Grateful

On Saturday, February 7th J decided to go skiing as a reward for himself after the 20 hours of overtime he had put in. 

At 12:17 that I was on my way home from work when he called. 

"You're going to kill me," was the first thing he said to me. 

He had wiped out on his first run down the hill. Ski patrol had gotten him down the hill, and he was waiting for an ambulance to get there. 

The first responders were pretty sure he had a break in his lower leg. 

I managed to drive myself to my parents' place and then had my dad drive me to the hospital. 

X-Rays confirmed it, J's leg was indeed broken. And not just a little broken. He had a spiral fracture is his tibia and a break in his fibula. The X-ray technician told him it was a "doozy" and everyone who's seen the X-ray since has made a similar comment. 

Post-surgery x-ray. You can see the rod & pins. 

We were transferred to Halifax later that evening for more X-rays and to wait for surgery. J eventually had surgery on Monday afternoon. He had a rod inserted with pins at the knee and ankle. (Gross.) He was released the next day and we started the rehabilitation process, plus the process of applying for EI since he'll be off work for several months. 

It's been quite the struggle. I'm not used to doing everything around the house plus everything for J plus working full-time. The first couple weeks I spent A LOT of time crying and a lot of time praying for strength. 

And you know what? Things are getting better. Slowly, but I'm starting to feel like we're going to make it. My head is above water, I'm getting enough sleep, J is impressing the physiotherapist, and Daisy and I are doing lots of bonding on our daily walks. 

Daisy and I enjoying our evening walk.

When I start getting stressed or overwhelmed I remind myself how much worse it could have been. I could have lost J that day. Or he could have permanently damaged himself. And I am so grateful to still have him by my side. (Even when he's complaining about how bored he is.) I think I've been guilty of taking my husband for granted. Not just all the things he does, but his strength and his presence. Those couple nights without him in the bed beside me were really, really hard. There are a lot of lessons in this situation - and some are easier to take than others - but I'm also grateful for every one of them. 

PS: This was very long, and very ramble-y. Ooops. 

Weekend Update

I'm posting my weekend update on Tuesday again because it was a long weekend and I was off for three whole (glorious!) days.

Friday night started with a potluck dinner at my parents' house. We wanted to have a potluck so we could take part in the #PotluckChallenge. It was a good night, even if most of my friends couldn't make it. We got to spend some time with my family and we ate a ton of delicious food. See that little clown on my cake? My grandmother bought that for my very first birthday cake. I went through those years where I was too embarrassed to use it, but now it comes out for every family birthday. And I'm so glad my mom held on to it for all these years!

Saturday morning we got a bit of a late start, but I'm not complaining. I think we both needed the sleep. It's so rare that Daisy lets us sleep in that getting up at 9am was a huge treat. We took a run to Tim Horton's for breakfast and they were giving out free birthday cake donuts. It's like they knew I was celebrating my birthday this weekend. (Or maybe it's because the were celebrating their 50th birthday...)

We got on the road around noon to head out to the Seaside Adjunct. It's a little over a 2 hour drive and we were a little worried about Daisy but she handled it like a champ. It's worth it too, so beautiful. You can read all about our day here, but the long story short is that it was totally amazing and just what we needed.

Sunday was the usual. Sunday school, church, and a delicious dinner at J's folks. I chatted with J's sister, Rachel, for a bit. She's coming home next month and we can't wait to see her. Hoping to get to do lots of fun touristy things while she's home. (Hopefully cross a couple things off my Summer Bucket List!)

Yesterday we decided at the last minute to head to the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park with J's brother and his fiance. We've all been there before, but it was still nice to get out and do something a little bit different. The weather was supposed to be pretty gross but it actually turned out not too bad so we stopped for ice cream on the way home. Of course I had to try the confetti cake blizzard! (Delicious in case you were wondering.)

Unfortunately when we got home we had a bit of a scare, we found a tick on Daisy. Unfortunately it's a holiday so our vet isn't open. We called the Metro Emergency Animal Hospital and they told us how to remove them. We've kept them so we can take them to our vet to have them tested for Lyme disease. I'm a bit of a wreck right now. Crossing my fingers, I've read that most ticks don't actually carry diseases so hopefully the one we found on Daisy was safe.

Other than the whole tick thing our weekend was pretty fantastic. Hope you enjoyed yours too!