Blessings

We were released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. We are still is Salt Lake City, the doctor wanted us to stay close until Sunday. My parents left on Wednesday and went and got the kids from Dale's mom's house and took them to our house (feel free to stop by and say hi to the kids). Dale's mom, dad and Grandma came to see him here on Wednesday and stayed for a few hours. It really did Dale good to see them. My sister Tory also came on Wednesday from Boise on the shuttle and she will stay here with us and then drive back home with us on Sunday and then head back over to Boise with my parents on Monday. I am so grateful for our family that has helped us with the kids this whole week, also for those that have been here with us, and for those that are supporting us and praying for us from home. The kids got to go to their cousins house on Wednesday while their Grandma and Grandpa came here and they had a blast (thanks Aimee!!) Dale is doing really well, he is more and more like himself everyday. I was actually able to wash his hair (very carefully, because we cannot get his incision wet at all) this morning and he even asked for gel in his hair!! I was so excited to wash off all of the yucky stuff that was stuck on his head off! I didn't know such small things could bring me such joy! :) They removed the bandage on his head. The incision is about 5 inches long and stapled shut. Dale calls himself Zipper head. It is pretty cool lookin'. Our brother in law says it is an awesome battle scar. We are going to take him for a short walk today, it is a beautiful day today.



I need to share with you the story about finding a hotel to stay in for these few days. When we found out we needed to stay we knew it would be safer for Dale and better to stay in a hotel where there were not any stairs. We started to look online and found a hotel that we could use my sister's insurance and get a great discount. We called them the next morning and found out that we got an even better discount because Dale was a patient at the hospital. My sister and I were very proud of ourselves for finding such a great deal. So we leave the hospital and drive to this hotel. As soon as Tory and I walked into the lobby we both felt uneasy (although we did not say anything to each other). We checked in and went out to get Dale. We brought him to the room and put him on the bed and propped him up with pillows. The room was horrible. It was dark and smelled weird and was not as clean as we had hoped. I helped Dale into the bathroom, the bathroom was so tiny you had to straddle the toilet to shut the door. Tory and I went out to get the rest of our stuff out of the car and I looked around and kind of felt like we were not in the best part of town. I looked at Tory and said that I didn't feel safe here and that I just propped Dale up on pillows that may not be super clean and laid his incision right on them. We both felt the same so we went back in to talk to Dale and decided to leave and find anther place. The guy at the front desk was very understanding and kind. We drove over to Maverick and got Dale something to eat and gave him his medicine and started calling hotels to see what kind of deal we could get at a nicer hotel. We set a price that we didn't want to go over per night. We called a few and even with the hospital discount they were still way to expensive. I said a quick prayer in my heart asking Heavenly Father to help us find the right place and made one more call. The sweetest lady answered the phone, I told her our situation and she gave us a screamin' deal on a really nice hotel downtown right by the temple. The price was under our price that we set and only $17 more a night than the hotel we were at!! What a blessing, it is clean and it is even the room that is for handicapped so it has the bars in the bathroom that Dale can hold onto. I feel pretty proud of my self for handling the hotel situation. Dale normally does all that stuff for us so it makes me pretty nervous to do anything like that but I knew I had to step up and do it for him and make things right so that he would be comfortable and safe. I love this quote and this is my current motto: "Dear Difficult Time, Thank you for showing me how STRONG I can be."
When you marry someone you don't think you can love them anymore than you do then. When you have kids with them you think the same thing. When we first found out about the tumor I felt again that I could not love Dale more than I did then. Everyday since then I feel that same feeling. I never knew that helping him with such small things like washing his hair and helping him to the bathroom and helping back to bed would make me love him so much more. I never knew that my love for him would grow so strong that it would bring me to tears just to look at him. I love him so much and am so grateful for the wonderful person that I married and had children with. He is my life, I am because he is. I love you Dale.
So all is well and we will be home on Sunday, we are excited to come back to Idaho and see the kids and everyone else!!
P.S. Thank goodness for Pinterest!!