Rooaarr!!

This is a "normal" dinner now a days. Jack is working on his roar. All we need to teach him now is to thump on his chest.

(As always, don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of the page to hear the video.)

Update on the Crash

Well, it's about time I updated this thing! We are doing much, much better since my last blog entry. Pete will be going to physical therapy for his knee. He officially has a partial ACL tear and a fracture in his tibia, but no surgery needed so far! Thank goodness for that! And I have been able to go to a massage therapist for the back spasms and the tension headaches I've been having. And we were able to get another car. Because we had paid off our 4Runner just a few months before the crash, we were down to one car payment. And the prospect of going back to two car payments was just too much for us, we had to say goodbye to our beautiful little MINI Cooper. It's all for the best though. We traded it in for a Volvo XC90 and we are loving it.
Thanks again for all of your well wishes and love!

Crash!

After spending a typical Friday night with Frank and Molly, we were driving home and stopped at a red light before turning left onto a state highway around 10:30p. We chatted until the light turned green and I looked both ways before pushing on the gas. I saw headlights coming at us and really did think that they were stopping. But I was wrong. Those headlights didn't even slow down. They belonged to a 17 year old girl who was distracted at the wheel. She didn't see the red traffic light, nor did she see us. The speed limit on the road is 55 mph so I'm assuming she was going at least that fast when she collided into our car.

This is what our car looks like now:

When I realized that it was too late, my instincts took over and I veered to the right. We think that's what saved us from a worse fate. Because instead of us getting T-boned or getting in a head on collision, her front right and our front left ricocheted off of each other. She went off onto the side of the road and we ended up doing a 180 degree spin in the middle of the road.

Also, when I realized it was too late, I remember thinking, "This isn't really happening." The next thing I remember is sucking air and coughing on the chemical that is inside the air bags. I started to recognize my surroundings and saw that the airbags had deployed. But I didn't hear any crying. I threw open my door, grabbed the handle of the back passenger door as though I was going to rip it right off the hinges. I couldn't get that door open fast enough. But then I saw Jack's face as I heaved open the door. He was alert and looking at me as if to say, "What just happened?!" Pete was right there with me as we got him out of the car and wrapped a blanket around him.

Then I heard a woman on the other side of the road saying that we needed to get out of the road and into her car to stay warm and wait for the ambulance. I know that the 17 year old girl was out of her car and asking if we were okay, but frankly I couldn't acknowledge her. My mind was on Jack. And my eyes were on this kind woman who had invited us into her car.

She was on the phone with 911 and describing Jack to the operator. I sat down in the passenger seat of her car and Pete shut the door after us. The woman bent down to get a good look at Jack. She smiled at him and he gave her a huge grin back. That's when I took my first real breathe. He was okay.

I also noticed that I was shaking uncontrollably and it occurred to me that I should take inventory. Yup, I've got all my fingers and toes. No real pain anywhere. Then I looked for Pete. He was limping, but walking. And talking to his parents on the phone. The next thing I knew, the ambulance arrived. The paramedics were able to corral Pete, full of adrenaline, into the ambulance and check him out. Then I take my first good look at him. His face was bleeding everywhere. Jack and I had blood on us, too. It looked as though someone had taken sandpaper to Pete's face. They cleaned him up and said it was up to us whether we go to the hospital.

The police officer gave us our incident report, we talked to the towing guy and met up with Pete's parents as they were getting the last of our things out of our car. We decided in the end to split up: Glenn was going to take Pete to the hospital and I was going to take Jack home to bed. Pete's knee was really hurting him and he had ringing in his ear.

Sue took me home where I got on the phone with the insurance company and then waited for Pete as long as I could. I finally went to bed around 2:00 AM only to be woken up at 4:00 AM as Pete was limping up the stairs. He had x-rays taken of his shoulder and knee and a CT scan of his head due to the ringing. Everything checked out but his knee. Nothing was broken but there was definite damage. They discharged him with the caveat that he was to go to the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. Something is torn or stretched or even chipped.

Even so, we are thanking our Heavenly Father for watching over us. We could have been much, much worse off. I know that angels were with us and especially our little Jack, who didn't even have a scratch on him. I know that we were being protected because both parties were alive and were able to walk away from the accident.

So, the day after almost dying, I've got a couple of goose eggs, a fat lip, and a seatbelt burn across my neck. Pete's got sandpaper for a face, a bad ear and can hardly walk. But we are certainly counting our blessings!


Our sincerest thanks to Pete's parents for all that they have done for us these last couple of days. We are very grateful to them for their kindness. We also want to thank the nice lady, the paramedics, and the police officer who helped us after the accident. And we would like to thank our family, friends (I love the flowers, Sarah!) and the members of our church ward who have visited and called to check up on us. We're recovering well and feeling very loved!

A Peek Into The Christmas Future

We got out the gift wrapping box to wrap up Glenn's birthday present, not knowing what kind of effect it would have on Jack.

He went crazy!

And who could blame him? What with all the ribbon and bows and stickers and wrapping paper and bags and tape. Everything shiny and new!

