******************WARNING******************
This post is a little long because I have my story from two years ago
Presents, Sleeping, Partying
Those are the three words that describe my holidays.
Oh and we can add kids and laughter into it too.
We had so much fun up at Bear Lake with Amber, Shawn, Cooper and Sadie.
We received tons of laughs at the Christmas party as we sang "Monotone Angel".
It was a BLAST!
We did a ton of cooking and baking..
I've never eaten more delicious food in my entire life!
Everyone made something for Christmas Eve dinner.
Dee and I opened our Christmas pj's and was not able to stay awake to help Ho Ho.
We woke up the next morning, read the Christmas story from the Bible in our bed, and opened presents.
It was so fun to watch Cooper and Sadie as they came out of the room to see what Ho Ho brought them.
Their little faces lite up with the biggest smiles and the brightest eyes.
It was adorable to see.
I got Dee a paper shotgun(with a gift card to get the real shotgun).
I'll post pictures so you can see what I did when I get home.
I thought I was getting IPad.
Dee has been talking about it forever and wanted to get it for me for my birthday so I was convinced.
Even the box was the same size!
Nope... I got a Ruger LC9!
(If you don't know what that is, it's a hand gun)
I was still extremely excited!
And my excitement was not fake at all!
It was fun to see my hubby happy because I was happy.
We had a blast playing Dance Central 3 with ALL the fam and tons of more food.
I think Tara cheats though...
No one can beat her...
I think I've beaten here maybe 3 or 4 times.
She is good at picking up the moves quickly...
or holding the remote the right way...
I bet that's what it is. :)
On Monday we went sledding with Kayla and Dusty.
They are getting married unofficially on June 1st!
(He still has to get the ring)
I had anxiety and cried a little on the drive up.
We relaxed all week as we both had the week off not by choice. :)
It just sucks to have to be forced to take a week and two days off. ;) haha!
For New Years we went to our friends, Chase and Emily, and ate yummy food, snacks, and played games.
We all did good staying awake until about 1.
Emily fell asleep in her bed and I feel asleep on the couch while the boys played the wii.
When I woke up Josh and Sara were gone and Dee and Chase were still playing.
We left around 2:30 and went to bed around 4.
New Years day we went up to Lava Hot Springs with Chase and Emily to lay in the hot pools.
Oh my...
That was amazing!
We were up there for about 4 hours talking and laughing.
Totally worth the 4 hours in a car.
We both also had Monday off so we just lounged around and did nothing all day.
We are back to work today and I promise I will post pictures off everything we did once I get home tonight.
As said, here is my story from two years ago....
2009 New Years Eve:
We were soo excited to go up to Bear Lake and party with the family.
Amber rented a condo so we all could fit in the same place and party all night.
On our way up...we got in a car crash(2).
Nothing serious, we were still able to drive the truck up to the Lake.
Oh, earlier that week I spun out in the middle of the street and got stuck in a snow bank(1).
Everything comes in 3's...
We got up to the condo and went swimming for a little bit with the kids.
After that we went back up to the room to get warm and play games.
Amber had coconut bowling with real coconuts! soo much fun!
We had margaritas and treats and partied all night.
2010 New Years Day(3):
This morning, we headed to the other side of the Lake to Amber and Shawn's house.
We put our things in our room to spend the night and got ready to go sledding.
I didn't have any snow gear so I doubled my clothing and then borrowed my sisters clothes.
We walked up the road behind their house and got ready to go sledding.
The road(which is a perfect hill for sledding) goes past a vacant lot and then past Amber and Shawn's house.
On the corner of the vacant lot, about 3 or 4 feet from the road, was a pipe sticking about 3 or 4 feet above ground.
It was their fire-hydrant.
Braxton and Brody went down,
Carter,
Shawn and Cooper...
Dee was holding a little kids tube(not sled, there is a difference) and kept telling me to go down.
I was feeling up to it so I just sat on the tube.
Mandee, ready to have fun, jumped on the front of the tube, I lost my footing, and we were off down the hill.
Everything was going fine, we were facing forwards and picking up speed fast. really fast.
We turned backwards and thats when things turned bad.
We changed our course once we head backwards and was headed straight for the pipe.
Everything happened so fast.
Once we turned backwards I felt something(kinda like when you stretch your abs) and we were both lying on the ground with the wind knocked out of us.
I was on by tummy closer to the pipe and Mandee was on her back.
I could not breath but could hear Mandee in pain.
I tried to scream for help but nothing came out and the pain was horrible.
Shawn was still at the bottom of the hill from going down before us and came over.
He could tell that things weren't right and waived down the men.
Let me tell you something about the Hoellein's and pain...
when we get hurt, we usually laugh until the pain goes away.
Everyone at the top of the hill thought we were laughing.
That's why they didn't come down immediately.
Oh, and Matt(Mandee's hubby) is a paramedic.
The men came down along with everyone else.
Matt made sure that I could move my feet to make sure I was paralyzed.
He asked me to see if I could stand up but I could not move.
It hurt so bad to breath.
And then my delicious banana pancakes decided to make their grand entrance....
It hurt so bad to throw up.
Anything that had to do with moving my ribs hurt.
Next Matt checked out Mandee.
She was able to get up to her knee's but couldn't go any higher.
