A WEEK OF RECOVERY AND CANNING (AGAIN!)

On Sunday, March 4th, we went over to Amy's house to drop off my turkey so she could set it out to thaw for Thursday when I would come over to bottle it with her! While we were there I noticed Amy's three girls playing with dolls and snapped this shot. Her girls are from left to right, Kimball, Riley and Alex. They are dolls themselves! Aren't they all just gorgeous?!?! All of them are very friendly to Vaughn and love to play with him. He adores Amy's kids. We are grateful to have them close by.







Vaughn decided to take it easy while we were there and just snooze for a while.








On Monday we headed over to Brian's parents for the evening. Laura agreed to come with us, and that made me very happy! Laura is always a blast to be around, and Vaughn took full advantage of that fact!

Laura and Brian sat on opposite sides of the dining room while Vaughn took turns throwing a ball to each of them. He loved it!








As shown here, Vaughn would do this huge wind up and then chuck the golf ball as hard as he could towards Laura or Brian. This may not look very scarey, but when a golf ball is flying towards your head at 100 miles per hour, you try to avoid it!











Once the ball got to the opposite person, Vaughn would run over and grab the ball from them. Then he'd throw it back to the other person. This was really nice because Brian and Laura got to just sit there while Vaughn did all the running and exercise. (They just had to make sure to dodge the ball!)










Vaughn tried really hard to follow Laura's instructions on how to throw correctly.












When Vaughn got it right he'd give himself a hand......


















.........And then he'd get a hug from Laura.













All Brian and I could do was watch with smiles on our faces as Vaughn had such a good time with Aunt Laura. It made us very happy. We're excited to see this kid get involved in sports too. His aim is great!








We went back to Mom and Dad's Wednesday evening so Vaughn could have more fun with Robert and Jared. We have been trying to keep him occupied so as to distract his attention from his hand while it heals. While we were over there, I bottled a turkey by myself! I don't have any pictures of it though because we had to send our digital camera in for repairs. The LCD screen and viewfinder have turned this weird yellow-green color. But anyway, I was able to bottle 11 wide-mouth pints of turkey, and it went perfectly!

On Thursday we went over to Amy's, and I bottled more turkey with her! We wound up getting 14 pints with the larger turkey. It is always so fun to bottle with Amy because she is just full of interesting facts and stories. I love talking to her! It's nice too because we watch American Idol with everyone after bottling to relax. While I was there I made some french bread pizza that Grandma Oviatt had made while we visited with her. It turned out really well, and everyone seemed to like it.

So all together on Wednesday and Thursday I bottled 25 pints of turkey! It would have been more than that, but I used mostly wide-mouth pint jars, and you can fit more turkey in those than in the regular pint jars. But I was very pleased! Now I have the beginnings of a very good supply of bottled meat to use in emergencies. It gives me a great peace of mind knowing that if something were to happen and there was a run on the local stores, I have a wide variety of the things I would need to sustain my family!

Vaughn's hand is doing great! The shot on the left (which was included in our last blog entry) was taken about six days before the one on the lower right, (which was taken last Wednesday the 7th of March). Vaughn's hand looks even better today. He has just healed miraculously. Even the doctors were astonished at how good his hand looked when he went in. He is doing so well that I cancelled his return appointment with the burn center up in Salt Lake. I wasn't going to drive a total of about 100 miles and pay a few hundred dollars to have a doctor tell me Vaughn's hand looks great!
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I tried to get a shot of Vaughn's full hand, but he wasn't willing to comply. But you can barely tell now that he was burned, and it's been two weeks to the day today since it happened! It really is a miracle. I have heard that babies have a way of bouncing back from injuries that grown-ups can't. I am just so grateful that Vaughn has healed so quickly! He has been using his left hand normally for several days now. He also doesn't show any limitations with his hand movement.

Just to throw this little story in. On Friday I was playing with Vaughn, trying to be a good mother and spend some one-on-one time with him. I thought I was doing a good thing, but then something happened! Vaughn twisted his body very quickly while we were lying on the bed tickling each other. His arm was under his body slightly, and as he twisted his body he gave a yelp. I picked him up and then I saw his arm. Yes, it was his left arm. I could tell immediately it had been pulled out of it's socket. Just to be sure I tried to lift his arm and he cried really hard. So I left it alone and called his pediatrician's office. The nurse tried to give me instructions on how to put it back myself, but I just couldn't do it. I called several people I knew, but nobody was available to help, including my next-door neighbor who is a nurse. So I called Brian at work and he immediately came home to help.

While we were waiting for Brian to get home I brought Vaughn into the bathroom while I got ready so we could take him to the doctor. Vaughn just sat on the counter, his limp arm hanging at his side, and didn't make a peep. Then he maneuvered his body around with his feet so he was facing the mirror. With his right hand he grabbed the mirror and started making funny smiling faces at himself. I thought, "What a kid!" The poor thing has a limp arm out-of-socket and he still manages to have fun.

When Brian got home I was ready to rush out the door to the doctor's office, but Brian suggested we call his sister Amy, (yes, my bottling buddy) and ask her what to do. Amy's daughter Riley used to get her arm pulled out of it's socket all the time. So I called Amy and while Brian held Vaughn, Amy talked me through the process of popping his arm back in place. She told me the exact same things the nurse had told me, but for some reason it clicked this time. Amy just knows how to make things connect with people. Just as I was about to quit (because Vaughn was crying so hard) Amy said, "No keep going. You should feel a Pop." And just as she said that I felt Vaughn's little arm pop back into place. We were so grateful! Thanks Amy for being SO AWESOME!

So I called the nurse back and told her to cancel our appointment because I was pretty sure Vaughn's arm was back in place. She told me I would know for sure if I had done it right because Vaughn would start to use it within the half-hour. Well, Vaughn began using his arm again within one minute of it being popped back into place. I swear the kid is an iron man. He can handle a lot of pain! And since then he has shown no signs of nerve problems or anything. He is so cute!

I will say though that Vaughn tried to let me know he was kind of upset at me. After his arm was back in place, Brian sat with him on the couch for a few minutes. During that time Vaughn just looked at me, squinted his eyes and formed his lips in an "O" shape and said, "Oooooo" at me, looking very cross. He did it a few times and I could swear he looked as if he were saying, "Mom. Why did you hurt me? Why did you do it?" What a cutie!

So there you go! That has been our week! Thanks to everyone for your continued support and prayers with Vaughn's hand. We know that has been the reason for him healing as quickly as he has.

I am hoping our camera will be back soon! Until then we'll leave you with one more for the road......


Love to all!
Love, Lisa