More flooding

Once again, the river grew out of control today. We spent the majority of the day sandbagging.



The banks of the river are actually where the trees are. All that other water is the flood zone.



On that opposite side, there are actually no banks.

This is our next door neighbors property.



This is in our back yard.



 Thank goodness for sandbags and all the people that came to fill them!



Slideshow for Faye

I was going to post a few pictures, but I got carried away. A lot of the pictures aren't very high quality because I stole them from Stacey's blog. But this is something I decided I wanted to do.

Make your own free slideshow design

**I made a change to this from my original post, I was driving home from Relief Society tonight, and a song came on the radio that I had to add to the slide show!

Feelings about Faye

A little over seven years ago, I remember sitting in my parent’s family room with family members. My sister Stacey announced she was pregnant. I also took the opportunity to announce that I was pregnant. And so, we began the road to motherhood together. It was a little bit emotional for Stacey, she had suffered a miscarriage months before. Pregnancy can be emotional and scary if you’ve suffered a loss. We were due November 16 and 17^th. November 1^st rolls around, and Stacey’s water breaks. She goes into the hospital and about 8 hours later, Mitchell Keith Meldrum was born. Kaylee came along the following week. Two months later, I got very sick and had to have my gallbladder removed, and Stacey was there for me. Kaylee and Mitchell have been way good friends. They were blessed together and have had a special cousin bond. Kaylee loves Mitchell so much! Fast forward a couple years—I got pregnant with my second child, Stacey had also been trying, and it had been a struggle for them. But a few months later Stacey also announced her pregnancy. I am too anxious and had to find out what the gender of my baby was. Stacey didn’t find out. May 15^th rolls around, and along comes Abbie. Stacey was one of the first to learn of her arrival and one of the first to come to the hospital. She brought Kaylee to meet her new sister. I still remember Kaylee walking into the room, and Stacey had done Kaylee’s hair and it was so gorgeous! Stacey is so good at doing little girls hair and loves it! July 7^th comes and along with it came Faye Meldrum. We were so excited to see a little girl! Stacey was so good with my little girl and I knew she would be such a great mom to a little girl; she already was a fabulous mom. I was so envious of how natural motherhood came to her. She was able to savor every moment with her children.  About 18 months later, I ended up having to have jaw surgery. Stacey was there for me. She drove down from Logan to watch my girls for the day and made cupcakes with them. And, once again, the girls had gorgeous hair! Abbie and Faye have been really good friends. Ever since they were born, Nick and Stacey haven’t lived near us, first Logan, then Texas. But that hasn’t stopped Abbie and Faye from phone calls and web chats with each other. Every time I have been on the phone with Stacey, Faye asks to talk, she always says, “hi Holly! Can I talk to Abbie?” And sometimes it’s “Can I talk to Kaylee?” They will go on and on with their conversation just talking about everything.  Abbie has always been one to just play alone, but whenever Faye and Abbie get together they don’t leave each other’s side, they play so well together! I ended up pregnant again, as I went on through the pregnancy; I talked to Stacey a lot. I started feeling guilt through the pregnancy because I found out that she was trying to have another baby, but wasn’t ovulating. She said they would have to do fertility treatments, but had to wait until Nick had a job and they had insurance. I felt so bad. She told me that it was okay and I just needed to be so excited about my new baby. At the end of the pregnancy, the baby wasn’t coming. My due date came and the baby still wasn’t here. Nick and Stacey had a trip home planned a week later. Stacey kept telling me, “Your baby loves me so much! She is just waiting for her favorite aunt to get there for her to come.” The following day Kenzie arrived. I experienced some problems following the childbirth. And a few days later I ended up back in the ER. The following day, Nick and Stacey got into town and came over, and Stacey was there for me. She made adorable shoes for Kenzie and just loved Kenzie. Mitchell and Faye were nervous to hold the baby and they both covered their ears when she cried. Kenzie spit up and Mitchell was so grossed out at that! But they loved