They brought up April and Todd's car along with plywood.
They rolled me onto the plywood to get off the cold snow and into the car.
Dee was to afraid and couldn't keep his mind focused to give me a blessing so he asked Todd too.
They also got Mandee into a car and gave her a blessing.
I'm not sure if they also got her on plywood or what.
But I was so worried about her.
The ambulance from Laketown and also Montpelier came to the house.
Since there are only two for Bear Lake, Mandee and I both rode together in the back on the Laketown ambulance.
First they put me in and cut off my clothes. :(
Did I mention what the clothes were that I doubled?
All my soccer clothes from High School...
My soccer sweats, and both my hoodies.. :(
I also had on a brand new Buckle Shirt that I got for Christmas and a Vickies bra.
Luckily my mom saved all the left overs of my soccer sweats and hoodies so I can someday make a blanket.
Another thing, I absolutely hate needles.
I was crying more from the thought of needles than the pain.
Luckily, Bear Lake has some of the most AMAZING volunteers.
Mr. Weston(or Brother) is in Amber and Shawn's ward.
He was so sweet with me and getting the needle in my arm.
I was shaking so bad so they put tons of blankets on me and heat package's around me.
I did not feel cold and the heat did little to warm me.
I guess I was really cold and the shock of everything totally numbed my body.
My breathing was also very shallow and I wanted to sleep.
They got Mandee ready in the other ambulance and then slid her in next to me.
I'm glad I had my big sister next to me in that scary vehicle.
Once they got Mandee in, they gave me oxygen(I really didn't know how much I wasn't breathing until they gave me so much air) and asked me if I wanted Morphine.
I told them no.
They then asked me to rate my pain...
Rate my pain...? To what? Obviously it is the most pain that I have ever had so that would be a 10...
But I am a Hoellein and our pain tolerance is high so I could handle the pain...
So I said about a 6 or a 7.
Once I said that Mandee yelled, "No she's not! she's a 10!"
Mandee has had kids and they have a scale that has faces on it and you rate your pain according to that.
Next time I will know what to say.
But I still didn't feel like I was a 10, but they listened to Mandee and gave me the Morphine.
The guy told me that I would feel a warm sensation rush through my body and after putting in the drugs, asked me if I felt it.
No...
He then started talking and oh man... "oh, I can feel it now"
It felt so good.
My breathing was then more bearable and I was able to breath better.
The drive was long, snowy and curvy.
They were taking us to the Logan Hospital since that was the closest(obviously).
They had to drop the chains to make it through the canyon.
They kept asking us questions, I'm pretty sure to keep us awake, and also laughing about things to keep our minds away from the pain.
I never want to do it again but it was actually a fun experience being in the same ambulance with my sister next to me and the amazing volunteers from Laketown.
We got to the emergency room and they split Mandee and I up.
All I wanted to know was that Mandee was ok.
And she kept worrying about "her little sister".
Dee was so scared.
He was worried about his wife.
He didn't want to see me in pain.
I left to go do fun scans and when I came back my Mommy and Daddy were in the room with Dee.
At the scene of the crime, Matt thought that I had broken ribs and something with my spleen was wrong.
When the doctor came back, he said that I had lacerated(tore) my liver and it was a stage 5(stage 4 is surgery).
I kept asking about Mandee and wanted to know what happened with her.
My body started to come out of the numbness and I could feel the pain.
Wow....did it hurt.
They gave me more morphine and as I was waiting, my Dad came in and said that the doctor looked again at the scans and changed me to a stage 3.
They were going to transfer me to Ogden for a few days to monitor my blood levels and make sure that I was healing.
I found out that Mandee broke her lower back.
Two of the wings off her spin were broken and that's why it hurt to push pressure on that leg.
She thought she was just being a wuss.
They transferred me to Ogden and again had to drop the chains.
After they released Mandee from Logan, everyone came down to see me.
I was in the room right next to the waiting room so it was easy to find me.
When everyone came they gave me another blessing.
This time my amazing Hubby gave the blessing.
The kids weren't able to come in because they are not old enough.
April left and the next thing I heard was "I love you Bobby!"
All my nieces and nephews were as close as they can to my room yelling down the hall.
It totally brought me to tears.
Later that night after everyone left, they all sent me texts wanting to see a picture of my back.
My whole back was purple and green.
We took a picture that night at 10 o'clock and sent it to them.
The next morning, I knew my bruise would be more rad looking.
At 9 o'clock, I had Dee look at my back...
The bruise was completely gone.
The doctor was amazed and at a loss for words.
My doctor also looked like he just rolled out of bed everytime we saw him...
I was released after 3 days and spent two weeks at Mandee's house recovering with her.
I am soo glad to have worthy men who carry the Priesthood in my life.
Without those blessings, my injuries probably would have been worse.
And that bruise....that is just amazing on it's own.
I am also eternally grateful for an amazing family.
April was right there to comfort me when I was in the back of their car.
Amber watched the kids as everything happened at their house.
Ginger was there to see me when I first got to the Ogden Hospital.
Lindy and Tara were there to see me in Ogden.
Jake...is amazing. He was worried about both of us and kept crying.
and Mandee....she was there with me in the ambulance.
We watched over eat other for two weeks.
I have never seen her worry about "her little sister" more than I had that day.