Jack's hands and eyes were going in all different directions because he just couldn't decide what to eat first.

He would put one thing in his mouth with one hand while grabbing for something else with the other hand.

And then he would pause, look up at us and smile, as if he were saying, "Mom, Dad - thank you so very much for this big box of awesomeness."

We can't wait for Christmas!

Jack's Bag of Tricks

See Jack crawl.

See Jack stand up.

Jack can clap his hands.

Good job, Jack.

(Don't forget to go to the bottom of the page and press pause on the music so you can hear the video.)

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

It was a full weekend! My birthday is actually today but we invited family and friends over on Saturday to help celebrate. Thanks so much for the cool gifts, guys!! I'm going to get totally pampered with my ice cream baths and salts from Amy, body lotion from Molly and my gift certificate to get a pedicure from Windy. :) And Jennifer got me a very cool game called In A Pickle - I can't wait to break it out and play.

And since Logan came over we also had a Pre-Halloween Costume Show Off. Isn't Logan adorable?

Jack made an appearance later that night, after his nap, to show off his costume, too. Can you guess what he is? (he, he - a lobster!)

Then, on Sunday, we headed over to the Odell's to celebrate Eric's first birthday. Poor guy had a nasty cold so he wasn't quite himself. This picture captured his mood pretty well:

Rebekah made delicious cakes for everyone: a small cake in the shape of a number 1 for Eric and a three layered cake for the rest of us. Oh, and all of Eric's little friends got cupcakes with their names on them. Along with that was the some great BBQ with all the fixings, cookies and brownies. Admittedly, we stuffed ourselves that night. Anyway, Eric had to be enticed a bit to eat his cake, but it didn't take much. Once he stuck his fingers in it, it was obvious by the look on his face that he loved the way it felt. Too funny! But to top it all off for him, he got an allergic reaction to the frosting and ended up getting a light rash everywhere the frosting touched his skin. Not the best day for Eric. :( The rash didn't last long though, so then it was on to opening presents.

See Eric in the background? And Jack right there with Rebekah opening presents? It made everyone laugh. Eric was too distracted by the first couple of presents he opened, so Jack took over and helped open the rest. He played all night with Eric's big boy toys. After that night, Pete and I decided we have inadequate toys for our kid. Off to the toy store we go! Again! Man, I'm glad Christmas is just around the corner.

Jack VS The Wall

The Wall: 1
Jack : 0

Will The Real Jack Crossley Please Stand Up?

5:13 AM: I go in to Jack's room cuz he's telling me he's hungry and I find him standing up, trying to get out of the crib! Apparently I just wasn't fast enough so he was gonna come get me. It scared the crap out of me. Not to mention that he's been 7 months old for less than a day! So before his morning nap I went ahead and lowered his bed two more notches thinking that would do the trick.

Obviously it didn't do the trick.

It's Autumntime, It's Autumntime

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. The leaves are falling down.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. It's all around the town.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. There's yellow, red and brown.

It's autumntime, it's autumntime. Bright colors can be found.

We were all suffering from a nasty cold but knew we had to make it outside yesterday. It was gorgeous! So we ended up going to a local farm that sells pumpkins and has a corn maze. It was small compared to the ones I have gone to in Utah, but it was perfect for the amount of energy we had.

We went into the corn maze first and Jack was thrilled about it (as you can tell). The farm did a really good job with the maze. They had posted Halloween trivia questions at each of the crossroads with two possible answers. Depending on which answer you chose, you went to go right or left. This was our favorite question:

Of course we chose to go right and this is what we found:

I think everyone had "Jack"aphobia that day. :) We were in and out of there in a only a few minutes and then it was on to pumpkin picking. As we headed over, Jack spied some beautiful sunflowers so we stopped to take a closer look. That is when Jack finally came alive.

The sunflowers led us right to the pumpkin fields and there was plenty to choose from. There were big, round, small, oblong, orange, green and white ones. But my favorite ones were the gourds! They were funky and colorful and all different shapes and sizes. I sort of went crazy at first, filling our wheel barrow within minutes, but then had to do a reality check later on. That said, we still walked out with $23 worth of pumpkins (he, he).

Look at that landscape! Pete was such a trooper, following me around with that wheel barrow as I climbed over everything going, "Ooo! Look at this one!" and "Ooo! Look at that one!"

It was definitely worth the trip to breathe in that crisp, fresh air and enjoy the scenery. Now all we have to do is carve our pumpkins! Maybe Jack will like that a little better. I mean, what little boy doesn't like to get messy?

Our Cuddle Buddy

Jack and I have been sick this week and the house seems more empty than usual. This is the first time in 5 years that Roz hasn't been around to be my cuddle buddy. I could just now imagine myself putting Jack to bed for a nap and going to find Roz lying on the floor somewhere. I would crawl up behind her, put my arms around her and take a deep breath into her fur. I always loved the way she smelled. Then I would stay like that, listening to her breathe, until I fell asleep, too. Man, I miss that dog.