7/19-7/25

Thursday 19th. The Dogs found 3 Racoons in the Canal by our house on our walk. They got in a fight {of course} And one of them dragged Liddy down into the canal and was trying to drownd her. Justin was fishing, so I was super frustrated. Long story short- Liddy didn't die. The Racoons got beat, and the dogs were all super muddy and exhausted but we made it to bed about 1 1/2 hours later.

Friday 20th. Our once a month potluck at work. The theme was Red, White and Blue. So I did mini fruit pizzas with sugar cookies.
They were super delish!

Friday 20th. We babysat the little girls over night, and went up to Dyar Park to have dinner with the Dudley's. We did Dutch Oven Pizza and the little girls walked up the creek with bare feet. Then they ran around picking Snake grass bouquets.

Saturday 21st. I took the girls to McDonalds while Justin was at work. We did Happy Meals and played in the play place.

Saturday 21st. Then we went to the park and played with the beach ball. They weren't interested in going on the slide or in the swings at all. They just kicked the ball around for close to an hour, then they were ready to go home.

Saturday 21st. So we drove around for a few, and went home. We turned on some cartoons and konked out!

Sunday 22nd. Got to wear my new skirt to church!

Sunday 22nd. We went to Mammy and Pappy's for a big family dinner. Mont and his family were up from Arizona. I was sitting out back after dinner admiring Mammy's Hostas. They're so amazing! It makes me super jealous.

Sunday 22dn. Family Picture with all the Warren boys.

Monday 23rd. Pinterest found a new Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for me, so I just had to try it.

Monday 23rd. Cookie time.



Monday 23rd. It must've been new recipe night, because dinner was an experiment also. It turned out good though. Yumm.



I'm getting that urge. Fall. Build something. like this adorable wreath.

Wed. 25th. We went to Jensen and were having dinner at my parents house. The little girls were helping do chores and came and told us that one of Dad's three goats had her Kidd. He got the Lamoncha Ears like his daddy and is colored so pretty.

Wed. 25th. He was pretty cute, learning to walk.

Geology Tour 7/17-7/19

On the 17-19 Anadarko sponsored a Geology tour in our area for Anadarko employees, so we had people come in from the Denver office, and a few other places to tour the Greater Natural Buttes Unit. We had a great time and I learned a lot. I had never paid much attention before, but as you drive North on US 191, all of the Geological formations are marked on Geology signs, that tell you the name of the formation, what Era it's from and what that formation is most likely make of.

i.e. Squid, Lava, Ash, Sharks Teeth- etc.

My Friend Candice. She organized 80% of the trip and she did a great job!
Plus we have a super great time messing around learning together.

This is on the Sheep Creek road. There is an outcropping where two Mountainous formations collided, and I would never have noticed it before, but it really is amazing!

This is in front of a formation called the Birds Nest. This formation is one that we drill through for most of our wells here in the Buttes. I deal with the names of the formations and their depths, etc. everyday when I am working with the Procedures for Completing our wells, so it was neat to be able to go and actually see the different formations and rocks that they're talking about.

July 7th- July 16th

Saturday 7th. I was so glad to be back to the land of Flat Irons! Hallelujah.

Wednesday 11th. Lovin the pearls I brought home with me from Thailand.

Thursday 12th. Stopped and ate lunch at the park one day. So nice.

Thursday 12th. We got to go on a date to the movies!





Friday 13th. My Mom and Dad were babysitting Hailey and Natalie (It was Rodeo week and Tiffany had a booth on the court house lawn) so I met up with them and we all had Wendy's for dinner.

Friday 13th. They were a little bit hyper...so we ended up taking 5000 pictures on my phone to keep them entertained. Silly girls.

Sunday 15th. After Justin and Tyler got back from the Gorge, we all went to Jensen for dinner and took the kids down to the Green River to catch some Cat Fish.

Sunday 15th. They had a lot of fun and caught quite a few fish.

Sunday 15th. My dad even came down and fished with us for a little while. Everything we caught was super tiny, but the kids had fun reeling them in and grabbing them out of the water.

Sunday 15th. It rained on us at the River for about 5 minutes, and the clouds in front of the sun were super pretty!

Sunday 15th. Melanie and I traded Louis Vuitton's that we brought home from Thailand. Love it.

