The dangers of fishing!

It's never good when I get a text from Andrew saying "call me as soon as you can I'm on my way to the hospital." That's what happened this morning. Andrew has been going fishing early in the morning before work and today he and Trent went out to the spot that he'd been going to. He's caught some really crazy fish. Like a blow fish that actually blew up when he was reeling it in and the other fish he's been catching is a lot of catfish. I don't know that much about catfish, but at least the ones in Florida have a really sharp spine. A couple days ago he caught one and got cut on his finger from the spine. I kept on telling him not to go because he's not a "seasoned fisherman" there and he didn't know all the different kinds that you can catch, but he asked his "fellow fisherman" that were there if their spines were poisonous and they said no. Well not even the outdoor channel could prepare him for today unfortunately.

He reeled a catfish in and while he was taking it off the hook it flipped or something and it's spine landed on Andrew's ankle. He said that it was the worst pain that he's ever been in and Andrew has had some pretty good accidents before (a lot just in the 4 years I've known him :) He said that the spine went into his foot about an inch. Trent tried to pull it out but it didn't budge. Trent gets really queasy around blood and stuff like that so it makes me laugh thinking about those two together. So Andrew ended up just prying it out bit by bit.

They went to the community care type of place and he got all fixed up. We should know better, but Andrew didn't have his insurance card out there so I had to fax it to the place. Later on I faxed him another copy to his office for the prescription that he has to get so he wont get an infection . On the cover sheet I wrote a note saying that "this should have been the first thing we packed." He agreed. He's doing good and I'm glad that Trent was there or he wouldn't have been able to drive because he said that he thought he was going to throw up because of the pain. I hope now after this little experience Andrew wont get mad at me for freaking out when he picks up a snake by the tail that he knows is poisonous. . . and yes he's already done that too. Gotta love him!

What we'll do on a Saturday night

Emily and I have been trying to keep busy. After working all day we cleaned our houses (you'd think one person living there it wouldn't get messy, but it does) and then went grocery shopping. It was fun going together because we usually eat together anyways so we kind of combined our stuff and had ideas for each other. I love going shopping with Andrew, however it was good going with someone else besides someone that lives with you, cuz Em had tried different things and told me if they were good or not and vice versa. I think we were fairly productive. On our way home at like 10:00 or something I had said to Emily just in passing, not really meaning it too much, that it would be fun to go on a run. Since the weather was SO nice still! She laughed and said that she was thinking the same thing.

For those of you that don't know Em and I live directly across from each other. This is Em's view from her house. . .

My house

This is my view from my house. . . pretty close. It's fun living so close too because I had to borrow some mayo from Em today and I took this picture while I was over there. She was at church :) She had to borrow some powdered sugar from me this morning too and she just happen to time it just right because I was making breakfast and so we ate pancakes together.

Em's house

So anyways, we unloaded our groceries and then started running from our street to my parent's house that's just under 2 miles there and back. Not that far, but it was still so much fun! One reason being that it was one of the nicest nights that we've had so far. Since it was dark outside I found this glow stick that had been Andrew's from high school (GO GRIZZLIES ;) that he had made me save. He's a little bit of a pack rat, but I am thankful that we kept this. It came in handy so we didn't get hit by a car. I bet it looked funny seeing this floating glow stick bouncing around.

We kinda wish we would have taken this picture before we got the wild hair to go running, but we had to take it sweaty or not with our handy, life-saving, glow stick :)

The Journey!

I haven't written a post for awhile it seems like since Andrew left, but I guess it's only been a week. I really thought that I'd be on here like every waking minute of my day blogging about eating breakfast in the morning to brushing my teeth at night and everything in between. Not the case, however, with Andrew being gone it's really thrown my routine for a loop.

I did want to write about Andrew and Trent making it to Florida and their ups and downs. They headed out that Wednesday the 6th (not a fun day!) and got to Cheyenne so around 600 miles. Andrew sent me this picture along the way and this is what he said with it. It's pretty cute. "Here is a picture of a rainbow right by the road. We could see the bottom even. There wasn't any gold that we could tell." They stopped around 12 and slept in their cars and got up around 5 and started up again. That time they traveled around 1100 miles. Slept in their car once again and then finished the last leg of the race another 1100 miles or so. It was insane! It was weird that I went to work 3 days before they got there. They did have a lot of fun. Andrew took walkie talkies and when he handed it to Trent I guess the first thing Trent said was "Andrew, you're Foxtrot and I'm Whiskie River!" I died laughing when I heard that. Any time that I'd call him all of the sudden you'd here Trent talking in their code names. Another thing Andrew did was every time he got to a new state he'd text me and say "Welcome to Missouri, Welcome to Georgia." or whatever state he drove through. I felt like I was driving with him. . . yeah right.
They finally got there and had to start work the next day that Saturday. Sunday they had to check out the beach and make Emily and I totally jealous!


They found a live sand dollar and then chased a baby sting ray down the beach and was playing with it and picking it up. Yeah I didn't have flashes of Steve Irwin or anything. Andrew reassured me that the stinger was less than 2 inches and it wouldn't sing them. . . right. They've only been to the beach once since they got there and they're excited to go back.

Andrew has had some slight technical difficulties with his car Tilda. She made it to Florida, but it wasn't easy on her. When he woke up Monday, I think it was, she had a flat tire. She was pooped! Andrew put "new" tires on her. He found a discount tire place and got them put on. Then the very next day it had another flat. I think she was trying to tell him something :) But she's doing really good now. It was so funny Andrew compared Tilda to a 12 year old Husky dog trying to run the Ididorod (I have no idea how to spell that!) She's getting old and we're glad she made it there.
Em and I sure do miss these guys but they're going to have so much fun! They keep on telling us that when we come out to visit (2 weeks from today!) we're going to love it. We're excited!

