State University, and was on track to graduate with honors this December. With his girlfriend Laci by his side, he loves spending any free time outdoors, whether it is hiking, dirt biking, snowmobiling, or spending time with their dogs.

On February 24, 2012, Dallas experienced a ruptured brain aneurysm, only three weeks after his 27th birthday. After going into seizures, he was life-flighted from Logan Regional Hospital to Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, and spent 3 weeks in the ICU.  

Fifty percent of people do not even make it to the hospital after an aneurysm ruptures (Dallas’s ruptured at least two times), and out of those who do get to the hospital, 25% of that group don’t make it through surgery. After a long fight, he has now finally been released from the ICU and admitted to rehab. Because of the stroke damage, he’s lost pretty much all movement in his left side. As of right now, we don’t how much of his movement will return or how long it will take.

Our family still needs prayers! Dallas still has a long fight ahead of him as he does rehab in the VA hospital in Salt Lake City. For regular updates, you can check the website www.caringbridge.com/visitus/dallasfnutt.

We so appreciate everyone that has come to visit him, donated money, said prayers and fasted, and shown your support of our Marine! We are forever grateful.