Kenzie! Nick and Stacey spent the summer here in Utah and it was great! The kids loved spending time with their cousins and I loved spending time with my sister. A month after they went back home, I received a phone call; it was Stacey saying she was pregnant! I was ecstatic!! We communicated through the pregnancy and it went so well for her. They came back to Utah for Christmas. It was great spending time with them. While they were here, Faye started complaining about her legs hurting and was crying a lot. They took her to the ER and they said it was just a virus and put her on antibiotics. Stacey went through the remainder of the pregnancy and Faye’s legs were hurting her worse. Nick got a new job that he started in January. On April 1^st, their insurance went into effect. On April 3^rd Stacey went into labor, and on April 4^th Nixon Joseph Meldrum was born via C-Section. Faye’s legs were still hurting and she got to the point where she wouldn’t walk or eat. A few days later, they took Nixon for a check up and took Faye for blood tests and X rays. The following morning they received a phone call saying that Faye’s hemoglobin was low and they needed to go to the hospital immediately, she was then transferred to the children’s hospital. On Saturday morning, I had gone to my parent’s house; my dad was watching the girls so I could take a test. Before I left to take the test he said, “Have you heard the latest on Faye?” I said no. He explained the events that had taken place that morning. When he said low hemoglobin my heart dropped. I said, “Dad that is what I was afraid of.” He said, “What does it mean?” I said, “Dad, I have been learning about this stuff in my class. I am pretty sure that means leukemia.” His face went pale and dropped. I did some research and said, “Dad, it is probably just an iron issue, I am sure everything is fine.” In my heart, I knew it wasn’t. I received a call from Stacey on Monday. She said, “Are you ready? Faye has leukemia.” I can’t say I was completely shocked. I was hoping it wasn’t that, but I felt at peace. I told Stacey that and she said, she was prepared for this, she knew and she was okay. Nick and Stacey are very strong people. It doesn’t mean that because they are so strong they should have to go through this. No one should have to. But Nick and Stacey are much loved! They have an immense amount of support and arms around their necks. They have raised a fighter! Faye is going to fight her hardest. I want to be there for my sister, she has always been there for me when I was going through hard times. She told me, “knowing you are praying for us, is the best thing you can do.” So I am. I haven’t wanted to acknowledge this; I have been unfocused all week. I haven’t known what to say or do. I have felt helpless. I feel like everything I have thought of doing or putting together, someone else has done, it has made me very emotional feeling like I can’t do anything because everyone else is, everything I suggest to people, the response is, “Oh, this person is already doing that.” I talked to my mom last night. I was telling her how we were selling things to pay off some of our debt, but we wanted to give the money to Nick and Stacey. She said, “Holly, you still need to take care of your family. Nick and Stacey will be blessed. You still need to think about your family.” I lost it. I burst into tears and said, “Mom they are going through something so hard and I feel helpless and the last thing I want to do is think about myself. I don’t want to be selfish!” Talking to my mom made me understand that things will work out the way they are supposed to. Stacey would give me a massive lecture on continuing on with my life, and I know that is what she wants me to do. I can still pray for Faye and their family. I can still support them. But she wants me to be the best wife and mother I can be, I know that with all my heart. I haven’t wanted to write about it, but one of Stacey’s dear friends wrote about it, and I knew that was what I needed to do. I needed to write about it and acknowledge it. Stacey has amazing friends. To be honest, I have always been a little jealous of how close she was to them. But I know that her friends are a huge blessing in her life and I am thankful for them and their support. This will be beat! I know this is the longest post ever, but I needed to do it, for me and for Stacey! I love my sister so much. I have always looked up to her and she is amazing. She has also married an amazing man and we are blessed to have Nick a part of our family! They are the most beautiful family in the entire world and I love them so much! That is why this has been hard for me.

