Little Vacay

A couple days ago we had to go to Boise so Brad could officially become a lawyer. It was my first time ever going to Boise. The drive up there is NOT pretty, but it's nice once you get to the city.

They have a beautiful, different colored temple.



You know those people who you see at the front desk trying to get in somehow without their recommend because they left it home or lost it?....We'll that was me on this day. Luckily, the nice people called my stake pres. who told them I could go in. I think they take more pitty on you when you're pregnant because they know the baby is taking all your brain cells away.



We had a very enjoyable day. We went to Ross, Chili's, and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - how could it be any better?


We stayed the night in Twin Falls in order to break up the drive a little.

We got to see the temple there on the way out. Another first for me.



Then, we went to Shoshone Falls.



I guess the water was really low that day. On a good high water day, the cliffs in the above photo are supposed to be covered with water. That would have been cool.

But the area was pretty.



Anyway, we got to see some pretty things. While we were at Shoshone Falls Brad got a call from the Air Force giving us our choice of our first assignment - (for those who don't check facebook regularly) Clovis, New Mexico or Mountain Home, Idaho (which we stopped at on our way to Boise - the McDonald's there charges you for water! But the Wendy's doesn't so go there.).

Since Clovis is out in the middle of nowhere and we don't know anyone remotely close to that area, we went against the whole being mad at McDonald's thing and chose Mountain Home. We'll be moving to the AFB around the end of November and will probably be there for a couple of years.

We're excited to start our new adventure with the AF - ok, but really, we're excited to finally be making some money instead of just going deeper and deeper into debt.

Oh, and my apologies go out to Linc and Hollie again for Alexa waking up to sing for 1 1/2 hours at 4:00 in the morning. Thanks for taking her!!!

Way to go Idaho!

Brad passed the Bar!!

Now, hopefully he can start training with the AF in October (if they have spots available).

He'll be able to look like Harmon Rabb from "JAG":

I think I can handle that.

Thanks to everyone who helped us make it through these past 3 years! We couldn't have done it without you.

RIP

We finally got to have a funeral for Brad's fingertip. Our sister-in-law put the whole thing together.

Brad showed up like this:

Apparently he felt the need to get dressed up for his own funeral.

Then we drove out to the field where the smashing had taken place and had a nice ceremony.


We had a good crowd come to say their goodbyes.


We buried the finger and then huried back to the house when it started raining.

There we had....

Finger Food!

And then we played a game where you had to guess which picture of a hand belonged to which person. If you ever need a REALLY HARD game, that's a good one to play.

It was a great funeral! It made me think about chopping off my finger so I could have one. Thanks KJ for all your work!

Oh, for the obituary, see "The Preston Citizen" under the Clifton news section. It comes out today.

Here is what Brad's hand looks like now:

Not too bad. The surgeon did a great job. Oh, and Brad wanted to make sure you all know that these are his farm pants and the red stuff is just a stain.

Surgery is Fun!

I wanted to thank everyone for your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, and obituaries on my (and my finger's) behalf. As Cassi mentioned the surgery went well. I didn't get to talk to my doctor after the surgery was over (I guess he had more important things to do than to watch the anesthesia wear off (more on this in a bit)), but the nurses told me that everything went according to plan.

I decided that surgery is kind of fun, mostly (actually, only) because of anesthesia. It didn't even feel like I had surgery, just felt like I got to go take a nap at the hospital. Seriously, they're over there grinding back my pinkie bone, and I'm in la-la land. You only get this kind of fun during surgery.

I was talking to my brother tonight, and I started to remember some of the funny things that I did (or that the nurses told me I did) while under the anesthesia. As Cassi mentioned in a previous post, I really wanted to get my fingertip back because my sister-in-law is putting plans together for a fingertip funeral. My doctor, Dr. Miller, told me that they wouldn't let me take it home because, by law, they have to test everything that is removed during a surgery. But Dr. Miller also told me that if I reminded him, he would put in a request for me to be able to pick up the pinkie tip after the testing was done. So, the first thing I hear as I'm coming out of the anesthesia is the voice of my doctor in the next recovery room, talking to another patient. All that I can remember is that I really wanted to talk to him about putting in my request; I don't remember anything else. Well, one of the nurses told me later that I really must have wanted to talk to Dr. Miller, because I was yelling "Dr. Miller! Dr. Miller!" over and over for a minute or so. Apparently I wasn't loud enough, because I didn't get to talk to him (at least I don't remember talking to him). But, I found out he did put the request in for me.

Another thing that I remember from when I was "coming to" is that that I could hear the radio was playing somewhere nearby, and the song was Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? by Bryan Adams. Great song, right? Really makes you think. So great, in fact, that it made me blurt out "Bryan Adams!" This is the first thing I actually remember saying, but then I was confused about why I would say this out loud. Maybe it's cuz Bryan Adams is such a great artist, or maybe it's cuz I have a friend named Bryan Adams and he still hasn't sent me my fajita mix. Who knows.

Either way, here's proof that Bryan Adams is a great artist.

Success

Surgery completed. Finger shortened. No skin graft needed. Things are looking ok. They wouldn't give us the finger tip because they need it for testing - I don't know - it's pretty much dead. But the Dr. requested it back after testing and then he'll give it to us. Maybe we can have a funeral after all.