Christmas 2009

All those months of preparation, weeks of anxiety and stress and then BAM!! Just like that Christmas is over. We had our big dinner on Christmas Eve and I spent more time in the kitchen cooking then I did for Thanksgiving. This was my second attempt at making a Bouche de Noel, I tried last year but had to throw it away. I learned about the "yule log" cake in high school French class. I was very happy that this year it turned out and was rather delicious. We read our Christmas stories and opened our PJ's. I was sad that five minutes after I changed into my new zebra print PJ's, I spilled my wassail on the bottoms and had to change. So I had zebra print on the top half and leopard print on the bottom half. It was quite an eye sore. We watched "A Christmas Story" and then went to bed. The kids spent the day playing Wii games and watching some new movies. Todd surprised me with a laptop and he got a netbook. Somehow I always get the better present. It is amazing how destroyed a house can get on Christmas day.

Aaron's Surgery December 2009

Friday, December 18, Aaron had surgery on both ankles. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. but he wasn't taken back for surgery until 11:00 a.m. Aaron watched "Cast Away" while we waited and I worked on making a list and checking it twice. Aaron's biggest concern about having surgery was getting the IV put in. Little did he know, that was going to be the easiest part. The nurse put a patch on his hand to numb it and he never even felt the IV as she put it in. The doctor removed the accessory naviculars on both of his feet. That is a little extra piece of bone he was born with that has caused him pain off and on since he injured his foot a few years ago. The surgery was quick only a half hour and then a short while later they called me back to recovery. Aaron was very confused and in a lot of pain. He had a panicked look in his eyes and kept saying, "my ankles, oh my ankles..." It was very hard for me to see him like that. Kids don't have a concept of severe pain like that...it is not something you can explain to them or prepare them for. I imagine he never thought about what it would feel like after the surgery was over. I felt very sorry for him. Both ankles were in casts and they were cut all the way up the front to allow them to expand with the swelling. He asked about a hundred questions in recovery and the nurse and I were trying not to laugh. At the beginning, he looked at her and said, "Who are you?" she said she was his nurse. A few minutes later he looked at her again and said, "Did you do my surgery?" she said, "I wish!" He is such a worrier and that characteristic was exaggerated a hundred percent by the anesthesia...she finally told him to lay his head back, that it was her job to worry about everything and he needed to try to sleep. We were able to take him home by about 4:00 p.m. It was quite an ordeal driving him home and getting him up into bed as every bump or movement caused him extreme pain. The first night he slept with me and we were up every hour on the hour. Either to give him pain meds, help him use the "portable toilet" or adjusting his legs into a better position. He was so thoughtful that night, always thanking me for taking care of him or apologizing for waking me up. At one point we were awake for about an hour and a half where he couldn't sleep because of the pain. He asked me to tell him some stories from my childhood to distract him. That was a little tough coming up with material that old, in the middle of the night and being sleep deprived and all, but I was eventually able to talk him back to sleep. I told him it was a privilege to take care of such a sweet patient. The first several days it took both Todd and I to carry him. We would take him downstairs in the morning and lay him on an air mattress and then carry him back up to bed at night. The first three days he had to take the pain pills every three hours on the dot. After that he went to the regular Tylenol and only had to take it a few times a day. Now it is a week after surgery, he has made huge progress. He sits in his wheelchair most of the day or on the couch. Yesterday he started walking with the crutches a little bit. It is very slow going but he is glad to be moving again. For someone as active as Aaron, being in bed for a week has not been easy. He has been very brave through it all and it is such a relief to have the worst behind us. He will go in on Jan 4th for a check up and to have the casts removed and surgery sites checked. They will either put the casts on for four more weeks or they might decide to put him in post-op shoes for four weeks. We will see. I am sure he will always remember the Christmas he was wearing cast numbers four and five.

Montana Trip 2009

Dee and Angela



the view out the back of Jen's house

Jen sledding

Rachyl and Abby

Emma jamming

Last December I made the decision to contact my birth dad, Dee Linge. He has not been a part of my life for the past 32 years. The feelings I had that I needed to contact him came as a surprise and completely out of the blue, but it has been a very positive experience. I have had a lot of issues, feelings and emotions to work through but it has been a healing process. I appreciate so much the support I have received from my parents and siblings. I have enjoyed reconnecting with Dee and getting to know my two half sisters, Traci and DeeAnn, that I had no memory of. This year Dee bought me a plane ticket to go to Bozeman for a visit, so I used it the beginning of December. I was able to spend 5 days there and had a great time. Dee and his wife, Diann, picked me up at the airport. Their son-in-law was just transferred to the Bozeman airport so we all went to lunch after I arrived. We had a nice visit that day. I also got to have breakfast with them the next morning. My first night in town, I spent with Lara and her family. My niece Emma was acting in the play, "The Christmas Story." I got to attend part of her practice that night. She did a great job. I was really impressed! The theater was very beautiful but very cold. When we got back to Lara's we played a game, visited, and went to bed very late. The next day I went to Jennifer's. We did extreme sledding which was only "extreme" for me. I bumped along the trail so much that I am certain my coccyx got bruised, it was very sore. I wanted to make a snow angel...I hadn't made one of those in 20 years. I've always loved the snow and playing in it. The next day more snow came and it was a lot. I was very impressed with Jen's ability to maneuver her vehicle through the narrow, snow covered mountain roads. We went snowmobiling on Saturday. Beka loaned me her warm snow clothes, which was a huge help. Even in zero degree and below zero temperatures, I was comfortable. Jen drove me around for a while on the snowmobile. We went about 4 miles down to the bottom of their mountain and back up to their house. I was very impressed how good she drove that machine and how fast she could go. She has had many years of practice. We did have one small incident while she was driving me. I flew off the back of the snowmobile and landed in the driveway on my back. I still don't know what happened. My forearm was hurting when I landed so I think something must have caught me and knocked me off. It was pretty funny. Jen felt so bad because I had just finished praising her on what an excellent driver she was. I am sure it was all my fault and not hers. Kimball insisted that I drive the snowmobile for a bit. I was nervous but did a few loops and then managed to get it stuck in the deep snow when I wasn't able to make a turn. When you get a snowmobile stuck at the Frome's, you have to help get it unstuck. If I lived in the snow, I could easily become addicted to snowmobiling. We had to sit in the hot tub twice to recover from the sledding and the snowmobiling. Saturday night we went to the Christmas stroll on Main street. It was freezing that night and I was very uncomfortable but ate a delicious scone that the scouts were selling. They have a lot of food vendors along the street and all the shops on main street are open. On Sunday, it was -10 degrees. Jen said they were going through a cold snap and it usually wasn't that cold. Lara and her family came for dinner Sunday night and we had fun playing rock band. It was -6 degrees on the way to the airport on Monday. It was time to leave my arctic vacation and head back to the warmth of the desert. It was a really great trip. DeeAnn works for Delta in SLC and met my connecting planes to and from Bozeman. I was glad that we got a chance to visit and really appreciated all her help. Todd and the kids were very helpful while I was away so I didn't have to worry about things and Ariel came home from school while I was gone and had the house all cleaned. Zoey was very excited to see me.