Monday 16th. YAY! For my tiny Garden. It's such a trooper!

Monday 16th. Super enjoying Home made French dips and fresh sqaush from the garden.

The end of Thailand...a Month later

I obviously never finished writing about our Thailand adventures. Sadly, I have forgotten a lot of the details, but I do remember a few things ;)

How it ended up working was that, after some incredible experiences and inspiration, Melanie and I knew we had to get Eric home. We decided this on a Sunday and once we got Eric and the Doctors convinced, they couldn't get us shipped out until Friday.

They agreed to Medically Transport Eric with medication and accompanied by a doctor. It took days to get all the paperwork and doctors lined out but we knew we were doing the right thing and it all worked. Monty put in a lot of time and phone calls to make it all happen and we were so grateful to have someone to correspond with the doctors and hospitals from their same time zone. The 13 hour time difference was quite the challenge.

Eric's condition went up and down for the last few days, but it was manageable.

Melanie and I actually got to leave the hospital room twice at lunch time on the last 2 days of the trip. We walked down to the Ploen Chit center and got another Thai Massage. I still can't believe they were only $10 for an hour. I Loved it! We walked through the little grocery center in the bottom of the mall and I found some Crispy M&M's. This sounds like the craziest thing ever but I used to love them when you could get them in Vernal and then they went away and I hadn't seen them ever since- until just then in Thailand. Needless to say, I bought a few packets ;)

We found a little Restaurant in the mall that was hidden under the back corner set of stairs, and they had the best grilled/brothy vegetables, so we went back and had them twice.

The ride home was interesting. We left the hotel at 2:30am Friday morning. We were at the hospital by 3am, where we came upon 14 nurses dressing Eric. They all had a crush on him and he loved all the attention. They had Eric loaded in the back of an ambulance with the Doctor that accompanied us and a crew of nurses. The hotel was so accommodating and sent their airport concierge to drive us to the hospital, then followed us to the airport while we were in the ambulance with Eric. They unloaded everything and helped expedite us through the airport.

Eric had to go through a medical terminal so the Doctor came in and got ticketed for him and Eric then he turned back and went with Eric the rest of the way. While Melanie and I were sitting at our gate, we saw them lift Eric up on a scissor lift into the plane, just like they do with the food/cargo- and they let us board first, so we were the first ones on. Eric slept through most of the first flight, and did great.

We left at 6am and it was a 6 hour flight to Tokyo.

Once we got to Tokyo, they took us to the Premier access lounge where they let Eric sit and rest for an hour before we had to go get on our second flight. When we got Eric on the plane the 2nd time around, he had an "episode" from the stress of moving so much and the pain meds were starting to wear off. There were other people on the plane, so it was hard to deal with everyone panicking around him and keeping him calm. The man that was in the seat next to Eric watched as I stretched out his arm and tried to get him relax, and whoever this man was- he was incredibly compassionate. He started to cry while he watched Eric struggle, and once Eric passed out, I got up to go back to my seat and he said "No- You stay here with him. I don't care if I have to fly economy- you stay with him,"

It was an incredible gesture and reminded me that there are still people out there that are human. I thanked him and assured him I was fine and went back to my seat.

The rest of the way home was smooth sailing. We got in and out of San Fran. in no time, and Eric did really well. When we landed in SLC, they escorted Eric to the Ambulance that was waiting out front and Monty picked us up. It was so good to see some familiar faces and be in a place where I could understand people.

We went to the IMC Center with Eric while they admitted and examined him. They quickly determined that some changes needed to be made with the medications he was taking, which stopped the tremmoring, and they moved him out of ICU into a regular room that night. YAY!

Justin came out to pick me up, and he stayed and visited with Eric and their friends- the Taylors, that came to see Eric.

It was an amazing adventure, and I will never forget a lot of the things that happened there. It helped me appreciate different cultures, for their different values, and appreciate my own even more. We were so very blessed and watched over on this journey.

Thanks again to Melanie and Monty to letting me go and be a part of this and see a whole new world.

A few Thailand Pictures...

I took the majority of pictures on my camera, but I decided to upload the few I had on my phone.

Early morning Thursday June 21st to head to SLC. I needed a Dr. Pepper.