Faye

 I know that some of you are not on facebook, so I thought I would share the link here. To follow the progress of Faye, a blog has been set up. It is http://fayesfight.blogspot.com/

Flooding

As most of you know, we are currently living in Jons parents home. The river runs behind our house. There is also a canal to the east of us that branches off the river. The other night, there was a lot of rain during the day. It was about 10:30 PM and I checked KSL.com before I went to bed, I noticed they had breaking news that there was flooding in Morgan and Weber Counties. It made me nervous, but clicking on the story I saw that it was in Eden, so assumed we were okay. I immediately did a facebook post, which said "I think I have posted this before, but I still get a little uneasy when I hear about flooding in Weber County. I know it's not where we are, but still, slightly scary!" Following that post I went to bed.
We were sound asleep at 1:00 am. All of the sudden there was some very loud, very strong, pounding on our door. Our nephew currently lives in our basement, so our first thought was that it was him and there was a problem downstairs. Jon went to the door while I laid in bed. All I could hear was a womans voice saying (now given I was only hearing bits and pieces) "flooding, water rushing, check property, water has made it to the bishops house" I panicked! Jon comes back and immediately starts getting his clothes and boots on. My cell phone then rings. It was our next door neighbor seeing if we were flooded, she said she went and checked and the water had made it to their horse corral. I told her we hadn't checked yet and were on our way out. I grabbed some flipflops and followed Jon outside.  I was relieved when we went into the backyard and saw no water. But as we further investigate, we see that on our next door neighbors property, the water had broken over the banks of the river and was heading downstream away from us. Then we look to the other side of us, the other next door neighbors backyard is a pond. We go to the front of the house and there is a river of water flowing down the street and people everywhere shuffling around trying to figure out what to do.
We spent the night filling sandbags and got everything taken care of by 4 am. We were very blessed that the water didn't touch the property for some very miraculous reason. There were a few homes whose basements and crawl spaces were flooded, and I am sorry for them. What happened was the water levels rose and was rushing so quickly that a pipe between the canal and river backed up with debris and the canal overflowed. The river was also higher, which is why it broke up on the other side. Something like that teaches you a lesson on prepardness, we realized we aren't as prepared for disaster as we would like to be. Oh, and another thing, the night this was all taking place, Kenzie decided to sleep through the night for the first time ever, of course it's while I am up all night, dang girl! I have posted pictures, you may not be able to see some of them as well as it is 2:00 AM, some of them are of that night, and the rest of them are of the next morning.
 

Our neighbors backyard.

This is where the water broke the banks in our next door neighbors yard, the actual river is really behind those trees.

Filling the sandbags. There were actually 40 inmates that came and helped out as well. Can you tell which ones they are?

This is the neighborhood street in the front of the house.

The street once again.

The next morning, this is the water that broke over the banks. Once again, the river is behind those trees.

The leftover sandbags, they will stay there prepping for the spring and summer seasons.

The sandpile they also left so we would be prepared in case this happens again this spring.

The river.

The kids figured out how to make the best of the situation.

Injury!

WARNING: This post contains pictures that people may think are too graphic.... Just warning you now.

I know that as a mom, it is not likely that you will raise your kids without at least one of the getting injured fairly badly. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with stitches or broken bones. I know that's a little too much to ask. Today, we were living a fairly normal routine. Jon was going with his buddy to Sportsman Warehouse after work, and I had to get my allergy shots, so I told Jon I would just take the kids. We went and got the shots, went to the post office, got gas, and headed home just normal and fine.

As we pulled into the driveway, Kaylee could see that her best friend Erin was home next door, so she asked if she could get out of the car and go play with Erin. No problem. She got out and started heading to Erin's. However, after Kaylee got out of the car, Abbie decided she wanted to go also. So I rolled down the window and told Kaylee to come back to get Abbie, then I told them to just see if Erin wanted to come play at our house. I stayed at the end of the driveway to make sure they made it to Erin's ok. I am glad I stayed.

They both started running and were so excited and Abbie ran into Kaylee, causing her to trip and she went head first onto gravel. Her forehead immediately began gushing blood like nothing I have ever seen. I grabbed a cloth and told her to hold it on her head, then called Jon. I said, "GET HOME NOW! I think Kaylee needs stitches." In the meantime, Erin came over and I told her to go get her mom so she could look at it. I was kind of panicking! Monica (Erin's mom) told me I needed to take Kaylee in. So, she took Kenzie and Abbie and said, "just go to the ER." So, I got another cloth that was wet for Kaylee to hold on her head. (I decided a dry cloth probably wasn't the best idea). I called Jon, and told him to pick up Kenzie and Abbie, we passed him on our way to the hospital he pulled over and said, "Oh, yea, that definitely needs stitches."

We went to the ER and they took really good care of her, even if we were there FOREVER, apparently there is a huge flu outbreak going on right now, so the ER was slammed today! She only needed one internal stitch, which will dissolve, and then they used glue for the rest of the cut. She was so brave, she did so well at the hospital. I think she enjoyed laying there watching cartoons with no sibling interruptions. Ok, so now for the pictures.

I took the pictures with my cell, so I don't know how quality they'll be. The first one is while we were waiting for the numbing to go into place so they could clean and take care of it. The second is obvious, and the third is after they took care of her.