This is by far the worst day of the summer!

This is another Andrew post, so once again, it won't be fancy. But I just wanted to share what I am feeling right now. I just told Steph good bye before I leave. She had to go to work before I am actually leaving town. I hate her work... But that's another blog. Anyway, I think this may have been the hardest goodbye yet. For a minute after she left I was asking myself why is it harder this year. We have done this before. Last year was hard but I figured things would get easier. Well, they haven't. They have only got harder. But it didn't take me too long to put my finger on exactly why it is worse this year. It is because I love Stephanie even more now than I did a year ago. It is really amazing how that happens. How it is even possible. I never knew I was capable of loving someone so much. If I didn't love her so much, it would make make things so much easier. I could leave for the summer and never look back until it was time to go home. But I would never trade the love and friendship that we share for anything!
Steph, if you are reading this, I want you to know I love you and the next three weeks will go so fast, we won't even believe it. Then guess what? You will be lounging on the beaches of Florida with your husbee!
I love you. Take care
Andrew

Already missing you!!

Hello my lovin heart! This is Andrew! This is my very first blog so I may not be able to make it very cute and pretty but I just wanted to write a real quick note to Steph before a take off on my 4 month journey.
Steph, you are the love of my life! You have been so very supportive of the things that I have wanted to do. You have been so patient as I have been going through school. School is taking me at least twice as long as it should. I am really sorry for that. If I could have ever made up my mind earlier about what I wanted to do with my life, that would have helped. Thanks for being patient and always encouraging me forward.
Thank you for being my best friend in the whole world! We have done some very fun things in the short almost 4 years that we have known each other. I cannot imagine doing all those things with anyone else. It just wouldn’t be the same. Just thinking about you puts a great big smile on my face! I love spending time with you. We always laugh so much and find ourselves doing some crazy things. But you know what? Nothing seems that crazy while we are doing them together. To make the memories that we have, I would do about anything. The memories we have made are priceless! I am so excited to make many more memories with you!
Steph, to some people, 4 months seems to be a long time. And indeed it is. But we have experienced this before and we know the good that comes out of summers like this one. When we get to see each other during the summer, it is the happiest time of my whole life! I just want you to know that I love you more than anything in the whole world! I am so lucky to have you as my beautiful wife! You are the most beautiful woman in the whole world! I don’t deserve to have someone as great as you! I don’t know how I got so lucky. I love you! I will never stop loving you. You will be my love heart for ever and ever, and that still won’t be enough. I will be looking forward, every second of the day, to the time that I get to see you again. I will always be thinking about you! Have a good summer honey! I will see you very soon. I love your heart, might, mind, strength, spirit, and soul!

A handful of "lasts". . .

We had a very busy weekend! The reason why it was so busy is because it was Andrew's last weekend here for awhile (awhile meaning 4 months :( For those of you that don't know Andrew is going to be living in Florida for the summer. He is going to be installing security systems for APX again. So once again I will be a widow for awhile. I forget every time that he does this how hard it actually is for me when he leaves. My brother, Trent, is going to be going with him too and they will be living together. It will be really fun for them and Emily, his wife, and I are a little worried that they will have too much fun. Emily and I have been having a really hard time this passed week or so with what we call "break downs." We'll be driving or sitting there or doing nothing at all and just start crying. It has not been fun, but I just have to remember that it's the very hardest when he leaves and then after that I get over it and just try to stay busy.

Our weekend started with going to the temple on Friday. We went with my family (minus Kinz. She feels left out, but we were thinking of her :). It was really nice having everyone there together. We had ice cream afterwards. I think those two go together. Saturday after work we had a dinner with Andrew's family. It was really good. We kinda just sat around and talked and after awhile we were headed to our next get together. It was at Andrew's uncle Chad's house. We love to get together and play a group game called Curse of the Wolfen. I'm not even going to explain it because it sounds so retarded but it is so much fun and we are pretty much addicted to it.

On Sunday we went to a baby blessing. My cousins Kassie and Jeremy blessed their little baby Hope. Of course there was food involved as well. We ate and sat around. My mom said that we all looked like a pride of lions laying around. It's very true. In our down time we went over to my brother Trent's house and watched Marley and Me. It was pretty much a tear jerker and even Andrew got teary eyed, but he wont admit that to anyone. I think it gave me an excuse just to cry.

Then to round out our night we headed up to Andrew's brother Jarom's house to watch the Amazing Race. We don't have cable so whoever lets us come over and watch our shows we do it. We are addicted to the Amazing Race and even considered trying out for it when there was try outs in Idaho Falls, but we got some reasoning and decided against it.

Our weekend was really busy and I think we pretty much did as much as we could fit in one weekend. I guess you could say that Andrew filled his canteen :) I keep on saying that I feel like I'm sending him out on a mission or that he has only so much time to live. It's really bad. I would really hate to be in that situation for real.

I didn't take any pictures of our events but we did take a picture of an event that was pretty special. Andrew made this cake all by himself (with a little tutoring over the phone). It was really good and I'm really proud of him. That's what's great about Andrew, he tries things that maybe he's not that comfortable with doing. He is the best husband and I couldn't have asked for anyone better. I love him and I'm going to miss him really bad and I won't get used to him being gone. However, what we do like about this experience is that it strengthens our relationship and we realize how much we do for one another. If strengthening our realtionship is all we take away from this experience then it's worth it!