Melanie caught some zzz's while we waited for our super delayed flight.

The Embassy Suites in San Fran. was beautiful!

All my luggage was checked so we ran and grabbed a new outfit for me to wear. It was cute and comfy for the long flight!

We boarded in San Fran. ate dinner, then laid our seats back and slept. It was so nice to have room to relax and sleep! Thanks again Monty!

Switching planes in Tokyo.

Day 1 in Bangkok, Thailand = Tunic and leggings. It was super humid.

All of their food is so beautiful. I loved it.

Looking out the window on the top floor of our hotel where we ate breakfast.

It's hard to see, but traffic was always a mess!

Yep. You read right. That's a 7-Eleven.

Cute little boy gave me the Peace sign, while his mom worked around their street cart selling breakfast treats.

A Panorama view out the window of Eric's first Hospital room.

There were many Buddhist Shrines all over the place. They were always draped with marigolds and Jasmine.

This was the Super Yummy Red Velvet cake that we took back the Eric the day he started going down hill. He asked for it the rest of the time we were there, but we never made it back for any. Darn the luck..

I have lots more/better pictures than these, but it's a start!!

Thailand. Day ?? I don't remember

These last few days have honestly been a blur. They moved Eric to ICU on Thursday afternoon and he has been here ever since. It has been a constant battle to keep him calm or out of pain or tremmor-free. I'm just going to throw out some highlights. After moving him to the ICU they did an EEG and MRI to rule out seizures- which was his doctors initial thought- that it was not a seizure. It resembles one and is difficult for people to deal with him or help him or to even watch. I don't shake easily though so we've been able to help him through most of them. The tests did come back to confirm that his brain activity was normal- remarkable even and that these were indeed muscle tremors. They are not life threatening and he is sable. He had four more "episodes" on Friday and required iv muscle relaxers which basically knock him out. Yesterday he only had 2 episodes that required iv meds, and the second one was actually for an excruciating pain after standing-with help- and twisting his foot causing a flare up with his hip pain. Then he choked on a watermelon seed and coughed and that sent his pain over the edge- starting the shaking and making the pain worse- thus iv KNOCK OUT. He's been sleeping quite a bit- luckily- and they've kept him on iv fluids to help flush his system. He went in for a full spinal MRI with contrast yesterday morning at 7am, and that came back normal- as well as a second spinal tap they did checking for proteins and white blood cells to suggest infection. Since they were both normal they have stuck to their initial diagnosis of immune mediated rediculitis. (I've been spelling it wrong for days now) the good news from all these tests is: no fever, no infection, no nerve damage, no progression of any symptoms/diseases. His tremmors are now slowing and have been reduced to stress triggers that set it off since the meds have evacuated his system. We have also been able o "calm the tremmors out of him" using pressure points in the shoulder and stretching of his arm and hand and fingers- it "releases" somehow and makes the shaking stop. Hallelujah! We have been receiving many blessings and special experiences here and we are praying that what we have been instructed to do in our minds and hears will actually happen. We feel that Eric needs to go home. There is not much further care they can give him here, where as in the states he can see doctors that deal with neurology as well as naturopathy and have a more wholesome treatment approach. That is our belief but Eric is the one that needs to believe it now. We have no authority or control over him and the financial burden of health care in the us is a major weight to him and all of us so he is resisting. We can not and will not force him. All that can be done, will be done but we want him to go home. He can be med evac'd with iv pain meds to Utah. Just pray. We had a sweet experience in the elevator on thursdaybi forgot to write about. An elderly crippled Indian woman in a wheel chair was wheeled into the elevator with us. The backs of the elevator doors are glass and I could see her eyeing us. She wouldn't make eye contact though and it was kind of crowde. After We "unloaded" some people and I could step back she could see Melanie more clearly. She had 2 little flower buds in her hands. She had been twisting them in her fingers in front of her nose and just enjoying them. When her stop came, the door opened and she finally looked over at Melanie and without saying anything just reached out and handed her the flowers. It was the sweetest thing and she didn't have to say a word. It brought tears to Melanie's eyes. She was a little angel. Eric has eaten better today than he has in days, which is a relief. He has been more awake and coherent than the last 2 days also. Things are looking up. Now If we can just get him home.